MSMAIL does not have direct support for AT&T mail addresses, and so users access AT&T mail using the SMTP address type. A special address format is used to route the mail items to the gateway. Once the correct address format is entered, the conversion between AT&T mail and MSMAIL is automatic. Attached documents are converted between the native file formats and can be accessed normally, for example double-click to open.
A modification to the AT&T mail address is required to ensure that it can be routed across SMTP networks. The AT&T format addresses, without modification, are unlikely to be routable across general SMTP networks, and the Microsoft mail to SMTP gateway requires a modification to the address to ensure it is passed to SMTP for delivery. The modification to the address is simple and regular. The gateway automatically modifies incoming AT&T mail addresses so that they can be replied to without further modification.
| AT&T mail Address | SMTP Address |
| fredfrog | fredfrog@attmail.uucp |
| attmail!fredfrog | fredfrog@attmail.uucp |
| !fredfrog | fredfrog@attmail.uucp |
| somesite!johndoe | somesite!johndoe@attmail.uucp |
| attmail!somesite!johndoe | somesite!johndoe@attmail.uucp |
| !somesite!johndoe | somesite!johndoe@attmail.uucp |
and the
Send Note window appears
to display the Address window
to create
a new address
and the New User
screen appears
to save the address in your Personal Address Book
Address, which is the SMTP
or AT&T mail address, and an Alias, which is the usually
used to hold the name that goes with the address. Microsoft mail
allows the user to put any string of characters in the
Alias field, some of which are unsupported by AT&T
mail. For example, if the user John Doe entered:
Alias: Frog, Frederick (AT&T)
Address: fredfrog@attmail.uucp
and then used this entry to send mail to AT&T, Microsoft mail would
send this from the SMTP gateway in the following format:
From: "Doe, John" <JDoe@nibuxyz.ms-mail.telstra.com.au>
To: "Frog, Frederick (AT&T)" <fredfrog@attmail.uucp>
Although this is a legal address format under SMTP, the use of
parentheses and commas is not supported under AT&T mail. The gateway
performs a conversion on quoted strings in the
From:, To:,
and Cc: headers to:
From: John Doe <JDoe@nibuxyz.ms-mail.telstra.com.au> To: Frederick Frog <fredfrog@attmail.uucp>This format is acceptable to Microsoft mail, SMTP and AT&T mail.
In order for conversion to occur, the AT&T mail user must ensure that the mail passes through the gateway by the direct link from AT&T mail. The addressing used is simply a modification of your normal SMTP address into a format suitable for use by AT&T mail.
It is vital that messages with attachments are sent via the
gateway. Messages with attachments sent over the Internet will
appear in the MSMAIL inbox as MSG000.BIN, and will not be
readable without external conversion.
To receive from AT&T mail, all that you need to know are the Microsoft mail POSTOFFICE that you connect to and your Microsoft mail USER name. You then perform a simple replacement of these two items into the address below:
telstra!POSTOFFICE.ms-mail.telstra.com.au!USER
Some examples are:
| Microsoft mail Address | AT&T mail Address |
| NCAGEPPI/JUser | telstra!ncageppi.ms-mail.telstra.com.au!JUser |
| NIBUGCD/JBloggs | telstra!nibugcd.ms-mail.telstra.com.au!JBloggs |
| QNPBQRS/FThing | telstra!qnpbqrs.ms-mail.telstra.com.au!FThing |
| VITGXYZ/ABod | telstra!vitgxyz.ms-mail.telstra.com.au!ABod |
The simplest way to let someone know your AT&T mail address is to send them some mail using the addressing rules shown in Sending to AT&T mail. The correct address will be automatically inserted into your mail, and they can simply reply to your mail.
Due to the change of company name from Telecom to Telstra, the SMTP address can be any of the valid SMTP addresses:
- USER@POSTOFFICE.ms-mail.telstra.com.au (preferred)
- USER@POSTOFFICE.telstra.com.au
- USER@POSTOFFICE.ms-mail.telecom.com.au
- USER@POSTOFFICE.telecom.com.au
All of these are valid, and deliverable SMTP addresses for MSMAIL
postoffices, although the Telstra addresses are preferred, and the
gateway will automatically use the
USER@POSTOFFICE.ms-mail.telstra.com.au
address on mail going to AT&T.
The old OTC MSMAIL/SMTP address
USER@POSTOFFICE.ccdn.otc.com.au
has been retired. Please use the
USER@POSTOFFICE.ms-mail.telstra.com.au
address instead.
uucp,
without a Subject:, and with the reason for the failure
in the Not-Delivered-To: header. The original mail
message is returned in full to the sender.
Most SMTP mail readers hide non-standard headers from view
unless specifically requested to display them. Microsoft mail users
have no way to display extra SMTP headers, such as the
Not-Delivered-To: header. They receive a message from
uucp, with no Subject: containing their
original mail. The gateway detects these failures, and generates a
special mail, which contains the following elements:
[[ hello.doc : 2842 in hello.doc ]]
and
[[ hello.xls : 2841 in hello.xls ]]
This is a limitation of the MSMAIL/SMTP gateway, which can be demonstrated by sending mail with attachments on a round-trip through the MSMAIL/SMTP gateway.