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From: netinfo%ucbjade@ucb-vax.ARPA (Postmaster + BITINFO)
Newsgroups: net.mail.headers
Subject: Re: Mail Domain Names: Host table vs. Nameservers
Message-ID: <2727@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 1-Nov-85 17:33:34 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2727
Posted: Fri Nov  1 17:33:34 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Nov-85 05:00:23 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
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I am not soapboxing.  But it is interesting to note that when I asked for
solutions, I received "flaming" messages; and when I tried to help a remote
user with mailing to Berkeley, I got blasted.

I think all of us are flustrated by problems caused in part by different
interpretations of RFC 921.

I am also concerned about the mail that my users are receiving or not
receiving.  I also recognize the changes happening on UCBVAX which
cause problems to the mail system are hurting the users at Berkeley more
than they are the rest of the net. Believe me, I get it from both sides
because I am the primary person at Berkeley answering users' questions
about network mail.  Enough said about that.
 
---------

Now on to solutions.

A) In regards to:

	<@nic-host-table-domain-address:user@unknown-domain-name>
or
	<@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU:user@unknown-host.Berkeley.EDU>

One solution I suggested for fixing UCBVAX's "From" lines was to do source
routing, however I received a reply from software implimenter that all
hosts had to be registered in because his software validated both sides
of the colon in a source routed address. Unfortunately, this restriction
presents a problem for sites that have more than one type of network.
(Here at Berkeley we have hosts linked by local IP nets, UUCP, HASP, and
Berknet links. Columbia has their CCnet. LBL/SLAC have sites on the
PhysNet DECNET) It is not possible for non-internet nodes to be registered
in the host table since they do not have an Internet network address.
I prefer source routing to the % sign addressing kludge, so I suggest
that domain name validation only be do on the first @domain-name in
the "route" part of source routed  address.  This change would greatly help
mail gateways to other networks that do not support Internet domain
address, for example:

	<@wiscvm.wisc.edu:user@node.BITNET>

or

	<@CS.NET:user@host>

B) Although the mail only entry in nameserver data base can be used
to identify the internet gateway for a non-internet host, I would
also like to be able to tag certain internet hosts as not being able
to receive mail to prevent SMTP process from being attempted.
And then use an mail only entry to specify the mail route to be taken.
I am not sure if the first is currently possible, the latter can be
accomplished through requiring MTA programs to check for mail only
records in the nameserver first.  This is important for us and other
sites that have low speed IP links so that mail traffic can be routed
not to fill up a narrow channel and degrade other network services across
that channel. For example, a site may want to give better service
to "ftp" and route mail traffic via an alternate route.

Bill Wells
postmaster%ucbjade@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU