MAXG@SUVM.BITNET ("Gerry Greenberg: 315-443-5378") (12/09/89)
I got the following information from info-mac. It might be useful to
some of you out there as well. Please note that the info is old, which
seems to mean that the set up has been in place for a while now. I have
not used these pathways myself, but based on what others say, they seem
to work.
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To clear up some confusion and squash several dozen rumors which have
been floating around since sometime this past Wednesday or
thereabouts, I'm telling people about this now, although more official
(officious? :-) announcements will be forthcoming sometime Real Soon
Now.
CompuServe is email-accessible. The machinery to do so has actually
been in place for some months, but there has been an arbitrarily large
number of reasons why official, live status has not yet been granted
to the gateway. Technically, this is true, even as I write this.
To reach a CompuServe subscriber account of the form
7xxxx,yyy
swap the `,' for `.' and add @compuserve.com:
7xxxx.yyy@compuserve.com
This is necessary for RFC compliance. To reach employees of
CompuServe, they have somewhat more typical usernames inside the
csi.compuserve.com subdomain.
CompuServe subscribers can reach people Out Here from CompuServe's
mailers via the specification:
>internet:user@host.domain
The use of ">stuff:" is CompuServe's general gateway-access syntax; it
does not appear in anything on the Internet side of the gateway, but
rather RFC-compliant headers are generated.
Internet nameservers for compuserve.com are alive and responding, and
pathalias data for a (fictitious) host "compuserve" has been published
since last fall. Internet mailers must support MX records in order to
reach CompuServe. The MX host is saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu, a.k.a.
osu-cis. I understand that there is some magic that must be performed
on BITNET VM hosts in order to get there due to lack of MX support;
details from other BITNETters, not me.
[That's 7xxxx.yyy%compuserve.com@saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu - Ed.]
Saqqara speaks with CompuServe approximately half-hourly, though this
will probably change as load is observed.
There are NO charges accrued to ANYBODY on either side of the gateway
for its use. CompuServe subscribers are charged their usual hourly
rates, but there is no gateway-specific surcharge.
The reason for this posting is that the gateway was mentioned rather
casually to info-nets@think.com, resulting in a rather impressive
flurry of queries, explanations, and test notes through the gateway.
The load has been, ah, remarkable. There were quite a number of
misconceptions about it (notably regarding charging, there being none
but others claiming that there would be), and I am hoping to prevent
further rumor-mongering. Vint Cerf presented this on CompuServe's
behalf to FRICC just this past Monday; there is "agreement in
principle" on the gateway's existence, but the formalities of the
situation have yet to be finalized.
Disclaimer: I speak for myself, not CompuServe.
Questions about the gateway => karl@cis.ohio-state.edu
Questions about CompuServe => postmaster@compuserve.com
Cheers,
--Karl Kleinpaste
Personification of the Mailer Daemon
Ohio State Computer Science
Instigator of the Internet/CompuServe mail gateway
no longer acting "postmaster@compuserve.com"
The Internet<->MCI Mail Gateway is an experimental mail system being
developed by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (NRI),
a non-profit research organization. NRI is currently researching
interconnecting various mail services.
Currently, there is no charge for sending mail from the Internet to MCI Mail.
In order to send mail to users on MCI Mail, use one of the following
addresses:
accountname@mcimail.com
-or-
mci_id@mcimail.com
-or-
full_user_name@mcimail.com
For instance, I have a mailbox on MCI Mail. You could send mail to me
via either dely@mcimail.com or 379-3286@mcimail.com or David_Ely@mcimail.com.
Users on MCI Mail can also send messages to the Internet. At the "Command:"
prompt, type "create <carriage return>. Then the user performs the following:
(NOTE the "TO:", "EMS:" and "MBX:" strings are prompts provided by MCI Mail.
Command: create <return>
TO: David K. Ely (EMS)
EMS: INTERNET
MBX: dely@NRI.Reston.VA.US
This address is translated to:
"David K. Ely" <dely@NRI.Reston.VA.US> by the Gateway.
Mail sent from MCI Mail to the Internet is charged by MCI Mail.
One final note: Feel free to use the gateway as often as you'd like, but
be forewarned: The gateway is still not considered fully
operational; sometimes mail will be delayed (usually less
than 24 hours.)
If you have any more questions, or if I can be of further assistance, please
feel free to email me.
David K. Ely
Manager, EMS Systems
Corporation for National Research Initiatives (NRI)
Phone: US: (703) 620-8990
Internet Mail: dely@NRI.Reston.VA.US
MCI Mail: dely