Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!cbnews!mark
From: mark@cbnews.ATT.COM (Mark Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: ACSNET Access
Message-ID: <780@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 3 Aug 88 16:25:54 GMT
References: <8807191731.AA07235@venera.isi.edu> <644@stcns3.stc.oz>
Reply-To: mark@cbnews.ATT.COM (Mark Horton)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Lines: 28

In article <644@stcns3.stc.oz> dave@stcns3.stc.oz (Dave Horsfall) writes:
>Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU), Alcatel-STC Australia, dave@stcns3.stc.oz

What I don't understand is why some Australians advertise their addresses
as dave@stcns3.stc.oz, as shown in the From: line and the signature of
the referenced article.  .oz is NOT an official domain, while .oz.au IS.

The UUCP map does list .oz and knows how to get to it.  This puts .oz up
there with the other "semi-official" domains like .uucp, .bitnet, .cdn,
and the like.  People routing via UUCP can get to them, but people using
some other incarnation of the domain system, especially TCP/IP, cannot.

Posting to a worldwide computer network with an incomplete domain name
is like giving your phone number and forgetting the country code.  It
might work locally, but it doesn't necessarily work in some other country.

Please encourage other Australians to use the full name .oz.au on their
domain style addresses, unless they are really sure that the context is
specific to ACSNET.

>dave%stcns3.stc.OZ.AU@uunet.UU.NET, ...munnari!stcns3.stc.OZ.AU!dave

This stuff looks fine, although both are kludges to get around various
limitations when you're trying to say dave@stcns3.stc.OZ.AU .  If this
form doesn't work, then something is broken somewhere (or maybe the
person you're sending to just doesn't answer their mail.)

	Mark