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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!qantel!dual!lll-crg!gymble!umcp-cs!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!shell!graffiti!peter
From: peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Mail addressing and routing
Message-ID: <169@graffiti.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Sep-85 11:28:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: graffiti.169
Posted: Tue Sep  3 11:28:22 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Sep-85 06:10:54 EDT
References: <644@adobe.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: The Power Elite, Houston, TX
Lines: 52

> 
> Address:	adobe!greid
> Area:		SILICON.VALLEY
> State:		CA
> ZAPcode:	94303-852-0271		(arbitrary)
> 
> For instance, if I send mail bound for
> Massachusetts from my computer, (we have no direct links to MA), our mailer
> looks in its table under MA and finds: decwrl.  Aha.  decwrl is in California,
> everybody knows that.  But my mailer sends it to decwrl anyhow.  Decwrl then
> looks at the message and says, "Aha.  Massachusetts."   In decwrl's table
> under MA might be MIT-something, so it sends it there.  And so on.
> 
> This means that the return route MIGHT NOT BE THE SAME as the sending
> route, but who cares?  It allows for path optimization, changing routes
> very simply, and for more sensible routing in general.

This is the first sensible scheme I have seen. I don't, however, see the
reason for the ZAPCODE or even the local code. States are fine... how about
the following:

	TX!shell!graffiti!peter

We'll have to add something to deal with the TX for the smart mailers. Dumb
mailers can just send to someone who knows TX. Nobody need to assign names:
there already is such an assignment. So for me to get to CA!ucbvax!fair
all I'd have to do would be to mail to someone who has the memory and a recent
enough mailer to support state name addressing, like, say ut-sally (don't hit
me, John!). If too much stuff is going through ut-sally, I get a nasty letter
back & start sending stuff through ihnp4. Or through someone else. This way
no-one NEEDS to take on an excess load.

	shell!ut-sally!CA!ucbvax!fair
	shell!ihnp4!CA!ucbvax!fair

You would just make sure your path was unambiguous up to some major site,
one which you are certain wasn't going to change their name. Most people
are capable of handling short routes in their heads... they're simpler
than most addresses.

This would not break existing dumb mailers (and some are far dumber than
anything the domain-types can possibly imagine), nor would it put undue
strain on gateways (they just need to know how to get to a given state,
possibly through their own net to another gateway. Or they could even act
as dumb mailers & forward stuff to the ghods).

So it looks like a domain. It doesn't require either changing the syntax,
a task harder than you might think, nor creating a central authority.

I don't expect anyone to pay any attention to me, since I'm just a
lowly peon who can't afford a machine big enough to compile pathalias
on... but in case anyone has got this far, consider it...