Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!sl From: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: Networks considered harmful Message-ID: <100@van-bc.UUCP> Date: 19 Dec 89 20:19:12 GMT References: <8912190403.AA05387@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Reply-To: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) Organization: Wimsey Associates Lines: 54 In article nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu writes: > >In practice, there is no standardization in E-mail packages. You can get >one for free (Opus BBS), but it takes a good bit of tinkering to get it >working. > >The way to market E-mail is to glom it onto a FAX machine. Make a >little box that you plug in between your FAX machine and the phone >line. Give it enough smarts so that it can distinguish between its >carrier and the FAX machines, and automatically forward the call to >the FAX machine. Put some RAM in it so it can hold incoming messages. >Put a RS-232 (ugh) line on it so a computer can read its output. >Write some software for the PC and Mac that downloads the messages >from the little box. Or glom the fax onto your favourite PC. In my opinion one of the nicer DOS based fax packages is done by Intel with their Connection Co-Processor. It is a smart board which will send/receive fax/files in the background. With it you can send a fax, receive a fax, send a file to another pc with a CPP or receive a file from another pc with a CPP. Of course this all happens in the background, just like on a real os. They have a little email type thing which you can enter a list of people to send a message to. It looks up their phone numbers and sends the message either as a fax or if that person has a pc with CPP then as an ASCII file (it shows up at the other end as "email"). I think the advantage's of FAX are the simplicity and low cost of the transmission. Point to point using the low cost of long distance. The data networks "should be cheaper because packets can share a line" argument doesn't seem to follow through when you look at the rates. And value added email services which should be able to use bulk data transmission are also fairly expensive. FAX is popular because it's reliable, and inexpensive. For example in Vancouver law offices make a great deal of use of fax to send draft documents to other law offices a couple of blocks away because it's less expensive (essentially free) than a bicycle courier and faster. Any email system that you want to propose for their use will have to emulate this "feature" - essentially zero cost for operation for local use. Last time I checked about Envoy 100 (our local Telemail clone) they charged a fair bit for mail even if it was going to another person in the same building :-) Another advantage of fax is the simplicity of use. Dial the phone and the box does the rest. This has to be carried over to the replacement email package. You have to just give it a mail message or file to be transferred and have it delivered without any interaction by the user (except perhaps that he can't reset the machine for a few minutes). -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca ubc-cs!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax)