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From: postel@VENERA.ISI.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Re: Proposal for use of DNS to store RFC 987, etc mappings
Message-ID: <9007270026.AA16028@bel.isi.edu>
Date: 27 Jul 90 00:26:37 GMT
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Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet
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Hi.

Say, i think something has gone off the track here.  I thought that RFC-987
was for mapping between the Internet mail protocol as defined in RFCs 821
and 822, and the X.400 mail system.  If that is the case then wouldn't any
gateway that did RFC-987 be between the Internet and some part of the X.400
world?  That is, won't any gateway that needs to do the RFC-987 mappings have
one foot in the Internet, and therefore have access to the DNS?  So why are
we talking about hand crafted tables and all their problems?  Why can't we
use a distributes system like the DNS ???

[One could argue that we should use X.500 services to keep the mapping data
since presumably the X.500 world is coextensive with the X.400 world, and
all these gateways also have one foot in those worlds; but i won't make that
arguement.]

--jon.