To the members of the Email project and other interested folks:
 
Attached as an enclosure with this mail message is a text document of the
meeting notes from our November 21, 1994 email project meeting.
 
If you have comments or questions, please email me directory or reply to the
list, whichever seems appropriate.
 
Thanks,
Debi
 
<<<<<< Attached TEXT file follows >>>>>>
Email Project Meeting
November 21, 1994
 
Attendees:  Chris Allison, Debi Allison, Sarah Baker, Kent Covert, John
Czaja, Larry Downes, Tim Gruenhagen, John Harlan, Steve Moore, Peter Murray,
Rob Pickering, Steve Thole, Boyd Wilson
 
These notes incorporate notes from John Harlan distributed to the Network
Services Plan working group on 11/22/94.
 
1.  Novell email short-term strategy: update and discussion: Boyd Wilson
/Using Rose as an SMTP-smart agent: Rob
 
Background:  Novell-based Pegasus Mail servers on campus are moving away from
the Charon SMTP Gateway (no longer a supported product by PMail) that sends
all outgoing PMail to a "smart mailer" (currently VM/CMS) to a new Novell
Loadable Module (NLM) called Mercury.
 
Mercury makes it possible to provide POP3 service to Mac and Windows clients
from Novell servers using either Eudora or PMail.  (DOS clients cannot
presently use POP3 -- the memory requirements are too high -- but they can
still use the normal non-POP PMail services.)
 
PMail is coming around: in addition to offering POP3, it has built-in ph/qi
query capability [see Editor's Note below} and is MIME-compliant.  The
Windows client receives notification via Novell MHS; notification is
available for Mac clients by installing the Netware support disk.
 
        [Editor's note: Rob reported on 11/22 that the Mac PMail client does not
offer ph/qi support and it assumes you are on a Novell server, which among
other things, means you can't mail to local users on a POP server without
specifying a full e-mail address.  PMail for Windows does not appear to
support ph/qi.  He will check to see if the Eduroa client offers MIME
support.]
 
Discussion quickly settled on the future of MS Mail.  Decision: MCIS should
plan for phase-out of MS Mail and move toward its replacement(s).  The change
in status will be reflected in the MCIS Supported Software List.  Larry
reported that Arts and Science Mac MS Mail clients are moving to POP PMail or
Eudora; MS Mail will be disappearing from the A&S server probably by the end
of second term.  There will need to be more discussion about this migration
and its announcement.
 
The networking group needs direction from the Email project group on the
following items:
 
a.  Is there going to be a centralized POP server?  Recommendation:  The
Network Services Plan working group explore distributed vs. centralized POP
service.  One proposal: any unit with its own server takes care of its own
clients; students to receive service from an LTC server; university-wide
server for other clients without their own server.
 
b.  What single POP client or group of POP clients will be recommended?
Decision: The Email group formally recommends adoption of IMAP and POP3 as
the standard direction for email at Miami.  The sense of the group seemed to
be that MCIS should support the shareware Pegasus Mail clients, but offer
departments the option of using the commercial Eudora product with Qualcomm's
tech support.  These two products offer POP3, MIME compliance, notification,
etc.  (The freeware Eudora client does not offer MIME compliance.)
 
        There are hardware implications to adopting IMAP and POP: while the College,
Schools and various units with their own servers can take care of their own
faculty and staff, we are left needing to consider provision of one or more
platforms for student IMAP and POP servers.  If we want to do so in a
distributed architecture, it was suggested we might propose student mail
servers (probably Novell 4.1 or higher) in the MCIS Learning Technologies
Centers.  If we prefer a centralized IMAP/POP server, we would need to
propose either a new platform or upgrade an existing IMAP/POP-server-capable
platform (i.e., VMS).
 
        To do:  A subgroup will look further at the Mac PMail client and commercial
Eudora client.  Our requirements are:  (1) MIME-compliance; and (2) ph/qi
support.  Rob, John Harlan, Kent, Boyd, Steve Thole and Debi to meet and
review the products.
 
 
c.  Where will Novell NDS point mail to?  Decision: Rose (RS/6000), as
mailfwd.muohio.edu.  Charon and MS Mail to point there also.
 
