[comp.mail.misc] BITNET hosts also internet?

ittai@shemesh.GBA.NYU.EDU (Ittai Hershman) (07/12/90)

> Bitnet sites that are on the internet also have a domain-ized name that
> is used for sending mail to it thru the internet.  e.g.
>   GITVM1 (bitnet) is vm1.gatech.edu (internet);
>   DRYCAS (bitnet) is DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU (internet),

The problem is that end-users have no way of knowing this.  NYU, for
instance, is very well connected to the Internet (two T1's to two
different regionals), yet we receive tons of mail on our 9600 baud
RSCS connections from other institutions which, like us, are on both
BITnet and the Internet.

At present, at my site, mail sent out on the RSCS link gets the
RSCS/BITnet nodename, while mail sent out on the Internet gets a fully
qualified domain name.  I have been very tempted to have all outgoing
mail sent with the fully qualified domain name which would force
replies from dual BITnet/Internet sites to favor the Internet.  The
dwindling population of BITnet only sites would presumably route the
mail via a BITnet/Internet gateway.  Comments?  No flames please --
this is a topic some people feel is religous, and none of us need a
flame war.  Come to think of it, shouldn't this be on comp.mail.misc:
I've crossposted and directed followups to there.

-Ittai

k2@charly.bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de (Klaus Steinberger) (07/13/90)

ittai@shemesh.GBA.NYU.EDU (Ittai Hershman) writes:

>qualified domain name.  I have been very tempted to have all outgoing
>mail sent with the fully qualified domain name which would force
>replies from dual BITnet/Internet sites to favor the Internet.  The
>dwindling population of BITnet only sites would presumably route the
>mail via a BITnet/Internet gateway.  Comments?  No flames please --

I think it's a good idea, but it's possible that you will run into
trouble. There are many BITNET sites around the world which don't
run mailer's. They use sometimes Command-procedures to talk with
BSMTP-Mailers. Those command-procedures are mostly years behind
DOMAIN.NAMES. I remember a case, there a France site was not able
to send to the .de domain. 

Maybe, if we use always the FQDN, we will force such sites to
use more sophisticated software ?

Sincerely,
Klaus Steinberger

Klaus Steinberger               Beschleunigerlabor der TU und LMU Muenchen
Phone: (+49 89)3209 4287        Hochschulgelaende, D-8046 Garching, West Germany
BITNET:  K2@DGABLG5P            Internet: k2@charly.bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de

k2@charly.bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de (Klaus Steinberger) (07/13/90)

k2@charly.bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de (Klaus Steinberger) writes:

>ittai@shemesh.GBA.NYU.EDU (Ittai Hershman) writes:

>>qualified domain name.  I have been very tempted to have all outgoing
>>mail sent with the fully qualified domain name which would force
>>replies from dual BITnet/Internet sites to favor the Internet.  The
>>dwindling population of BITnet only sites would presumably route the
>>mail via a BITnet/Internet gateway.  Comments?  No flames please --

>I think it's a good idea, but it's possible that you will run into
>trouble. There are many BITNET sites around the world which don't
>run mailer's. They use sometimes Command-procedures to talk with
>BSMTP-Mailers. Those command-procedures are mostly years behind
>DOMAIN.NAMES. I remember a case, there a France site was not able
>to send to the .de domain. 

One additional point: You will not be able to send mail to a 
non-mailer site with your FQDN! RSCS allows only 8 characters!
So this will only work for Sites with Mailers.


Sincerely,
Klaus Steinberger

Klaus Steinberger               Beschleunigerlabor der TU und LMU Muenchen
Phone: (+49 89)3209 4287        Hochschulgelaende, D-8046 Garching, West Germany
BITNET:  K2@DGABLG5P            Internet: k2@charly.bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de