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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cybvax0.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!cybvax0!dbr
From: dbr@cybvax0.UUCP (Douglas Robinson)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: case sensitive names
Message-ID: <556@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-May-85 11:02:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.556
Posted: Wed May 29 11:02:05 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 30-May-85 05:58:55 EDT
References: <612@digi-g.UUCP>
Reply-To: dbr@cybvax0.UUCP (Douglas Robinson)
Distribution: net
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 32
Keywords: sitename, case-sensitive

In article <612@digi-g.UUCP> brian@digi-g.UUCP (Merlyn Leroy) writes:
>
>	There are two different sites named 'cfib' and 'cfiB' !?
>	Also olympus and Olympus.
>
>	Paths are:
>...ihnp4!ima!cfib!
>...ihnp4!masscomp!sii!cfiB!
>...ihnp4!dual!olympus!
>...ihnp4!vax135!Olympus!
>

This sort of thing should be VERY discouraged.  Uppercase sitenames can
cause all sorts of trouble.  We currently talk to a site that has two
uppercase letters and three lowercase letters and a number in their
name.  When mail to them from elsewhere on the net was returned by my
machine I was asked to look into the problem.  It seemed that somewhere
in the path that the sender was using, a site was LOWERCASING the entire
path so that when it got to my site, sendmail rejected it since we don't
talk to any site by the ALL LOWERCASE name.  I found another path that
the sender could use and haven't heard about the problem since then.

It would be nice if ALL sites would upgrade their software to fix such
problems, but until they do, users will still have problems when trying
to communicate with UnUsUaL SitENaMes.

Having two sites that differ only by case distinct names only furthur
aggrevates the situation.
-- 
Doug Robinson		Jobs don't kill programmers... programmers kill jobs!

617/492-8810		...!{mit-eddie, harvard, mirror}!cybvax0!dbr