Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!syd From: syd@DSI.COM (Syd Weinstein) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Imminent death of UUCP Zone predicted Message-ID: <1990Jun28.164938.23367@DSI.COM> Date: 28 Jun 90 16:49:38 GMT References: <2680D75A.2C1F@tct.uucp> Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc. Huntingdon Valley, PA Lines: 39 karl_kleinpaste@cis.ohio-state.edu writes: >I respectfully disagree. Domain-coping mailers have existed for >UUCP-only sites since at least 1985, when smail 2.1 came out. Smail >2.5 hasn't been patched or otherwise updated officially (e.g., via >Horton, Auton, et al) since 1987. Five years is darn well plenty of >time to have expected people to have gotten registered. One of the >first tasks which a new site should undertake when connecting is to >get such a domain name. And it's an easy, reasonably quick and >progressively better documented procedure. As a site on the ``Internet'' and an ex uucp site, I must take a slight protest to this one Karl. While a uucp site, I did run a 'domain smart mailer', initially smail 2 and then smail 3. (in fact we still run smail 3.1 as our sendmail replacement) However, domain name registration requires more than just running smail and filing an ap, it requires a forwarder (MX style) that is on the ``Internet''. Otherwise, how will all the internet people send mail to them. And thats the rub, finding an MX server. If you have the desire to pay for it, there is always uunet, or other pay for MX services, but a large number of uucp sites listed in the maps are not willing to pay (let alone able, many are small systems in private use). As as often been discussed and will never be settled, who will be the MX forwarder (forwarders) of last resort. We already have that in a sense via the uucp mapping project. Now I agree, that all nodes should list themselves in the maps as soon as possible to avoid name space conflicts and provide routing info. However, that is different from a domain name. I agree that the .uucp zone is an abomination, and that the proper syntax is site!user@fqdn where fqdn will do the routing if site is not a local uucp neighbor, but I think making everyone get fqdn's is also an abomination. -- ===================================================================== Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator Datacomp Systems, Inc. Voice: (215) 947-9900 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd FAX: (215) 938-0235