Re: unavailable X.400 routing entries in the COSINE-MHS community

[Allan Cargille <[e-mail]>]

Hi Tony,

In this message, I'll discuss why I said the problem is "simple" if
your PP host has DNS access.  In my following message, I'll address
your comments in your previous message.

As I said, my domain table is very simple.  I'm including most of it
below.  The first rule is the most important.  It says assume the
hostname is a hostname and look it up in the DNS.

In my experience, PP routing is a function of two things, the incoming
format of the message and the destination address.  My MTA is running
X.400(84) and SMTP.  The routing algorithm seems to be

If message came in via X.400
  - check if dest. address can be reached via X.400.  If so, send
    out by X.400
  - Else check if a mapping rule maps the X.400 address to an 822
    address.  If so, send out by 822.
  - Otherwise message cannot be routed

If message came in by 822:
  - In general, message will be delivered locally, go out by 822, or 
    bounce
  - Exceptions to this are addresses of the form /x400/addr/@gateway, and
  - Domains for which routing is forced by X.400.  (There are examples
    of this below in my domain table -- see exp.rice.edu).

Does this help explain things?  If you have a lot more in your domain
table than I do, then that's probably causing your problems.

I'll also include a copy of my channel table.  It's also short and
sweet.  It handles the default DNS rule from the domain table
(try-dns).  Then I handle special domains uupc and bitnet.  Most
entries just say to use x400out84 for every mta I have connections to.
At the bottom, I handle the special domains from the domain table (to
force routing via X.400) and domains that this PP MTA is acting as an
RFC1327 gateway for.

Note that this configuration does not include a listing of valid
top-level 822 domains.  That's a feature and a bug.  The advantage is
that you don't have to keep the listing up to date.  The bug is that
bad domains can't be detected until PP attempts to deliver them via
the smtp channel, like this:

    [pp@mhs-relay 236] ckadr [e-mail]
    [e-mail] -> (rfc822) [e-mail]
    [e-mail] ->  (x400)  /RFC-822=user(a)foo.bad/OU=cs/O=UW-Madison/PRMD=XNR
    EN/ADMD= /C=US/

    Delivered to foo.bad by smtp

If you have specific questions, post or call me.

Hope this helps,

allan

==== sketch of cs.wisc.edu domain table ====================================

############################################################
# 
# The domain table. This lists all known domains. By default an exact
# match is required, but a "*" after an entry allows any number of
# subdomains. This table is set up most of the major top level domains
# are wildcarded.
#
############################################################
#
# Default routing for 822 domains -- try the DNS (SMTP)
#
*:mta=try-dns
#
# Special DNS domains to recognize
#
*.bitnet:mta=bitnet
*.uucp:mta=uucp
#
# Expansion of this machine's name(s)
#
mhs-relay.cs.wisc.edu:norm+mta=cs.wisc.edu local
mhs-relay.cs.wisc:synonym=mhs-relay.cs.wisc.edu
mhs-relay.cs:synonym=mhs-relay.cs.wisc.edu
mhs-relay:synonym=mhs-relay.cs.wisc.edu
#
cs.wisc.edu:norm+mta=cs.wisc.edu local
cs.wisc:synonym=cs.wisc.edu
cs:synonym=cs.wisc.edu
#
*.cs.wisc.edu:mta=try-dns
#
# Domains for which we are providing Internet-X.400 gateway
# These are unique to our MTA
#
*.exp.rice.edu:mta=exp.rice.edu
*.pilot.cise.nsf.gov:mta=pilot.cise.nsf.gov
*.pilot.dsl.pitt.edu:mta=pilot.dsl.pitt.edu
*.pilot.ie.org:mta=pilot.ie.org
*.pilot.merit.edu:mta=pilot.merit.edu
*.pilot.nsf.gov:mta=pilot.nsf.gov
*.pilot.upenn.edu:mta=pilot.upenn.edu
#
#
# Exceptions to normal top-level domains -- must route uniquely
# (These MX records were broken)
#
*.x400gate.bnr.ca:mta=x400gate.bnr.ca min=0
*.uni-c.dk:mta=uni-c.dk min=0
*.zkka1.hoechst-ag.dbp.de:mta=zkka1.hoechst-ag.dbp.de min=0
#
# Instructional hosts - not equivalent to cs.wisc.edu
#
daffy:synonym=daffy.cs.wisc.edu local
garfield:synonym=garfield.cs.wisc.edu local
gumby:synonym=gumby.cs.wisc.edu local
jomby:synonym=jomby.cs.wisc.edu local
monona:synonym=monona.cs.wisc.edu local
trochos:synonym=trochos.cs.wisc.edu local
#
# Research hosts - equivalent to cs.wisc.edu
# Expand user@host to [e-mail]
#
host1:synonym=host1.cs.wisc.edu
# [....] -- many lines deleted
hostN:synonym=hostN.cs.wisc.edu


==== sketch of cs.wisc.edu channel table =============================

############################################################
#
# For the internet case, all these top domains are resolved
# directly by the DNS system, and all are assumed to be
# delivered by smtp
#
############################################################
#
# Default - try DNS for unrecognized top-level domains.
# Using this for all top-level domains.
#
try-dns:(smtp)
#
# Special DNS domains to recognize
#
# edu:(smtp)                       
bitnet:spool.cs.wisc.edu(smtp)   # route to local Bitnet server
uucp:spool.cs.wisc.edu(smtp)     # route to local UUCP server
#
#
# Local X.400 MTAs
#
calypso-mta:calypso-mta(x400out84)
# [....] rest deleted 
#
#
# U.S. X.400 MTAs inside XNREN
#
romelab-mta:romelab-mta(x400out84)
# [....] rest deleted 
#
# U.S. X.400 MTAs outside XNREN
#
nasa-mta:nasa-mta(x400out84)
# [....] rest deleted 
#
# GO-MHS Relays (WEPs)
#
iihe.rtt.be:iihe.rtt.be(x400out84)
# [....] rest deleted 
#
# MX domains that point to our gatway -- force through X.400
#
exp.rice.edu:argo-mta(x400out84)
pilot.dsl.pitt.edu:argo-mta(x400out84)
pilot.ie.org:mitre-mta(x400out84)
pilot.merit.edu:argo-mta(x400out84)
pilot.upenn.edu:argo-mta(x400out84)
#
pilot.cise.nsf.gov:nsfpp-mta(x400out84)
pilot.nsf.gov:nsfpp-mta(x400out84)
#
#
# Special cases to force routing.
# 
x400gate.bnr.ca:bnr-mta(x400out84)
uni-c.dk:unic-pp-mta(x400out84)
zkka1.hoechst-ag.dbp.de:de-pandora-mta(x400out84)
# [....] rest deleted