alex@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Alex Heatley) (04/12/88)
Greetings,
I am looking for a mail system for the Macintosh that can be
interfaced to our mainframe mail system.
The problem I am trying to solve is: We have a number of users who have moved
almost all their work from our mainframe computers to Macintosh applications,
this means that they are using the mainframes infrequently and thus, are not
receiving their e-mail in a timely manner.
What I want to do is build some sort of gateway between the mainframe mail
systems and a Mac based mail system so that these users will be able to send
and receive mail without having to log onto the mainframes.
As we currently run a LaserWriter Spooler from one of our UN*X boxes (using
the CAP software and a K-Box) I'm leaning towards writing some sort of mail
server that sits on a UN*X box and speaks via AppleTalk to the Mac mail
system.
Does anyone out there have any ideas, or can suggest a suitable mail system
that I could use for this application?
Please e-mail your responses to the address given in the signature, I'll
summarise to the net if there is sufficient interest.
Thanks
--
Alex Heatley: Computing Services Centre
Domain: alex@comp.vuw.ac.nz Victoria University of Wellington
Path: ...!uunet!vuwcomp!alex P.O Box 600, New Zealand
Trolls can often be found under bridges ... or in Computing Departments.longstaf@lll-lcc.aRpA (Thomas A Longstaff) (04/15/88)
In article <13491@comp.vuw.ac.nz> alex@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Alex Heatley) writes: > I am looking for a mail system for the Macintosh that can be >interfaced to our mainframe mail system. Please post this information if it exists. Just yesterday our group was discussing the same problem, and were concerned that we may have to write the solution in-house. Our general concensus was that whether or not this product existed, it would be of great interest to many other groups and mightr be worth our while to find/develop such a beastie. Tom Longstaff longstaf@lll-lcc.llnl.gov {lll-crg,harvard,sun,dual,rutgers,seismo,ihnp4}!lll-lcc!longstaf Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab L-542, Box 808 Livermore, CA 94550 415-423-4416
kevins@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Kevin M. Schofield) (04/17/88)
In article <1611@lll-lcc.aRpA> longstaf@lll-lcc.llnl.gov.UUCP (Thomas A Longstaff) writes: >In article <13491@comp.vuw.ac.nz> alex@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Alex Heatley) writes: >> I am looking for a mail system for the Macintosh that can be >>interfaced to our mainframe mail system. > >Please post this information if it exists. Just yesterday our group >was discussing the same problem, and were concerned that we may have >to write the solution in-house. Our general concensus was that >whether or not this product existed, it would be of great interest to >many other groups and mightr be worth our while to find/develop such a >beastie. > This appears to be a hot topic; it's been developing over the last few months, and I would hazard a guess that it's going to get a lot hotter in the next few months. Here at Dartmouth, we've looked at the email products that currently exist for the Mac, and we're not happy with any of them. We want a system that will handle 5000+ users, have an interface to Internet-style mail, etc. We've decided to write our own, though I imagine that someone else will come along with one real soon. There are lots of issues involved here: 1. What mainframe to implement it on? (probably UNIX, but then we still have the question of Appletalk support on a UNIX box). 2. How many users will it support? 3. What does the user interface look like? (believe me, this is NOT an easy question, nor is there any obvious solution) 4. What features should it support? filing of messages? enclosures? aliases/mailing lists? etc. Ours is coming along nicely, but the server end is being written on a mainframe running an operating system developed here at Dartmouth, and so won't be portable. I would be interested in hearing who else is working on this, as I really do believe that a Mac email system with an interface to mainframe mail will be in great demand in a few months. -Kevin M. Schofield Software Development Kiewit Computation Center Dartmouth College