Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!netinfo%ucbjade@ucb-vax.ARPA 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 Lines: 60 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