Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!comdesign!canary!pst From: pst@canary.cdi.com (Paul Traina) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: map wizardry - terminal links Message-ID: <571@comdesign.CDI.COM> Date: 24 Nov 88 20:26:46 GMT Sender: news@comdesign.CDI.COM Lines: 37 The joys of pathalias. Currently, we're routing uucp mail for several sites in our local area. However, we've come across a problem which I am having difficulty solving. Currently, we have a very expensive uucp link that happens to be connected to 90 billion other sites. Currently the map entry for this remote site has us listed as a rather low cost jump. I'd like to keep things this way, but I have a problem -- pathalias is generating paths from this host to us, to our local university. This means a significant chunk of "mis-addressed" mail is being routed via our site to the university. (I say mis-addressed, because they are on the internet, so the mail would get to the right place a lot faster if people would use internet addresses instead of uucp paths). Now, the simple solution would be to have our well placed neighbor declare comdesign a terminal link in their map entry. However, "comdesign" is just the gateway for our own internal network. I want a mail message that is addressed to "...!comdesign!newvax!joe-user" to get passed via our well placed neighbor, but I don't want "...!comdesign!university!joe-user" to go through our expensive neighbor. Now, part of this problem is that "univserity" hasn't updated their map entries in a long time. They have their own well placed uucp links, but mine seem to generate lower costs in some instances. I have to accept as a given that I can't affect their map entry. I could raise the "cost" to get to university from my site, but that would affect other local sites that currently route mail through us to the university. (I know I could tell them to lie in their own pathalias databases, but that's ugly too). Basicly, the two map entries I can affect are the cost from "well placed system" to us, and all entries in our own map. Does anyone have any great ideas on how to solve this with some attempt of providing a _maintainable_ solution? ------ Paul Traina To believe that what is true for {uunet|pyramid}!comdesign!pst you in your private heart is true pst@cdi.com for all men, that is genius.