Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Re: Stuck with .UUCP forever?
Message-ID: <1989May21.061438.14394@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1728@fig.bbn.com> <3790007@eecs.nwu.edu> <320@xdos.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 21 May 89 06:14:38 GMT

In article <320@xdos.UUCP> doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt) writes:
>Ok. But I'm still missing one central point: why can't I simply register
>my machine as "xdos.com", and automatically have Internet forwarders
>know who I am? ...

How are they supposed to know who you are?  (The Internet generally doesn't
deign to recognize the existence of the UUCP maps, and even if they did,
it is not necessarily true that "xdos.UUCP" and "xdos.com" are the same
system.)  This is like asking the Post Office to deliver mail to you without
telling them where you live.

>... if I could get a real domain *purely* by following a registration
>procedure, with no "would *someone* please do me a a big personal favor
>and forward mail" arrangements necessary, then it would seem that most .UUCP
>sites would be .COM sites very rapidly...

What good would it do to have a domain if nobody could reach you by using
it?  Arrangements for forwarding *have* to be made if your domain is to
be of any use.  If you're asking why nobody is willing to automatically
forward mail to any site in the uucp maps, who is going to be masochistic
enough to volunteer his machine for such a job?  Actually, as I understand
it, UUNET is quite happy to handle registration and provide forwarding, but
quite sensibly insists that you pay for the service.
-- 
Van Allen, adj: pertaining to  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu