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From: medin@cincsac.arc.nasa.gov (Milo S. Medin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.protocols.appletalk,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Quickmail Experiences?
Keywords: QuickMail
Message-ID: <42596@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 11 Feb 90 05:33:53 GMT
References: <16419@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <4763@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Sender: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: medin@cincsac.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Milo S. Medin)
Followup-To: comp.dcom.lans
Organization: NASA Science Internet Project Office
Lines: 18

Be careful here.  The mail relay to SMTP has got to work right.  If it's flaky,
then your Mac users are cut off from the rest of the world.  Also, make sure
the relay supports not just the DNS for A record resolvement, but also
does the right thing with MX records.  It's got to be a good Internet citizen.

We've been playing with the software here at Ames, and have been very 
dissappointed with the reliability and functionality of the relays we've
tried.  The users (esp. management types) love it.  We engineering types
hate it.  Why?  Because the mail relay is slow or unreliable.  It's
got to work right or it's worthless.

I should point out that the experience I'm quoting is that of our own group.
I can't speak for the other groups playing with it here.  Before you give up
getting your managers to use real machines, make sure there is a viable 
alternative.  If mail isn't reliable, it's not worth using.

						Thanks,
						   Milo