Klarinet Archive - Posting 000481.txt from 1998/12

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Netscape mail
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 09:51:38 -0500

From: Jim O'Briant <jobriant@-----.com>

>I would venture a guess that your Netscape problems are less with
Netscape
>itself than with the way your ISP handles its mail and the way Netscape
>interfaces with your ISP's software.

Nope. I _am_ an ISP of sorts. Mail is mail - there's an RFC that
describes how mail messages may be formatted. _IF_ the mail headers are
perfect, Netscape works fine. If there's a problem in the headers,
Netscape breaks by refusing to download mail via pop3.

ISPs all handle mail the same way - it gets deposited in a file. There's
no "magic" about it - they literally just add it to a file. Netscape
interfaces via pop3 - the pop3 daemon just obeys commands and copies
data to the remote machine, and deletes the file on command at the
server. IMAP is a bit more complicated ... but I don't run an IMAP
daemon at the moment.

I deal in a few thousand messages a day for clients.. Netscape breaks
for my clients on the average of once every 2 weeks. Just enough to be
irritating - I have to go in and correct headers by hand. No other mail
program that my clients use gives such a drastic problem, even on bad
headers.

The ezmlm software I use for the mailing list breaks a few machines and
mail systems who refuse to believe that the address generated for the
security response is valid. The RFC doesn't set a minimum required
address length, and the address generated by ezmlm is very long. _That_
problem I can understand. All the modern mailers and mail systems accept
it, but some of the older ones won't let it through.
----
Mark Charette@-----.org
Webmaster, http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet
All-around good guy and devil-may-care flying fool.
"There can be no freedom without discipline." - Nadia Boulanger

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