[JDEV] Routes, etc..

[Thomas Charron]

Quoting Waleed Abdulla <WaleedKA at emirates.net.ae>:
> In fact I think things are getting out of hand. Maybe I'm missing something
> here!! Hope, someone can clarify it to me.    DO WE REALLY NEED THE ROUTE?

  Yes.  It solves an immediate problem that we have, and takes care of some 
longer term issues.

>      I mean, all these tags and attributes added with each message will
> only
> make things complex for the servers. I know route info is useful in many
> cases, but it shouldn't be sent with each message. It should only be sent
> in
> a special type of message used to analyze the route (this is how it's done
> in IP).

  This data will also be able to be used to handle spoofing issues, which, IMHO 
are a major concern.  Once we antispood enable the systems, the route tracing 
data will be needed.  Now, the client doesn't need to SUPPORT it, and the 
clients don;t even have to read the tag if they don't want to, so it's really 
not expanding the complexity of the client.  Unless, of course, they want to 
send timezone data along with the message.. ;-P

>      Also, I don't see how the route info can prevent spam. You can't
> filter
> all messages coming through route X just because someone using that route
> is
> sending spam.

  Becouse we can perform reverse lookups on the actual trace.  We could, if we 
wanted to make things 100% secure, simply ask a transport if they did indeed 
send this message, and, in a way, validate the data.  We could also implement a 
signature that the servers could use that could validate the routing entries..

>     I vote for simplicity: The sender's client stamps the message and
> that's
> it.

  That's all the client needs to do.  This is all server enabling stuff, and, 
network enabling stuff.  The clients CAN just ignore the tag, and the sending 
client merely timestamps a node entry within the route tag..

>     Did I say something wrong? :)

  Nope, it's a good point that we not complicate the protocol, but in order for 
Jabber to become an industrial strength communications protocol, we need 
routing headers, just like email does..

--- 
Thomas Charron
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