Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!gatech!rayssd!gmp
From: gmp@rayssd.ray.com (Gregory M. Paris)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: A bigger problem (was: Mail survey #1)
Message-ID: <3722@rayssd.ray.com>
Date: 5 Sep 88 21:46:47 GMT
References: <4740@b-tech.UUCP> <4747@b-tech.UUCP> <4748@b-tech.UUCP> <3703@rayssd.ray.com> <4750@b-tech.UUCP> <3710@rayssd.ray.com> <4753@b-tech.UUCP>
Sender: gmp@rayssd.ray.com (Gregory M. Paris @ Raytheon Company, Portsmouth RI)
Reply-To: gmp@rayssd.RAY.COM (Gregory M. Paris)
Organization: Raytheon Submarine Sandwich Division
Lines: 36
Summary:

In article <4753@b-tech.UUCP> zeeff@b-tech.UUCP (Jon Zeeff) writes:
> I don't know.  How would any site be handled if it advertised
> many low cost links and then screwed up the mail it received?

This brings up what I think is a much bigger problem than the active
rerouter problem that's gotten so much airplay in this group.  What
do you do about sites that claim low-cost links that aren't
low-cost?  These erroneous links can have a dramatic impact on the
timeliness and reliability of *incoming* mail.  The problem stems
from the fact that altering your map data causes a change only in
the way(s) mail *leaves* your site.  A mail administrator cannot
control which way(s) the mail comes in.

Readers are thinking, "coordinate that with your neighbors," but it's
not just your immediate neighbors that contribute to the problem.
Often, the problem can be two or three hops away, and admins at these
sites sometimes don't know what they're doing, or don't put any
priority on making somebody else's mail work.  No names mentioned,
but just recently we had a month's worth of mail for this domain jam
up at a site two hops away for exactly the reason described above
(some two hundred letters if I'm remembering correctly).  Credit the
admins there for correcting their map when I brought the problem to
their attention, but that was long after the problem became severe.
Another site advertised a DIRECT connection to us when there was no
connection at all!  Even worse, apparently pathalias on uunet
calculated the best way to send mail to us was through this
nonexistent link!  (A way to extort new uucp connections if you're
short on them.)

If you want to discuss a real problem, this is it.

-- 
Greg Paris                    <gmp@rayssd.ray.com>
{decuac,gatech,necntc,sun,uiucdcs,ukma}!rayssd!gmp

                    NO KILL I