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September/October 1987
JANET EARN Gateway
At the end of the August a new version of the gateway between JANET and the EARN network was installed. This new version can reach a few more gateways, transmits more error messages from remote gateways back to JANET users and is more easily maintainable. Unfortunately these advantages were not obtainable without a few changes to the user interface. The most important one is in the addressing used by JANET users passing through the gateway to outside networks. The first field to the left of the @ must conform to Grey Book standards ie the domain must be at the left-hand end. If more than one node is defined to the left of the @ (ie more than one %) then the others must be in American format, ie domain at the right. The following are good examples:
FRED%CERNVM@UK.AC.RL.EARN (CERNVM is an EARN node) FRED%EARN.CERNVM@UK.AC.RL.EARN FRED%BITNET.CERNVM@UK.AC.RL.EARN (BITNET is logically the same as EARN) JANE%EDU.STANFORD.MC@RL.EARN (mythical machine name on EDU) JOE%ARPA.ABC-CS@UK.AC.RL.EARN (ARPA) JIMMY%A.B.EDU%EDU.MIT.FRED@RL.EARN (Using one EDU site as a relay.)
The following are bad examples:
FRED%CERNVM.BITNET@UK.AC.RL.EARN (should be BITNET. not .BITNET) PHIL%ABC. MIT. EDU(@UK. AC. RL. EARN (should be EDU.MIT.ABC) LIZ%EDU.A.B%EDU.MIT.RELAY@RL.EARN (only the right-most should be reversed)
When replying to mail received from EARN it is important to remember that the mail came Via UK.AC.RL.EARN as this is no longer reflected in the Grey Book From: field. Automatic REPLY mechanisms should construct the correct address from the From: and Via: but when replying manually to mail From: A.User < user@earn.site > you should reply to user%earn.site@uk.ac.rl.earn
The gateway no longer supports DTE numbers in mail headers so machines on JANET which do not support NRS mnemonics will need to relay mail for the EARN gateway through a machine which does. For example user%earn.site%RL.EARN@2105.FTP.MAIL
We are sorry that users have been inconvenienced by these changes but we think you will find that the gateway now provides a better service.