Satz@sri-tsc@sri-unix.UUCP (07/30/83)
From: Greg Satz <Satz@sri-tsc> I received about seven responses to my query on available SMTP mailers. All of the brand name mail systems were represented, and a few "homebrews" were mentioned. These responses seem to indicate that no single smtp system dominates the others. The existance of the "homebrews" points out a lack in available smtp mailers. I am interested in other peoples' feelings and opinions about the state-of-the-art in Unix mail systems. In my original message, I forgot to ask about the availability of the software, and whether the people in question were willing to distribute their software, or whether licensees were required, etc. Would you please answer this? Our sites run an older version of MMDF which have been hacked to death to use an external SMTP mailer (from BBN, I think). This requires two seperate mail queues for outgoing ARPAnet mail. It has become fairly reliable, but it is still very fragile. It has really outlived its usefulness, and it is time we went on to something better. We are leaning toward using Sendmail, but that leaves our phone channel hosts stranded. Anyone solve this problem? I would like to thank everyone who took the time to respond. --------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jul 83 20:26 PDT From: Bill Nowicki <nowicki%Diablo@SU-Score> Subject: SMTP We have about half a dozen Vax Unix systems (depending on how you count our small 750s) in the Stanford Computer Science Department which are connected via Ethernet. There are gateways to the rest of the campus, and to the Arpa Internet. We run the Berkeley sendmail SMTP server in conjunction with the BBN IP/TCP code. There were a few initial problems, but things have settled down and we are now shipping several hundred messages a day over SMTP with no problems. -- Bill --------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jul 83 08:14:00 PDT From: Steve Woods <cepu!scw@UCLA-LOCUS> Subject: SMTP mail systems Date: 18 Jul 1983 at 1821-PDT From: Greg Satz <Satz@sri-tsc> To: unix-wizards@brl-vgr Subject: SMTP mail systems Sender: satz@sri-tsc o what mail system you use and where is it from We use the ucla mailsystem, (rdm&send) It was devloped @ ucla-s for support of both ARPA and uucp mail. o what type of system(s) you run (pdp, vax, etc) We run on a 11/44 but the mail system also runs on a VAX and I believe it runs on the Locus (a bunch of 750's ether-neted together) system. o what sort of networks are you on (ether, uucp, etc) We are only on uucp (a local dialup net around ucla with a few other nodes (Hao and ucscc) ) but the system does run very well on an ARPA machine, after all that's what it was designed for. o what the mailer should do and how well it does it It does almost any thing reasonable, the only flaw that I can find is that it can't communicate with real Vaxen (VMS) and RSX systems. In general it works like a champ, it knows about ARPA and how to get mail to/from ARPA in a reasonable manner, The interactive part does most things that one would want to do with mail (forward, answer, delete, copy, print etc.). The other part (noninteractive) does aliasing (in a manner similar to Berkley mail but you don't need to run any programs to get the updated alias file updated). It also keeps mail in a user (recipiant) owned 0600 mode file in the users home directory. o anything extra that might be interesting (support issues, extra hardware necessary, etc) No extra hardware (other than that required for normal uucp operations),it handles locked mail files better that V7 mail (I know that's not saying much but it does a good job). It supports some local editing and allows you to invoke the editor of your choice. --------------- Date: 19 Jul 1983 15:30-EDT From: Lee.Moore@Rochester.ARPA Subject: SMTP We use sendmail here. We use it with Arpa, Ether and UUCP. It takes a little work to understand how write your own rules but it is also very flexible. We recommend it. = lee --------------- Date: 20 Jul 83 17:15:28 PDT (Wed) From: Marshall Rose <mrose.uci@Rand-Relay> Subject: SMTP We run a slightly modified version of MMDF. We got the SMTP server and channel from dpk@brl. I had to hack it up a bit to run with 4.1a however. In particular, we're running it on a VAX-11/750, while dpk's code is for an PDP-11/xx of some sort. Right now, we're running SMTP over an ethernet, although we will soon be connecting to the internet. I'm sure that very little modification will be required. As far as mail goes, MMDF is the best. I've got a few complaints about some things, but MMDF still manages to outshine UUCP, sendmail, etc., etc. On a related note, we have interfaced the Rand MH system to use MMDF as its transport system. dpk@brl has this code as well. The MH/MMDF combination is very, very powerful. ** end sales pitch ** /mtr --------------- Date: Thu Jul 21 1983 13:14-EDT From: Dennis Rockwell <drockwel@BBN-Vax> Subject: Re: SMTP mail systems The internal BBN mailer uses SMTP; it uses the BBN-style UNIX TCP implementation, which means that it can talk to any network hardware that we have a driver for (currently ACC LH/DH, ACC IF-11, Interlan 10Mb Ether, and Proteon Ring). This works on both Vaxen and C/70s, and talks to all hosts on the Internet that adhere to the SMTP spec. --------------- Date: Thursday, 21 Jul 1983 13:54-PDT Subject: Re: SMTP mail systems From: greep@SU-DSN o what mail system you use and where is it from MH, from Rand. MH has its own mailer, and does not use mmdf, delivermail, sendmail (it predates all of those). I have made some changes to it, and I guess it ended up something like mmdf, but I don't really know much about mmdf. It does not do any header munging for mail not composed locally (except for the addition of "Received:" lines and the uucp "Remote from" line). o what type of system(s) you run (pdp, vax, etc) Vax, 4.1bsd Unix o what sort of networks are you on (ether, uucp, etc) Ethernet (using PUP), Arpanet (SMTP). MH also talks to uucp. o what the mailer should do and how well it does it The mailer should send mail, check for the usual error conditions, etc. It does this ok. o anything extra that might be interesting (support issues, extra hardware necessary, etc) It does NOT use Berkeley delivermail/sendmail.