Editing UUCP (section)

==Connections with the Internet==
Many UUCP hosts, particularly those at universities, were also connected to the [[Internet]] in its early years, and e-mail gateways between Internet [[SMTP]]-based mail and UUCP mail were developed. A user at a system with UUCP connections could thereby exchange mail with Internet users, and the Internet links could be used to bypass large portions of the slow UUCP network.  A "UUCP zone" was defined within the Internet domain namespace to facilitate these interfaces.

With this infrastructure in place, UUCP's strength was that it permitted a site to gain Internet e-mail and Usenet connectivity with only a dial-up modem link to another cooperating computer.  This was at a time when true Internet access required a [[leased line|leased data line]] providing a connection to an Internet ''[[Point of Presence]]'', both of which were expensive and difficult to arrange.  By contrast, a link to the UUCP network could usually be established with a few phone calls to the administrators of prospective neighbor systems. Neighbor systems were often close enough to avoid all but the most basic charges for telephone calls.