Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!mcb
From: mcb@ncis.tis.llnl.gov (Michael C. Berch)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Stuck with .UUCP forever? (Internet mail vs. UUCP)
Message-ID: <245@ncis.tis.llnl.gov>
Date: 16 Jun 89 21:48:02 GMT
References: <9436@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us> <13756@ncoast.ORG> <13757@ncoast.ORG>
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore CA
Lines: 45

In article <13757@ncoast.ORG> allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
> [...] Thus, you can't just assign, say,
> NCoast.ORG an IP address to get around the restrictions on Internet mail.
> 
> If you want to convince some direct Internet site to run TCP/SLIP on a
> modem for your benefit and install TCP/SLIP on your system, you can (in
> fact, must) get an IP address.  But UUCP doesn't work like the IP protocol;
> it can't handle IP packets, and IP protocols can't handle UUCP packets, not
> just because the protocols have different packet configurations but because
> UUCP isn't designed to be running constantly and ignoring data not addressed
> to the local system.  The two do not work in the same way at all.

Uh, now *I'm* mixed up.  I think Brandon is confusing a technical issue with 
a policy issue.  There is no problem with using UUCP over a TCP/IP
connection, whether it is SLIP or LAN or WAN or whatever. We do it all
the time, using the TCP-UUCP code provided by Rick Adams (which I
believe is distributed as the UUCP version in 4.xBSD). UUCP is just
another TCP service, living on logical port 540.  You make a connection 
and start up the protocol and there you are.

The "restrictions on Internet mail", on the other hand, are
policy based rather than technically based.  There is absolutely no
problem with getting a SLIP connection to someone on an Internet
network, getting the NIC to assign you some IP namespace (i.e., a Class C 
network number), getting whomever runs the gateway for the site you
connect to to advertise your net via EGP, and *poof*, you're on the Internet. 
You can do TCP-UUCP via that connection with anyone you please, but
there's no reason to, since you can do SMTP with anyone you please,
and that's much cleaner.

The policy issue is permission to connect to the Internet.  Mere
possession of an official network number is not sufficient; the NIC
will give those to anyone who asks.  You also have to get permission
from whomever your SLIP partner is connected to to put your packets on
their net.  In the old days, DOD had a monopoly on that, but this is
no longer true.  You will also have to negotiate about getting your
connection known to the core gateways and may or may not need and
Autonomous System Number, etc., etc.

The technical issues are pretty trivial compared to the
administrative/policy ones.

--
Michael C. Berch  
mcb@tis.llnl.gov / uunet!tis.llnl.gov!mcb