From: bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells)
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 15:03:01 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Mail delivery question
In-Reply-To: <9310211739.AA29665@toad.com>
Message-ID: <CF9pDq.9yD@twwells.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In article <9310211739.AA29665@toad.com>,
peter honeyman <honey@citi.umich.edu> wrote:
: i think you want to check out rfc 821, which describes smtp.

I'll make a stronger statement. Do not run a remailer or other
network service unless you have read and understood the relevant
RFCs. Furthermore, don't start anything up for general use unless
you are a mail/Usenet/networking guru or you have checked with
someone that is. Finally, when you do first start your service
watch it carefully and continuously. Lose sleep until you're
_sure_ it is working according to your expectations.

Though the Internet is relatively robust, it is far from
completely so. And various parts of the net are not the Internet.
Things don't always work the way you would expect and only people
who have been around for awhile have much of a clue as to what
really is going on.

Reading the references and checking with knowledgable people is
essential if you aren't to do something stupid that will get
people pissed and might get you ostracized. And when, as most
likely will happen sooner or later, something you do does blow up
in your face, you'll only be being a pain in the ass instead of
an ignorant and willful pain in the ass. :-) Believe me, it will
make a big difference in dealing with your faux pas if you have
made the attempt to do the right thing.