Date: Thu, 4 Aug 94 04:30:01 PDT From: Packet-Radio Mailing List and Newsgroup Errors-To: Packet-Radio-Errors@UCSD.Edu Reply-To: Packet-Radio@UCSD.Edu Precedence: Bulk Subject: Packet-Radio Digest V94 #65 To: packet-radio Packet-Radio Digest Thu, 4 Aug 94 Volume 94 : Issue 65 Today's Topics: NA vs NAOM proxy ARP with NOS ? Send Replies or notes for publication to: Send subscription requests to: Problems you can't solve otherwise to brian@ucsd.edu. Archives of past issues of the Packet-Radio Digest are available (by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/packet-radio". We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official policies or positions of any party. Your mileage may vary. So there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 Aug 94 20:59:15 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: NA vs NAOM To: packet-radio@ucsd.edu KD3O.MD.USA This is a copy of W3IWI's (Tom's) bulletin on NOAM vs NA he sent out a few years ago you mentioned. 73's Jim KD3O KD3O.MD.USA Several people have asked about the .NOAM appearing in the W3IWI message head- ers. Rather than answer the inquiries separately, I thought it would be useful to circulate the text of one of the papers I presented at the September ARRL/ CRRL 9th Networking Conference held in London, Ontario (with a few minor changes and updates). So far I have had no complaints about my use of .NOAM and a few others (including TI0PAQ in .CEAM) have started following the suggestion. 73, Tom _________________ Some comments on the "H"ierarchical Continent Address Designator _________________ Tom Clark, W3IWI 6388 Guilford Road Clarksville, MD 21029 At the risk of opening Pandorra's Box, this note suggests a change in the 2- character continent designator portion of the PBBS "H" hierarchical address field. An example would be the North America .NA portion of the packet ad- dress, K9DOG . W6SIX.DE.USA.NA Let me state at the outset that I'm not convinced that we need to use the continent field. It seems to me that the country field by itself is adequate and that the packet BBSes can easily keep track of all the countries in the world. Let me also state that many of the issues addressed here arise because of constant confusion between the functions of addressing and routing. The correct continent to assign to many countries of the world is confusing and/or ambiguous. To cite some examples of problems which have already been identified: - 5B4=Cyprus in the Mediterranian is listed by the IARU (for WAC) and the ITU as Asia. Ditto 4X=Israel and JY=Jordan in the middle East. - Both TA=Turkey and the Soviet Union have part of their coun- ties in Europe and part in Asia. 8Q6=Maldives is listed as both Africa and Asia. Several other countries are also "split". - Although DU=Philipines and YB=Indonesia are regarded as Asiatic countries, the are listed as Oceania, along with Australia and Hawaii. If you venture to 9M=Malasia, you may be in either Ocea- nia or Asia. - The Central American and Carribean countries are nearly all part of North America, including YV0, but not 9Y. Anyone care to guess what continent the southern part of HP=Panama is in? If the purpose of the continent portion of the "H"ierarchical address is to facilitate delivery of messages, then it is illogical to route Israeli and Jordanian traffic through the Orient. It is illogical to make automated rout- ing decisions for messages to Turkish amateurs based on whether the addressee is on the east or west side of the Straits of Bosporus. Stations in Israel and Cyprus already face this dilemma. Rather than using a .AS Asian address, they choose to use .EU European designator to avoid having their packet mail routed via the Orient. Some have suggested the use of a new continent designator other than .AS; One suggestion has been .ME (Middle East) but this has a serious conflict with the state of Maine. The Central Americans and the Carribean are both "legally" .NA but feel they need a separate geographic identity and both areas have independently suggest- ed the use of .CA but this would conflict with .CA state. All this leads to my suggestion that the present 2-letter continent designator must be changed. Either: (1). The present 2-character designator should be dropped because it it not really needed and there are too many ambiguities. Users will always try to use address quirks to force routing, so don't give them the chance to foul things up. The computers at the international mail gateways can easily handle the entire DXCC list. - or - (2). A new logical regional designator which allows sub-continent sized regions should be adopted. If a new, more flexible scheme is to be adopted, I'd suggest that new 4- character designators be chosen: - .NOAM, .SOAM, .CEAM, .CARB replacing the present .NA & .SA and solving the Central American and Carribean problem, - .ASIA replacing .AS for the Orient, - .MDLE for the middle-eastern countries like 4X, JY etc., - Oceania divided into smaller areas like .NPAC, .SPAC, .AUST, - The Indian ocean (now partly in .OC and partly in .AF) be desig- nated .INDI, - .AFRI replacing .AF for Africa; .EURO replacing .EU for Europe, - .ANTR added for Antarctica, - Additional new designators added as needed for sub-continent sized logical areas. This scheme affords the logic of a 2-character field (.MD) for the "state", 3 characters (.USA, .ZAF, .JPN etc.) for the country, & 4 (.AFRI) for the conti- nent/subcontinent, and it avoids conflicts between state and province-sized areas and continents. Who knows, a few decades hence a 5 character field (.EARTH, .VENUS) may be needed too! [Note: Because of issues raised in this note, the W3IWI PBBS does not use the .NA continent designator on any of its own transac- tions, although it transparently passes any originated elsewhere]. --------------------- end of bulletin by w3iwi ------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 94 08:07:57 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: proxy ARP with NOS ? To: packet-radio@ucsd.edu Is there any version of ka9q NOS that can handle proxy ARP ? /Peter SM0OHI ------------------------------ End of Packet-Radio Digest V94 #65 ******************************