Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!panda!genrad!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!ubc-vision!alberta!ncc!lyndon
From: lyndon@ncc.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: A question about smail
Message-ID: <740@ncc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Oct-86 04:12:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: ncc.740
Posted: Thu Oct  9 04:12:44 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 20:07:26 EDT
References: <227@BMS-AT.UUCP> <2652@cbosgd.ATT.COM>
Organization: Nexus Computing Corp.,  Edmonton, AB
Lines: 55

In article <2652@cbosgd.ATT.COM>, mark@cbosgd.ATT.COM (Mark Horton) writes:
> In article <227@BMS-AT.UUCP> stuart@BMS-AT.UUCP (Stuart D. Gathman) writes:
> >I would like to use smail on BMS-AT, but not use the full database.
> >I would like only gateway addresses in the database.  I would like
> >BMS to route uucp names.  (I know, I could let seismo do it.)
[and Mark says]
> In the first place, don't go around expecting seismo to handle all
> your mail unless you ask them first; it just isn't nice.

To quote from u.Path.1 ...

#
# DOMAIN GATEWAY LIST FOR UUCP AND OTHER TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS
# This file is pathalias input for UUCP domain addressing.

# TOP LEVEL DOMAINS AND THEIR GATEWAYS

# UUCP top level domain
cbosgd	.uucp
ihnp4	.uucp
seismo	.uucp	<-----
ucbvax	.uucp
harvard	.uucp
mcvax	.uucp
decuac	.uucp

# ARPANET and related domains
seismo	.arpa, .com, .gov, .mil, .edu, .org, .net, .us	<-----
-----

Not that I'm trying to argue, but it would seem that a large majority
of the net is implicitly using seismo as a gateway. By letting itself
be included in the maps with this type of entry, it is seems that
seismo is offering a service perhaps?

I am the first to admit that 'ncc' is not one of the larger sites on the net,
but we attempt to do our part on a local basis when it comes to forwarding mail
and news. No, we cannot afford toll charges to pick up news, however we try to
provide a small contribution to the net by trying to help ease the burden of
distribution placed upon the backbone. USENET would be a pretty dull place if
there were only 15 or so backbone sites talking to each other.

We currently feed news and mail to several sites in our area, and are working
on providing a mail link between Edmonton and Calgary via a dedicated line we
are putting into place. We also run smail on our system, and offer the routing
capabilities to our downstream mail feeds. I don't remember reading anything
in the documentation for smail indicating that I required "permission" from
ANY site that published a map entry to use their mail gateways. It seems I
read somewhere that when I documented links in *my* map entry, it indicated
*I*, as a responsible system administrator,  was making those paths available
for the general use of the USENET community.
-- 

Lyndon Nerenberg (VE6BBM) 	  {ihnp4,ubc-vision,watmath}!alberta!ncc!lyndon
Systems Group - A Div. of Nexus Computing Corp.  		Envoy_100: Unix