Inside Cover

E-Mail to BITNET Users—Address Changes Required Soon

Roger Fajman, NSB

NIH is leaving BITNET. As of December 28, 1997, the NIHCU node will no longer be part of BITNET—that is, no more traffic will come into the NIH systems directly from BITNET or go out directly to BITNET. All e-mail addresses and e-mail software that reference the NIHCU BITNET node—or use CU.NIH.GOV as an Internet-BITNET gateway—must be changed by December 28 or they will cease to work. Any of these changes may be made before that date.

BITNET itself may continue for some time after that date, and NIH users will be able to communicate with BITNET users via Internet-BITNET gateways at other sites. /font>

Enter Mail via WYLBUR

• Users sending to
  userid@nodename (where "nodename" has
  no dots) or userid@nodename.BITNET

  Should change them to
  userid%nodename.BITNET@INTERBIT.CREN.NET

• Addresses
  userid@NIHCU or
  userid@NIHCU.BITNET

  Should be changed to userid@CU.NIH.GOV

Forwarding Mail to BITNET Users

Users who are currently sending e-mail to BITNET users from an Internet host using addresses of the form

user%nodename.BITNET@CU.NIH.GOV

must change those addresses to use a gateway other than CU.NIH.GOV. The recommended gateway is INTERBIT.CREN.NET. For example,

• Users sending to
  userid%nodename.BITNET@CU.NIH.GOV

  Should change it to
  userid%nodename.BITNET@INTERBIT.CREN.NET

• If the address is
  userid%NIHCU.BITNET@CU.NIH.GOV

  The correct address is
  userid@CU.NIH.GOV/font>

Some Systems May Require Reconfiguration

Some systems are configured to rewrite addresses as userid%nodename.BITNET@CU.NIH.GOV for sending mail to BITNET users. (On UNIX systems, this type of address rewriting is specified in the sendmail configuration.) These systems must be reconfigured to use a gateway other than CU.NIH.GOV. The recommended gateway is INTERBIT.CREN.NET.

For example systems configured to

• Rewrite addresses as
  userid%nodename.BITNET@CU.NIH.GOV

  Should rewrite them as
  userid%nodename.BITNET@INTERBIT.CREN.NET

  If the nodename being used is NIHCU, the address

• Should be changed from
  userid%NIHCU.BITNET@INTERBIT.CREN.NET

  To
  userid@CU.NIH.GOV /font>

An Alternative

The easy solution may be to discontinue support for the userid@nodename.BITNET form of address entirely. Users could still send mail to BITNET users by personally entering the precise address, as in

userid%nodename.BITNET@INTERBIT.CREN.NET

---

Interface 203 (December 15, 1997)

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