Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!columbia!rutgers!clyde!cbatt!ukma!david
From: david@ukma.ms.uky.csnet (David Herron, NPR Lover)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers
Subject: Re: Another reason to hate smail
Message-ID: <5484@ukma.ms.uky.csnet>
Date: Sat, 10-Jan-87 12:15:39 EST
Article-I.D.: ukma.5484
Posted: Sat Jan 10 12:15:39 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Jan-87 06:57:05 EST
References: <14239@amdcad.UUCP>
Sender: root@ukma.ms.uky.csnet
Reply-To: david@ukma.ms.uky.csnet (David Herron, NPR Lover)
Organization: U of Kentucky, Mathematical Sciences
Lines: 30

In article <14239@amdcad.UUCP> phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) writes:
>... Now I am phil@amdcad.amd.com, which decwrl thinks is an Internet
>site.  Decwrl looks us up and discovers that sun is the approved
>gateway to us and ships my mail to sun which finally sends it to me.

The first thing is I see in the current map that the d.* files
lists a gateway for .amd.com ... so far so good.

Now, when decwrl gets your message it has two choices of how to
route your message ... one is the MX record which sun is maintaining
for you (which causes the routing over the internet), and the other
is the uucp route.

It's possible their sendmail configuration does not allow them to
take those two choices into consideration.

It's also arguable that relaying mail over the Internet is more reliable
(in the general case) than relaying over a UUCP route.

For what cases does it make sense to prefer the MX record over the UUCP
route (or vice versa)?  In MMDF the decision is wired into the tailoring
file depending on which channel I mention first.  (If I mention the
SMTP channel first (and *if* we were on the Internet) then the MX record
would take precedence ... that is barring the authorization stuff
from saying no-no to a route over the Internet).
-- 
David Herron,  cbosgd!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET, david@ms.uky.csnet
(I'm also "postmaster", "news", "netnews", "uucp", "mmdf", and ...)

"Don't put your money in South Africa -- Give it to me!" -- Cerebus