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From: peter@kitty.UUCP (Peter DaSilva)
Newsgroups: net.works,net.mail
Subject: Re: Re: loopback testing
Message-ID: <184@kitty.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 10:09:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: kitty.184
Posted: Wed Jul 31 10:09:04 1985
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> Neither of these require a way to get around the routing software, and I
> have never seen a reasonable reason beside loopback to be able to get
> around the routing software. Because of that, I've pretty much given up
> looking for a way to disable it in a way which works on the network as it
> currently stands.

Here's a good reason: with the network growing at the rate it is, and with
all sorts of other changes occuring in the net (new links showing up, old
links disappearing, etc...), nobody can keep all their routing info completely
up to date. One of the main feeds for both of the sites I'm the contact for
frequently screws up the routing. In addition, the routes it chooses are
occasionally non-reflexive, especially with the old V7 mailer I'm reduced
to using...

Luckily I can get around the routing by giving it an explicit route. It only
calculates the route for the first hop, you see. If it optimised everything
I'd be completely lost.

Like it or not, the net is a dynamic structure. Like it or not, there are sites
that have old software. Unless you're going to distribute a PD mailer that will
run on a vanilla PDP-11, I'd strongly discourage the widespread use of route
optimisations.