[net.mail.headers] UK net

VSHANK@weizmann (Henry Nussbacher) (07/08/86)

Wrong!

The document you are looking at is quite old.  I have a copy from
March 11, 1986 that reads as follows:


> 12 MAIL - EARN TO JANET
>
> The  EARN node must offer some means of constructing mail  according  to
> the RFC822 standard and sending it to userid MAILER at EARN node UKACRL.
> The  Columbia  Mailer  with  an appropriate internet exit  is  one  such
> suitable system. The destination system must offer 'Grey Book' mail.
>
> The 'To:' field must contain:
>
> To: receiver%nrsname@AC.UK
>
> 'receiver' is normally the identification of a recipient which may be  a
> distribution  list,  a  username,  or  a  real  name  depending  on  the
> destination.  'nrsname'  is  a  registered name of a  'Grey  Book'  mail
> system.
>
> Access to a number of destinations is barred for regulatory reasons.


We have been sending mail into UKACRL with an RFC822 envelope (no BSMTP
envelope supported yet) with addresses in the following form:

user%nrsname@AC.UK
user@reversed_nrsname


In actuality, 'AC.UK' is an alias for UKACRL.  'nrsname' is the janet
address in 'UK.AC.....' format.  The 'reversed_nsrname' format also works:
user@node.node.AC.UK
as long as the mail gets to MAILER@UKACRL.

Hank

zben@umd5.ARPA (Ben Cranston) (07/09/86)

Subject: Re: Problems with Janet and Bitnet
References: <1942@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: zben@umd5.UUCP (Ben Cranston)
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park

In article <1942@brl-smoke.ARPA> SLG6M%USU.BITNET@WISCVM.arpa writes:

> Help!  I have been trying without success for the past two weeks
> to send a mail message to Nigel Holder at Marconi Research.  I
> am connected to Bitnet, which allegedly has the capability to
> send mail to JANET via a gateway at a Bitnet node called UKACRL
> in London.  It gets to London via Bitnet OK, but then I keep getting
> "YF21@UK.CO.GEC-MRC.U Is an invalid assress. No delivery made."
> mailed back to me?  Any ideas a) what's going wrong here, and b)
> how do I send a message to Nigel?

a: There's some kind of bovine feces about passwords using that gateway,
   see below for more information.

b: I would suggest you use the other address:

   yf21%u.gec-mrc.co.uk@ucl-cs

   that Nigel advertises in his .signature.  Note that the British net uses
   backwards domaining, and that ucl-cs reverses it for you while ukacrl
   does not.   

c: Bovine Feces:  From "EDUCOM NETWORKING" Volume 2 Number 1 1986 page 6:

EARNET/JANET GATEWAY DEVELOPMENT

A gateway between the European Academic Research Network (EARN) and the 
Joint Academic Network for academic and research institutes in the United
Kingdom (JANET) is under development at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
in England.

Currently EARN, BITNET's European counterpart, numbers 269 nodes.  With the
addition of JANET, networking capabilities expand by approximately 200
computers.  When fully operational, the gateway will allow transfer of files
and mail between BITNET/EARN/NetNorth and JANET sites.  NetNorth, the 81-node
Canadian academic and research network, has direct links to BITNET and EARN.

The file transfer facilities of the gateway are available now.  To transfer
a file to a JANET node, the first two lines of the file must be:

//* *FILE SITE=site name,USER=user id,PSWD=password,DEV=file
//* *FILE FILE=file name,KEEP=NO

The password is normally the one associated with the userid.  However,
password information may not be required, particularly on IBM VM/CMS
systems.  The file should be send to id JANET at EARN node UKACRL.

The mail gateway to JANET is under development and should be available
by late March.  When this work is complete, BITNET/EARN/NetNorth nodes
with Columbia mailers can send mail to JANET nodes with the following
address:

   userid@site.AC.UK

For example, mail to Fred on JANET node RL.GB would be send with the address:

   Fred@GB.RL.AC.UK

Note that node names must be reversed for transmission into JANET.  That is,
the node at which Fred receives his mail would be presented on a JANET node 
list as UK.AC.RL.GB.  BITNET/EARN/NetNorth nodes without the Columbia mailer
must send files to communicate with JANET nodes.

JANET uses the "Coloured Books" protocols developed in the U.K., and
BITNET/EARN/NetNorth use IBM's NJE/NJI protocols.  Due to lack of
standardization in both environments, not all facilities will be available
to all nodes.  For mail transfer, the BITNET/EARN/NetNorth node must provide
the Columbia mailer or compatable system, and the JANET node must offer
"Grey Book" mail.  Binary file transfer will only be supported between IBM
nodes on either network.  Interactive messaging will not be supported 
through the gateway.

Not all JANET sites will be known to the gateway at Rutherford.  A list of
available nodes will be posted on NICSERVE when the gateway is operational.
-CKW

[OK zben here again] Whew.  The bovine feces concern the password stuff.
There is probably a password built into the binary for the Columbia mailer,
which is an object-only distribution.  The Columbia mailer is written in
IBM assembler code, so you can see how much fun it is trying to support a
non-IBM-370 machine on BitNet, and why non-IBM-370 machines are sometimes
made to feel second-class citizens.  Oh well.

If you've read this far, you might wonder how to get from BITNET to the
ARPA gateway.  I don't know for sure, because I don't know if WISCVM does
the 'rightmost percent sign' stuff for multiple gateways.  One might 
write an address like:

      yf21%u.gec-mrc.co.uk%ucl-cs.arpa@wiscvm
          ^               ^
and one would want wiscvm to interpret the RIGHTMOST percent sign of the
two.  I think this is the right thing to do, and all MY mail software does
this.  If you support a mailer that does percent sign, consider implementing
this subtle point.

