Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!im4u!ut-sally!utah-cs!cetron
From: cetron@utah-cs.UUCP (Edward J Cetron)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: Macintosh mail systems.
Message-ID: <5425@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: 20 Apr 88 04:23:14 GMT
References: <Added.0WNx58y00Ui34=3k9_@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: cetron@cs.utah.edu.UUCP (Edward J Cetron)
Organization: Center for Engineering Design, Univ of Utah
Lines: 46


>  I'm just tossing out ideas at the moment. Please respond to them,
>either to the group or to me personally and I'll collect and summarize
>them.
>
>-David Kovar
> DKovar@BBN.COM



	I think the first question to answer is the physical distribution
method.  If every Mac is directly connected to a VMS/UNIX box, I know of
at least one (maybe more) Public Domain packages which will work. I also know
of several Appletalk-only Mac to Mac systems (Intermail, Inbox, TOPSsomething,
etc).
	What I DON'T see is a mechanism which:

	1. can be used Mac to Mac via localtalk transport.

	2. can ALSO be used Mac to ??? via localtalk to ethertalk.



	My suggestion (and yes it is just MY suggestion based on our
facilities preferences after trying lots of mailers on the Macs AND the two
flavors of vaxen):

	1. use 'standard' SMTP as the transport mechanism from ??? mainframe
		to a centralized Mac. Currently, Mac-PMDF seems to be the most
		versatile package for this.  What needs to be added is the
		transport via ethernet to localtalk for those sites, serial
		line support is already there.

	2. use Intermail as the Mac to Mac package.

	3. write the code and hooks to gateway the mail from Mac-PMDF to
		Intermail. This will likely be the hardest part. Also, if a
		very clean job is done here, many other Mac-Mac mailers could
		be added here.

	Well, that's my two cents worth....now if only I could find to time
to check how reasonable the above is.... maybe Microsoft (who know owns
Intermail) would be interested?

-ed
cetron@cs.utah.edu