Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Sun, 6 Sep 1992 09:09:41 -0400
From:         droby@NOVA.TCS.TUFTS.EDU
Subject:      Re: network mail addressing problem
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
              05 Sep 92 08:48:11 EDT." <9209051104.aa09763@Nova.TCS.Tufts.EDU>

Says Joan Boorstein <boorstein%umbsky.dnet@NS.UMB.EDU>:
>Any mail gurus out there this Labor Day Weekend ....
>
We'll see.  It's my job anyway...

>Yes, I know, I should have checked this out earlier, but I've not
>been into school yet -- classes don't start until Tuesday and with
>a terminal at home who needs to go in?
>
>I have temporarily taken over a task which involves a daily mailing to a
>mailing list.  The 'old' version of the list was in what I'll call
>bang format, e.g.,
>
>    uunet!admin.fandm.edu!pbr_evb
>or
>    uunet!brownvm.brown.edu!nemethm%servax.bitnet
>
>Because I've never used such an address form from either of the systems
>I'm on, I converted these to the usual internet form; namely,
>
>    pbr_evb@admin.fandm.edu
>and
>    nemethm@servax.bitnet
>

Good idea.  The more paths you explicitly specify, the likelier they
are to eventually break.

>In a test with a short message, I had only trouble with two addresses
>(I've changed the user names to XXXXX for privacy's sake).
>
>    uunet!brownvm.brown.edu!XXXXXX%hkulbr.hku.hk
>
>which became
>    XXXXXX@hkulbr.hku.hk
>
>was undeliverable -- host would not respond.  Anyone know what I could
>do about this?
>

This address should work.  I suspect there's just a breakdown in the
connection to Hong Kong.  Since brown seems to be able to deliver to
this address (assuming of course that it worked before), you might try

	XXXXX%hkulbr.hku.hk@brownvm.brown.edu

or similar things routing through other major sites (the west coast
may be closer to Hong Kong in the net) and see what happens.

>The other problem was
>    uunet!brownvm.brown.edu!XXXXXXX%awiimc12.imc.univie.ac
>
>which became
>    XXXXXX@awiimc12.imc.univie.ac
>
>The error here was host unknown.  Can anyone suggest a 'correct address'?
>

Again try XXXXXX%awiimc12.imc.univie.ac@brownvm.brown.edu and see what
you get.  This host doesn't appear to be registered with the domain
name system, though the ".ac" appears to be Bulgaria of all places.  I
don't have the ISO country codes memorized and found this by a whois
search or two:

whois ac gave:

[No name] (AC)			AC.GRIN.EDU			  132.161.10.8
AC Technology (ACTECH-DOM)					    ACTECH.COM
CICT-BAS (NET-AC)		AC				     146.3.0.0
...

whois net-ac gave

CICT-BAS (NET-AC)
   Acad.G.Bontchev Street, Block 25A
   BG-1113 Sofia
   BULGARIA

   Netname: AC
   Netnumber: 146.3.0.0

   Coordinator:
      Sabev, Valentin  (VS70)  Y000083%AEARN@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU
      +359 2 708494

   Record last updated on 15-Jan-91.

>Why did some addresses include 'brownvm.brown.edu'?
>

	UUCP routes all addresses explicitly.  a!b!c!user sends the
mail to a who recognizes that it has to be forwarded to b (and should
know how) who forwards it to c where user lives.  The routes are built
from a map somewhere that probably has brown connected to many places.
Brown might also act as a gateway from UUCP to Internet.

>Any help would be most appreciated.
>

I'm not sure how helpful this was...

>Happy Labor Day to all those who celebrate.  It's not really a holiday
>if school begins the day after.

Well, some of us don't get the summer off.  But at least most of
those pesky students and faculty get out of our hair. ;-)
>
>--- Joan Boorstein (boorstein%umbsky.dnet@ns.umb.edu)
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU