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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!columbia!rutgers!clyde!cbatt!ukma!david
From: david@ms.uky.csnet (David Herron, Resident E-mail Hack)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Interactive SMTP over phone lines
Message-ID: <6604@ukma.ms.uky.csnet>
Date: Mon, 11-May-87 01:30:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: ukma.6604
Posted: Mon May 11 01:30:16 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 13-May-87 01:25:36 EDT
References: <351@hqda-ai.UUCP>
Reply-To: david@ms.uky.csnet (David Herron, Resident E-mail Hack)
Organization: U of Kentucky, Mathematical Sciences
Lines: 40
Keywords: smtp sendmail interactive modem bsmtp

welllll...  The idea of doing SMTP over phone lines has been visited
already by the CSnet folk, in the form of SMTP over the PhoneNet protocol.
It is currently in Beta Test.  It runs under MMDF and looks a whole
lot like the normal phone channel.

It does require MMDF and all that baggage.  "that baggage" means a minimum
of 2 megs of binaries and a large database (my dbm file is currently 8
megs, but there's lots of "holes" in that file).  The database can be
smaller if you don't try to know about everything.  I am also unsure of
how easy it would be for "everybody" to be able to get MMDF, and once they
have it be able to configure it.  The easiest way to get MMDF is to get
a copy of the 4.3BSD distribution.

Is it a good idea??

Well, I don't see any compelling reason to stop using UUCP.  It's a nice
flexible transport-level that all are accustomed to using.

I don't see the advantage of doing all the work to get an error-free
channel running into your "sendmail -bs" (or whatever) just so you
can run an interactive form of BSMTP.  :-)

Just as not every site runs MMDF, neither does every site run Sendmail.
It is also sort of difficult to acquire Sendmail.  It is definitely
extremely painful to configure Sendmail (part of the reason we're
running MMDF here is because I couldn't figure out Sendmail well
enough to get it configured).  It is easier to add my BSMTP program
to an smail system (or MMDF, or Sendmail) than it is to add MMDF
or Sendmail to a "nothing" system.

What will end up being done is whatever requires the least work.
I confident of that.  As I see it, the current "least work" for
a binary-only site that has no fancy mailer is to add either smail
or uumail.  Then we can think about using my BSMTP program to make
the world "more intelligent".
-- 
----- David Herron,  cbosgd!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET, david@ms.uky.csnet
----- (also "postmaster", "news", and the Usenet map maintainer for Kentucky.)
----- bsmtp-users@ms.uky.csnet for bsmtp discussion
----- bsmtp-users-request@ms.uky.csnet for administrivia