Related:

• backbone site n.,obs. Formerly, a key Usenet and email site
  one that processes a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home site of any of the regional coordinators for the Usenet maps....
• ib site: [by analogy with {backbone site}] n. A machine that has an on-demand high-speed link to a {backbone site} and serves as a regional distribution point for lots of third-party traffic in email and USENET news.
  Compare {leaf site}, {backbone site}. -- The AI Hackers Dictionary...
• ib site n. [by analogy with backbone site] A machine that has an on-demand high-speed link to a backbone site and serves as a regional distribution point for lots of third-party traffic in email and Usenet news.
  Compare leaf site, backbone site....
• leaf site: n. A machine that merely originates and reads USENET news or mail, and does not relay any third-party traffic.
  Often uttered in a critical tone; when the ratio of leaf sites to backbone, rib, and other relay sites gets too high, the network tends to develop bottlenecks....
• leaf site n.,obs. Before pervasive TCP/IP, this term was used of a machine that merely originated and read Usenet news or mail, and did not relay any third-party traffic.
  It was often uttered in a critical tone; when the ratio of leaf sites to backbone, rib, and other relay sites got too high, the network tended to develop bottlenecks....
• backbone cabal: n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of {USENET} during most of the 1980s.
  The cabal {mailing list} disbanded in late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight....
• ICBM address: n. (Also `missile address') The form used to register a site with the USENET mapping project includes a blank for longitude and latitude, preferably to seconds-of-arc accuracy.
  This is actually used for generating geographically-correct maps of USENET links on a plotte...
• well-connected: adj. Said of a computer installation, asserts that it has reliable email links with the network and/or that it relays a large fraction of available {USENET} newsgroups.
  `Well-known' can be almost synonymous, but also implies that the site's name is familiar to many (due perhaps to an archive service or active USENET users)....
• bounce message: [UNIX] n. Notification message returned to sender by a site unable to relay {email} to the intended {{Internet address}} recipient or the next link in a {bang path} (see {bounce}
  ense 1). Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled username or a {down} relay site....