Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncc!augate!lyndon
From: lyndon@auvax.uucp (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: post office protocol
Message-ID: <423@aurora.auvax.uucp>
Date: 27 Dec 88 01:19:28 GMT
References: <4889@mailgw.cc.umich.edu> <578@redsox.UUCP>
Reply-To: lyndon@aurora.UUCP (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Organization: Athabasca University
Lines: 31

In article <578@redsox.UUCP> campbell@redsox.UUCP (Larry Campbell) writes:
>At the risk of starting a minor flame war (Go ahead, punk, make my day),
>I'm going to suggest that implementing POP would be a waste of time because
>the 1988 X.400 series of recommendation contains a protocol to implement
>a Message Store, which is exactly what POP provides.

Commence fire! :-)

I'm very interested in discussing POP implementations. Over the next couple
of years, Athabasca University will need to implement a system that will
allow us to store and forward mail to (potentially) over a thousand micro-
computers of various makes and models. Can you show me ANY X.400 software
that we could include in our student materials at a cost to the student of
under $25 (Canadian) ??? Besides, how do we run X.400 over asynch dialup
lines?  POP is a fairly robust protocol that would provide this service.
Most important, it's *free*, both to the University and the students.

(FYI - Athabasca U used to be part of CDNnet, an X.400 network running
over Datapac. We ended up dropping our membership due to the high X.25
charges incurred in running the X.400 protocols. Cost can become a
major factor very quickly, especially when you're a broke university
(I hope Don's not listening :-))

>Why fiddle with random hacks when recognized international standards exist?

TCP/IP forever !! :-)  Mind you, Athabasca gets wired for ISDN starting
in January, and I'm not complaining *too* loudly ...

-- 
Lyndon Nerenberg   Computing Services   Athabasca University
{alberta, attvcr, ncc}!auvax!lyndon  ||  lyndon@nexus.ca