Received: from tiga.worldaccess.nl (tiga.worldaccess.nl [194.178.56.6])
	by maskin.oden.se (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id DAA17247
	for <dlanor@oden.se>; Fri, 28 Nov 1997 03:58:31 +0100 (MET)
Received: from [10.0.255.1 ] (lwd1-14.worldaccess.nl [194.178.87.29]) by tiga.worldaccess.nl (950413.SGI.8.6.12/950213.SGI.AUTOCF) via SMTP id DAA29437 for <dlanor@oden.se>; Fri, 28 Nov 1997 03:00:21 GMT
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 03:00:21 GMT
Message-Id: <199711280300.DAA29437@tiga.worldaccess.nl>
To: dlanor@oden.se (Ronald Andersson)
From: merciful@worldaccess.nl (Eabe Kuik)
Subject: Nameserver, Mailserver, Resolver
X-Mailer: NEWSie Version 0.84 (Atari)
X-UIDL: 949a847feed6cc07abc163e3baa618d0

 
Hi Ronald, 
 
Peter and I have a discussion going about mailservers, nameservers and 
resolvers. Because you wrote the brilliant resolver module for STinG, I think 
you may find this discussion interesting. Therefor I will try to capture it 
here. 
 
It all started with the mail server I'm working on and it's need to connect 
with another mail delivery [MD] and/or mail forwarder [MF]. 
 
---- SNIP ----
 
E>> I found that it is possible (of course) to deliver the mail to a 'special' 
E>> mail server. I think the solution is to resolve the domains mail-
E>> forwarder [MF] , mail-destination [MD]. 
E>> 
E>> Because I don't know a lot of how the resolver works I think it's only 
E>> possible to resolve canonical names [CNAME] and aliases (correct me if I'm 
E>> wrong) with the resolver. But what I need for the smtp server is the 
E>> possibility to resolve a mail forwarder [MF] and/or a mail destination [MD]. 
 
P>I knew you'd come across that problem, but thought it'd be earlier. Note 
P>if you can't resolve the e-mail address's host part, you need to look for 
P>mailbox records, which leads to the same problem. 
 
E>> Can this be done with STinG? Our do I need to find another solution.....:-( 
E>> If so do you have any sugestion? 
 
P>Off course you can. Ronald's RESOLVE.STX also only uses the API calls for 
P>doing this. I dunno if Ronald provided anything so that you can link your 
P>code in. Ask him yourself. If not, you need to write your own resolve 
P>code, which after all is not very difficult. Ask me if you need more info. 
 
E> The more I think about it the more I'm convinced there has to come some kind 
E> of extended resolving tool. And if I try to think what is needed in the 
E> future, even this may not be good enough. 
 
P>Ronalds resolver is nice and works well, but it still lacks the ability of 
P>recursive queries. So if you wanna tackle a resolver with extended func-
P>tionality, for both doing generalized queries, and recursive operation, 
P>go ahead. You know where to look up the details ? 
 
P>Maybe you can even work with Ronald for increased development speed ? 
 
E>> Looking back to the mail server it would meed that I have to 
E>> program a resolver for the smtp server and I must also program a part of the 
E>> nameserver to notify other mail-servers where our mail delivery system is. 
 
E>Hmmm, true. But there is virtually no difference between a partially im-
E>plemented name server that can do what you need for the SMTP server, and 
E>a full name server. So maybe you should go for the name server first ? 
 
E>So lets start with one, the name server. I think it make sence to 
E>create a name server that is a module from the Internet Super Server. 
E>If you agree then it would be nice if there is some info about that. 
E>Thinking about it this could also be the place for a mail server. 
 
P>I'm not sure. The name server is something that needs to respond quickly, 
P>as most services depend on it. This is not the case if the super server 
P>were used (unless I put in an option to have certain servers resident in 
P>memory. I might consider that). This is theoretical as the super server is 
P>far from finished, so for the moment you should opt for some standalone 
P>thing, maybe on accessory basis, that can be modified later to become a 
P>super server module. 
 
P>I intented the super server to keep listening connections, and load the 
P>server only if the service has been requested, in order to save memory. 
P>This makes quick replies impossible, which is not needed anyway for many 
P>services like ftp, telnet, smtp, www. I'll send you the current version 
P>of the super server so that you get an idea how I intent to do things. 
 
E>> If you agree then it would be nice if there is some info about that. 
E>> Thinking about it this could also be the place for a mail server. 
 
P>Yepp, as I said above. 
 
---- SNIP ----
 
As you can read there has to be done 'some' work before the mail server can 
do his job. Because you wrote the resolver I hope you can help with this part. 
And if you will, it would be nice if we can build a nameserver. 
 
Cheers 
Eabe 



          It doesn't matter how fast your Pentium is....
          ...........Bill Gates will slow it down anyway

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|               e-mail: merciful@worldaccess.nl                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|           -> Atari Falcon 030 ;14Mb ; 1Gb Scsi                 |
|              Atari STE        ; 4Mb ; 130Mb Acsi               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

.
