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Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!utegc!lamy
From: lamy@utegc.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: How to run the UUCP interface to the CA domain authority?
Message-ID: <8710191229.AA17784@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>
Date: Mon, 19-Oct-87 08:29:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: ephemera.8710191229.AA17784
Posted: Mon Oct 19 08:29:36 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Oct-87 22:13:21 EDT
References: <8710182343.AA13469@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>
Distribution: can
Organization: University of Toronto, AI group
Lines: 61
Checksum: 04294


| A way to get mail easy to use without endless administrative hassle.

I fail to see how administrative hassles for the administrators relates to the
ease of use for the users.  The only way domain-based mail can prosper and
indeed become easy to use is if it is done right.  Indeed, getting mail set up
properly is currently a major undertaking (I have seen 5 sites come on the net
recently, with various levels of interconnectivity), and my impression is
that 30$ is a small fee if it results in *any* improvement in the current
mail addressing picture. 30$ is roughly the price of someone fighting
with mail addressing for an hour...

Let me take you through my current .signature, for fun

lamy@ai.toronto.edu
      this is what it should have been, or so I hoped when I was naive.
lamy%ai.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net
      this it has to be when coming from the ARPA side, since some sites
      still think that relay.cs.net is a strange host name with dots in it.
lamy@ai.toronto.cdn
      ai.toronto.edu works with EAN all right, but mail from Montreal to
      Toronto then goes through Vancouver (UBC) and Boston (relay.cs.net)
{uunet,watmath}!ai.toronto.edu!lamy
      ah, this is getting reasonable.  uunet and watmath understand domains  
lamy@utorgpu.bitnet (not for real)
      this does not exist.  but since (most?) bitnet hosts have never
      heard of domains, the fact that technically ai.toronto.edu is 
      part of the officially registered toronto.edu is not of any help.
      I can send mail to all bitnet sites, but can't receive any from
      a lot of them.
      So currently, I would need to have an account on a "real" BitNet
      host to be able to get BitNet mail...

The only way this is going to get better is if the organizations get together
and keep talking.  This process seems to be underway:

- There are talks of BitNet and CSNet merging their network centers.
- There are rumours of a TCP/IP BitNet backbone.
- There is an experimental Canadian Internet (TCP/IP over EAN's X.25)
- More Canadian sites are going on the Arpanet (McGill and the Montreal
  institutions on the CRIM network are; Toronto has X25Net capabilities and has
  received ARPA approval for a slot in an IMP; UBC and Waterloo sound like
  plausible candidates as well)
- X.400 is catching in Europe (this is the protocol used by EAN)
- All ARPA and BitNet mailing lists will likely be
  UseNet newsgroups in the near future.  Can you imagine the fun with
  return addresses unless some order is imposed?

And so, in a day and age where finally e-mail and news systems seem to be
converging towards greater interconnection, we are left with this puzzling
suggestion:

| Perhaps the only solution at this
| time is for somebody else to break away totally and set their own new
| standard.

I rest my case.

Jean-Francois Lamy                     lamy@ai.toronto.edu, lamy@ai.toronto.cdn
AI Group, Dept of Computer Science     lamy%ai.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net
University of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4  {uunet,watmath}!ai.toronto.edu!lamy