[comp.mail.uucp] MX records

chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (01/07/88)

In article <1804@epimass.EPI.COM> jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck) writes:
>For example, my address is jbuck@epimass.epi.com.  If you run a
>current Internet mailer, it will try to find the host, fail, and then
>obtain an MX record telling it to pass the message to uunet.uu.net....

Actually, to make MX records work `right', it has to use the reverse
order: try for an MX answer first, and only if that fails
(authoritatively, not temporarily), try for a host.

If you look for the host name first, then the MX record, you then
cannot make a single machine the mail agent for a group of machines.
Also, if a machine is down for a few days, it is nice to be able
to redirect Internet mail through a different host in the interim.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris