Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!mccall!tp From: tp@mccall.com Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Who pays the bill? Message-ID: <3328.26bd9a54@mccall.com> Date: 6 Aug 90 16:26:59 GMT References: <26A738A8.725B@tct.uucp> <26B059CA.57CF@tct.uucp> <3270.26b4665b@mccall.com> <3275.26b54aab@mccall.com> <7700@gollum.twg.com> Followup-To: wg.com> Lines: 46 Organization: The McCall Pattern Co., Manhattan, KS, USA Lines: 43 In article <7700@gollum.twg.com>, david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: > In article <3275.26b54aab@mccall.com> tp@mccall.com writes: >>Once upon a time, ... > Terry, you were oh so very very very very very much in the wrong to do that. Well, someone was. I got my domain from the administrator of claremont.edu, so I didn't do it. He got that from the folks that run Bitnet, so he didn't do it. I guess they did. I didn't know about the problem for a while, and I'm not sure if the administrator of claremont.edu did either. My point is, if nobody rerouted the message, it would get to me. Why break a valid path? As it turns out, Eliot would get it right, but almost nobody else would. My conclusion: if your rerouter isn't as smart as Eliot Lear's, DON'T reroute, except to the first host in the path (i.e. next hop). You are always free to do that, of course, and I think few people would complain about it. > This is *exactly* as bad as advertising mail addresses of user@host.uucp > where `host' isn't registered in the UUCP Mapping Project maps. > > They are both the same violation -- claiming to be in some domain (naming > authority) when you really aren't. I know. So bounce my mail, if you must. A rerouter would probably send it off to a black hole. But, why break it? As someone else pointed out, a path to a gateway could have ANYTHING on the other side. Why gratuitously break addresses that happen to be routed to weird networks? I'd understand if there were a reason to do it. There isn't. In this discussion, I've been convinced that rerouting is necessary for big sites that handle lots of news and don't want to send mail over their news links (and some other situations). I've also been convinced that it can be done safely (Eliot Lear is an existance proof). I know from experience that almost nobody actually does it safely. Maybe Eliot can share his rerouting software with those who feel they must reroute. Without neighbor checking rerouting to anything other than the first site in the path DOES NOT WORK RELIABLY and SHOULD NOT BE DONE. -- Terry Poot The McCall Pattern Company (uucp: ...!rutgers!ksuvax1!mccall!tp) 615 McCall Road (800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041 Manhattan, KS 66502, USA