Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP 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 ...!harpo!npoiv!npois!houxm!5941ux!dje ...!{ariel,lime}!houti!hogpc!houxm!5941ux!dje