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
kenw@noah.arc.CDN (Ken Wallewein) (04/16/88)
I, to, would be extremely interested in mail, and bulletins, between Macs and mainframes such as VAX/VMS and Sun/Unix machines. /kenw
dkovar@VAX.BBN.COM (04/16/88)
Well, it looks like Stanford will provide mail services if you can license their Telnet. Unfortunately, that is not really a valid option for a lot of people. And a lot of other people are saying "Well, I'd love to use it if you can find one but I do not have the resources to do it." Given this, perhaps we should consider getting together on this, designing a program that satisfies most people, and writing it. I realize that its not nearly as simple as I suggest but it is a start. Anyone interested? I'll accumulate replies and repost them if interest warrants. -David Kovar DKovar@BBN.COM
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
nishri@gpu.utcs.toronto.EDU (Alex Nishri) (04/18/88)
We have been looking at the e-mail question here as well. Being unsatisfied
with offerings like Intermail and Inbox, we have been bugging vendors for the
ability to gateway their proprietary mail formats to rfc822 comptable
networks. After over a year of disappointment, we, like others are working on
our own solutions.
Thus far we have written a HyperCard stack which presents a good, but not yet
beautiful, user interface for reading and writing mail. (With time we envisage
re-writing it into C because HyperCard imposes to many limitations on our user
interface.) The HyperCard stack uses SMTP and POP protocols to send and obtain
mail from a mail server. (The mail server could be your local Unix machine, as
an example.)
Currently, for testing purposes the HyperCard stack uses serial xcmds. The
SMTP and POP are conducted over the serial line to a Unix machine. This part
is working fine. Naturally, using serial line async communication is not a
reliable solution.
With the Appletalk xcmds we have, it is our intention to be able to run SMTP
and POP over Appletalk. This would extend mail to Mac Appletalk networks
without requiring additional ethernet cards. We have obtained a MAC II with
AUX, Apple's Unix, hoping to use it as a mail server. AUX can talk to our
campus TCP/IP ethernet backbone, and gate mail to the Appletalk. Since AUX
comes with an SMTP server, all we have to do is port our POP server over, and
write a hundred line C program to glue Appletalk to POP and SMTP.
Unfortunately, The first release of AUX we got does not support Appletalk. We
are currently looking at ways around this problem (eg Kinetics box, etc)
Our HyperCard stack mail user interface could also presumably be connected to
TCP/IP running over an ethernet card in the end user's Mac. I don't know if
there are 'ethernet xcmds' around for HyperCard yet. (This solution may
be popular with those people who already have other reasons to get an
ethernet card in their Mac.)
The experience we are gaining has been very worthwhile. If there are other
people we can work with, we would be very interested in sharing. We have
already found that Apple Canada has been very encouraging and helpful. They
have helped us with technical information and access to equipment without which
we couldn't have gotten as far as we have.
Alex Nishri
University of Toronto
Computing Services
Bitnet/Netnorth/EARN: nishri@utorgpu
UUCP: {utzoo utcsri}!utgpu!nishri
Internet: nishri@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu
Future Utopia: nishri@gpu.utcs.utoronto.cakhanna@JESSICA.STANFORD.EDU (Raman Khanna) (04/19/88)
Regarding availability of Stanford's Mac/MH to commercial organizations and others not eligible for direct license from Stanford, a solution might be available soon. We expect that Kinetics will be offering Mac/MH in some form. I am not sure about their exact plans and don't want to intentionally or unintentionally do any advertising for them. Considering the interest shown by people, I thought that it would be useful to mention that this option might be available. I don't have any information beyond this and would suggest that you call Kinetics in case you are interested. raman khanna
ntitley@axion.axion.bt.co.uk (Nigel Titley) (04/27/88)
From article <1244*kenw@noah.arc.cdn>, by kenw@noah.arc.CDN (Ken Wallewein): > > I, to, would be extremely interested in mail, and bulletins, between Macs > and mainframes such as VAX/VMS and Sun/Unix machines. > > /kenw Our local Alisa distributor (JPY Associates) says that Alisa is working on an Intermail <-> VMS mail gateway. This will solve our problem (we have a mixed Unix, VMS, Mac network), whether it will help you is another matter. No timescale quoted by the way (or price). Email: NTitley@axion.bt.co.uk Snail: British Telecom Research labs, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK "I do not care what happens now: I have seen dragons on the wings of morning"