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."
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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.