Re: [leafnode-list] FQDN advice sought

[Matthias Andree <matthias.andree@xxxxxx>]

Jeffrey Goldberg schrieb am Freitag, den 12. Juli 2002:

> I've been following the FQDN discussions and have come to accept that I've
> done things wrong.  However, I am having difficultly seeing how I can do
> things right without going to a great deal more effort.  But I assume (and
> hope) that I have overlooked something simple and obvious.  There isn't
> anything in here that is specifically a leafnode question, but more a
> private networking naming policy query.
> 
> I own (well, "lease") goldmark.org. Everything in goldmark.org that
> resolves in hosted by the hosting company I use (he.net). At home, where I
> post mail and news from, I have a small network behind a cable-router. My
> IP address the local cable company is dynamically assigned.
> 
> I have set up a home network on 192.168.1.0/24, with its own name server
> (bind, unreachable from the outside world) authoritative for
> goldmark.private
> 
> Leafnode is running on news.goldmark.private (192.168.1.20) (also
> unreachable from the outside world, both blocked by the router and
> tcpd.)
> 
> Now the clients running on this net all put in message IDs, of the form
> 
>   blah-blah-blah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> The problem is that while it is unlikely that there will be a collision, I
> haven't ruled it out.  I don't have exclusive rights to "goldberk.private"
> just to goldmark.org.
> 
> Now I don't want to try to sync my local private network DNS data with
> with what my hosting company has.
> 
> Now when I started writing this message, I didn't see a proper solution.
> But now it seems that the proper solution is to reconfigure my private
> network to use
> 
>    private.goldmark.org
> 
> and so have
> 
>   news.private.goldmark.org
>   foo.private.goldmark.org
>   etc
> 
> and set up my local name server to be authoritative for
> private.goldmark.org, but not for goldmark.org. This way the clients will
> identify themselves as foo.private.goldmark.org and I'll get good MIDs.
> 
> Does this seem like the right way to go?  Does anyone antipate problems
> with this?  Are there conventions tha people use other than "private"?  (I
> might want something shorter).

Preface: I have skimmed over the other big thread, but I don't have time
to answer that. I'll answer this single mail however.

Jeffrey: The whole issue is much smaller than it looks to you. I
apologize, and I fear the importance of uniqueness and the common habit
of thinking of DNS blindfolds many people and prevents them from seeing
what it really is.

Leafnode uses its hostname only to generate message-IDs and to form the
"From:" address of the pseudo article. Let's only consider the first
purpose in this mail.

I'll try to separate these issues, in the hope to clarify things:

#1 Getting the domain: If you are the "admin" of a specific domain, you
can assign subdomains thereof as you like. It does not matter how you do
this, you can write them on a sheet of paper, on your forehead, have it
tattooed on your left, whatever, it does not matter. Writing "gave
hunter.goldmark.org to jim on 2002-07-07" and "took aurum.goldmark.org
for myself on 2002-07-11" on a piece of paper is sane. This is only to
make sure that one name is used by at most one computer at the same
time. You don't need to tell anybody. Not your ISP, not me. Just make
sure the names you use or give away are unique.

#2 Configuring the domain:
leafnode must get to know what domain to use. There are two ways
to do so:

- One is the system's regular host name resolver (/etc/hosts, DNS, NIS)
  that is used for qualification. /etc/hosts,  you don't need to put
  things into DNS. This has the advantage that it works for all
  software on that machine, mail server, whatever.

- The other is putting the hostname into leafnode's config.
  The disadvantage is: it won't take you any further, as other software
  will still use an invalid (i. e. non-unique) domain name to generate
  Message-IDs.

--------

As a note to all those who consider downgrading to 1.9.19: You're not
solving any problem, but resurrecting dozens of old problems. If now
leafnode 1.9.24 complains about your hostname, your setup is wrong and
probably has always been, just nobody has told you, and leafnode is now
the first software to tell you. DO NOT SHOOT THE MESSENGER!


If my wording of the explanations is clumsy, please bear with me, and
suggest how to word things better. I'm not a woman, and I'm not a native
English speaker. This together with written, non-realtime communication
makes the message harder to be transferred. I don't see if you furrow
you brow. I have gotten virtually no questions or comments on this
matter except the other current thread, so I haven't yet figured which
part of my documentation to improve.

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