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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!houxm!hogpc!drux3!bees
From: bees@drux3.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: MCI MAIL - (nf)
Message-ID: <869@drux3.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 6-Nov-83 18:54:29 EST
Article-I.D.: drux3.869
Posted: Sun Nov  6 18:54:29 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Nov-83 07:32:46 EST
References: <3685@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 45


> There is a "MCI Mail id" number, which seems to be of the form nnn-nnnn,
> that uniquely identifies a user.  That can be used if you routinely send
> mail to JSMITH and there are enough JSMITH's to make it annoying.  This
> id number is printed along with the company, address, and full name of
> the user when you are given the choices, so you can find out the id number 
> by wading through the choices once, then just writing down the id number.  
> 
> I don't recall exactly, but there was some implication that you can
> use the full name of the recipient, and it may match on that.  You might
> have to get the periods and spacing exact.  It will take full names
> on letters and not find a match when it isn't supposed to - in this case
> it was being sent on paper.

Yes, the MCI Mail ID is nnn-nnnn.  When you login to MCI Mail, you give
your user name and a password that MCI assigns and changes upon request.
By default the user name is your first initial and last name (JSMITH),
but you can make it anything you want when you first sign up.  I made
mine 'bees'.  Since there can be multiple users with the same user name,
MCI Mail decides who you are by using your password.  The password serves
two purposes.  When sending mail to another user, you can reference them
either by their user name, or by their name.  The software does some kind
of matching, so you don't have to type the recipients name exactly.  In 
my case, MCI Mail has me listed as 'Ray B. Davis II', yet sending to
'Ray Davis' will match me.  If you don't want to send to one of the
John Smiths known to MCI Mail, or want to send to a different address
than the one known about John Smith, you can force it to use an address
that you type in.

Also, in reference to writing software to talk to MCI Mail:
There is an Advanced service available (soon) that allows the user
to use commands instead of menus.  This service comes with more
and longer disk storage, and other things.  It also has a minimum
monthly charge.  I ask MCIHELP if it were possible to be allowed
command usage (instead of menus) without the other "advanced"
services.  They said no.  So if you want a more reasonable
interface, you will have to pay extra.  Also, they do not
have a spelling checker, text formatter or screen editor, and
did not indicate any plans in this direction.  What this means is 
that someone should write a program for UNIX that interfaces to
MCI Mail, so we can take advantage of whatever word processing
software and disk storage we have.

     Ray Davis     AT&T Information Systems Laboratories     Denver
     {ihnp4|hogpc}!druxy!bees                         (303)538-3991