On Sat, Mar 27, 2004 at 04:18:28PM -0600, Gordon Fecyk wrote:
Actually an identity is simply a reference point for an accreditation.
Ok, here comes Mirriam-Webster's again.
i?den?ti?ty, n.
1. The collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing is
definitively recognizable or known: "If the broadcast group is the financial
guts of the company, the news division is its public identity" (Bill Powell).
2. The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual
is recognizable as a member of a group.
3. The quality or condition of being the same as something else.
4. The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity;
individuality.
I'm not sure how an IP or network address becomes one of these things. Maybe
#2 could be stretched where the IP would be a means to recognize the sender
as the member of a group.
I think an IP fits well into definition #1. It is one of a number of
characteristics by which the sender is known, whether that sender is the
originating entity or the MX relaying the mail for that entity. This
also fits well with the idea that end-users should always be relaying
through a very small and relatively static set of known IPs.
Certainly, it's not the only identity by which the sender is known, but
it certainly seems to be one.
--
Mark C. Langston Sr. Unix SysAdmin
mark(_at_)bitshift(_dot_)org
mark(_at_)seti(_dot_)org
Systems & Network Admin SETI Institute
http://bitshift.org http://www.seti.org