Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version VT1.00C 11/1/84; site vortex.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!decvax!bellcore!vortex!lauren From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) Newsgroups: net.mail Subject: Re: more on domains Message-ID: <847@vortex.UUCP> Date: Tue, 22-Oct-85 18:52:48 EDT Article-I.D.: vortex.847 Posted: Tue Oct 22 18:52:48 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 03:34:03 EDT References: <609@down.FUN> Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles Lines: 26 I've never said that mail handling REQUIRES knowledge of site "smartness." However, what I have said is that when you do have information about the smartness of sites it can allow reasonably intelligent mail handling without requiring "large" up-to-date databases or complex (relatively speaking) routing programs. In fact, with a bit of knowledge about the smartness of your most important neighbors the total amount of information you need may be very small overall. Knowing what you can send, in what form, to each of those sites can greatly simplify mail decisions. A site talking to 40 or 50 other sites can make reasonable decisions about how to handle a given @ or site.domain!user address with a very short table and only a few cycles. It doesn't take a great number of classifications (but there's more than just "domain" or "bang" to choose among). I currently have 3 primary classifications and about 4 options that can be attached to each of the three main classes. I'm not saying that having a full pathparse and mapping database and similar things doesn't allow equally good or maybe even sometimes "better" decisions, but, especially on smaller systems and systems that can't keep up with the mass of changing data for the universe at large, having information about "the smartness" of sites allows some useful tradeoffs. --Lauren--