Hello William!

Friday September 20 1996, William Connor writes to John Mudge:

 JM>  WC>> think I do know is that I need the commands mput and mget
 JM>  WC>> accessible to me in order to get the mail that I want.
 JM>>
 JM>> Maybe not.  These commands are sometimes internal to the software that
 JM>> you running.  That software in turn issues commands to get a list of
 JM>> files in t current directory and then asks for them one after the
 JM>> other.

 WC> The provider told me that they cut access to many of the commands due
 WC> to security problems.  I am sure that there is a way to do what I want
 WC> with scripting, but the provider knows less about this than I do (which
 WC> isn't saying much), so I am kinda forced to either get a program, or
 WC> find some learning resource and learn FAST...  :)

I think I am somewhat confused about what you are trying to do and where you
are trying to do it :-)  I thought you wanted to use Email "attaches" of
UUencoded or Base64 encoded mail archives.  All of that needs to be done on
your system.  You can then simply call in and upload them just like any other
mail.

 JM>> OK.  What are they using?  In what manner is the "mail attached to
 JM>> the
 JM>> emai Are these UUencoded FTN message archives?

 WC> Right now, what I do is run FD2FTP, and manually send these to my hub
 WC> via MIME email attach.

OK..."MIME" covers a variety of ills, but I presume you mean BASE64 encoding.
No problem here.  I presume that you use FD2FTP simply to sort the mail?

 JM>> OK...let's get the basics out of the way.  Are you trying to
 JM>> transfer
 JM>> ARCma style (FTN) message archives?  Is there an FTP site where you
 JM>> pick them up/drop them off?

 WC> My hub ftp's the backbone and filebone, and then MIME attaches my
 WC> packets/files/tics to me.

OK...you are still dealing with Email attaches.

 WC> He has the ftp part automated, but not the
 WC> email part to me and several other people.  I just pick up my packets
 WC> with Eudora from my isp.

OK.  No problem there.  It sure sounds like you have a POP3 mail account.

 JM>> of KA9Q can do it.  Do you have bidirectional SMTP mail available or
 JM>> is
 JM>> it POP3?

 WC> I have heard that KA9Q could help me, but from what I have seen, there are
 WC> several versions, and I can't find enough info to know what/which I need.

See below :-)

 WC> And as far as the SMTP/POP3, I have one for the incoming, and one for
 WC> the
 WC> outgoing (at least that's what my provider says, and they don't know which
 WC> is which...).

POP3 is how your ISP sends it to you.  ou will be using SMTP to send it back.
This is a pretty standard single-user mail account.

 WC> I know that I have access to POP3 because that is what
 WC> Eudora says that I am logging in to when I call (actually, it says
 WC> that
 WC> for either way, but the provider says I have access to one for incoming,
 WC> but not the other... I am so confused...  Yes, I am investigating changing
 WC> providers, but none of the other ones that I have talked to that are a
 WC> local call to me seem to know any more...)

That may be about all you need to know :-)

 JM>> Are you running under DOS?  DesqView?  A full-time connection or
 JM>> dialup
 JM>> at "timed" intervals?  What mailer software are you using on the
 JM>> Fidonet side? What type of message base?

 WC> Quick rundown...

 WC> 486Dx2-50 running with OS/2 Warp Connect, 8 meg ram, Intermail/Interecho,
 WC> Renegade v05-11 (*.MSG).

OK.  Since you are running OS/2, I need to refer you to the experts.  Running
KA9Q is not recommended under OS/2 although I do not understand why.  Mike
Bilow can fill you in.

 WC> Plenty of hard drive space and many bald spots
 WC> from trying to make this work...  :)

I know that feeling...or...at least the latter half :-)

 WC> Thanks, John for responding.  You can contact me at
 WC> wconnor@concentric.net
 WC> as this might be better in email (of course, I know that there are many
 WC> others out there in the same boat I am that want to know too...  :)

Since I am not much help beyond helping you identify what you need to do, I
need to hand the help on to the next guy.  My guess is that automating it by
using a script would be your best bet.  I know such scripts exist and that
mailer software suitable for your application does exist as native OS/2 code
but I have no idea what to point you toward or why :-)  This might be a good
topic for OS2INET echo?

                  John Mudge [jmudge@ptmudge.westsound.com]