Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!rit!ultb!lmb7421
From: lmb7421@ultb.UUCP (L.M. Barstow)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: sigh (was Re: Short-circuiting a route)
Message-ID: <1024@ultb.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jul 89 01:42:47 GMT
References: <1888@prune.bbn.com> <656@kl-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: lmb7421@ultb.isc.rit.edu.UUCP (L.M. Barstow (674SPS))
Organization: Wandering Damage, Cosmo Police, Psi division
Lines: 48

In article <656@kl-cs.UUCP> jonathan@cs.keele.ac.uk (Jonathan Knight) writes:
>As I understand it, the argument for re-routing and short-circuiting
>revolves around the idea that some people feel they know how
>to route mail better than the people who started the mail off.
>
>I could never understand why people insist on re-routers and short
>circuiters which are aimed at solving a problem which should not
>exist and would not exist if mailers bounced mail with an error
>message every time it goes wrong.
>
>Re-routing is very impolite, if I want my mail routed then I won't
>put a route on it, but if I do put a route on it then I'd be
>grateful if people would use it.  If the sys admins think that they
>can route mail better than I can, then declare yourselves as forwarders
>for those domains and I will gladly dump my mail on you for you to route.

We are also currently under the bane of a mail re-router, one popularly
known as pathalias :(  I don't care if this program has existed for
years, it doesn't work like it could...I would much rather pathalias
left alone any routing which had specific routing directions still
imbedded. (ie, if there were further bang-paths in the routing, send to
the next machine in the path...don't try to re-route what is probably a
perfectly legal routing...if the person at the mailing end screwed up,
sobeit...send *him* the nasty messages...if not, why fix what is already
working (probably better than any path that the computer knows)?
Our computer is not currently on the UUCP map (entry
expired....oops...), and as a result, the pathalias program running on a
machine 2 nodes out bounces our mail...(host unknown)...same on outgoing
mail to other networks...anything with a .EDU, .COM, etc...will not go.

Could people out there with these brilliant ideas to make mail go places
they weren't told to go please stop?  I can route my own mail, thanks...

Last ex...the machine I was on last year was not on the map, but its
adjacent machine was...so, the 'intelligent' mail re-router looked up
the path to that machine.  Next thing I knew, our mail was going through
Arizona! (supposed to be routed within NW NY...) on a link which that
machine polled once in a blue moon (at best)...all because one machine
was not listed in the maps as being connected to it.  We knew better,
but the rutgers mailer didn't, so our mail was 3 wks late.

Sorry, but I've been getting agrivated about these things lately, and
was happy to see another post on the same topic.
-- 
Les Barstow                   |Bitnet: LMB7421@RITVAX| "I can read your mind,
Phoenix rising...             |UUCP:                 |   and you should be
From the ashes of a lost hope,| ...rutgers!rochester!|   ashamed of yourself!"
To a sky of clear blue.       |    ritcv!ultb!lmb7421| "Stop reading my mind!"