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From: mikel@codas.ATT.UUCP (Mikel Manitius)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Re: Gateway to AT&T Mail
Message-ID: <672@codas.ATT.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Jul-86 22:22:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: codas.672
Posted: Tue Jul 22 22:22:40 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Jul-86 00:42:46 EDT
References: <633@codas.ATT.UUCP> <123@einode.UUCP> <657@codas.ATT.UUCP> <288@micropro.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Altamonte Springs, FL
Lines: 63

>>If you're paying for long distance data lines, and/or communications
>>costs, that's one thing, but if another site is charging you for access
>>to them, then that is what I disagree with.
>>
>>			Mikel Manitius @ AT&T-IS Altamonte Springs, FL
> 
> Oh, come on now!  ATTMAIL isn't a "SITE"  It's a for-profit electronic
> mail carrier.  It happens that a feature of such a service is to pick up
> and deliver mail to Un*x machines running uucp and mail.  Wunnderful!

Incorrect. In all practical purposes, "attmail" is a uucp site. It is
different in the sense that it can be dialed locally in most major
cities, or via an 800 (wats) number, has a massive user base, and
offers other services (ie: USNail, express courier, Telex), however 
it is still just one node to UUCP, no matter where you are.

> "NO! YOU CAN'T RUN UP MY ATTMAIL BILL.  I WON'T PAY FOR YOUR TRAFFIC IN
> REAL HARD DOLLARS CHARGED TO MY COST CENTER."

It is a bit silly, but it may be harder to justify a large attmail
bill than the usual phone bill to the bean counters. Also, as I stated
earlier, you can run up quite a large bill if you use all of the AT&T Mail
services.

> One of the reasons that MicroPro probably will not connect to ATTMAIL is
> that we have no way of keeping somebody from mailing to
> micropro!attmail and thus foisting their mail charges off on us.

Well, that just like "NO! YOU CAN'T RUN UP MY ATTMAIL BILL". Whether
you connect or not, is of course your choice, but if you don't for the
reason that you can't control others from sending mail through you
because you don't want to pay for them, then don't expect to foister
your charges on them.

> Does anybody out there have a method for a site without a source license
> to pass mail between all it's neighbors EXCEPT attmail?  We run
> honey-dan-ber so we have the source for that, but others (SCO?
> MicroPort?  etc.) won't even have that.

HoneyDanBer (or any other UUCP) wouldn't be a good place to put in
a restriction. A configurable mail would, but not everyone can have
the luxury of that. However you could take "smail" (Public Domain),
put the restrictions in there, and make it a front-end to your local
mail system. (Smail will also give you pathalias data capability)

> This is going to be quite an issue, isn't it.
> 				-edg

Probably so, but I think the main problem is that AT&T Mail may not
be understood fully by everyone, it is a system of which the
distributed architecture is intended to be transparent to the user.

I would suggest that anyone interrested cat AT&T Mail, and ask for
more information. A brochure will not cost you anything, but will
clear up lots of questions.

	The Assitance/Registration Number is

		(800) MAIL-672
		     (6245)
-- 
			Mikel Manitius @ AT&T-IS Altamonte Springs, FL
			...{seismo!akgua|ihnp4|cbosgd|mcnc}!codas!mikel