From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: Mail Address Question - Help please...
Keywords: stupid pet-tricks
Date: 7 Nov 92 08:23:14 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada

In article <101.2af6f181@forthd.uucp> johnl@forthd.uucp (John Lebert) writes:
>I have recently started getting a newsfeed via modem on my VAX and....
>I haven't been able to find an FAQ to answer this question:

The Email Software Survey FAQ (went out in news.admin and comp.mail.misc
three days ago) covers this.  It's a relatively involved topic,
so I will be rather brief here - the FAQ is the place to look.
There are a couple books mentioned in the FAQ that are much
better at explaining all of this.

>	What in the hell is my mail address?  Everyone I talk to says
>        something different. Here is my relationship to the net-
>
>                                                    I
>  --------      ------      ------      ------      n
> | forthd |<-->| sysa |<-->| sysb |<-->| sysc |<--> t
>  --------      ------      ------      ------      e
>                                                    r
>                                                    n
>                                                    e
>                                                    t
> Is my address johnl@forthd? johnl@forthd.uucp?

Until you're in the maps, neither will work.  Because
*nobody* (except possibly sysa) knows where you are.  Worse,
the usual workarounds (eg: c!b!a!forthd!johnl@<internetsite_c_connects_to>
or internet_site_c_connects_to!c!b!a!forthd!johnl)
aren't guaranteed to work on everybody else's machine.
In fact, even when you're in the maps, johnl@forthd[.uucp]
won't work everywhere either.

> What are maps & what do they mean to me?
> I get a newsfeed & the connection, but the people
> upstream are either to busy or don't know.

The maps, simply put, describe connections between each
machine (mostly UUCP, not the internet itself).  Many
machines run these maps through a program called
pathalias to generate a set of UUCP routes to each
machine mentioned.  Once you're in the maps, therefore,
you are reachable by "johnl@forthd" (with or without .uucp)
by anybody who's running pathalias, or anyone whose
mailer is smart enough to forward "johnl@forthd" to a
machine that does use the maps.

If sysa, b or c are in the maps, but forthd isn't, then it's
not quite that simple, but it is better than the ones I mentioned.
Eg: if sysa was in the maps (I can't tell, because I'm
not running with the complete maps, and I forward ones
that I don't know to a machine that does use the complete
maps), you could often use:

	forthd!johnl@sysa
or:
	johnl%forthd@sysa

Once you're in the maps, then, most of the sites on USENET
will be able to reach you with either of your two guesses.
(I say that because USENET-aware sites tend to have fudged
their mailers to understand where to route UUCP addresses
even if they're internet only.  If they haven't, they should.)

However, after I've said all that, you *REALLY* should get
a proper domain name in addition to, or instead of, getting
a map entry.  Once you do that, all of the internet and
most of usenet can reach you very easily without having to
rely on UUCP-customized mailers.  Many sites, eg: uunet,
will go thru the grunge work of registering a domain for
you for a one-time nominal fee (~$20-$40) or even free.

The FAQ describes all about setting up a mail system,
along with discussions of all this stuff in much better
detail.

The maps are carried in comp.mail.maps, and appear, usually,
once every month or less.  One of the files distributed
with it is called README.  That describes in very fine
detail how to fill out a map entry and where to send it.
(UUCP map entries are free).  If you don't have it on
your system, one of the systems prior to you should have
it and be able to mail it to you.
-- 
Chris Lewis; clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca; Phone: Canada 613 832-0541
Psroff 3.0 info: psroff-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
Ferret list: ferret-request@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
From: Marc.Costaldi@f2050.n391.z1.FidoNet.Org (Marc Costaldi)
Sender: UUCP@p0.f1060.n391.z1.FidoNet.Org