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From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: MX records
Message-ID: <10078@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jan 88 11:43:35 GMT
References: <5165@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <1804@epimass.EPI.COM>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 16

In article <1804@epimass.EPI.COM> jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) writes:
>For example, my address is jbuck@epimass.epi.com.  If you run a
>current Internet mailer, it will try to find the host, fail, and then
>obtain an MX record telling it to pass the message to uunet.uu.net....

Actually, to make MX records work `right', it has to use the reverse
order: try for an MX answer first, and only if that fails
(authoritatively, not temporarily), try for a host.

If you look for the host name first, then the MX record, you then
cannot make a single machine the mail agent for a group of machines.
Also, if a machine is down for a few days, it is nice to be able
to redirect Internet mail through a different host in the interim.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris