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From: jqj@duff.uoregon.edu (JQ Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: SMTP Mail Server Program wanted
Message-ID: <1991Feb6.184037.28420@ns.uoregon.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 91 18:40:37 GMT
References: <1991Feb5.213447.15896@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Sender: news@ns.uoregon.edu
Reply-To: jqj@duff.uoregon.edu (JQ Johnson)
Organization: University of Oregon Network Services
Lines: 30

Howard Fore asks:
>Is there a program similar to Eudora for a SMTP (Smart Mail Transfer
>Protocol - I think) mail server?

Unfortunately, no.  The SMTP protocol does not provide the hooks needed
to use it as a client-to-mailboxserver protocol.  Macs are typically
not up enough of the time to be available as mailbox servers if all you
have is sender-initiated mail transfer.  SMTP as originally designed had
a "TURN" command that was supposed to provide this, but that turned out
to be an unacceptable security problem.

Now, one could imagine an implementation of an SMTP server on a Unix box
that treated TURN as an indication that it should call back the putative
caller asap.  So one could imagine having an SMTP server on a Mac that
contacted its favorite mail relay system (and to which MXs for the Mac
pointed!), told it "ok, I'm up.  Call me back and deliver mail", then
waited while the Unix box sent it all the mail it had stored up for that
Mac.

Of course, this doesn't solve addressing problems.  I don't really want
my mailbox name to be associated with a particular Mac, since I use several
Macs.  Worse, I don't want my mailbox name associated with a dynamically
assigned (by my Kbox) IP address!

-- 
JQ Johnson
Director of Network Services		Internet: jqj@oregon.uoregon.edu
University of Oregon			voice:	(503) 346-4394
250E Computing Center			BITNET: jqj@oregon
Eugene, OR  97403-1212			fax: (503) 346-4397