Re: design specifics --- the config label

On Tue, Oct 07, 2003 at 01:06:24PM -0400, Alan DeKok wrote:
> 
>   The main flaw of RMX is that it returns information about *all* of
> the IP's (or at least the last draft had that.)  Most MTA's only care
> about one IP: the one connecting to them.  So the protocol should be
> lightweight.



That's true but there's a good reason why I designed RMX this way:

The client (MTA) needs to have some intelligence anyway and needs 
to run a program. It is a simple interpreter. On the other hand, the
DNS server is "stupid", it can not reply with anything else than 
fixed records. Since a plain mapping can't fulfill all requirements, 
I decided to put that all into the client to interpret it.

A different approach would be to have the intelligence at the 
server: Forget about DNS, create a new service instead, and have
SRV records in the zone table to point at it.

When an MTA is receiving e-mail, it could ask the service:

I received a message from IPADDRESS, with SENDERADDRESS and
MESSAGEID, is that ok? and the server would answer "yes" or "no".
That would be the best to fulfill your requirements, but would not
be possible with a DNS server, and it would take centuries for all
domains to be equipped with it.





regards
Hadmut