tronix@polari.UUCP (David Daniel) (09/08/90)
After reading the various articles discussing sending mail to CompuServe (tm)
I decided to test the mailer at this site. I sent the following test message to:
postmaster@compuserve.com
This site is running Mail User's Shell (mush) 6.5.6 6/89. I have the autoroute
feature set in my .mushrc.
My question is: Why on Earth is this header so loooong? I can't quite make out
the process by which it got to
Compuserve and then back to me. Any mail gurus care to answer?
The messaage follows:
From Usumax Fri Sep 7 15:56:33 1990
Received: by polari.uucp (smail2.5)
id AA14321; 7 Sep 90 15:56:32 PDT (Fri)
Received: by sumax.seattleu.edu (smail2.5)
id AA21963; Fri, 7 Sep 90 08:34:20 PST
Received: from rutgers.UUCP by beaver.cs.washington.edu (5.61/7.0)
id AA17066; Fri, 7 Sep 90 07:58:18 -0700
Received: from gatech.UUCP by rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) with UUCP
id AA10207; Fri, 7 Sep 90 04:55:04 EDT
Received: from gatech.UUCP with UUCP by gatech.edu (4.1/Gatech-9.0)
id AA05325 for uw-beaver!sumax!polari!tronix; Thu, 6 Sep 90 16:51:17 EDT
Received: from gatech.UUCP by gatech.UUCP (4.1/SMI-4.1)
id AA19582; Thu, 6 Sep 90 16:49:14 EDT
Received: from saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu by gatech.edu (4.1/Gatech-9.0)
id AA05258 for polari!tronix; Thu, 6 Sep 90 16:50:00 EDT
Received: by saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu (5.61-kk/5.900605)
id AA01338; Thu, 6 Sep 90 16:49:50 -0400
Date: 06 Sep 90 14:16:40 EDT
From: <uw-beaver!rutgers!compuserve.com!POSTMASTER>
To: <uw-beaver!sumax!polari!TRONIX>
Subject: Yep, your test message got here
Message-Id: <"CSI 5763-4198"@CompuServe.COM>
Status: OR
Yeah, it got here. It took a while, but it got here...
-- Kathy
Kathy Chevrier, CompuServe Incorporated POSTMASTER@COMPUSERVE.COM
5000 Arlington Centre Blvd, Columbus, OH 43220 +1 614 457-8600
Forwarded Message 5763-3456
Subj: test
Received: from usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu by tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (5.61-kk/5.900605)
id AA23106; Thu, 6 Sep 90 08:05:48 -0400
Received: from gatech.edu by usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu with SMTP (5.61+ida+/CWRU-1.3-UUCPGW)
id AA26734; Thu, 6 Sep 90 08:05:43 -0400 (from gatech!mailrus!ames!beaver.cs.washington.edu!sumax!polari!tronix@gatech.edu for compuserve!postmaster@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu)
Received: from gatech.UUCP with UUCP by gatech.edu (4.1/Gatech-9.0)
id AA29214 for tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!compuserve!postmaster@usenet.ins.cwru.edu; Thu, 6 Sep 90 08:05:40 EDT
Received: from gatech.UUCP by gatech.UUCP (4.1/SMI-4.1)
id AA13726; Thu, 6 Sep 90 08:03:46 EDT
Received: from mailrus.UUCP with UUCP by gatech.edu (4.1/Gatech-9.0)
id AA29194 for cwjcc!hal!uccba!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!compuserve!postmaster; Thu, 6 Sep 90 08:02:59 EDT
Received: from ames.arc.nasa.gov by mailrus.cc.umich.edu (5.61/1123-1.0)
id AA10541; Thu, 6 Sep 90 07:51:26 -0400
Received: from beaver.cs.washington.edu by ames.arc.nasa.gov (5.64/1.2); Thu, 6 Sep 90 05:01:41 -0700
Received: from sumax.UUCP by beaver.cs.washington.edu (5.61/7.0)
id AA09497; Thu, 6 Sep 90 04:52:42 -0700
Return-Path: <sumax!polari!tronix>
Received: by sumax.seattleu.edu (smail2.5)
id AA27546; Thu, 6 Sep 90 04:44:36 PST
Received: by polari.uucp (smail2.5)
id AA26556; 6 Sep 90 04:02:34 PDT (Thu)
From: gatech.edu!gatech!polari!tronix (David Daniel)
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 90 04:02:34 PDT
X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (6.5.6 6/30/89)
To: postmaster@compuserve.com
Subject: test
Message-Id: <9009060402.AA26556@polari.uucp>
This is a test to see if our MX/router is smart enough to get to you.
INTERNET:gatech.edu!gatech!polari!tronix 12:40 EDT 06-Sep-90
(900906164008 515664.456256 EHJ38-4)
for POSTMASTER 12:44 EDT 06-Sep-90 Message 5763-3456 forwarded by
This is the end of the mail I received back rom Compuserve
--
David Daniel (The man with no disclaimer) tronix@polari.wa.com
"Beware the Truth. If you find a Truth it can demand that you make painful
changes." - Frank Herbertkarl_kleinpaste@charcoal.com (09/10/90)
tronix@polari.uucp writes:
My question is: Why on Earth is this header so loooong? I can't
quite make out the process by which it got to Compuserve and then
back to me. Any mail gurus care to answer?
[Path from CompuServe showing something akin to
osu-cis!gatech!uw-beaver!sumax!polari!tronix,
somewhat freely aliased between UUCP OWHNs and Internet FQDNs]
That was the address Kathy used to reach you, probably just a blind
reply to your From: line, which seems to have worked, in all
likelihood, through the arguable magic of smail REROUTE behavior. All
things considered, that wasn't a half bad path to reach you, although
one could question why gatech got involved.
[Path to CompuServe showing something bearing a resemblance to
sumax!uw-beaver!ames!mailrus!gatech!cwjcc!osu-cis!compuserve!postmaster]
That's because pathalias is a sucky way to route mail between Internet
sites. The simplest "!-path" from your site to CompuServe looks like
sumax.seattleu.edu!saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu!compuserve!postmaster
because sumax.seattleu.edu (UUCP OWHN "sumax") is IP-accessible and I
can ping it from my basement SLIP connection in ~460ms, or ~185ms from
Ohio State proper.
But pathalias routing involves hand-crafted weighting which is often
not especially close to reality, and a !-path showing subpaths of
"mailrus!gatech!cwjcc!uccba" or something of that ilk reaching here is
pretty common, even though _all_ those hosts can speak directly to OSU
over the Internet.
Side note, I find it amusing that gatech shows up in 3 Received:
headers, as its mailer talked to itself, with the end result that it
optimized uccba right out of things, as well as noticing that the
original "cwjcc!hal" component really reduces to usenet.ins.cwru.edu.
(uccba originally appeared just before osu-cis.) It's not GRR, and
it's not DARR, but it's Some Sort Of RR, that's for sure. (And I'll
bet you thought that rabid rerouters were ever so rare.)
So anyway, your mail to CServe took a particularly contorted route
because the pathalias data (probably as invoked by what you called
your mailer's "autoroute" option) has routes which don't describe
reality, either in the fully-interconnected nature of the Internet, or
in the true weightings of which hosts speak to each other how often;
and the reply back to you took a not-quite-as-contorted route because
Kathy just replied to the supplied From:, with all the meanderings
implied therein.
--karl