VMS 5.5 and multinet 4.1 SMTP Question

[Peter Coghlan]

>
> I can telnet in/out and I can send SMTP messages, but I cannot yet receive
> them (reply to).  The issue is with the format of the email address.
>
> I was wondering if I must send emails from my VMS 5.5 and multinet 4.1 as
> such:
>
> MAIL> MAIL
> To: SMTP%"bill at myemail.com"
>
> etc..
>
> Is there a way instead to send like this:
>
> MAIL> MAIL
> To: bill at myemail.com"
>

I think being able to that (without the trailing doublequote) came in with
VMS MAIL in V7.something.

If you install PMDF (which also has a hobbyist licence), you get the PMDF MAIL
client which can do this and can also do MIME attachments and is generally a
lot more capable than VMS MAIL.

> Question #2
>
> I'd like to be able to send messages to my MicroVAX (reply to messages).
> At present if I try to send a message to SYSTEM at microvax3100@
> vintagecomputer.net I get a rejection from the POSTMASTER like this:
>
> Bad address -- <SYSTEM>
> Error --
>     %MAIL-E-USERSPEC, invalid user specification ':'
>
> -------------
>

PMDF can probably help you here too as it is vastly more capable than Multinet
SMTP.  However, there is also a lot to learn.

>
> I have been reading up and I have narrowed the issue down to the
> differences between DEC mail format and "modern UNIX".  I don't believe
> anything is being blocked.  I am sure if I sent an email from a VAX to my
> VAX it would work just fine.  I am also guessing there is a translation
> gateway that I need to set as part of the boot up process, and that this is
> a DECnet issue, not a Multinet issue.   I was playing around with
> *@MULTINET:MR_CONFIGURE
> *but I am unsure if that's the correct process, or how to store this so
> it's permanently set.
>
> http://crpppc19.epfl.ch/vms/multinet/html/admin_guide/Ch08.htm#E15E104
>
> Anyone have any tips?  I don't want to upgrade the system unless I have to.
>
> If I find the answer on my own I will post it here.
>

I'm not quite sure whether SYSTEM at microvax3100@vintagecomputer.net is really
what you need here.  Maybe SYSTEM%microvax3100 at vintagecomputer.net would work,
assuming the mail server for vintagecomputer.net is configured to know how
to route mail for a mail domain called microvax3100.

Also, bear in mind that many mail servers may be configured to reject mails
with convoluted routing such as this as spammers often found ways to abuse it.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.