Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:5680 comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains:550 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!athene!pcg From: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains Subject: Re: More routing question information Message-ID: Date: 31 Dec 90 14:51:42 GMT References: <1990Dec29.182422.8788@kithrup.COM> Sender: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Lines: 83 Nntp-Posting-Host: teachk In-reply-to: sef@kithrup.com's message of 29 Dec 90 18:24:22 GMT On 29 Dec 90 18:24:22 GMT, sef@kithrup.com (Sean Eric Fagan) said: sef> I guess I didn't make myself terribly clear, since a couple of sef> people have told me the same information. In your previous message you did make yourself terribly clear, but I had hoped that nobody would notice -- now that you are insisting, a reply will have to come. [ ... kithrup has links to both SCO, a USENET site, and ucscc, which is an Internet site but has an UUCP link to kithrup, yet does not advertise itself as a USENET site or an Internet-USENET gateway ... ] sef> All but a handful of my outgoing mail goes through ucscc. Since sef> I'm running mmdf, I have things set up very nicely (i.e., I don't sef> run pathalias). The problem is people who mail to *me*. If they sef> are running pathalias, the mail gets routed through the sco sef> somehow, not ucscc (which is about 8 times quicker). *uunet* sef> routes mail to kithrup.uucp through sco, instead of uucp. sef> one person told me to get a registered domain. I do: kithrup.com. A registration in the DNS implies an MX record pointing to you -- this means that Internet sites that want to reach you already see 'ucscc' as their gateway to you. Thus the reason why you would like to register ucscc as an Internet to USENET gateway in the UUCP maps must be so that other USENET sites, which use the maps as condensed by pathalias instead of the DNS, could reach you using the Internet as a fast and free long distance link, by doing USENET-Internet-USENET routes (that you seem to imply to use yourself when sending mail). Forunately 'uunet' do the proper thing instead. sef> Now, is there some magic I can put into my map entry (or a forged sef> map entry for ucscc, which I would prefer not to do) which will sef> stop messages being routed through sco? There are two problems, that you describe yourself as doing or considering actions that are either illegal or extremely rude, as: 1) The Internet cannot be used in any circumstance as part of a route between two USENET sites. 2) The Internet backbone and many regional IP networks cannot be used even between two Internet sites if the traffic is strictly private or commercial. 3) Advertising 'ucscc' in the UUCP maps as being a USENET site *and* an Internet-USENET gateway without telling them is regarded as unspeakably rude. Thank goodness you would prefer not to do it. I have no reason to doubt that currently you discriminate and are careful to send traffic via 'ucscc' onto the Internet only when the destination site is on the Internet *and* the traffic is related to education or research, and you route via 'sco' all traffic that is commercial or private in nature or has a USENET site destination. For the sake of avoiding possibly very serious trouble for yourself, 'ucscc', and a lot of sites that value Internet/USENET connectivity and do not want to see it imperiled by freeloaders, please do not even consider beginning to use your 'ucscc' connection to the Internet for personal or commercial traffic, or to act as a the-taxpayer-be-damned, free, quick channel between you and another USENET site, and tricking 'uunet' or other sites into cooperating with this by faking an entry for 'ucscc' as an Internet-USENET gateway without even telling them. Somehow I am reminded of Pepys' famous diary when he writes about catholics being found out and executed in England a few hundred years ago to the the effect that "I wish to God that they either conform or be wiser and not be caught", except that I somehow suspect that your motives into considering certain quick fixes have little to do with noble issues such as freedom of worship, but maybe of Mammon. As to me, I pay for every single private or non strictly research or education related e-mail message, photocopy, laser print, or phone call I make in this University, and I am grateful for the concession, as it is much more convenient for me to do such things here than having to wait to be at home, and I think that having to reimburse the cost is only fair. -- Piercarlo Grandi | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber.cs@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk