MailFLOW

Continuation of MHS co-ordination services provided by SWITCH under the COSINE project - on behalf of DANTE.

1993 - 1998

1. To support mail routing between X.400 networks and to provide seamless interconnection with RFC-822 based networks.
2. To provide MHS managers with necessary technical information to support international co-operation.
3. To trace and co-ordinate the solution of international problems.
4. Assist new networks joining the MHS community.
5. Liaise between the MHS community and external network organisations.

The MailFLOW service offered:

Co-ordination:

• Collecting and distributing information to enable participating networks to exchange X.400 messages
• Collecting and distributing information to enable gateways between X.400 and RFC 822 communities
• Verifying the correctness of routing and mapping information
• Analysing traffic statistics provided by participating networks.

Support:

• A helpdesk to trace and help solving international problems
• An information server containing technical data to support MHS managers such as mapping and routing documents, operational procedures, reports and tools
• Technical support for networks that joined the coordination service.

Communication:

• Organising meetings for X.400 managers
• Running a mailing list for MHS managers.

Milestones/
Developments

• Early 1993: SWITCH contracted by RARE (Operational Unit) to offer MHS co-ordination as an operational service
• 1994: service ran smoothly but the relevance of X.400 diminished in favour of SMTP and MIME
• 1995: a number of NRENs stopped using X.400
• 1996: MailFLOW service reduced to a core service, consisting of the provision of mapping tables, routing information and a helpdesk
• 1997-1998: service further slimmed down, with only seven customers remaining
• April 1998: DANTE took on provision of MailFLOW service in-house to the four remaining customers