Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!cadre!pitt!darth!formtek!ditka!kls
From: kls@ditka.UUCP (Karl Swartz)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: Strange routing!
Message-ID: <123@ditka.UUCP>
Date: 17 Feb 88 01:31:15 GMT
References: <1671@van-bc.UUCP>
Reply-To: kls@ditka.UUCP (Karl Swartz)
Organization: Pittsburgh Fish Hackery, Pittburgh, PA
Lines: 38

In article <1671@van-bc.UUCP> sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) writes:
>
>In the last week I've noticed a couple of messages sneeking through van-bc
>destined to:
>	
>	cdl!van-bc!uupc
>

(guesses about causes deleted)

>	Shouldn't smart mailers at least try and look for themselves in the
>	absolute address, even if they don't want to always do re-routing?

The problem with doing this is untangling cases of multiple names.
For example, if I send mail thru formtek (the main machine at my
office) to

    formtek!earth!user

it should go to our subsidiary in Vancouver (your neighbor) who's
main machine is named earth.  But if I send something to

    formtek!idis!pitt!allegra!earth!user

it should go to an AT&T machine somewhere on the east coast named
earth.  Ok, it shouldn't be ambiguous because our earth's name
isn't known in the real world, and I know that allegra doesn't
talk to it, but the real world is imperfect.

In the one hop case, such as yours, maybe this is a reasonable
optimization, but I wouldn't be surprised if even that managed
to screw up somebody, somewhere, somehow.

-- 
Karl Swartz		|UUCP	decvax!formtek!ditka!kls
1-412/937-4930 office	|	{floyd,pitt,psuvax1}!idis!formtek!ditka!kls
			|BIX	kswartz
"I never let my schooling get in the way of my education."  (Twain)