kenw@noah.arc.ab.ca (Ken Wallewein) (07/26/90)
A short while ago I posted the following message: > We're finally getting serious about Mac-based email. And because we have > a highly networked environment, networking aspects have a starring role on > our list of priorities; unfortunately, they are a bit hard to gather data > on. > > Here are a few key points: > 1) gateway with (one or more of) SMTP, X.400, VMS Mail > 2) all messages stored on reliable, secure server > 3) messages accessible from multiple platforms, even efter being read > 4) works with Macs, Unix, VMS, MS-DOS, OS/2 > > We're very interested on what other people have done to address these > issues. If you've addressed even one of them, please share your knowledge > and how you feel about the results. Here are the results. Many of the responses seemed to ignore the criteria I mentioned. One point worth mentioning is that POP (Post Office Protocol, about which I know very little) seems to be a facility for communicating with a machine which runs a mailer user agent, and as such, seems to almost to be a remote control for that user agent. Mac-based POP software does not so much _transfer_ the mail from the host as make a Mac-based copy of it, thereby providing a Mac interface for more traditional mailers. I've heard from more than one source that Mews crashed when they tried it. Other's say it's great. No resolution as of yet. We haven't made much progress on this lately. When we do, I'll try to post something. /kenw Ken Wallewein A L B E R T A kenw@noah.arc.ab.ca R E S E A R C H (403)297-2660 C O U N C I L ====================================================================== From: Austin Shelton <austins@garnet.berkeley.edu> We are using Stanford's MacMH POP3 client with a POP3 server we developed here. The server is available via anonymous ftp to lilac.berkeley.edu (128.32.136.12) and includes a readme file that explains how it works. Look for "popper.tar.Z" in the "pub" directory. It all works pretty well. Austin Shelton U.C. Berkeley ----------- From: <manuel@cnam.cnam.fr> Following your mail, here at CNAM we have around 200 Macs of all types. Half of them are connected together through AppleTalk. For the moment we test several Mac-based mailing systems. The only one suitable for us is QuickMail. Why ? becauseQuickMail is customisable, and there's a lot of gateway for others systems. Fisrt we use the FastPath Kinetics gateway for DecNet and TCP/IPprotocols to AppleTalk and back. That's great because FastPath is the only gateway I know able to manage three protocols at once ! There's slight modification to our VMS and none to the Ultrix systems. QuickMail is a DA, and need a server. The VMS-Mail conversion is done trough MailMate/QM : itworks perfectly well for the Mac side. There's no problem for the VMS side, except the syntax for mail path. Though VMS-Mail you can access to X-400. On the Ultrix side we test BeaverGate from Toronto's University : it's free and require no modification of the Ultrix system. Theres' also the GatorQM/X (I think that's the name) able to do that too. Comparing QuickMail to MS-mail, there's slight differences, but QuickMail is much more user-friendly, and OPEN to other systems. CC:Mail is another one, very good, but not widely distributed (here in France), but use the VAX as server. for security reasons this last one is very good ! Now I've installed MACTCP, which is not a mail system, but allow users to access directly to TCP/IP protocols without being bored with VTxxx emulation which is quite slow. Anyway if you need furher help or indication, please drop me a mail or chat with IRC !. Always MAcintoshly Your's. Manuel Bouyssou CNAM Macintosh Support Officer manuel@cnam.cnam.fr. -------------- From: "Mark P.McCahill" <mpm@boombox.micro.UMN.EDU> To provide e-mail for Mac (and IBM PC) users at the University of Minnesota we use some software we developed called POPmail. POPmail is a client for a POP2 server. In this system, a Unix system runs a POP2 (post office protocol) server process. Incomming e-mail is held at the post office (the Unix machine) until the user fetches the mail with the POPmail client software running on his PC or Mac. Reasons to like this approach: o Both the POPmail client software and the POP2 server software are available free via anonymous ftp from boombox.micro.umn.edu o You don't have to worry about gateways to SMTP mail since the mail delivery system is a Unix machine. If the Unix machine can get to a gateway to x.400 or DECNET you can send and recieve e-mail from those environments. o The Mac version of POPmail can send and recieve Mac documents and applications as enclosures in the e-mail meesage. The POPmail software binhex's the enclosure so that it will make it through the SMTP mail system. The enclosed documents are automatically un-binhexed when recieved on another Mac running POPmail so the users can transparently send and recieve documents with their e-mail. o The Macintosh version of POPmail works with MacTCP, so any configuration supported by MacTCP works. The PC version of POPmail uses the CLarkson packet drivers, so any hardware supported by the Clarkson packet drivers supports POPmail. Mark P. McCahill University of Minnesota _____________________________________________________________________________ Microcomputer & Workstation Networks Center (612) 625-1300 100 Union St. SE internet: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu Minneapolis. MN 55455 BITNET: mpm%boombox.micro.umn.edu@UMNACVX UUCP: uunet!boombox.micro.umn.edu!mpm ----------------- From: Kurt Baumann <kdb@intercon.com> Here is some information that might be of interest to you. Kurt Baumann **** PRODUCT INFORMATION TCP/CONNECT II for the Apple Macintosh OVERVIEW TCP/Connect II provides Macintosh users with a complete set of TCP/IP services, allowing them to take advantage of the capabilities of local and wide area networks, including remote terminal emulation, file transfer, electronic mail, and network news. MAJOR FEATURES TCP/IP Protocols: TCP/IP is the worldwide de facto standard of network interoperability. TCP/Connect II will communicate with a wide range of computers ranging from micros to mainframes and supercomputers without requiring custom software. VT240/241 Emulation: TCP/Connect II emulates the DEC VT240 and VT241 graphics terminals, including such features as ReGIS color graphics, full international character set support, and downloadable fonts. IBM 3278 Emulation: TCP/Connect II also emulates the IBM 3278 series of data entry terminals, providing high-performance mainframe connectivity. Multiple Sessions: Any combination of VT240 and 3278 sessions may be opened, up to a maximum of 20 simultaneous sessions. File Transfer: FTP transfers can be initiated from the Macintosh, using a "Font/DA Mover" style of user interface, or remotely from another host, using that host's standard FTP program to communicate with TCP/Connect II's FTP server. Electronic Mail: TCP/Connect II contains the ability to send and receive Internet- standard electronic mail directly on the Macintosh, using a window-based browser user interface. It also supports multiple mailboxes, personal address books, remote user information database lookup, and file inclusion. Network News: TCP/Connect II allows Macintosh users to read and post news articles to electronic public message systems such as Usenet or ClariNet, using a fast, customizable, browser style user interface. Flexible article filtering and highlighting capabilities are provided, to help users manage high volume discussions. Network Management: TCP/Connect II includes a complete SNMP agent, which allows a remote network monitoring station to retrieve statistics and configurations information from the Macintosh without human intervention. Flexible Media Choices: TCP/Connect II operates over Ethernet, LocalTalk, or serial lines (using SLIP). It also can operate in conjunction with Apple's MacTCP driver, which is included with TCP/Connect II. Speed: TCP/Connect II's terminal emulation and file transfer speeds are among the highest available on the Macintosh, as a result of InterCon Systems Corporation's ongoing commitment to providing the highest possible performance to our customers. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY TCP/Connect II is available for $495.00 per copy in single quantity. Limited versions are available at a lower cost to customers who do not need or desire all of the capabilities listed above. InterCon Systems Corporation offers discounts to educational institutions and government agencies, as well as an aggressive volume purchase and site license program. For more information, contact: InterCon Systems Corporation 950 Herndon Parkway Suite 390 Herndon, VA 22070 703.709.9890 (Voice) 703.709.9896 (FAX) comment@intercon.com (Internet email) ...!uunet!intercon!comment (UUCP email) --------------- From: (Jacques Virchaux) <virchaux@sic.epfl.ch> We have also the same problem to slove here. We are actually running a Mail Gateway (Sotware Tools Mail Gateway from TGV) on a VAX/VMS which has link with BITNET (with Jnet from Joiner's Associates), SMTP (with Multinet from TGV), X.400 (with UBC-EAN) and VMSmail (of course !). Actually most of our Macs are on Kinetics FastPath-4 (with KEYSTAR 8) and we are trying to find a Quick-Mail/SMTP gateway. We have tested GatorMail-Q from Cayman (really made by StarNine), MailMate-QM and BeaverGate Bridge. MailMate-QM is only a VMSmail/QuickMail gateway. GatorMail-Q has not a nice addressing scheme (mailcenter name is inserted into the local part). BeaverGate Bridge is a public domain gateway provided by University of Toronto and has about the same functionnality as GatorMail-Q but does not need to register all the users (only mailcenters are registered). You can get it via anonymous ftp at madhaus.utcs.toronto.ca (128.100.102.10) and filename is /pub/beaver-0.85. From our point of view there are some improvements to set-up as described hereafter : 1. Replacement of the 'underscore' with a 'dot' (maybe a configuration option) will conform to RFC822 and avoid problems with RFC987 gateways. 2. Another problem with non IA5 (ASCII) characters - we use French here ! - into header fields must be solved in the following manner : - When sent, convert (via a table) all these fields to IA5 closer equivalent letter for the header fields. - When received must compare the 'Firstname_Lastname' recipient through a filter using the same table when looking for the user. 3. It should be nice to be able to define the 'default gateway' as the unique machine where the mails are sent (as an option). 