[nos-bbs] Sending Mail via wl2k to internet address using Thunderbird

[Peter mcCorison]

Micheal and list,

Thanks for your clear response. Your guess is exactly what we do. It all works fine except TB-->JNOS-->wl2k. Your analysis agrees with my thinking. I've tried the rewrite  suggestions you make. I'm able to change the internal To: address but that doesn't change the To: Address that's sent over the radio to RMS/wl2k. Some where In the JNOS docos there's the statement that none of the rewrite systems affect the actual To: address in the email. My tests confirm that statement. 

So rewrite cannot add 'SMTP:' in front of the actual To: address, nor can it remove the quotes that screw up transfer to wl2k. I fear that a code patch will required to send  an email with Rfc-822 compliant To: address for the standard Internet to Winlink. 

BTW, JNOS forwards emails from the bbs to wl2k just fine with the accursed SMTP: prepended to the address.

Thanks again, Micheal, for your thoughtful reply.

 - Peter, K2SPR


> On May 16, 2016, at 4:36 PM, Michael Fox - N6MEF <n6mef at mefox.org> wrote:
> 
> Peter,
> 
> I'm confused.  You started off talking about Thunderbird and WL2K.  Then you switched to JNOS.  I'm going to guess that maybe you have:
> 
> Thunderbird <--POP/SMTP--> JNOS <--B2F/Radio--> RMS/CMS <--SMTP--> Internet
> Perhaps your JNOS machines can also forward with each other over radio.
> 
> If that's not correct, then ignore the rest and please explain.
> 
> The problem, of course, is WL2K's bizarre "SMTP:" prefix.  As you pointed out, it's not a valid Internet address and everything else in the world has difficulty with it (and rightly so!).
> 
> I have not tried forwarding over radio between JNOS and WL2K.  But, assuming it works similarly to forwarding with other BBSs, namely that I use spool/rewrite to drop mail into a mailbox and then use forward.bbs to send that mailbox to the WL2K station, then I can think of an alternative for outbound (JNOS to Internet) mail:
> 
> Have your end users write addresses as normal Internet addresses, no SMTP: prefix.  That should keep Thunderbird or any other standard mail client happy.  Then send those messages to JNOS as usual.
> 
> In JNOS spool/rewrite, for anything that you want to go out to the Internet, rewrite it to add the SMTP: prefix and add an "r" at the end of the rule.  The "r" sends it back through the rules again.  Add another rule near the top (so it doesn't have to go through so many rules again) to match anything with "SMTP:" at the start of the address and put it into a mailbox like "inet" (or whatever).  In forward.bbs, list the inet mailbox to forward to Winlink.
> 
> Again, I haven't tried this.  But if forwarding to WL2K works like forwarding to other BBSs, it should work.
> 
> Also, I don't know what the inbound situation would look like from WL2K to JNOS.  If WL2K includes SMTP: in the message it sends JNOS, then the above won't work (it will create a loop) and more thought will be needed.  (How about a JNOS system on the mainland?!)
> 
> Another option is to use the Outpost client.  It's intended specifically for packet messaging and is not as feature rich as Thunderbird.  Therefore, other workflow factors may preclude that choice.  But it does accept SMTP: and RMS: prefixes since it has to deal with WL2K and other BBS types.  We have a rather large (200+) user community all using Outpost.  Again, I do