Re: Selection of Appropriate Local SMTP Relay

["Alex P. Rudnev" <alex () virgin relcom eu net>]

I hear it was one of the first Internet's ideas - to declare well-known
addresses in addition to the well known ports. 


On Mon, 10 Jan 2000, D'Arcy J.M. Cain wrote:

> Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 14:23:24 -0500 (EST)
> From: D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy () druid net>
> Reply-To: nanog () merit edu
> To: John R. Levine <johnl () iecc com>
> Cc: jabley () patho gen nz, nanog () merit edu
> Subject: Re: Selection of Appropriate Local SMTP Relay
>
>
> Thus spake John R. Levine
> > That's much too complicated.  What we need are some well-known IP
> > addresses, analogous to well-known ports, that are not routable on the
> > global Internet, but that are assigned to standard services within
> > each network, e.g.:
> >
> > 10.255.255.1 - DNS server
> > 10.255.255.2 - SMTP server
> > 10.255.255.3 - SOCKS server
> > 10.255.255.4 - Web proxy
> >
> > (Probably it's not a good idea to use network 10 here, better to
> > reclaim a /24 from the swamp or allocate a fresh one.)  
> >
> > Now you set up your mail client to use 10.255.255.2 for SMTP, and wherever
> > you're connected, it'll be the local SMTP server.
> >
> > > Advantages
> >
> >  0. Works with all existing mail clients, no code changes needed, just a
> >     one-time configuration.  Once this is widely accepted, MTAs would
> >     ship with it as the factory default.
> >
> > Some people have suggested something similar with a well-known-service
> > pseudo-TLD that each network's DNS servers would serve up with the
> > appropriate values for that network, e.g.
> >
> > smtp.wks
> > socks.wks
> > webproxy.wks
> >
> > I like that less because, as previously noted, lots of people never
> > change their DNS config when they switch ISPs or roam, so they'd get
> > the info for the wrong network.  Better to use IPs which you know will
> > be routed by the routers for the network to which you are actually
> > connected.
>
> Why not both?  Instead of a private TLD, make a real one (wks.merit.edu?)
> and assign the numbers there.  That way it doesn't matter who your DNS
> server is.
>
> -- 
> D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy@{druid|vex}.net>   |  Democracy is three wolves
> http://www.druid.net/darcy/                |  and a sheep voting on
> +1 416 425 1212     (DoD#0082)    (eNTP)   |  what's for dinner.

Aleksei Roudnev,
(+1 415) 585-3489 /San Francisco CA/