unx09.htm

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<BR>autoreply answers all your incoming e-mail with an automatic reply. This is good if your mailbox is backlogged, or if you go on vacation or otherwise want to let people know that you're behind on reading your mail.

<BR>

<BR>filter saves your incoming e-mail to different incoming mailboxes, deletes it, forwards it, and so on, based on the content of the e-mail message or its headers. This is useful if you subscribe to a mailing list or get lots of mail on a particular 
subject.

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<BR>frm lists From and Subject headers for each message, one line per message. This is useful for quickly checking your incoming e-mail.

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<BR>messages gives a quick count of the messages in your mailbox.

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<BR>newmail and wnewmail are programs that immediately inform you when new e-mail has arrived. wnewmail runs in a window.

<BR>

<BR>readmsg takes selected messages from a mailbox and sends them to standard output. This is good for quickly extracting and processing mail messages in bizarre ways.

<BR></NOTE>

<HR ALIGN=CENTER>

<P>There's even a USENET group for Elm: comp.mail.elm.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>Pine</B>

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<P>If Elm is still too complex for you, Pine is next on the list. Pine stands for Pine is not Elm (trust me, this is considered prime mail humor), and it's somewhat similar to Elm_but different.

<BR></P>

<P>It uses the same one-message-per-line, scroll-through-them-and-use-hotkeys-to-act-on-them principles as Elm, but Pine makes things a little easier. The number of features is less overwhelming, and there's a concerted effort to keep the same keys 
performing the same functions from screen to screen. Several items (such as address books) you'll have to &quot;suffer&quot; through with Elm rate their own full-screen editors in Pine. Pine even comes with its own text editor, Pico, which can be used as a 

general text editor. For the faint of heart, it's certainly an improvement over emacs or vi.

<BR></P>

<P>And there's good news on the installation, if you're lucky. You can anonymous ftp to ftp.cac.washington.edu and look in the /mail directory. Precompiled versions for AIX3.2, HP/UX 9.01, Linux, NeXTstep, Solaris 2.2 (SPARC), and SunOS 4.1.3 (SPARC) are 
available in the UNIX-BINARIES subdirectory, if you're lucky enough to be using one of these. If you need to compile your own version, get pine.tar.Z and warm up your C compiler.

<BR></P>

<P>Future versions of Pine will include built-in configuration, but if you want to set some Pine options, run it once, then use a text editor to edit the file .pinerc in your home directory. The configuration items are explained fairly well. There's not a 

whole lot to do here, but make sure you set personal-name, smtp-server (if you're using SMTP), and inbox-path (usually /usr/spool/mail/yourid).

<BR></P>

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<CENTER><A ID="I22" NAME="I22">

<FONT SIZE=3><B>Remote Mail Clients</B>

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<P>The &quot;Common Mail Programs&quot; section has generally assumed that you will run your mail program on the computer that contains your Internet mail. In many cases, however, you will wish to do all your mail reading on your personal computer, both 
because you may be charged for all the time you are logged onto your mail account, and because the programs on Macs and PCs are much friendlier than those on many UNIX systems.

<BR></P>

<P>What you want is a program that will call the system that receives your mail (or that will connect to it by whatever means necessary), grab all your new mail, and disconnect. Then you can read your mail at your leisure and enter new messages. If there 
are any new messages, the program should call your mail system and give it the new messages for delivery. As you have probably guessed, these programs exist and are known as mail clients.

<BR></P>

<P>The big difference between this approach and the &quot;read your mail on your Internet computer&quot; approach is that your mailbox is kept on your personal computer instead of on the Internet computer.

<BR></P>

<P>Obviously, there has to be a way for your mail client to talk to your Internet computer and transfer messages. There are several standards for this.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>SMTP&#151;Simple Mail Transfer Protocol</B>

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<P>Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), or some variation of it (such as Extended SMTP) is used by computers on the Internet which handle mail to transfer messages from one machine to another. It's a one-way protocol&#151;the SMTP client contacts the SMTP 

server and gives it a mail message.

<BR></P>

<P>Most mail client programs support SMTP for sending outgoing mail, simply because it's very easy to implement. Few mail clients support SMTP for incoming mail, because normally your mail computer can't contact your personal computer at will to give it 
mail. It's possible if your personal computer happens to be permanently networked to the mail computer via EtherNet, for instance, or if your mail computer knows how to use a modem to call your personal computer, but in most cases this isn't done.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3)</B>

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<P>The standard protocol used by most mail clients to retrieve mail from a remote system is one of the post office protocols, either POP2 or usually its successor POP3. These protocols enable your mail client to grab new messages, delete messages, and do 
other things necessary for reading your incoming mail. POP only requires a rather &quot;stupid&quot; mail server in the sense that your mail client needs to have most of the intelligence needed for managing mail. It's a very simple protocol, and is offered 

by most mail clients.

