responses to my SMTP query

[Satz at sri-tsc]

From:  Greg Satz <Satz at sri-tsc>


I received about seven responses to my query on available SMTP mailers.
All of the brand name mail systems were represented, and a few
"homebrews" were mentioned.  These responses seem to indicate that no
single smtp system dominates the others.  The existance of the
"homebrews" points out a lack in available smtp mailers.  I am
interested in other peoples' feelings and opinions about the
state-of-the-art in Unix mail systems.

In my original message, I forgot to ask about the availability of the
software, and whether the people in question were willing to distribute
their software, or whether licensees were required, etc. Would you please
answer this?

Our sites run an older version of MMDF which have been hacked to death
to use an external SMTP mailer (from BBN, I think).  This requires two
seperate mail queues for outgoing ARPAnet mail.  It has become fairly
reliable, but it is still very fragile.  It has really outlived its
usefulness, and it is time we went on to something better.  We are
leaning toward using Sendmail, but that leaves our phone channel hosts
stranded.  Anyone solve this problem?

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to respond.

---------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 83 20:26 PDT
From: Bill Nowicki <nowicki%Diablo at SU-Score>
Subject: SMTP

We have about half a dozen Vax Unix systems (depending on how you
count our small 750s) in the Stanford Computer Science Department
which are connected via Ethernet.  There are gateways to the rest of
the campus, and to the Arpa Internet.  We run the Berkeley sendmail
SMTP server in conjunction with the BBN IP/TCP code.  There were
a few initial problems, but things have settled down and we
are now shipping several hundred messages a day over SMTP with
no problems.

	-- Bill

---------------
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 83 08:14:00 PDT
From: Steve Woods <cepu!scw at UCLA-LOCUS>
Subject: SMTP mail systems

	Date: 18 Jul 1983 at 1821-PDT
	From: Greg Satz <Satz at sri-tsc>
	To: unix-wizards at brl-vgr
	Subject: SMTP mail systems
	Sender: satz at sri-tsc

		o what mail system you use and where is it from
We use the ucla mailsystem, (rdm&send) It was devloped @ ucla-s for support
of both ARPA and uucp mail.

		o what type of system(s) you run (pdp, vax, etc)
We run on a 11/44 but the mail system also runs on a VAX and I believe it runs
on the Locus (a bunch of 750's ether-neted together) system.

		o what sort of networks are you on (ether, uucp, etc)
We are only on uucp (a local dialup net around ucla with a few other nodes
(Hao and ucscc) ) but the system does run very well on an ARPA machine, after
all that's what it was designed for.

		o what the mailer should do and how well it does it
It does almost any thing reasonable, the only flaw that I can find is that it
can't communicate with real Vaxen (VMS) and RSX systems. In general it works
like a champ, it knows about ARPA and how to get mail to/from ARPA in a
reasonable manner, The interactive part does most things that one would
want to do with mail (forward, answer, delete, copy, print etc.). The other
part (noninteractive) does aliasing (in a manner similar to Berkley mail
but you don't need to run any programs to get the updated alias file updated).
It also keeps mail in a user (recipiant) owned 0600 mode file in the users
home directory.

		o anything extra that might be interesting (support issues,
		  extra hardware necessary, etc)
No extra hardware (other than that required for normal uucp operations),it
handles locked mail files better that V7 mail (I know that's not saying much
but it does a good job). It supports some local editing and allows you to
invoke the editor of your choice.

---------------
Date: 19 Jul 1983 15:30-EDT
From: Lee.Moore at Rochester.ARPA
Subject: SMTP

We use sendmail here.  We use it with Arpa, Ether and UUCP.  It takes
a little work to understand how write your own rules but it is also
very flexible.  We recommend it.

= lee

---------------
Date: 20 Jul 83 17:15:28 PDT (Wed)
From: Marshall Rose <mrose.uci at Rand-Relay>
Subject: SMTP

We run a slightly modified version of MMDF.  We got the SMTP server and
channel from dpk at brl.  I had to hack it up a bit to run with 4.1a however.
In particular, we're running it on a VAX-11/750, while dpk's code is for
an PDP-11/xx of some sort.

Right now, we're running SMTP over an ethernet, although we will soon
be connecting to the internet.  I'm sure that very little modification will
be required.

As far as mail goes, MMDF is the best.  I've got a few complaints about some
things, but MMDF still manages to outshine UUCP, sendmail, etc., etc.

On a related note, we have interfaced the Rand MH system to use MMDF as
its transport system.  dpk at brl has this code as well.

The MH/MMDF combination is very, very powerful.

** end sales pitch **

/mtr

---------------
Date: Thu Jul 21 1983 13:14-EDT
From: Dennis Rockwell <drockwel at BBN-Vax>
Subject: Re: SMTP mail systems

The internal BBN mailer uses SMTP;  it uses the BBN-style UNIX TCP
implementation, which means that it can talk to any network hardware
that we have a driver for (currently ACC LH/DH, ACC IF-11, Interlan
10Mb Ether, and Proteon Ring).  This works on both Vaxen and C/70s,
and talks to all hosts on the Internet that adhere to the SMTP spec.

---------------
Date: Thursday, 21 Jul 1983 13:54-PDT
Subject: Re: SMTP mail systems
From: greep at SU-DSN

	o what mail system you use and where is it from
MH, from Rand.  MH has its own mailer, and does not use mmdf,
delivermail, sendmail (it predates all of those).  I have made some
changes to it, and I guess it ended up something like mmdf, but I don't
really know much about mmdf.  It does not do any header munging for
mail not composed locally (except for the addition of "Received:" lines
and the uucp "Remote from" line).

	o what type of system(s) you run (pdp, vax, etc)
Vax, 4.1bsd Unix

	o what sort of networks are you on (ether, uucp, etc)
Ethernet (using PUP), Arpanet (SMTP).  MH also talks to uucp.

	o what the mailer should do and how well it does it
The mailer should send mail, check for the usual error conditions, etc.
It does this ok.

	o anything extra that might be interesting (support issues,
	  extra hardware necessary, etc)
It does NOT use Berkeley delivermail/sendmail.