24 Feb
2016
24 Feb
'16
2:16 a.m.
How does one
send mail INBOUND to this kind of VAX mail from a modern email
like gmail? Is it possible to format the header somehow to get the message
through? You can't simply send a message to
system at microvax3100.vintagecomputer.net
how would I format the email address? I could write a PHP program to
format the header "wrong" for normal purposes but "right" for the
VAX
inbound I suppose. Any tips that don't involve creating a gateway nor
changing the target VAX itself?
I don't remember the details of what email addresses looked like in the days
when DEC was first connected to the Internet (or ARPAnet). There was a
bunch of magic at the WRL gateway (gatekeeper.dec.com -- also one of the
first firewalls). A lot of this can be done by suitable magic in
sendmail.cf. At some later time I believe that the mapping from SMTP
addresses to DECmail addresses was pretty much transparent, so you could
indeed send that simple address you mentioned. Earlier on it was something
like "ark::[1,211]"@decwrl.dec.com or perhaps kremvax!decwrl!ark!1,211 ...