Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!ox.com!b-tech!zeeff From: zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: local site in a domain Message-ID: <8YF-!-?@b-tech.uucp> Date: 26 Feb 91 15:36:53 GMT References: <87512@sgi.sgi.com> Organization: UMCC Lines: 52 >> >> When somebody sends mail to mysite!apple!user (intending this mail to >> >> be delivered to apple.uucp) it ends up going to user@apple.mysite.com >> >> (where it usually bounces). >> > > >What is "well defined" about the "apple" in "mysite!apple!user", when there >is a private, unadvertised "apple.mysite.com"? Given the remotely >unknowable existence of apple.mysite.com, how can the address be well defined? Let's take a case where mysite advertises (via the uucp maps) a uucp connection to apple.uucp. mysite!apple!user is then quite well defined and yet some mailers will still send it to apple.mysite.com!user. >If you are at mysite.com, and for sufficient reasons "apple.mysite.com" >exists, and the link from "mysite" to "apple.mysite" is via UUCP, and you >receive something for "mysite!apple!user", what should you do? Does mysite show a link to apple.uucp in the uucp maps? Do you want users to be able to rely on pathalias routing to reach apple.uucp? >unique. It would be unreasonable to prohibit local nicnames, as in >user@apple meaning user@apple.mysite.com. I disagree. I do that here and it doesn't cause any problems. >It would be unreasonable to say that "apple!user" is not a legal way for >users at "mysite" to address mail to others at apple.mysite.com, even if >the link is known to be UUCP, and/or NFSNET fair use restrictions require >it not go via the Internet. If mysite has a uucp link to apple.uucp, then I disagree. If not, then it's a local decision. I don't find it unreasonable to make users use apple.mysite.com when that is what they mean. >I think "mysite!apple!user" must mean "deliver to 'user' on the nearby >machine named 'apple'." If the source had meant to send it to apple.com, >then they would have written mysite!apple.com!user or mysite!apple.uucp!user >..!sgi!adobe!apple!user. Certainly if some other site is routing mail to apple.uucp through you (via one hop), they should know what you define "apple" as. You had better define it as "apple.uucp" if you show a link in the uucp maps. Some mailers don't. But what about local users - do you want your users to somehow know that apple is a special case? Or should users always use ".uucp" when they mean a site in the uucp maps? I would find this obnoxious or confusing (foobar!user works but apple!user doesn't because there happens to be a site in the local domain with the name apple but not one named foobar?). -- Jon Zeeff (NIC handle JZ) zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us