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Path: utzoo!linus!cca!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!houxf!5941ux!dje
From: dje@5941ux.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: Please keep your signature file really, really short
Message-ID: <279@5941ux.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jun-83 10:14:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: 5941ux.279
Posted: Thu Jun  9 10:14:35 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Jun-83 14:29:23 EDT
References: watmath.5365
Lines: 26

I would very much like to avoid the necessity of writing out primary and
alternate paths to my home system every time I sign a message.  Unfortunately,
many of my MAIL submissions never get through to their destination, and
many MAIL messages sent to me never reach me.  I have no way of finding out
where the messages are getting lost, since no failure notifications ever
reach me.

Maybe this is a problem with MAIL/uucp rather than with NEWS.  We users
should not have to know about the topology of the network in order to send
or receive mail.  Especially since there is no way to ascertain the set
of uucp links to and from remote systems (perhaps there should be a special
uuname option e.g. "uuname -s harpo" to tell which systems harpo can 
send/forward mail to -- but this would entail either a massive data base
coordination among systems or else built-in, hidden remote dialup access).

What is a good, workable solution to this?  Until I can be assured of
RELIABLE mail delivery in both directions (and why shouldn't the network be
treated as a utility I can count on, just like my telephone?), I see no
better choice than posting multiple paths to my system address.

Any help, practical suggestions and ideas are welcome.  Reply to the net
if of general interest, or to me:

Dave Ellis / Bell Labs, Piscataway NJ
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