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From: demarsee@GAMERA.CNS.SYR.EDU (Darryl E. Marsee)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re:  Mail for the mac and smtp
Message-ID: <9002061847.AA19310@gamera.cns.syr.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 90 18:47:20 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 47

>Major disadvantage:
>MacIP and MacMH don't yet work with Apple's MacTCP.

 Not true.  I've been using version 4.0, which works with MacTCP,
 since last September.  You might want to contact them again.
 Their address is macip@jessica.stanford.edu.

>NB: With some trickery, you don't have to have an account for each user.

 True, but since we already have procedures in place to allocate
 accounts on our academic Unix system, it is administratively easier
 for us to just give a user an account instead of having to take
 care of a separate database of mail-only users.

>Right now, we try to use HyperCard to interface our Macs to the Unix boxes.
>Advantage: Flexibility. For instance, the latest version of MacMH we have (I
>think it's 2.0) didn't allow for user-specific headers, didn't
>create a Date: header (which is a problem with mmdf's SMTP
>implementation, since it does not add this header), and a bunch of
>other problems.

 As far as the version of MacMH, see above.  While there is no date
 header created by MacMH, it IS added by sendmail, so it's no problem
 if you use sendmail instead of MMDF.  Also, since (1) MacMH supplies
 the headers needed to get the mail through, and (2) I have yet to
 have a user complain to me that he/she can't add headers, not having
 the ability to add them hasn't been much of a problem here.  As for
 "a bunch of other problems", haven't seen them myself, nor heard of
 them from our users.

>Major disadvantage: Reliability. HyperTCP still seems somewhat flakey.
>Getting updates distributed is also a bit of a hassle, although I am
>giong to get this organized...
>Disclaimer: People here are also using HyperCard to read News and to FTP
>stuff.

 MacMH has been as stable as a rock for us. 

 Disclaimers: 

 I too use HyperCard to read News; works fine.  

 For FTP/Telnet I use Stanford's MacIP; also works fine.

 As far as I'm concerned, there is no "best" or "worst";
 use whatever meets the needs for your particular situation;
 I just wanted to point out another available option.