ajudge@maths.tcd.ie (Alan Judge) (04/02/89)
In article <5463@ozdaltx.UUCP> root@ozdaltx.UUCP (root) writes: >Wouldn't it be wonderful to receive e-mail WITHOUT scads of >notations of 'Received by:' at the beginning of each >message? Does anyone really care what system received the >message, that systems ID number and a time stamp to boot? I >can tell what sites the message went through by looking at >the path line plus I can read the date the message was sent >and I know when I received it. Most system administrators will tell you that the Received headers are very useful when diagnosing problems or holdups in mail. With the number of "intelligent" mailers out there now, they are also of considerable use in finding out how messages are being routed. Most mail messages do not have a "path line" (this is a news only phenomenon) and most smart mailers do *not* modify the mail headers (such as from:) to indicate what sites the message has been through. Therefore without the Received headers there is no way to determine the routing of the message. Without routing information it is sometimes impossible to reply at all. For example, a mail message I just received just said mmdf2@relay.cs.net in the From: line. Without Received lines I would not know it had been through tcdcs, ccvax.ucd.ie, irlearn.bitnet, cunyvm.cuny.edu, relay.cs.net Admittedly, some mailers put in useless information into headers, but I think that the host name and time should definitely be kept. Anyway, if you are using a nice mail reader you shouldn't even see headers like Received, Message-id etc.. unless you explicitly ask. >Not to mention the bytes saved in transmission by >eliminating all this garbage. What can be done???? Transmission times for mail are usually dwarfed by those for news anyway. >Scotty >{ames,rutgers,texsun,smu}!killer!ozdaltx!sysop -- Alan Judge, SysAdmin, Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Smart: ajudge@maths.tcd.ie Stupid: ...!uunet!maths.tcd.ie!ajudge P.S. I have crossposted to comp.mail.headers and directed followups there since this does not belong in news.sysadmin.