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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cbmvax!vu-vlsi!perry
From: perry@vu-vlsi.UUCP
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Sending Email to People who post to the USENET
Message-ID: <636@vu-vlsi.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Feb-87 15:14:06 EST
Article-I.D.: vu-vlsi.636
Posted: Fri Feb 27 15:14:06 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Mar-87 11:41:33 EST
References: <2131@ncoast.UUCP> <1354@hplabsc.UUCP>
Reply-To: perry@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Rick Perry)
Organization: Villanova Univ. EE Dept.
Lines: 33

In article <1354@hplabsc.UUCP> taylor@hplabs.HP.COM (Dave Taylor) writes:
>..
>BUT as far as what we're talking about here, the best solution I can 
>make is for people to have mail systems that grab not only the 
>From: address in the posting, but the Path: address too, and read the
>Path: backwards until it finds a 'backbone' that it knows (you can
>have a file containing the 10 or 15 main ones, if you want) and then
>figures out the optimal (static, alas) route to that backbone.
>..
   smail sort of does this in its REROUTE mode, but of course, it uses
the whole pathalias map database, not just a file of 10 or 15 backbone
routes.  Most smail sites won't have REROUTE as the default for smail
though, but I recently came up with a neat idea (or kludge, call it what
you will...) to force rerouting when replying via mail to an article from
rn.

rn constructs the To: line from the Path: so for something like:

	To: hplabsc!hplabs!hp-sdd!...!cbatt!cwruecmp!hal!ncoast!wb8foz

I would prepend a definitely unknown host name, like:

	To: xxxxxxxxx!hplabsc!hplabs!hp-sdd!...!cbatt!cwruecmp!hal!ncoast!wb8foz

and smail, failing to route to host 'xxxxxxxxx' would start at the end,
with ncoast, and work backwards until it found a route.

The only small hassle with this is that the person receiving the mail
sees the original To: line and probably wonders where site 'xxxxxxxxx'
is!

...Rick			..{cbmvax,pyrnj,bpa}!vu-vlsi!perry
			perry@vuvaxcom.bitnet