Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!davecb From: davecb@yunexus.YorkU.CA (David Collier-Brown) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Subject: Re: Proposal for use of DNS to store RFC 987, etc mappings Message-ID: <13624@yunexus.YorkU.CA> Date: 8 Aug 90 12:38:48 GMT References: <9007271704.AA19586@bel.isi.edu> Organization: York U. Computing Services Lines: 39 pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes: I understand that there are some company networks in the USA that are RFC compliant but are not connected or visible to the DARPA/NSF Internet, either because they do not care, or for obsessive security reasons. fitz@wang.com (Tom Fitzgerald) writes: | For us it's lack of money. Well, I used to administer one of those disjoint subnets, and DNS service was a mere nicety. If I seriously wished to do mail with the rest of the world, I could do so... but had little need to. It should be noted that, while common, most of these disjoint subnets don't have a need for DNS service, because they communicate via ``traditional'' methods. Ie, their users write down addresses, keep phonebooks, use uucp pathalias, etc. If they communicate at all (:-)). If I was faced with making one such subnet communicate, I'd do so by indirection [Note: I'm faced with making four such subnets communicate in the coming academic year!]. Given a local DNS, I'd teach it the Internet way of contacting the intermediary (x25 gateway, trusted workstation, tape drive, etc). I'd teach the intermediary the rest. This requires a mailer that will will wait for arbitrarily long times for the DNS to get ``primed'' with the information it needs to construct a valid address, and could absolutely roadblock an ill-advised user agent that tried to use DNS queries to help its user (:-)). Fortunatly, I have such a mailer(MTA) and a non-helpfull user agent. Alas, I don't see the relevance of RFC 987 mappings to this problem. If I was gatewaying into another world and not just using it as transport... Has this discussion drifted? --dave (progress reports will be posted/mailed if desired) c-b -- David Collier-Brown, | davecb@Nexus.YorkU.CA, ...!yunexus!davecb or 72 Abitibi Ave., | {toronto area...}lethe!dave Willowdale, Ontario, | "And the next 8 man-months came up like CANADA. 416-223-8968 | thunder across the bay" --david kipling