mtsu@blake.acs.washington.edu (Montana State) (07/08/89)
Has anbody used the backmail program posted to c.b.i.p to connect two PC's over the RS232 ports, but skip the modem?? Bascially I just want the two PC's hardwired together, and have BackMail do it's thing. I haven't any brilliant ideas on how to set this up... The few things I've tried haven't worked. Please respond with E-mail to icsu6000@caesar.cs.montana.edu
Kenyon_F_Karl@cup.portal.com (07/16/89)
Kenyon F. Karl
P.O. Box 451
N. Andover, MA 01845
Telephone: (508) 689-3147
Telex: 650-177-1813
MCI Mail: 177-1813
Backmail: 508-689-3147
July 15,1989
Alethic Software Inc:
Dear Sirs:
I seem to have successfully installed BACKMAIL on my Tandy
LT1400 laptop computer, and have even registered the program.
Currently, I am looking at the manual - looking for details about
how the system works that I missed the first time around.
I am excited about the product! I agree that the concept of
a SMALL background program (TSR) that can send and receive E-mail
at any time is a major conceptual breakthrough. Indeed, the
simplicity of the approach is such - that I have to stop and
think twice about every possible improvement - and ask whether
proposed improvement is really worth the additional code!
Before the availability of this program, a third machine
that was 'online' at all times was a virtual necessity for any
kind of E-mail service. Such machines included:
A Bulletin Board Machine (BBS) (e.g. FidoNet)
A commercial E-mail service (e.g. MCI-Mail)
A corporate office automation system (All-in-one)
However, I see the following problems in the system design:
1. My office has a digital telephone system. Thus, modems can
NOT be used within the building - except for a selected few
direct analog telephone lines. Thus, BACKMAIL can't be connected
to most office telephones. However, we do have a large MICOM data
switch which was installed primarily to connect all of the termi-
nals in the building to the corporate mainframe computers. Al-
though this switch can also be used to connect Personal computers
to each other - as well as to modems, BACKMAIL can't use the
switch for internal, inbound, or outbound calls the same way that
Procomm and other Telcomm programs can - because there is no
'dialing script' feature!
2. Likewise, the absence of a 'dialing script' feature means
that BACKMAIL can not use the PC-Pursuit service of Telenet to
save money on certain long distance calls. Note that this service
is a digital packet switched service that connects with analog
circuts on each end for a low-cost long-distance data-call from
any telephone within a local call of a Telenet port (There are a
lot of these) to any telephone within a local call of the 40
Telenet ports with autodial modems (40 major metropolitan areas).
This service is very difficult to use, and many tries are usually
necessary before a call is completed, but it gives me 30 hours of
evening and weekend service for $30/month!
3. Relatively small enhancements to the set-up program and the
phone directory file would allow the 'availability times' to be
stored internally and exchanged between systems as GMT times but
translated on the fly to the user in the 'local time' defined
during setup. This design change would clear up a great deal of
confusion about 'availability times' for calls from one time zone
to another!
4. You might think about the implications of trying to use
BACKMAIL with machines tied to a local area network. I understand
that in many cases, there are only a few modems attached to the
file-server machine for the use of everybody on the net. Perhaps
the script capability suggested above would be helpful in solving
this problem.
5. Laptop machines that are assigned to frequent travelers will
pose a real problem to the simplistic design of BACKMAIL. Perhaps
a special feature of BACKMAIL would be appropriate - running on a
dedicated PC with a fixed phone number - with the capability of
serving as many 'travelers' as the phone-directory space allows.
Also, the full name of the message recipient and a password would
have to be be added to the message format. The fixed machine
would then receive messages and hold messages or forward them to
a new phone number according to the last message received from
the traveling laptop!
6. When sending mail, there should be an option to select
'Speed' or 'Economy' for a given addressee and message. The
'Economy' option would try to hold mail until a time-period
determined locally by the BMCONFIG program and the prefix name
for the particular phone number. Note that the user should proba-
bly establish several prefixes for 'long distance' calls so that
each one can have a different 'economy time' chart. The system
may also have to recognize the difference between weekday, and
saturday, and sunday. Note also that the same message might be
sent 'speed' to some addressees and 'economy' to others. Further-
more, the class selected should be part of the message header so
as to reduce complaints about time delays in receiving messages!
7. You might do a bit more thinking about using only the tele-
phone number to identify BACKMAIL systems. Perhaps a formal name
should also be part of the set-up process - which must be matched
as a message is received into a single-user system. The special
and more expensive version for message forwarding applications
(and network servers) could match a long list of names for a
single phone number.
8. You might also think about a special format message similar
to the 'registration' message to allow a registered user to
change his address and phone number as long as the old phone
number still matched. If not, you are going to be making phone
calls and mass mailings to a great number of 'obsolete' registra-
tions - as well as getting a good bit of grief from users that
change telephone numbers frequently!
9. With a bit more design work, this special format message
could also be used to inform friends and associates of new BACK-
MAIL capabilities as well as phone-number changes!
10. Users of systems that don't have hard drives should be
instructed to kill or suspend BGROUND before they remove the
floppy that contains the BACKMAIL catalogs. They would also start
BGROUND only after this floppy was back in place. Thus these
users would generally run BACKMAIL only on an 'unattended' basis
(overnight, and whenever the machine was not otherwise in
use)-or- at the same time as they were running the FGROUND pro-
gram.
11. I would like to see a capability to kill, suspend, and
unsuspend BGROUND from batch files. These provisions would gener-
ally be used in conjuction with Communications programs - or by
systems that don't have hard drives. Note that killing or sus-
pending BGROUND would generally send the string 'ATS0=0' to the
modem so that it refuses all phone calls.
12. Some users may need a tiny program to send the string
'ATS0=0' to the modem at system start-up.Kenyon_F_Karl@cup.portal.com (07/16/89)
icsu6000@caesar.cs.montana.edu writes:
"Has anbody used the backmail program posted to c.b.i.p to con-
nect two PC's over the RS232 ports, but skip the modem?? Bas-
cially I just want the two PC's hardwired together, and have
BackMail do it's thing.
"I haven't any brilliant ideas on how to set this up... The few
things I've tried haven't worked."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I think that you are asking for an option that never crossed
the minds of the authors. Thus, if the program can't get a Hayes
compatable modem to respond - then it has some reason to think
that something is terribly wrong.
Thus the simple thing is to go out and buy two modems and
rent two phone numbers from your friendly telephone company. Of
course, when the rest of the 'known world' start using BACKMAIL,
then you'll have other people to send mail to as well.
Have you thought of digging around the Appendix A "Technical
settings" in the manual? I suspect that your 'crazy idea' might
start to work if you set the 'appropriate' modem command strings
to spaces. Thus, the trick is to get the program to think that
the 'blank stares' that the software gets from the 'null modem'
is exactly what it should expect as replies to the commands sent
to the null modem. Of course, the dialing commands may also have
to be changed to long strings of spaces, or some such thing. You
may also want to play with the wiring of the cable so that each
machine gets the modem control signals that it has a right to
expect from a legitimate modem.