keith@imagen.UUCP (Keith Rich) (12/04/88)
I am interested in ways to connect E-mail between VMS and Unix systems using either ethernet or serial communications. This is for local connections in-house. We are primarily a Unix shop, so the particular info I need is how to do the VMS side. Please respond via E-mail, as I'm not sure I actually receive these newsgroups. Thanks in advance. Keith Rich Imagen
keith@imagen.UUCP (Keith Rich) (12/12/88)
In reponse to:
#I am interested in ways to connect E-mail between VMS and Unix systems using
#either ethernet or serial communications. This is for local connections
#in-house. We are primarily a Unix shop, so the particular info I need is how
#to do the VMS side. Please respond via E-mail, as I'm not sure I actually
#receive these newsgroups. Thanks in advance. Keith Rich Imagen
I got:
#I would like to see what you find out about VMS to Unix E-mail.
#Would you please post a summary? Thank you.
#
#Dan Mocsny
#dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu
And so, to answer him, I also got:
Organization: ETA Systems, Inc., St Paul, MN
From: davem@gonzo.eta.com
One thing you can look at is PMDF on the VMS side and MMDF on the UNIX side, or
at least the Phonenet channel of MMDF somehow configured into sendmail.
Another alternative is to run TCP/IP on the VMS machine and UNIX machines, and
if the TCP/IP package you run on VMS doesn't give you a nice, full-featured way
of sending mail on the network, look at PMDF.
Dave
From: sun!hub.ucsb.edu!comdesign!pst (Paul Traina)
If you have Sun workstations, I would suggest you purchase a product called
Sunlink/DNA, which is DECnet for Suns. Once you do that, you can use a
mail program I munged (I am not the original author, but my version works
quite well between VMS mail & sendmail) which will give you full mail service
between the two operating systems. (This all runs over ethernet.)
Paul
From: versatc!tran (Tony Tran)
Organization: Versatec, Inc. (A XEROX Company), Santa Clara, Calif. 95051
You can accomplish this by using a software product from Wollongong
called Wollongong Win/VX TCP/IP which emulates SMTP protocol.
We are using it at Versatec, and can send mail from our VAX/VMS
to all of our SUN workstations in house with no problem.
Tony Tran
Versatec, Inc.
From: Keith Moore <sun!utkcs2.cs.utk.edu!moore%CYGNUSX1.CS.UTK.EDU>
Organization: CS Dept -- University of TN, Knoxville
I can think of several approaches:
1) Get TCP for your VMS system. Of the several packages out there,
we have experience with Wollongong, CMU, and Digital's. Wollongong
seems to have a version now that works pretty well, though the versions
that work with VMS 5.x may still be in beta test. People here who
are working with WIN/TCP on VMS 5.x SMP machines tell me it's working
okay. CMU's code is cheap but somewhat buggy and impossible to maintain
unless you have BLISS. We tried Digital's product and were unimpressed.
Once you have TCP you need a mail delivery system. None of the packages
mentioned above have a decent mailer. Get PMDF 3.0 -- it works well and
the price is right. It does take some time learning how to set it up
but it's easier to deal with than sendmail (albeit less flexible).
This is how our preferred gateway works.
2) Get DECnet for your Unix system. Digital sells DECnet for VAXen running
Ultrix, and Sun sells SunLink/DNA for Suns running SunOS. We have the
former and not the latter. DECnet works fine, but the mail gateway
supplied by Digital doesn't do a good protocol translation between
the DECnet mail world and the Internet mail world. It's fine if you
only send mail in-house. I'm working on a better DECnet mail gateway.
If you get SunLink you can get free software called dnamail from net
archives.
We have the DECnet mail gateway on two of our Unix VAXen, and use it to
route mail to VMS systems that don't speak TCP.
3) Get PMDF on your VMS system and MMDF on your Unix system. You can then
connect the two over a serial line. This should work pretty well, but
I have no experience with it.
4) Get UUCP for VMS. It's available now, but I don't know anything about
it or about how well the mail gateways work.
These are the best solutions that come to mind. Send mail if you need pointers
to more detailed information.
--
Keith Moore
UT Computer Science Dept. Internet/CSnet: moore@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu
107 Ayres Hall, UT Campus BITNET: moore@utkcs1
Knoxville Tennessee 37996-1301 Telephone: +1 615 974 0822
From: power@cbgrle.mit.edu
Re your recent posting to comp.os.vms ("VMS to Unix E-mail
connection", 3 Dec 88 18:47:02 GMT, 2682@imagen.UUCP), the
two alternatives that I know of are
(a) install an implementation of UUCP for VMS on your VMS
systems, and communicate over serial lines. There are
both commercial and public-domain versions available.
We don't use UUCP here.
(b) install TCP/IP on your VMS systems, and communicate
over Ethernet. We use CMU TCP/IP along with the
improved mail interface developed by the PMDF project;
it is quite low in cost for us (as an educational
institution), but I'm not sure how much it would cost
for Imagen.
Matt Power
M.I.T. Sensory Communication Group
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 36-769
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617)-253-2538