ml>>   ie: joe.blow{at}1-3636-19-0.wplace.cssnet.sanford.nc.us

 ml>> what's wrong with that?

 MW> The problem is that there can only be one gate for the entire network. You
 MW> can't setup different gates for different zones, nets, etc.

ahhh, but in reality, there are many gates... it is simply the routing of
the messages that is affected...

 MW> With the "standard" format, you can have one global
fidonet.org gate,
 MW> another z2.fidonet.org, a third n201.z2.fidonet.org.

yes, and there are/were also requirements in place that many of us
couldn't/can't meet. one requirement being that of having two MXers for
your site. my feed for the bbs is all via UUCP and 3 hops to the internet
backbone at duke university. MX... what's that?? HA!  with the above, i can
still handle gating for any net.

now that i have a lot more experiance (and learning more every second), i
nkow what the original gate site was wanting to be done to help distribute
the load. the problem was the $$$$$$$ cost.

BTW: contraty to what the end of my first paragraph states, i do know what
a MX is and no, i'm not handling fidonet thru my gate anymore 

)\/(ark