<BR></P>

<P>POP3 is somewhat insecure in that your mail client needs to send your account name and password every time it calls. The more you do this, the greater the chance that someone with a network snooper might get both. (I'm not trying to scare you, but it's 

possible.) An extension known as APOP uses a secure algorithm known as MD5 to encrypt your password for each session.

<BR></P>

<P>Finally, note that standard POP3 has no way to send mail back to the mail server. There is an optional extension to POP3 known as XTND XMIT that allows this, but both the client and the server have to support it. Generally, a mail client uses SMTP to 
send messages and POP3 to retrieve them.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>Desirable Features in Mail Clients</B>

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<P>Here are some useful features to look for when shopping for a mail client:

<BR></P>

<UL>

<LI><B>Delete on retrieve.</B> The client should have the option to automatically delete mail on the server after it has been downloaded. If you only read mail using your client, you don't want a huge mail file building up on the server. On the other hand, 

if you only occasionally use your mail client you might want to leave your mail messages on the host so you can access them with your UNIX mail program.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>Header only retrieve.</B> You can tell quite a bit about a message just by looking at the message header. If reconnecting to your server is easy, you might want to have your mail program download only the header. Then, if you want to see the actual 

text of the message, the program will download that. This can be very useful if some idiot mails you a humongous file&#151;you can be spared the time it takes to download the whole thing to your computer.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>Name server support.</B> A machine name such as mailserv.bozo.edu is actually just a logical name for a computer that is truly identified by its IP number, something that looks like 130.029.13.12. Obviously, the machine name is easier to remember, 
and if anything happens to mailserv that requires the machine to move to a new IP address (such as a hardware upgrade), the administrators can map the name to the new IP address and you won't even notice. Those who are accessing the machine by number will 

have to find the new number and enter it. To turn the name into an IP number, though, your client needs to be smart enough to use a domain name server, which keeps track of what numbers go to what names.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>POP3.</B> This is the standard way for a mail client to retrieve mail from the mail server. If your client doesn't support this, it darn well better have some way to retrieve mail that your mail server understands (for example, IMAP2 or PCMAIL).

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>Retrieve on start-up.</B> The client should enable you to immediately contact your mail server and retrieve all unread mail whenever you start it, because this will probably be your most common operation.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>Separate SMTP server.</B> In some cases you will need to use a different machine to send mail (using SMTP) than you use to retrieve mail (using POP3). A good mail client should let you specify a different server for each.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>SMTP.</B> This is the standard way for a mail client to give mail to the mail server. If your mail client doesn't understand SMTP, it should have some special protocol that your mail server understands to do the same thing (unless you don't want to 

send mail, of course). Some mail clients support SMTP connections as a way to receive messages, which can be useful if you expect your computer to be hooked up to the network all the time.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>TCP/IP, SLIP, or PPP.</B> Your client should be able to access whatever network your mail host is on. Otherwise you'll just be talking to yourself. TCP/IP and TCP/SLIP are the most common network protocols mail programs are likely to need, and PPP 
is becoming more popular. If you have a SLIP or PPP driver that looks like TCP/IP to your mail program, all it needs is TCP/IP support.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>Timed retrieval.</B> The client should be able to automatically connect to your mail server and check for new mail every so often, and beep if it finds new mail. If you're calling in using a modem, you might want to make this every few hours, or 
even once a day, but if you're directly networked with the server (perhaps via EtherNet), you might want to check every five minutes.

<BR>

<BR></LI>

<LI><B>Other mail items.</B> A good mail client makes reading your mail as easy as possible. You shouldn't have to give up any of the features you enjoy under a UNIX mail program. These include a good text editor, header field filtering, an address book 
(aliases), and multiple mailboxes.

<BR>

<BR></LI></UL>

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<CENTER><A ID="I23" NAME="I23">

<FONT SIZE=3><B>A Few Mail Clients</B>

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<P>Again, there are dozens of mail clients out there. If your organization has standardized on one of the big ones, such as cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, Lotus Notes, or BeyondMail, you're already familiar with one. These clients are a bit more 
&quot;homegrown&quot; on the Internet and have at least a demo version you can try first, before you buy the real (and expensive) program.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>CommSet</B>

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<P>Actually, this is a bit more than a mail client&#151;it's an entire TCP/IP (plus SLIP and PPP) suite for DOS. All its components are in one package, which allows multiple-window, simultaneous sessions. You can have ftp in one window, telnet in another, 

and run mail or gopher in another. This isn't a big deal under UNIX, OS/2, or Windows, but it's pretty nice for a single-tasking system such as DOS. I'm including it here because its low price makes it worth looking at if you're searching for a mailer 
under DOS. This is what I use when I need TCP/IP under DOS.

<BR></P>

<P>You can anonymous ftp a demo version of CommSet from ftp.cybercon.nb.ca, or you can send mail to [e-mail] requesting information. The final price (before educational discount) should be around $99.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>Eudora</B>

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<P>Disclaimer: I work for QUALCOMM&#151;in a different department, but I thought you should know_

<BR></P>

<P>Eudora is a full-featured mail client for Macs or PCs running Windows. It comes in two sub-flavors: Version 1 of Eudora is free, and Version 2 and above are commercial. Obviously, Version 2 has nifty features not available in 1, but 1 is pretty powerful 

by itself.

