[2695] in SIPB bug reports
Re: Zephyr/NJE Gateway
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mhpower@Athena.MIT.EDU)
Wed Apr 8 20:02:30 1992
From: mhpower@Athena.MIT.EDU
To: LAMBERT@mitvma.mit.edu
Cc: bug-sipb@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 92 20:01:56 EDT
> Is there
>a way from the VM side of the world to know when a message is not
>delivered due to a non-logged on message recipient or a bogus recipient
>userid?
Unfortunately, no. We'd need to redesign our server somewhat to be
able to provide this information. You can use "finger" to find out if
an Athena username exists, and whether the person is logged in (at
least, if you know their workstation name). However, it's possible for
an Athena user to be logged in, but not accepting personal messages
(MacZephyr can select/filter messages like this, too.)
There was a documentation file mentioned in the gateway announcement
mailed to os-ibm@mitvma last month (it's the one available via
anonymous FTP from sipb.mit.edu, in the file pub/doc/bitnet). Part of
it says:
2-C. So, what exactly happens if I'm not logged in?
You don't receive any messages that may be sent to you over BITNET.
There's currently no provision for allowing a remote BITNET user to
distinguish between (a) the specified Athena username does not exist,
(b) the Athena user is not logged in or not subscribing to personal
messages, or (c) the Athena user received the message but did not
choose to reply.
and we haven't yet started any implementation to correct this. There's
some possibility we'll do so this summer.
Another point I should mention is that the gateway isn't yet publicly
available on Athena, so there's no guarantee that someone who received
a message would be able to respond. We hope to have this part fixed
later this week. All Athena users will then have access to programs
called bwrite and bfinger (after doing an "add sipb").
Matt
