raymond@uvm.edu (Tim Raymond) (06/20/91)
I have some questions regarding the proper return address for hosts connected to the Internet that are known by DNS. In the README for cf files in sendmail.5.65b (sendmail/cf/README), there is an explanation for the necessity of both the tcpld and tcp mailers. The following is an excerpt from that file: > As regards tcp and tcpld: in theory, there should be only one mailer > here, called "smtp", that deals with addresses in the form > "user@host.domain". > Everyone on the Internet would use this, regardless of what domain > they were in. Host name lookups would be performed via the domain naming > system (DNS), and no central registry of machine names would be necessary. > > Unfortunately, this is not the case. The MILNET community is still > in transition towards the DNS, and until this transition is complete, > they do not have to use the nameserver. Rather, they can "legally" > still use the host table supplied by SRI-NIC to translate names to > addresses. This means that to be strictly legal, we must send out > messages in the form "user@host.domain" ONLY FOR machines that are > registered with SRI NIC. Machines that are not registered with the > NIC must be "hidden" behind a relay machine, e.g., > user%unregistered_host@registered_host.domain. This, when MILNET folks > reply to this, the mail passes through "registered_host.domain" first. > > Currently this "hiding" behind NIC registered hosts is performed by > the "tcp" mailer. My questions are these: Is this still necessary? If yes: How does a host get entered into the SRI-NIC host table? Is a host that ns.nic.ddn.mil knows about as an authoritative nameserver for our domain automatically in there? Thanks in advance. Tim Raymond Postmaster Tim.Raymond@uvm.edu uunet!uvm-gen!raymond -- Tim
rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (06/21/91)
In article <1991Jun20.155833.13190@uvm.edu> raymond@uvm.edu (Tim Raymond) writes: >In the README for cf files in sendmail.5.65b (sendmail/cf/README), there >is an explanation for the necessity of both the tcpld and tcp mailers. Don't look at that file. Don't even 'cd' to that directory. That is a rather out date file from the Berkeley distribution. It is included for completeness only. If you are using the IDA version, look in sendmail/ida/cf for a guide to building a 'sendmail.cf' which uses all the extra features available with IDA. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science <rickert@cs.niu.edu> Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940
fair@Apple.COM (Erik E. Fair) (06/24/91)
The tcp/tcpld mailer dichotomy is no longer necessary. The DNS transition was supposed to be complete in October 1989, and if MILNET sites haven't managed it two years after the cut off date, I say let 'em lie in the bed they've made. I got one mailer called smtp, and it works, Erik E. Fair apple!fair fair@apple.com