Xref: utzoo comp.protocols.tcp-ip:15275 news.admin:12752 comp.mail.misc:5041
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!olivea!sun-barr!apple!mips!twg.com!david
From: david@twg.com (David S. Herron)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip,news.admin,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: What Is Difference Between Internet And X.400 Style Names?
Message-ID: <8698@gollum.twg.com>
Date: 27 Feb 91 19:15:53 GMT
References: <39557@cup.portal.com>
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Organization: The Wollongong Group, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 65

In article <39557@cup.portal.com> Will@cup.portal.com (Will E Estes) writes:
>Can someone please explain the difference between X.400 and Internet-style
>names of the form: USER@SITE.DOMAIN?  I had thought that X.400 names
>were of the form /THIS=,/THAT=,/ANDWHATEVER=.  Recently, two things
>made me question this.  First, someone told me that the USER@SITE.DOMAIN
>was an X.400 standard.  Second, I noticed that PSI offers an X.500
>service as part of their TCP/IP public data network PSInet.  Their
>advertising literature seems to imply that the X.500 database holds 
>addresses of the USER@SITE.DOMAIN type.  I understand that "bang" style
>names are unique to UNIX (a derivative of UUCP), but are the USER@SITE.DOMAIN
>style names X.400 or UNIX standards, and what is the relationship to
>the longer addressing form /THIS=,/ETC=?
>
>Thanks,
>Will Estes        (apple!cup.portal.com!Will)

X.{4,5}00 names for people & mailboxes have (at least) the following attributes:

Country				/C=../
Administrative Domain		/ADMD=.../
Primary Domain			/PRMD=.../
Organization			/O=.../
Organizational Unit		/OU=.../
Surname				/S=.../
Given Name			/G=.../
Common Name			/CN=.../

These are commonly strung together much like what you listed above.
But there isn't a standard for how to represent them on paper.
There also isn't (for X.400 anyway) a given order to these things,
though there is a "natural" order/hierarchy for all but the "OU" attributes.

RFC-987 specifies a translation between that form & RFC-822 domain
addresses which looks like

local-part@OU$bleep.OU$bloop.O$blarp.PRMD$grunch.ADMD$plink.C$frobozz

The equivalent slashy form is

/C=frobozz/ADMD=plink/PRMD=grunch/O=blarp/OU=bloop/OU=bleep/CN=local-part/

So there is something of a mapping.  I am not familiar with the service
that PSI is offering, asking them directly might be useful.

"bang" names are derived from UUCP, but UUCP is no longer unique
to Unix.  Nor has it been for a couple of years now..  I have UUCP
on my Amiga at home & it works fine (gets >1000 characters per
second through a local trailblazer connection!  7.xx MHz 68000 at that ;-)

Suggested reading: RFCs 987, 1138, 1148 and 1154.
	ISO X.4xx & X.5xx standards (available for $$$ from Omnicom
	in Falls Church, VA).
	Marshal Roses "The Open Book" (but only if you can stand long
	digressions into the political maneuvers which networking 
	development has become ... (*sigh*))


		David


-- 
<- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com>
<- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu>
<-
<-	MS-DOS ... The ultimate computer virus.