Conference hydra::amiga_v1

824.0. "HackerMail Network?" by KIBITZ::KAUFMAN () Mon Oct 19 1987 18:08

I am trying to find out what exists in the market today in the way of a
micro-based mail system.  What I have in mind is being able to address a
mail message (say using VMS Mail) to a server which takes as part of its
address a phone number and which then periodically calls that phone number
which is hopefully an auto-answer modem.  It would then negotiate a baud
rate and transport protocol (probably something like Kermit) and transfer
the message over.  The system should run between large machines, small ones,
or a mix - anything that could be set up to handle the protocol.

This seems like such an obvious and useful idea that I can't believe there
aren't some efforts of this sort going on out there.  Can anyone give me
a pointer for where to start looking?  How about the basic tools needed to
build such a system?  Are there dial-out modems servers around?  What are
they used for?  Are any of the auto-answer bulletin board programs designed
for non-interactive use - with machine friendly startup protocols as
opposed to human friendly?

    Look into something like FIDO-net. (At least that close to the name)
    
    It looks like it does something close to what you want.  It seems
    to take a local bbs's user messages and calls another machine, sending
    it's new messages, and probably the new messages it has recieved.
    
    In order not to confuse either of us, try contacting a sysop of
    a local fidonet board.  If you don't know of any, I'll try a local
    one, and ask him whatever questions you may have.
    			Rob
    

    re .0
    
    If there's a particular site you want to send mail to, that shouldn't
    be a problem. With VT100 or VT200, you can control the entire procedure
    with a script file and make it very automated.
    
    dov