lake@alberta.UUCP (Robert Lake) (04/04/84)
We have 4 VAXen (alberta{ab}, cadomin{cd}, etc.) and 6 SUNs connected to
each other via an ethernet. Plans call for all machines to be running 4.2
BSD by the end of the summer. Recently we have been working on improving
mail communications with the MTS system (this system is serves most of the
university, including our undergraduates). The MTS machine itself is part
of a network of about 6 MTS sites. Its name on this MTS-net is UQV-MTS.
Messages are exchanged betweeen MTS sites using the SMTP protocol. What
we have done is write a program to communicate with UQV-MTS via `sendmail'
through an ethernet server. This allows any UNIX host to send/receive mail
with MTS (if this is desirable).
<----------------------ethernet----------------------------------------->
T T T T T T T T T T T
| | | | | | | | | | |
ab cd cv ja sw sv sb sd ss sr server
| /
|/| /
| /|/
| /
________________ /
| phone lines | ________________________________
| to UUCP net | | UQV-MTS |
________________ |(Main campus service computer)|
________________________________
/
/
/|/
/
_________________________
| other MTS sites via |
| Datapac |
_________________________
Our problem (now that the software is basically working and before we allow
`users' on the system) lies with domain specification and whether to route
all mail through a single computer acting as an agent for mail delivery on
the network of UNIX (and UUCP) machines.
We are uncertain as to what the address format of messages bound from MTS
to UNIX should look like.
Should all messages travelling in this direction go via one VAX only (e.g.
mail to 'cadomin!lake@alberta', where `alberta' and `cadomin' are machine
names)? Or should a domain specification be made whereby our local network
itself is a domain (e.g. mail to 'cavell!lake@alta', where `alta' specifies
mail bound for our local ethernet & UUCP network)?
We are restricted by the MTS software to only one domain name (no dots!)
after the '@' sign.
We have studied RFC #822, and are still undecided as to what to do. Please
mail ideas and opinions to ihnp4!alberta!lake. Thanks in advance.mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (04/05/84)
If you want your own top level domain, you have to meet certain requirements placed by ARPA (see RFC881) such as providing a name server and having a reasonably large number of hosts. (This number is not defined, but I am skeptical about whether 6 would qualify.) If you do not want your own top level domain, you'll have to become a subdomain of some other domain willing to take you on. (The UUCP domain may not be able or willing to do this, at least not in the immediately forseeable future, because it isn't allowing subdomains currently, and because you aren't reachable via a chain of !'s. But some other domain, like BITNET or the Canadian version of CSNET, might be willing to.) Becoming a subdomain means having dots on the right hand side of the @ sign. So you have two choices. Either find some way to encode 822 addresses (including your own) with a more complex string to the left of the @ for consumption of MTS, or else fixing MTS. The latter is probably a better idea, assuming MTS is more maleable than OS/360. The issues of how to route your mail and what to name your subdomains are entirely separate, although you have to have gateways smart enough to do the appropriate transmogrifications between different conventions when mail crosses convention boundaries. Mark Horton