Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!eos!labrea!agate!ucbvax!STAR.STANFORD.EDU!XRJJM%SCINT.SPAN
From: XRJJM%SCINT.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU (John McMahon,
      STX/COBE (x4333))
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: bitnet mail routing, and other fun items...
Message-ID: <8805150728.AA24523@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 9 May 88 19:32:49 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29

***> From: <shafferj%BKNLVMS.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu> (Jim Shaffer, Jr.)
***> Subject:  a strange Bitnet routing
***> I recently received a message from someone at Joiner Associates (the makers
***> of the JNET VAX network software). The node name in the address was
***> WISCPSL. When I sent a reply and watched the path it took, I received
***> a message from WISCPSLC that it had sent it on link JOINER! Looking through
***> the routing table, I found that JOINER doesn't appear to be a Bitnet node.
***> Furthermore, this was the first time I had seen a node automatically route
***> a message based on the username.

Well, what I think you saw was the following, although I think the simplest
thing to do is to ask the person you sent mail to about it.

One of the items you can set in VMS Mail is a "forwarding address".  This
was originally intended for DECNET addresses, so if a user has a whole bunch
of accounts, on a whole bunch of machines, they can all forward mail to
the same spot.

Now this forwarding address can be set to other protocols as well.  I can
say SET FORWARD JNET%"XYZZY@NODE1", and any mail I get will be forwarded
to user XYZZY at NODE1.  I suspect node JOINER is on Joiner Assoc. internal
RSCS/JNET network, and someone had forwarded his/her mail from WISCPSLC
to JOINER.  I have been led to believe similar things can be done using
the Crosswell Mailer system on IBM machines.  

There are more than a few nodes on Bitnet which "don't exist".  As to the
rules and regulations regarding them, I suspect BITNIC can answer that better
than me.

John McMahon