Re: Apple II Email (Network Connections)

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

My apologies if this has already been covered, but with my extremely
limited network knowledge, I'll throw in my $0.02...

It seems to me that there exist network servers designed to be connected
via some sort of archaic router to dumb terminals.  This is where I know
very little; perhaps it is as simple as using a multiport terminal server
such as a mainframe server would use to talk to a bank of modems.  With
that in mind, could one not use, for instance, a Linux server talking
through such a network, cabled with RS-232-style wiring?  Then at the most
basic level, each station could use a comm program to log in to the
network server, collect mail, deposit outgoing mail messages, and log out.
 Or not, as the case may be.

The problem with this arrangement, of course, is the network router.  To
the best of my knowledge, this type of serial-port networking is all but
extinct (I say "all but" because such a network does exist in the building
where I work...connected indirectly to the University Sun-box cluster and
more directly to the now-obsolete administrative computer).  But the
network hardware might be obtainable as commercial/institutional network
users modernize their computer systems and install PC's and Ethernet.

At the other end, this becomes a potentially useful system, since writing
a mail client program for a ][e...to log into the network, pull down the
user's mail, process the mail files, and upload outgoing messages...could
be an almost trivial task, compared with the Herculean task of trying to
write drivers to speak Appletalk via SSC, or fake an Ethernet connection,
or whatever...on the ][e side, really the whole problem would be with
developing the client software.  And the best part of it is that if
current Internet mail standards are adopted, then the client program (with
modifications...remove the log-on and capture feature) would be useful to
users not connected to the sort of network your project describes.

Just a few thoughts...My access to comp.sys.apple2.programmer is almost
non-existant (VERY spotty), so I haven't been following this discussion,
though I am actually interested in seeing what kinds of ideas you guys are
coming up with.

--Dave Althoff, ][.
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