[comp.unix.questions] VAX-DECNET Mail Interface to 4.2BSD Mail

allbery@ncoast.UUCP (06/06/87)

I'm looking for some software which must certianly exist (since
I can netmail to my friends at DEC) and which I'm hoping is PD
and available thru the net.  It concerns a mail gateway between
decnet/vaxmail and UCB 4.2 Unix mail.  Here's our present layout:

We are a large SUN Microsystems site with a number of VAXen of
various vintages.  We're using SunOS 3.2, and VMS 4.5.  We have
a strong need to be able to email between the two worlds with
some degree of reliability.  We are mostly using Excelan enet
boards on the VAXen and the built-in equipment on the Suns.
Ftp, rlogin, and telnet all work just fine for us, but our present
mail system bites the big one.  It was hacked up by two VMS guys
who'd never seen UNIX before, and have now left the company.  It
works only from VAX to Sun, fails silently a lot, and stops 
entirely a lot.  Our current VAX expert has pronounced it a
bag of %$#@&, but like me is up to his hairline in fighting
major fires.

VAX he understands, and UNIX I understand, but our mutual ignorance
means we've got some learning curves we'd rather not address right
now.  [[Hey -- we're lazy.  So sue me. ;-) ]].  So -- is there
anything out there on the net that will do the job for us?  Please
mail to me via return, or ihnp4!itivax!lokkur!scs.

Steve Simmons
UNIX Systems Administrator
Applicon, Inc.
POBox 986
Ann Arbor, MI. 48106-0986
---- home email: scs@m-net
       -or-    : ihnp4!itivax!lokkur!scs
that learning curve and wind up re-inventing the wheel,
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery	{decvax,cbatt,cbosgd}!cwruecmp!ncoast!allbery
Tridelta Industries	{ames,mit-eddie,talcott}!necntc!ncoast!allbery
7350 Corporate Blvd.	necntc!ncoast!allbery@harvard.HARVARD.EDU
Mentor, OH 44060	+01 216 255 1080	(also eddie.MIT.EDU)

pdb@sei.cmu.edu (Patrick Barron) (06/09/87)

In article <1292@m-net.UUCP> cwruecmp!seismo!umix!m-net!scs (Steve C. Simmons) writes:
>I'm looking for some software which must certianly exist (since
>I can netmail to my friends at DEC) and which I'm hoping is PD
>and available thru the net.  It concerns a mail gateway between
>decnet/vaxmail and UCB 4.2 Unix mail.  Here's our present layout:
>
>We are a large SUN Microsystems site with a number of VAXen of
>various vintages.  We're using SunOS 3.2, and VMS 4.5.  We have
>a strong need to be able to email between the two worlds with
>some degree of reliability.  [...]

A public domain implementation of DECNET you're not going to find, since
DECNET is a proprietary protocol.  As I recall, DEC did license some
people who wanted to do a Unix DECNET for the Sun, so that should be
available (sorry, I don't know who the vendor is), but it almost certainly
costs big bucks.

Possibly a better way to go is to get PMDF, which is the mail transport
software used by CSNET/PhoneNet sites.  That's available for a nominal
distribution fee (about $50 last time I checked), and runs on both VMS
and Unix.

--Pat.