Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:1918 news.sysadmin:984
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!epiwrl!epimass!jbuck
From: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.sysadmin
Subject: Be cautious about declaring yourself a gateway if on Internet
Message-ID: <2488@epimass.EPI.COM>
Date: 20 Sep 88 23:21:07 GMT
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 55

Sites using the pathalias data generate horrible paths to Stanford
University, among other places.  The reason is that Stanford is on the
Internet, but one poorly-connected Stanford site is listed as the only
gateway to .stanford.edu in the UUCP map data.  Here is their entry:

#N	wso
#S	DEC VAX-11/780; 4.3 BSD UNIX
#O	Wilcox Solar Observatory, Stanford University
#C	Rick Bogart
#E	wso!rick
#T	+1 415 723 1296
#P	CSSA, Stanford, CA  94305-4055
#L	37 24 35 N / 122 10 02 W
#R	Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford University; position +/- 2"
#U
#W	wso!rick (Rick Bogart); Wed Jul 13 14:37:04 PDT 1988
#
wso	.stanford.edu
wso=	wso.stanford.edu
wso	mtxinu(DIRECT), ncar(DEMAND), noao(DEMAND)

If this map entry were not there, a site that talks directly to uunet,
when mailing to luser@foo.stanford.edu, would search, in sequence, for

luser.stanford.edu  (not found)
.stanford.edu       (not found)
.edu		    (found, gateway is uunet)

and would use the path

     uunet!foo.stanford.edu!luser

and uunet would ship the message via the Internet to Stanford.
Instead, horrible paths are generated.  In my case, I get the path

oliveb!ames!ncar!noao!wso!foo.stanford.edu!luser

Gag!  Awful.  At minimum, the line

wso	.stanford.edu

should be deleted from the map entry.  Possibly the whole map entry
should be deleted (at least after the half-price Trailblazers
arrive! :-).

There should be NO gateway listed to second-level Internet domains
in cases where the top-level domain servers will get mail through just
as fast.  Let's keep the maps small and consider what the pathalias
results will be when we add information.


-- 
- Joe Buck, card-carrying ACLU liberal
	jbuck@epimass.epi.com, or uunet!epimass.epi.com!jbuck,
	or jbuck%epimass.epi.com@uunet.uu.net for old Arpa sites