If you choose to configure a BITNET gateway channel and thus have a mailer or mailer gateway on your system, this fact must be registered in a :servers1 tag in your BITNET node entry or entries. (This tag is what is used to generate the contents of the :mailer entries in the XMAILER NAMES file.)
In general the :servers1 tag describes the network services provided by server software to the node in which the tag appears. Currently the only valid server that may be defined is a MAIL server, or mailer. The format of the data associated with this tag is:
:servers1.serverid(servertype,formats,classes,attributes,contacts)
An example of a typical :servers1 tag is:
:servers1.MAILER@YMIR(MAIL,PU,M,BSMTP,P_POSTMAST)
The serverid
. is the network address of the
mailer in the form USERID@NODE
. Messages
to be processed by the mailer are sent to this address. You must
specify both the USERID
and the
NODE
. The USERID
should
match whatever name you assigned to your mailer in the alias file.
MAILER
is the recommended userid for both PMDF and the VM
Mailer, but SMTPUSER
is also a common choice.
The servertype
is the type of server. Currently
the only valid type is MAIL
, meaning that the server is a
mailer.
The formats
entry lists the NJE file formats
accepted by this server. The acceptable formats depend on the
underlying network transport and not PMDF. Both Jnet and ANJE support
both PUNCH files and NETDATA format, but most mailers will only send
and accept messages in PUNCH format. To indicate PUNCH format, the
default format, specify PU
. Other formats are described in
the NEWTAGS DESCRIPT file available from LISTSERV@BITNIC.
The classes
field lists the NJE file classes
accepted by this server. The valid classes are the letters
A
-Z
or numbers 0
-9
.
Class M
files are customarily recognized as mail and class
M
is the default.
The attributes
field lists message encoding that
the mailer accepts. For PMDF this field should always be
BSMTP
. BSMTP
is the default.
The contacts
field defines the person responsible
for the mailer and who is to be contacted in case any problems arise.
The tag used in this entry must be defined in the node entry or in a
higher level site or member entry. This entry is not an address in
its own right! It is a pointer to a tag defined by another part of the
node entry!
If you would like to accept all the defaults simply specify:
:servers1.MAILER@NODE(MAIL,,,,)where
NODE
is the BITNET node name for your node.
If you have a mailer or mailer gateway on one node which serves other
nodes then you can add a :servers1 tag to the other node entries and
reference the mailer at the first node. For example, if you have nodes
ABC and XYZ and have a mailer on ABC which serves node XYZ also then
you would add a :servers1 tag to node XYZ and specify MAILER@ABC as the
serverid
.
The NEWTAGS DESCRIPT file, available from LISTSERV@BITNIC describes the :servers1 tag in more detail, as well as all other tags in BITEARN NODES.
Once you have decided how to define the :servers1 tag for your node entry or entries you must submit an update request to UPDATE@BITNIC. The following is an example of an update job to add or modify the :servers1 tag for the node XYZ; (this information is not case sensitive):
modify node xyz :servers1.MAILER@XYZ(MAIL,PU,M,BSMTP,P_POSTMAST)or
modify node xyz :servers1.MAILER@XYZ(MAIL,,,,)
You can submit this job by using electronic mail or as a file. For more information about updating your node entry using UPDATE@BITNIC refer to the document UPDATE PROCEDUR available from LISTSERV@BITNIC.
If you have any questions about or problems with updating your node entry contact the BITNET administrators on BITNIC for additional assistance.