Also note that there was a five-part SENDMAIL patch system posted to 
mod.sources some time ago.  I printed it off but quite frankly do not know
enough to pick out which gateway it finally ended up using out of the mass
of stuff posted.  The ID coordinates were: 1636, 1638, 1639, 1642, and 1643
at "panda.UUCP".  They were submitted by:

    Jim Crammond <seismo!mcvax!cs.hw.ac.uk!jim>

Some people call me a packrat.

-
                    umd5.UUCP    <= {seismo!umcp-cs,ihnp4!rlgvax}!cvl!umd5!zben
Ben Cranston zben @ umd2.UMD.EDU <= Kingdom of Merryland Sperrows 1100/92
                    umd2.BITNET     "via HASP with RSCS"

stephen@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Stephen J. Muir) (07/10/86)

In article <2033@brl-smoke.ARPA> zben@umd5.ARPA writes:
>Subject: Re: Problems with Janet and Bitnet
>References: <1942@brl-smoke.ARPA>
>Reply-To: zben@umd5.UUCP (Ben Cranston)
>Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
>
>In article <1942@brl-smoke.ARPA> SLG6M%USU.BITNET@WISCVM.arpa writes:
>
>> Help!  I have been trying without success for the past two weeks
>> to send a mail message to Nigel Holder at Marconi Research.  I
>> am connected to Bitnet, which allegedly has the capability to
>> send mail to JANET via a gateway at a Bitnet node called UKACRL
>> in London.  It gets to London via Bitnet OK, but then I keep getting
>> "YF21@UK.CO.GEC-MRC.U Is an invalid assress. No delivery made."
>> mailed back to me?  Any ideas a) what's going wrong here, and b)
>> how do I send a message to Nigel?

>b: I would suggest you use the other address:
>
>   yf21%u.gec-mrc.co.uk@ucl-cs
>
>   that Nigel advertises in his .signature.  Note that the British net uses
>   backwards domaining, and that ucl-cs reverses it for you while ukacrl
>   does not.   

The address "u.gec-mrc.co.uk" doesn't, in fact, exist!  Maybe there is a typo
in his signature file for there are a few other addresses very similar that do
exist.  Indeed, some with only 1 letter different.  Send me his signature file
and I will try to help you!

As postmaster of a machine on JANET, I will try to put the record straight.
There are 3 gateways onto JANET/PSS. (JANET addresses are "*.ac.uk" and PSS
address are "*.co.uk".  "ac" = "academic-community", "co" = "commercial
organisation".)

The gateways are as follows:

UUCP:	...!seismo!mcvax!ukc ... also known as ukc.ac.uk
	This gateway maps UUCP names onto the equivalent JANET/PSS ones.
	Mail may only be sent to/from authorised JANET/PSS *sites* if the other
	site is outside the UK.  The JANET/PSS site *must pay* for *incoming or
	outgoing* mail!

ARPA:	cs.ucl.ac.uk ... also known as ucl-cs.arpa
	Only authorised JANET/PSS *users* can send mail through this gateway.
	Mail can be sent to JANET hosts free of charge.  I'm not sure about
	mail to PSS sites.  This gateway does not recognise UUCP names!

BITNET/EARN/NORTHNET:	UKACRL (ukacrl.earn) ... also known as earn.rl.ac.uk
	This gateway is free in both directions!  Does not recognise UUCP
	names.

>Also note that there was a five-part SENDMAIL patch system posted to 
>mod.sources some time ago.  I printed it off but quite frankly do not know
>enough to pick out which gateway it finally ended up using out of the mass
>of stuff posted.  The ID coordinates were: 1636, 1638, 1639, 1642, and 1643
>at "panda.UUCP".  They were submitted by:
>
>    Jim Crammond <seismo!mcvax!cs.hw.ac.uk!jim>

I must personally vouch for this package.  It is excellent and is used by the
majority of UK sites that handle mail properly.

Finally, every UUCP site in the UK has a domain name which is mapped by
ukc.ac.uk.  Not all these are registered with the UK central registry (called
the "NRS" = "Name Registration Scheme").  Those that are not registered will
only be addressable by the ukc.ac.uk gateway.  Those that are will also be
addressible from cs.ucl.ac.uk (and by earn.rl.ac.uk within a "reasonably short
time period").  Also, most sites registered in the NRS do not have a UUCP name.
The "u.gec-mrc.co.uk" machine is not in either the UUCP or NRS tables.
-- 
EMAIL:	stephen@comp.lancs.ac.uk	| Post: University of Lancaster,
UUCP:	...!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!stephen	|	Department of Computing,
Phone:	+44 524 65201 Ext. 4120		|	Bailrigg, Lancaster, UK.
Project:Alvey ECLIPSE Distribution	|	LA1 4YR

stef@nrtc-gremlin.ARPA (Einar Stefferud) (07/11/86)

Hello All -- I believe the time has come for MsgGroup to cease automatic
distribution and quietly go out of business.  The traffic has become
less and less relevant and now tends to be mostly cross postings from
folks who are just trying to achieve maximum coverage for some reason.

So, without further ado, I am going to replace the main distribution
list with a simple redirector to myself so I can monitor your reactions.

I will continue to capture all the traffic, and add it to the complete
archives I have collected over the years, but the time has come to close
out what has been a very interesting 11 years of mail system pioneering.

My very best to you all - Stef (MsgGroup Moderator since June, 1975)