        Background:    It is desirable to point the existing gateways for PMail and
MS Mail to a different "smart mailer" machine, preferably the MCIS IBM
RS/6000 (Rose), which presently hosts the ph/qi electronic directory server
software with its inbound mail redirection.  This will help relieve VM/CMS's
SMTP load.
 
        This has hardware implications.
 
2.  Update on VM backlogs: Steve Moore.
 
        This discussion was held as an FYI to the Email team.
 
        a) SMTP: in-bound listener gets about 18,000 messages/day.  Gets bogged
down.  SMTP-outbound handles lots of LISTSERV traffic - about 20,000
items/day.  Could put up more SMTP mail agents, but we'd need a smarter
mailer, i.e., LMAIL, or go to another machine to offload some of the traffic.
 
        b) News Reader: number of newsgroups have proliferated to the point of
saturation -- about 50,000-60,000 new messages/day.  Next release of VM
provides a new news client.  Client/server application: would read mail off
another server e.g., Rose, Vax.  This is what Hamilton and Middletown are
currently doing.
 
        Tech Services is working to solve both issues.
 
3.  Network Services Plan working group: John Harlan
 
        John explained the charge of the Network Services Plan working group, which
will provide a report to the MCIS management team on the recommended network
services to be provided.  High priority services that have been identified so
far include: authentication, directory services, central backup/restore,
software license management, software distribution, Gopher, Web, Netnews, and
LISTSERV.
 
        The group is looking at the hardware and human resources to support these
services.  The report will be incorporated into the Data and Video Network
Plan which is being spearheaded by David Stonehill.  The initial draft of the
report is due to be presented to the MCIS management team in early January.
 
4.  Progress Report on Email Project Recommendations dated June 28, 1994:
Debi
 
        The list of recommendations as they existed prior to this meeting was passed
out; the status of the items has been updated.  Any further corrections
should be directed to Debi.
 
 5.  Remaining issues for decision and recommendation to the Network Services
team:
 
        a.  IMAP/POP Recommendations: from where should it be served -- centralized
or distributed?  In principle, we want it distributed if the management
issues can be resolved.  Do we want to depend on shareware/freeware versions,
or license the commercial software?  At this point, PMail (free) and the
commercial Eudora client are the products that meet our two primary criteria:
ability to query our electronic directory, and MIME-compliant.  We will look
further at PMail for Windows and Mac and commercial Eudora.  [Editor's note:
Rob reported after checking PMail that is does not have integrated ph/qi
query capability, and therefore does not meet one of our minimum
requirements.]
 
        MCIS needs to announce that the Charon gateways are going away, and that MS
Mail support will be withdrawn.  Target: Charon gateways become unsupported
6/95 and disappear 12/95.  May 1995: bring in replacement product for test
and begin support in July 1995.  MS Mail support may be gradually phased out.
 This is an ambitious plan and depends upon funding and staffing.
 
        b.  No one is aware of new products.
 
        c.  Outgoing mail redirection: do we want to rewrite the address as the
unique ID? [log in to unmask]  This has hardware requirements for which we
have not budgeted in FY95.  Debi to discuss with Kris after finding out more
on the hardware requirements from Rob.  Commercial Eudora is PowerMac-native,
and can run in the background.
 
        d.  Calendaring/Scheduling:  Debi reported on the widespread use of Meeting
Maker on campus.  School of Business using it for everyone; Applied Science
ordered 20 licenses and may extend the offer to faculty; other departments
also using MM.  Negatives: requires a dedicated server, no cross-server
search, backups require the server to be shut down.  MCIS would need
approximately 110 licenses at a total cost of close to $4,000.  Debi to check
on funding, and will notify Divisional Representatives and Barb of our
interest.
 
Another meeting will be scheduled once the subgroup has its findings on PMail
and the commercial Eudora.