4. A MacPlus version should be available beside the MacII's one (a lot of BeaverGate users are sure interested to dedicate an old MacPlus to such a work rather than a brand new one !). I have not received any answer but I know that a 0.87 version is available for SMTP (send & receive). There is also TCPConnect II which provides an SMTP interface with a POP server running on a Unix system. However Mac users need to be registered on another system and cannot satisfy our needs. Kind regards, Jacques Virchaux Swiss Federal Institute of Technology CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland ------------------ From: David Foster <tigger@saturn.ucsc.edu> Hello, I saw your posting on usenet about integrating email packages. I just contacted a company called Touch Communications that was suggested in another newsgroup posting. I happened to talk to Joe Rohde and he sent me some stuff which just arrived. His phone number is 408-374-2500 and email is jrohde@touch.com. I contacted them for a coworker who's responsible for campus email, thus I can't be much help to you. Good Luck. David Foster Lab Manager Univ of Calif, Santa Cruz tigger@cis.ucsc.edu --------------- From: "Steven W. Bittinger" <steveb@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au> In case you did not see the announcement on the net, the University of Tasmania has developed a HyperCard based mail/news reader called "Mews". This is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.utas.edu.au The file is in the /pub/mac/ directory. It contains a 20-page manual as well as the Mews program. Mews requires a POP mail servers, and an nntp connection for getting at the news. It works well and is free. For more details, contact the author of Mews: Dr Charles Lakos, charles@tasis.eecs.utas.edu.au Steven Bittinger E-mail: steveb@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au Computing Centre Phone: (002) 20-2811 University of Tasmania Fax: (002) 23-1772 GPO Box 252C, Hobart Note: internationally, dial (+61-02) Tasmania 7001, AUSTRALIA instead of (002) ---------------- From: <charles@tasis.eecs.utas.edu.au> I have only been involved in making mail and news accessible to macs with a comfortable user interface. I recently made my Hypercard stack called Mews available on the net. Here is the blurb on it. Mews (for Mail and News) is a Hypercard stack for reading and posting both mail and news using the MacTCP protocol driver. Mews communicates with mail and news servers provided on some mainframe computer or computers. Mail communication depends on the SMTP and POP (POP3 or POP2) protocols supported on the mail server, while news communication depends on the NNTP protocol (version 1.5 or later) supported on the news server. By utilising these protocols, a user need only have a POP mailbox account on the mail server rather than a full login account. All posting of mail or news is validated against the password for the POP account. Features of Mews: * one format of message cards for both mail and news items * one format of index cards for mail items, newsgroups, and subject list within a newsgroup * ability to save and recall messages to text files * ability to print messages with a standard banner * ability to perform save, recall, print, discard on multiple messages at a time * posting of news as opposed to mail is determined by the recipient of the message being one or more known newsgroups * ability to delete your own message from a newsgroup (having first been validated against the password for the POP account) * the handling of long messages (in excess of 30000 characters) by querying the user whether to discard excess characters or save direct to a text file Mews has been posted to comp.binaries.mac and the info-mac archives. It is also available by anonymous ftp as pub/mac/Mews_1.3.hqx from ftp.utas.edu.au (131.217.10.1). The current version includes patches to level 1.3.2 which resolve: * more efficient use of space to cater for larger newsgroup lists * better response when passwords are entered incorrectly or cancelled * handles larger mail headers than before ----- Charles Lakos charles@tasis.eecs.utas.edu.au Electrical Engineering & Computer Science University of Tasmania Tasmania, Australia. ------------------- From: <cxm102@csc2.anu.edu.au> Ken Wallewein I noticed your news item asking for info about e-mail on mixed local networks. Here in Canberra we face a similar problem, hence I would be grateful if you could send on duplicates of any responses which you get concerning this subject. One (expensive) option we face is to use QuickMail, which looks very good. A cheap alternative is to have a SUN as a POP mail server and use MacPOP, but this requires everyone to have a UNIX mail account and all the mail would be routed through the UNIX box. Not everyone uses or wants to use a mainframe mail system when there is the friendlier option that QuickMail presents. I would mainly like to know of low cost and/or public domain utilities which notify the user when new mail arrives...MacPOP has this as a cdev. Tricks such as Broadcast are just too primitive. Thanks in advance for any information which you can pass on. Best wishes Chris Meaney Maths Research Section School of Maths Sci Australian National University Canberra. ----------------- From: <cxm102@csc2.anu.edu.au> Thanks for the suggestion about MEWS...I had tried it here, using MacTCP and getting my mail on a SUN, but it seemed to crash...don't know why. I could get the HyperUNIX collection of stacks to work: read & send mail, read news, and so on, but it was slower than telnet and still lacked the main feature I was looking for, namely, notification on my Mac when mail arrived on the SUN. I'll watch the news to see your summary. thanks. Best wishes, Chris Meaney. ----------------------- From: <SERVICE@baylor.ccis.baylor.edu> Ken, At Baylor University we have just completed our evaluation of the alternatives and are now deploying Quickmail from CE Software. We've found that using U of Toronto's BeaverGate package Quickmail integrates smoothly (dare I say seamlessly?) into our other mail systems. We just received the new rev for the PC and it looks _very_ good. In your reviews, make sure you're comparing/using version 2.2.3 or higher of Quickmail both on the PC and the Mac. It is significantly better than other versions. Good Luck ;-) Bob Lemley Baylor University LEMLEYR@BAYLOR.EDU