Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site gould9.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!gould9!joel
From: joel@gould9.UUCP (Joel West)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Mail problem, ihnp4 -> tektronix
Message-ID: <219@gould9.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Dec-85 11:32:14 EST
Article-I.D.: gould9.219
Posted: Fri Dec 20 11:32:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Dec-85 05:34:58 EST
References: <17623@styx.UUCP> <3080@sun.uucp> <313@fear.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: CACI, Inc. -- La Jolla, Calif.
Lines: 46
Summary: it was broken

> The main problem here is a failure on the part of ihnp4's mail
> administration to appreciate the rule, "If it ain't broke, don't fix
> it."  
> 
> While I sympathize with ihnp4's mail volume, and the perceived need
> to optimize the ridiculous return paths generated by news, their
> implementation is crude and excessive.
> 
> On the WEITEK machines, we don't have the volume problems that ihnp4
> has, so we just run uumail as posted on the net. The beauty of uumail
> is that it only looks for the optimum path to the first hop in the
> address, so when presented with a complete path, it does no
> optimization at all.

But this (rewriting path to adjacent site) is exactly what some (e.g.,
Chuqui) complain about.  If you run a site with connections to a 
large number of sites (our 30 are a lot to support on one ACU) you 
begin to appreciate ihnp4's plight.  In particular, if you have one 
message for each of
	hplabs
	nsc
	sun
	ucbvax
every hour, you can't afford to deliver each message manually.
If all these machines in the Bay Area are inter-connected, you're
much better off routing all mail to the one machine you have the most
traffic to and is reliable (say hplabs, for purposes of argument)
and then let it re-deliver the other mail.  

The less connections you have to make in an hour, the more you
can concentrate on getting through to those you want to
make.  Without such a management plan, you might be limited to
making one retry a day, and BOY, would that piss people off.

But because of naming ambiguities in the net, and the onstant state
of flux for reliable connections, I would only run aliasing to "known 
sites", such as my immediate neighbors.  Under this theory, ucbvax!hplabs 
would become "hplabs" but "ucbvax" would become "hplabs!ucbvax".

In short, put all your eggs in a few baskets, and then WATCH THOSE
BASKETS.  (Needless to say, if no one does, the whole plan falls apart).
-- 
	Joel West	 	(619) 457-9681
	CACI, Inc. Federal, 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct., La Jolla, CA  92037
	{cbosgd,ihnp4,pyramid,sdcsvax,ucla-cs}!gould9!joel
	gould9!joel@nosc.ARPA