Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!huntting
From: huntting@csn.org (Brad Huntting)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Re: mail delivery over intermittent Internet link
Message-ID: <1991Mar15.215211.25654@csn.org>
Date: 15 Mar 91 21:52:11 GMT
References: <4859@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>
Organization: Colorado SuperNet Inc.
Lines: 35

In article <4859@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> jnford@handlebar.weeg.uiowa.edu (Jay Ford) writes:

>There is a remote site connected to my site via an intermittent dial-up link
>for which I will be forwarding mail.  We're running sendmail on each end, and
>are probably not inclined to switch mailers, but....

[ etc ]

>The SMTP "turn" command seems like a perfect way for the remote site to request
>their queued mail.  They would bring up the link, connect to my mailer, and
>turn the connection around to receive their mail.  Has anyone added support for
>the SMTP "turn" command to sendmail?

[ etc ]

I've thought about this too...  sendmail (5.61+ida) used to support a
flag (-R string ???) which would supposedly run the queue for all
messages which `matched' `string'...  My solution was going to allow
SLIP connections to rlogin and do a /usr/lib/sendmail -R slip.host.name
to get their mail.  The turn command sounds like a much cleaner
solution...

With more and more sites doing dialup slip this is a problem which
needs a good solution.  Our CS department is thinking of offering slip
connections to students and professors who run unix at home.  It's
generally thought that this will be cheaper in human resources than
trying to maintain uucp connections, and I agree...  As it stands now,
the only real option for delivering mail over such connections is to
have the machines dialup and stay connected for a long (~1hr) time...
This means an extra phone line at the remote site, and lots of phones,
modems, and annex ports here at school...  Cheap ISDN would sure be
nice...


brad