The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.
[previous article] [next article]This Fall the ECN made a small change in the way that the sending user's return address is marked on any electronic mail destined to non-ECN hosts. Previously, all electronic mail to non-ECN hosts was labeled with the fully qualified domain name of the sending host, for example "jrs@calliope.ecn.purdue.edu". Now all outgoing mail is labeled with the local domain and not the specific host, for example "jrs@ecn.purdue.edu".
The advantage to this new scheme is that it eliminates dependency on the existence of specific machines for a user's mail delivery. The occasional reassignment of workstations among different users and the ongoing replacement of some of the older time sharing systems has made it impractical to assume that a specific machine address will continue to work as a valid mail destination for a sufficient length of time. The designation "@ecn.purdue.edu" designates a mail exchange that will accept mail for all ECN users. Since electronic mail is automatically forwarded to the user's mailbox machine once it reaches the ECN, this change should not affect the delivery of any user's mail.
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