home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- SEA Technical Memorandum #0202, SEAdog 4.50; Domain Addressing
- Last updated: November 17, 1988
- Copyright 1988 by System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
-
-
-
- SEAdog 4.50
-
- Domain Addressing
-
-
- An undocumented aspect of SEAdog version 4.50 is the support of "domain
- addressing". Domain addressing is an extention of interzone addressing,
- which was developed by jim nutt ("the computer handyman") and is supported
- by his DOMAIN.EXE utility.
-
- Like interzone addressing, domain addressing uses the extended addressing
- technique developed at the FidoNet Standards Committee meeting in November
- of 1986 (the "New Hamster Meeting"). The extended address field for a
- domain address is as follows:
-
- ^aDOMAIN <todomain> <toaddress> <fmdomain> <fmaddress>
-
- SEAdog will use interzone format on <toaddress> and <fmaddress> if
- required, and not otherwise. The DOMAIN program can handle either
- interzone format or normal "net/node" format.
-
- For example, the domain address field on a message from "520/1015" in
- AlterNet to "1:107/9" in FidoNet would be:
-
- ^aDOMAIN FIDONET 1:107/9 ALTERNET 520/1015
-
-
-
- Domains address the same issues as zones, but with certain differences in
- administration. As designed, interzone addressing requires a high level of
- coordination among the various zones, both to allocate zone numbers and to
- manage zone gateways. Domain addressing allows for much more "casual"
- administration, and allows domain gateways to be established and maintained
- on a strictly local level.
-
- In our example here, we will take as a typical case the Metro New York/New
- Jersey amateur networks; net 107 in FidoNet zone 1, and net 520 in
- AlterNet. The domain gateway is to be node 1:107/16 in FidoNet and node
- 520/16 in Alternet. In practice, these two addresses are shared by one
- system that is a "dual citizen" in both networks.
-
- The domain gateway will need to run Jim Nutt's DOMAIN program (or
- equivalent) on at least a daily basis. The DOMAIN program has its own
- documentation, so its care and feeding will not be discussed here.
-
-
- So how does node 520/1015 in AlterNet send interdomain mail to node 1:107/9
- in FidoNet, using SEAdog 4.50 to route via the domain gateway?
-
- First, he must inform his SEAdog system that he is in the "AlterNet"
- domain. This is done in the NODE statement in his CONFIG.DOG file, like
- so:
-
- node 520/1015@AlterNet
-
- If his domain were using zones, then he should also include the zone
- number. For example, node 1:107/9 in FidoNet would use the statement:
-
- node 1:107/9@FidoNet
-
-
- Back to our muttons. AlterNet node 520/1015 is now "domain aware", knowing
- that it is in the "AlterNet" domain. He can now send interdomain mail to
- any domain he has a gateway for. He defines his gateways with the
- (undocumented) DOMAIN verb in his CONFIG.DOG file. For example, to define
- his domain gateway into FidoNet, he would use the statement:
-
- domain FidoNet 520/16
-
- This tells his system that a domain gateway into the FidoNet domain is
- located at AlterNet node 520/16. Similarly, node 1:107/9 in FidoNet would
- use the statement:
-
- domain AlterNet 107/16
-
- In all cases, the address given in the DOMAIN statement is that of a
- contact point in your own domain. If your domain has multiple zones, then
- the contact point must be in your own zone.
-
-
- You can have as many DOMAIN statements as you like, though there should be
- only one per domain. You cannot send interdomain mail to a domain which
- you have not listed in a DOMAIN statement.
-
-
-
- Once you have told your own system what domain it is in and what domain
- gateways you know of, you can begin to send interdomain mail. The format
- of an interdomain address has already been shown, but we will repeat it
- here. An interdomain address consists of a FidoNet-standard address,
- followed by an "at sign", followed by the domain name. Any form of
- FidoNet-standard addressing may be used, including other forms of extended
- addressing. Possible examples include:
-
- 1:107/9@fidonet
- 520/1015.1@alternet
- 1:107/528!seismo!mcastl@fidonet
-
-
-
- Use of domains is made even simpler by version 2.90 of XlatList, which is
- capable of creating interdomain directories. This is only done if a user
- directory is being created, and if XlatList is in "new SEAdog" mode, which
- means that your XLATLIST.CTL file must contain the statements:
-
- seadog
- userlist
-
-
- XlatList also needs to know what node lists go into which domains. At this
- time "St. Louis format" node lists do not contain domain information, so it
- must be supplied by you. This is done with DOMAIN statements in the
- XLATLIST.CTL file. A DOMAIN statement in XlatList is similar to a PUBLIST
- statement, except that the domain name is also supplied. For example, to
- include the FidoNet nodelist into your user directory as the "FidoNet"
- domain, you would use the statement:
-
- domain FidoNet nodelist nodediff
-
- To include the Alliance nodelist as the "AlterNet" domain, you would use:
-
- domain AlterNet anetlist anetdiff
-
-
-
- Domains are fully decoupled. That is, you can enter a message to
- "1:107/9@fidonet" without having any listing for that node on your system.
- This makes domain addressing ideal for the occasional user.
-
- If you're going to be sending a lot of mail to people in a particular
- network of another domain, then you're probably better off just using an
- OZONE statement in your XLATLIST.CTL file to pull in that network and
- address it directly. But for the occasional message to a system in another
- domain, then domain addressing is ideal.
-