Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site decuac.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!decuac!avolio
From: avolio@decuac.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Name space explosion -- first tremors
Message-ID: <580@decuac.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Jul-85 11:30:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: decuac.580
Posted: Sun Jul 28 11:30:51 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Jul-85 07:42:18 EDT
References: <568@decuac.UUCP> <531@down.FUN> <570@decuac.UUCP> <537@down.FUN> <1343@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: ULTRIX Applications Center, MD
Lines: 25

In article <9390@ucbvax.ARPA>, kre@ucbvax.ARPA (Robert Elz) writes:
> In <537@down.FUN> Peter Honeyman made a fairly persuasive case
> for not using domains, but for using uucp style addresses instead ...
> One problem with this is ambiguous names - two sites with the same
> name.  Peter's solution to that is to (rightly) notice that in
> that case, just giving the name is insufficient, you have to
> provide more information... The problem with this "solution", is that
> addresses aren't anything that can be relied on.

     The more important difference is that with "Peter's solution,"
there are two kinds of hosts or mailers: smart and dumb.  With a
domain addressing scheme, there can be degrees of "smartness." In this
way well-defined hosts will be responsible for a particular name-
space.  Any host can know about all hosts in the world if it wants,
but practically speaking no one host will.  But it is reasonable for a
host or two, for example decwrl or decuac, to make sure it can always
handle things intended for DEC sites (either the domain DEC as it is
used today meaning DEC's internal Enet, or company-wide in general
which would include non-Enet sites such as decvax, mogwai, hjuxa, and
so on...).  Then any host in the world can handle user@host.DEC if
they can get to one of the two mentioned hosts.  They need only know
one path for all of .DEC.  And this is a very important feature if one
wants uninterrupted mail service.

Fred.