EVERHART%ARISIA%rca.com@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (08/08/86)
I understand the message router does indeed allow VAX mail to be a store and forward system. There are alternatives... I've got Tools Mail (off VAX SIG tapes) up also. It is inherently a store and forward system (normally keeps trying for a week) and has numerous other features VAXmail lacks. (For instance, if you are interactively creating a message, you can go back and edit it, even if you hadn't thought to start in an editor, and you can edit address lists also. I know you can SEND/EDIT on VAXmail, but if you louse up a message you just said SEND to, your choices are control-Z or control C.... To install tools mail, the build instructions were almost exactly correct. I hit 2 problem areas: 1. You need to give some of the processes more privs (syslck is needed by several components but not given in the outline build/start procedure), and 2. To get tool mail to send to regular VAXmail on sites that insist on using only regular VAXmail, you need to name the network VAX (or anything starting with V) in your file of hosts and protocols to get to them. You can get tool mail to send transparently to VAXmail in other sites and get other sites' VAXmail to go to tool mail (up to you to select one or both or neither). This was handy when we had a DECnet link that was up only 20-30% of the time; I could send messages at any time and they'd move when the net came up. A side benefit is that tool mail does NOT have to wait to create DECnet links all over kingdom come; it creates them one at a time while delivering the messages. If you send to long lists of folks on a DECnet that means a LOT of time. Glenn Everhart CSnet: Everhart%Arisia@RCA.COM Phone: 609 338 6022