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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!att!chinet!killer!wisner
From: wisner@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Bill Wisner)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.sysadmin,pubnet.sysops
Subject: Re: Questions on UUCP Domains (specifically .US domain).
Message-ID: <5135@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 8 Aug 88 16:53:18 GMT
References: <461@icus.UUCP>
Sender: 0000-Admin(0000)
Reply-To: wisner@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Bill Wisner)
Organization: HASA
Lines: 73

These questions have been flung around quite a bit recently, so I'm
posting this instead of mailing a reply.

>Firstly, does one have to have a net-neighbor who is an Internet site?

It certainly helps. At the very least you have to find an Internet site
willing to insure that mail addressed to your site will make it to your
site. They usually prefer it if you are a direct UUCP neighbor.

>What is a NIC-handle?

A unique identifier given to each person, host, network, domain, TAC or
PSN registered with the DDN NIC (Network Information Center). Mine is
BDW1. Not strictly necessary to get into the US domain, but it helps.

>Are domains case-sensitive, or is .Dallas.TX.US the same as .DALLAS.TX.US
>and .dallas.tx.us, etc... 

Domains are case-insensitive. All of the above examples are considered
identical.

>For the .US domain is the accepted syntax:
>
>	.full-city-name.state.US	- or can one have other things like
>	.city-name-abbrev.state.US
>	.local-organization.state.US (like Chinet does).

Full city name or some commonly used abbreviation for that city. Chinet
does not use a "local-organization"; .chi stands for Chicago. Chinet is
also not yet officially a part of the US domain.

>How does being in a domain improve the network (mail response, path generation,
>etc..).

It makes it much easier for users of other networks to get mail to you.
Properly behaved, recent mailers on several networks will work out a
reasonable way to get mail to you, while they'd probably drop mail to
"icus.UUCP" in the floor.

>Right now, when I do a pathalias database, since my local neighbor
>talcott (see d.Top from the UUCP Project) is in the .us domain, all current
>.us domains expand to:
>
>	talcott!host.blah.blah.us!user

Talcott is not in the US domain. Talcott is in the EDU domain. Talcott
is a gateway into the US domain.

>Is this correct to do this?  Or should the individual sites have in their
>map files:
>
>icus	.Islip.NY.US

Definitely not. This notation indicates that icus is a gateway to all
machines in .Islip.NY.US. The notation you would want to use, to say
"icus is also known as icus.islip.ny.us" is:

icus = icus.islip.ny.us

>Then again, the case-sensitivity comes to mind.  Do I have to put all
>combinations in the map file?

Use lower case in map entries.

>Lastly, if I declare my map entry with the above entry, can my net-neighbors
>use the syntax: (For example)
>
>	gil@limbic.Islip.NY.US
>
>Which would ultimately expand to:   icus!limbic!gil.

No. The US domain authorities want each site in the domain to register
seperately.