ras (05/12/83)
Is there a generic way to mail to a given user on ARPANET (or
CSnet or PARC or DECnet, even) via UUCP, utilizing existing (and
willing) sites that have a foot in each door? I keep seeing reply
paths that go completely across country via 15 UUCP hops, then tie
into ARPANET at SRI and come all the way back 'cross country to a site
in Mass.
Would it be possible for "gateway" sites to announce their
presence on the net and the conditions they will or will not forward
under? I am going on the assumption that ARPANET "knows" how to get to
any site from any other, and that an east-coast user could mail to the
east-coast XYZnet gateway, which would then use it's (far more
intelligent) routing mechanism to get it to the final XYZnet site.
Maybe all that is needed is an summary of which address styles
belong to what network protocols, (UUCP/USENET and ARPA appear to have 2),
and how the uninitiated would access a user living on a particular
network. (We have no ARPA tie-in, but those there that are active in
Ada have contacts that they want to access on ARPANET, which is not
totally within the normal reign of USENET or UUCP).
And while I'm at it, has anyone figured out a way of forwarding
from/to DECNET sites, outside of tossing out DEC's mail and using
UUCP, Eunice, Phoenix, or HCR Unisomething??
I'll summarize if I hear anything other than "let me know if you
hear anything" or "forget about VMS...", but I'd prefer the answers
as followup articles, as I doubt that Everyone But Me knows...
Ralph Shaw {allegra, decvax!brunix}!rayssd!ras