[8427] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Independent Milnet
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Williams)
Thu Nov 18 14:09:05 1993
From: sdw@meaddata.com (Stephen Williams)
To: Mark-Ludwig@uai.com (Mark R. Ludwig)
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 14:07:36 -0500 (EST)
Cc: Paul.Rarey@ssf-sys.dhl.com, ms6b+@andrew.cmu.edu, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9311181835.AA01736@hp.uai.com> from "Mark R. Ludwig" at Nov 18, 93 10:35:15 am
>
> >>>>> "Paul" == Paul Rarey <Paul.Rarey@ssf-sys.dhl.com> writes:
>
...
> Hold it! A network is a collection of sites. MILNET is no different,
> and the point is that the administrators at some sites on MILNET are
> not fully up-to-speed with configuring DNS in the current environment,
> which I have labeled straight-forward. I can only speak to my
> experience with one not-trivially-small site. My point is that the
I'm available for contracting. I live in a Dayton suburb, so
Wright-Patt AFBase is close...
About a weekend job. Sans overhead of course.
> suggestion to segregate MILNET and play DNS tricks to make it seem to
> not be segregated is much more challenging, and if the burden is
> placed on the individual sites, and if my experience with current DNS
> configuration is indicative of the general situation among the sites
> on MILNET, I predict a negative outcome.
>
> If my experience is indicative, right now they get away with it all by
> using IP numbers.$$
I disagree. A simple change to all local systems/workstations (send
mail to the gateway if you don't know the machine, one line) will
enable you to support workstations with Internet email. I did this at
ae.ge.com (Aircraft Engines). The workstations, in fact, didn't know
about DNS, domain names, etc. (They used a large host table...)
The local gateway just sent email to the firewall/gateway. It also
did header munging to add/remove the local domain for the dumb
systems. It also handled X.400 header munging and a fuzzy name
lookup/translation system (like X.500, only better) all from Sendmail,
but that's another story...
BTW, using DNS MX records is no 'trick'. Very many sites use them.
Very simple.
> --
> INET: Mark-Ludwig@UAI.COM NIC: ML255 ICBM: USA; Lower Left Coast
> "Anything worth doing in Japan is worth doing in a crowd." -- T. R. Reid
sdw
--
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