wales@ucla-locus.ARPA (Rich Wales) (08/09/85)
I know this topic is probably more appropriate for NAMEDROPPERS than HEADER-PEOPLE -- but I've already mentioned it twice to NAMEDROPPERS, and I have a feeling that the people who need to see this message most badly are not on that list. So . . . Even though it is now almost four weeks since the scheduled date for making the distributed domain data base official, there are still quite a few hosts on the net which continue to use old, non-domain-style nick- names in the return addresses of their outgoing mail. Here is a partial set of such hosts, based on analysis of a log of incoming mail arriving at LOCUS.UCLA.EDU during the past week: ACC CVL MARYLAND ORNL-MSR UCI-ICSA AERO2 CWRU-20B MIT-CCC PESCADERO UCI-ICSD AEROSPACE DEC-HUDSON MIT-COMET SDAMOS UCI-ICSE AIDS-UNIX DIABLO MIT-MC SDCSVAX UW-BEAVER ANAD EDN-VAX MIT-OZ SRI-TSC WHITNEY BBN-SPCA ISI-HOBGOBLIN MITRE-BEDFORD SRI-UNIX YALE-APVAX BERKELEY ISI-VAXA NBS-VMS STAT-L YUMA CCA-UNIX JPL-VLSI NOSC SU-SHASTA CIT-VAX LELAND NRL-AIC TOVE CSNET-RELAY LLL-CRG NTA-VAX UCBMONET In case there are some system administrators out there who are still not aware of recent and not-so-recent developments, the problem is that ALL of the old, non-domain-style host nicknames will become obsolete as the net converts over to the new distributed domain data base which is going to replace the HOSTS.TXT file. This means that your users are going to find out the hard way that more and more people around the net are not going to be able to reply to their mail any more. ************************************************************************ * QUICK RULE-OF-THUMB TEST: If the host name in the "From:" line of * * mail sent by your host does not have at least ONE period in it, it * * is one of these "old, non-domain-style nicknames" that is going to * * become obsolete and meaningless VERY soon. * ************************************************************************ Anyone who still does not understand what I am talking about should get a copy of ARPA RFC921 and read it very carefully. I am aware that some of the hosts listed above already know about the problem and are working on fixing it. I also accept the possibility that some of the hosts listed above may be the innocent victims of some other relay host (say, the residing place of a mailing list) which is munging their return addresses as it sends the mail along. However, if your host is listed above, you should check RIGHT AWAY to see if in fact your mail system is generating the old-style host names. If it is, you should modify it ASAP to use your host's official name (which in most cases ends in the five characters ".ARPA"). Just to set the record straight, I am NOT a card-carrying member of the mythical Network Police :-}. All I'm trying to do is help avert a growing crisis as more and more hosts (eventually the whole net) convert to the domain data base, thereby losing the ability to send mail to the old, non-domain-style host names. I would much rather see the problem fixed at its sources than spend all my time trying to explain to all the users on the host I play "mail guru" for why the return addresses in the mail they get are no good -- and I hope other people feel the same way. -- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 213-825-5683 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024 // USA ARPA: wales@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU -or- wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA UUCP: ...!(ucbvax,ihnp4)!ucla-cs!wales