Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell.com!mips!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!agate!ucbvax!VAXSAR.VASSAR.EDU!BIWINE
From: BIWINE@VAXSAR.VASSAR.EDU (Bill Wine)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: POP protocol
Message-ID: <E9633327E93FE1EE45@vaxsar.bitnet>
Date: 19 Dec 90 13:32:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 27

We are interested in implementing a campus-wide e-mail system to link
about 300 Macs and PC's to an smtp host.  (Currently users log in to check
their mail.)  We would like to use pd software to reduce costs, so we
obtained a POP3 server and Eudora client software.  The system seems
to work very well, (with 3 concurrent users) and we especially like
the Eudora user interface.  Our concern is that the POP architecture
may not be sutiable for a large mail system.  It seems inefficient for
the POP client to check for newmail every 5 or 10 minutes.  This would
put a heavy load on the host with 300 clients.  It seems to me that a
better idea would be for a client to log in once, and for the server
to check for newmail periodically, then send it to the client.  
Commercial systems such as QuickMail work this way, using a dedicated
Mac as a server.  One pd system that uses this architecture is MacPost
from Lund University.  We have just begun testing it.  One drawback is
that the user interface is not as nice as Eudora.

Would anyone care to share their experiences with large Mac or PC
e-mail systems (100+ concurrent users).  Is the POP architecture
suitable for large systems?  Is there a better one?

Thanks for your help.

Bill Wine
biwine@vassar.edu

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