<BR></P>

<P>Eudora is fully windows-, menu-, and icon-driven, so you are bound to like this program. Eudora pretty much has it all&#151;features galore. The only thing I could ask for is a native OS/2 version_

<BR></P>

<P>To test the free versions of Eudora, anonymous ftp to ftp.qualcomm.com. The PC version is under /pceudora/windows (get all the files). The Mac version is under /mac/eudora. For a Mac you need to decide which version you want to try&#151;if you have 
System 6, get 1.3. Otherwise grab 1.4 (or higher).

<BR></P>

<P>Single-copy pricing is about $65, with an educational discount available. Send e-mail to [e-mail] for more info, or call 1-800-2-Eudora.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>Pegasus Mail</B>

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<P>Pegasus Mail runs on Novell and supports HMS and SMTP. It has DOS, Windows, and Macintosh versions, which gives you a wide range of platforms with a single program. There are a number of utilities available for use with it, such as Mercury, which is an 

SMTP gateway for Novell. It's fairly flexible in allowing you to set up user-defined mail gateways and has a large features list.

<BR></P>

<P>It's got its own text editor, which is integrated with the rest of the program, although if you're attached to your text editor (I couldn't give up QEdit), you can define your own external editor.

<BR></P>

<P>To find all the versions and add-on utilities, you can anonymous ftp to risc.ua.edu, under /pub/network/pegasus. The software is free! If you want manuals, it'll cost you $150 for a five-copy license. That's only $30 apiece. You can contact David Harris 

by fax in New Zealand at ([phone], or send inquiries to [e-mail].

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>Pine</B>

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<P>Didn't we just cover this? Yep_this is a DOS version of the UNIX Pine mail program. You can have the same mail interface on your UNIX and DOS platforms. Pine's big limitation is that it doesn't support POP3&#151;it only supports IMAP2 and SMTP. For more 

information on Pine, see the section, &quot;Common Mail Programs,&quot; where the UNIX version is discussed.

<BR></P>

<P>To get it, anonymous ftp to ftp.cac.washington.edu and look in the /mail/PC-PINE directory. Grab the file that's appropriate for your networking software: FTP's PC/TCP (pcpine_f.zip), the generic packet driver using built-in Waterloo TCP/IP 
(pcpine_p.zip), Novell's LANWorkPlace (pcpine_n.zip), or Sun's PC/NFS (pcpine_s.zip). If you don't have one of these, try the Waterloo TCP/IP version&#151;it should only require the basic packet drivers.

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>ECSMail</B>

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<P>ECSMail is impressive for its wide range of support. It includes not only a mail client, but mail transport and handling services, so you can build a complete mail system. All the components run under UNIX, OS/2, OpenVMS, or Windows NT, and mail clients 

are available for MS-DOS, Windows, and the Mac (System 7). We're talking enterprise-wide solution here, if you're into that level of standardization.

<BR></P>

<P>Contact ECS (in Canada) by calling 1-403-420-8081, or send mail to ECS Sales at [e-mail].

<BR></P>

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<FONT SIZE=3><B>Other Mail Programs/Clients</B>

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<P>This isn't all that's available for mail, by a long shot. Read the USENET group comp.mail.misc for more information.

<BR></P>

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<CENTER><A ID="I24" NAME="I24">

<FONT SIZE=3><B>Internet E-Mail Gateways</B>

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<P>Internet Mail is more than just Internet. Because Internet is everywhere, it interests all the right people. In this case, the right people are all the other services that offer electronic mail and who want a piece of the action.

<BR></P>

<P>In theory, the Internet is a competitor with all the existing services such as AT&amp;T Mail, CompuServe, and the rest. In practice, it's a neutral competitor&#151;it's not some guided, malevolent entity that is trying to do away with any of the other 
services. Rather, it competes just by its existence; it offers more information and more connectivity than most of the services can ever hope to offer. Smart information services finally realized that this could be put to their advantage&#151;anyone who 
cares to can join the Internet, and a service that joins the Internet has advantages over its competitors.

<BR></P>

<P>One huge advantage is connectivity. As soon as a mail service adds a computer (known as a gateway) that can transfer from its system to the Internet and vice versa, its users can exchange mail with anyone on the service or with anyone on the Internet. 
That's a lot of people. So a lot of services are now offering some sort of mail gateway. Even Prodigy, which was somewhat late to grasp the possibilities, has one now.

<BR></P>

<P>Instead of GEnie needing to install a special gateway to talk to Prodigy, and one to CompuServe, and one to SprintMail, and one to BubbaNet, it can set up and maintain just one gateway to the Internet through which everything flows. Given the glacial 
speed with which most of the online services implement upgrades like this, requiring only a single gateway is a good thing.

<BR></P>

<P>So now anyone can send e-mail anywhere! All is fluffy and