UUCP-Over-TCP: Overview

Copyright, License, and Disclaimer

Configuring UUCP-over-TCP: A Practical, Skeletal "How To"
Copyright (C) 1999-2004 James S. Seymour 

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Configuring UUCP-over-TCP: Overview

    Assumptions

	. Unix or "Unix-like" operating system
	. The reader has at least a working knowledge of UUCP and of
	  TCP/IP Networking principles.
	. HDB UUCP, or Taylor UUCP running in "HDB-style".  See Notes,
	  below.
	. It is known how to do MTA (i.e.: sendmail, smail, postfix,
	  etc.) routing/transport configuration.  (Which is beyond the
	  scope of these documents.)

    Introduction

	These documents describe configurations suitable for allowing an
	ISP to queue email for delivery to a customer site, and a customer
	site to queue outgoing email for further transport by the ISP,
	using UUCP over TCP.

	The advantage to this mechanism, from the customer's perspective,
	is that the customer does not need a static IP address.

	The configurations developed and tested as described in these
	documents were executed on Sun Sparc Solaris 2.4 and Solaris 7
	systems with native UUCP, and a Red Hat 5.0 Linux system running
	Taylor UUCP built for "HDB style".  Postfix was used
	for an MTA on the Solaris boxes.  The Linux box was exercised
	with Smail, Sendmail and Postfix MTAs.

	In the following descriptions, the ISP's host is referred to as
	the "server" and the customer's host as the "client".

    Server Side Configuration

	A Short Summary:

	    . First Time Only
		. Make sure /etc/services has "uucp" entries
		. Start-up/Enable UUCP "Listener" service
		. Create TCP "Devices" Entry (optional?)
		. Figure out MTA routing/transport requirements

	    . Per-Account
		. Create client host account
		    . /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow
		    . /etc/uucp/passwd
		. Create UUCP configs
		    . Permissions
		    . Systems
		. Add/configure client routing/transport in MTA

    Client Side Configuration

	A Short Summary:

	    . Make sure /etc/services has "uucp" entries
	    . Start-up/Enable UUCP "Listener" service (optional?)
	    . Create TCP Devices Entry
	    . Figure-out MTA routing/transport requirements
	    . Create server host account (optional?)
		. /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow
		. /etc/uucp/passwd
	    . Create UUCP configs
		. Permissions
		. Systems
	    . Add/configure server routing/transport in MTA.
	      (I.e.: "smart-/default-host", "smartuser",
	      "relayhost", etc.)

    Security and Abuse Issues

	Discussion of security concerns, bug-induced exploits and
	abuse potential.

    Testing & Reliability

	How UUCP-over-TCP queuing and delivery works, in action.

    Notes

	. There are steps in both the server-side and client-side
	  configs noted to be "optional".  These steps are necessary
	  only if the server system will *initiate* UUCP
	  conversations with the client system.  Since the whole
	  point of the exercise is to provide a connection for
	  clients with dynamic IP address assignments--so the
	  server won't be able to look up the client machine anyway--
	  there's little point.  These steps are included for
	  completeness.

	. Adaptation to "native Taylor" UUCP and to "old
	  style" UUCP would be fairly straight-forward.  The TCP
	  device must be supported in any event.

	. On my RedHat Linux box, Taylor UUCP was persuaded to run
	  "HDB-style" by making sure that /etc/uucp/ was cleared
	  except for the password file (mentioned elsewhere) and a
	  subdirectory named "oldconfig" - which contained the
	  standard HDB files such as Systems, Permissions, etc.
	  (More precisely: /etc/uucp/oldconfig was a symbolic link
	  to /usr/lib/uucp.)

	. It is important to note that the machine names have to be
	  consistent in the /etc/passwd, /etc/uucp/Systems,
	  /etc/uucp/Poll and /etc/hosts (or DNS) entries, etc.  (I
	  would imagine the same applies to "native Taylor" UUCP.)

    References
	
	UNIX System Administration Handbook
	Second Edition
	Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass & Trent R. Hein
	Prentice Hall PTR
	ISBN: 0-13-151051-7 (softcover, incl. CD-ROM)

	

	Taylor UUCP - Table of Contents

	UUCP Over TCP

	Postfix FAQ: Using UUCP as the default transport

	Sendmail goodies

	SSL-encrypted uucp-over-tcp using stunnel

	Setting up UUCP over SSH

	The Network Administrators' Guide

	Zen and the Art of the Internet - Network Basics

	Dot UUCP (uucp.org)

    Document Collection Change Log

	Wherein I note most of the interesting (?) changes to this
	document collection.  Most of the time.  If I think about it.

Comments or Questions?

Created: 31 Jan, 1999 / Last updated: 8 Jun, 2001