Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: net.mail Subject: Re: Area-code as uucp domains Message-ID: <3513@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Fri, 3-Feb-84 16:01:45 EST Article-I.D.: utzoo.3513 Posted: Fri Feb 3 16:01:45 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 3-Feb-84 16:01:45 EST References: <426@psuvax.UUCP>, <758@ulysses.UUCP>, <3508@utzoo.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 23 Laura has made the same mistake as a lot of other people when they see domains for the first time: they confuse names with routing. Our full domain-based name might be, say, utzoo.ec.uucp (ec being Eastern Canada). But if watmath.ec.uucp sends mail to utcsrgv.ec.uucp, this doesn't mean that the mail has to pass through the "top" site of the ec domain. In fact, in this case the mail goes direct. Only if the sending site has no idea of a route to the destination does it consult the "top" site. Even this does not necessarily imply sending the mail via the top site -- the sending site may simply ask the top site for enough information about the destination to construct a path (note careful wording: the top site doesn't necessarily have to supply a path, just help the sender to figure one out). With the old uucp stuff, naming and routing are inextricably coupled. In fact, names have only a local significance, since it's the route you specify: "...!foobar!vortex!lauren" is unambiguous even though there are two "vortex" sites, because the individual names matter only to the sites that immediately precede and follow them in the route. The domain-based system decouples naming and routing almost completely, and it is important to make the distinction. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry