jordan@ucbvax.ARPA (Jordan Hayes) (08/09/85)
In article <2027@ukma.UUCP> david@ukma.UUCP (David Herron, NPR Lover) writes: >The current implementation of domains (UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU) has them >completely seperate from the underlying networks. The host tables >have entries explaining which network to use to get to site X. And >so forth. So, there is ONLY ucbvax.berkeley.edu. ucbvax.arpa >and ucbvax.bitnet and ucbvax.everything.else no longer exist >(except as names kept around till people fix things up to look right). Well, no. First of all, our internet hostname is UCB-VAX.BERKELEY.EDU (doesn't work without the hyphen), but there is in fact the address ucbvax that does exist and will continue to exist until something replaces it. It is our UUCP hostname, and they are independent of network. This is sort of a kludge, but it is helpful to dumb networks (read:sarcasm) that don't understand/accept the internet domaining scheme of EDU COM GOV etc. Since transport mechanisms can put the blinders on to the outside world, these things are possible. We also are known as berkeley.csnet, and will continue to do so for quite some time (unless CSNET decides to adopt domained addresses...). We have never been (nor will we be) a BITNET node, and have not been the ARPA --> BITNET gateway for quite some time. This is now located at WISCVM. The point of all this is that it's perfectly reasonable to assume that ucbvax might have a different name on the UUCP network than it does on the internet, unless UUCP suddenly strikes a deal with DARPA to do gatewaying (an unlikely event, as much as I'd like to see it...). The big win in domaining UUCP comes in many flavors: + Consistant Addressing syntax + Administration-level control of local routing + Unambiguous addresses I don't think you are going to find too many wins in the area of routing over a well-tuned pathalias. Note that I said ROUTING. The bottom line to routing is that there exists an optimal path (usually) from a to b, and pathalias can get you there correctly in a lot of cases. There are more issues to this than "can my mail get through"... Domains will have roughly the same success rate as pathalias (perhaps a little better due to the robustness of domains), but the big points addressed by domains aren't even touched by pathalias. ------------ Jordan Hayes jordan@UCB-VAX.BERKELEY.EDU UC Berkeley ucbvax!jordan +1 (415) 835-8767 37' 52.29" N 122' 15.41" W