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- 1 - Use Agreement This software may be freely used for non commercial and educational purposes. Any programs which use part or all of this software must be provided in source form with this notice intact except by written permission from James A. Littlefield, Littlefield Associates. If you find MAILROOM useful please register your copy by sending $20.00 to the address below. Registration entitles you to source code with extensive comments and notification of future enhancements and upgrades. James A. Littlefield, Jr. c/o Dr. James Littlefield RR2 Box 88 Cornish, NH 03745 - 2 - Limitation of Liability This code is made available in the hope it will be useful, BUT WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND OR LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND. - 3 - Trademarks PROCOMM, PROCOMM Plus, and Intuitive Communications are registered trademarks of Datastorm Technologies Inc. LANtastic is a registered trademark of Artisoft Corp. - 4 - MAILROOM ver 1.5 Documentation 1. Overview _ - _ What _ MAILROOM _ Can _ Do The MAILROOM (mailrm.exe) program, its associated utilities and PROCOMM Aspect script files are designed to provide a solution to electronic mail sharing between remote users (via PROCOMM) and network users (via Artisoft's LANtastic). PROCOMM provides a mail system that allows remote users to connect and leave mail for other PROCOMM users. LANtastic provides similar features to local area network users via the network mail system. MAILROOM provides a linkage between the PROCOMM e-mail system and the network mail system. Remote users can leave mail either for other remote users or for network users. In a similar manner, network users can direct mail across the network to other net users or (via MAILROOM) to the PROCOMM e-mail system where the messages will be picked up by the intended recipient remote user the next time they log in. MAILROOM was developed as an 'add on' utility program without explicit support from either Datastorm or Artisoft. The basic objectives of the development were to provide reasonable functionality with a small program that is easy to setup and use. In keeping with this philosopy, MAILROOM requires no user input once it has been invoked. Screen display is fairly brief... MAILROOM provides most of its feedback by mailing a status message to the network system administrator. This lack of extensive user interaction makes MAILROOM an ideal tool which can easily be embedded in batch files or called from other C programs. MAILROOM has been tested with a LANtastic NOS version 3.x and 4.0 with both the Artisoft 2Mb adapter cards and with third party ethernet cards. The program has worked successfully with PROCOMM and PROCOMM Plus v. 2.01. 1.1 New _ Features _ - _ ver _ 1.4 This version of mailrm.exe provides a number of new features and some revisions to the command structure designed to increase ease of use and increase compatibility with batch files. - Reduced number of required command line arguments - Increase number and flexibility of command line parameters - 5 - - Optional 'status letters' will be mailed to the LANtastic user "sysop" if one is found. - mailrm may be configured to leave 'return receipt' mail for PROCOMM users informing them of the data and time of mail forwarding onto the network. - A quite mode has been added. This mode suppresses all mailrm generated screen printouts (but will not suppress any error messages generated by the NET MAIL command). Generally, provided serious errors are not encountered this will allow mailrm to run without updating the screen. - PROCOMM mail system file maint. utilities have been included. Mailrm uses one bit (hopefully unused by others) to keep track of which messages have been forwarded to the network and which haven't. Mailrm now includes features which allow this bit to be set/cleared for ALL messages in the PROCOMM message database. 1.2 New _ Features _ - _ ver _ 1.5 Version 1.5 provides several bug fixes and one major new feature not present in ver. 1.4. - MAILROOM Execution Status Messages: Version 1.4 incorrectly mailed the status messages to network userid "SYSOP" instead of looking in the alias file and properly resolving the name "SYSOP" to a valid network user id. This has been corrected in v1.5. - MAILROOM will not generate any status mail messages when it runs and does not forward any mail in either direction. This feature was implemented to prevent large amounts of essentially useless network mail to the sysop in those cases where mailrm is invoked from a timed script file. - If the return receipt option is enabled, private messages to network users will cause private return receipts to be generated. - Two aspect script files, automail.asp and auto2.asp, have been provided to implement mail forwarding more promptly and with less burden on the sysop. These scripts will automatically run mailrm.exe at various times depending on the script used and the system configuration. auto2.asp is a very simple script which enters PROCOMM host mode and then once host mode is - 6 - terminated runs the contents of the DOS batch file, mailroom.bat. Automail.asp is a more complex script capable of invoking mailrm.exe both after each caller AND at regular time intervals. In addition to being convenient both scripts solve a signficant problem with mailrm/PROCOMM interaction. Since PROCOMM keeps the mail database files (pcplus.hdr, pcplus.msg, pcplus.usr) open while it is in host mode, any changes to the lengths of these files by mailrm can result in corrupted mail. Automail.asp and auto2.asp only run mailrm when PROCOMM is not in host mode and thus avoid the problem. With the capabilities of automail.asp, it is no longer necessary for the sysop to manually invoke mailrm at specific times. - Net to Remote Mail Forwarding: This version of mailrm adds the ability to forward mail from network users onto the PROCOMM mail system. When invoked with proper command line arguments, mailrm will scan the queue files on a designated server. For each valid (non- voice) mail file, mailrm will examine the first line of the queued file for a special header line containing routing information. If this line is found, the file is forwarded to the PROCOMM mail system and deleted from the network mail queue. If the routing information in the header line does not identify a valid PROCOMM user then an appropriate message is returned to the network user who originally sent the mail. - Mail Suppression: Version 1.5ai (and later) allows PROCOMM mail to certain users to be suppressed from forwarding onto the network. This feature is useful when a remote user has no account on the network but should still be able to receive mail from network users and also communicate with other remote users via the PROCOMM mail system. - Fewer Required Arguments: Version 1.5b (and later) no longer requires a server argument. When the "-s" option is used, mailrm will try to use the selected server. If no server is specified, mailrm will use the server name fetched from the network adapter's server name table at location 0. Normally this will be the first server logged into. This feature means that mailrm can now be run with no command line options assuming that the default file names are correct. Note however that running mailrm without any argument will forward mail ONLY from the PROCOMM mail system to the network. The "-n" option is still required to perform forwarding from the network mail system to the PROCOMM - 7 - mail system. 2. GLOSSARY Remote _ User A remote user is someone who accesses the electronic mail system (and file transfer procedures) via a telephone line, modem, and PROCOMM software. Generally PROCOMM assigns a REMOTE USER ID to each remote user to identify that user at login and to properly route electronic mail to/from that user. Net _ User A net user is someone who shares computer resources, including electronic mail, via Artisoft's LANtastic local area network products. Each net user also has a network user id. This user id identifies the user at login, provides a mechanism for various types of access control, and allows proper routing of e-mail among network users. E-mail E-mail or Electronic mail is message traffic which is transmitted, stored, and viewed electronically. In general each electronic mail item (or message) consists of at minimum a sender id (who sent the mail), a recipient id (who is to receive the mail), and body text (ie the rest of the letter). Mail _ Server A mail server is a computer on the LANtastic network which maintains the network mail database. Net users can send and receive mail by logging into the mail server and invoking various NET commands. Any network based e-mail transactions will involve a mail server. PROCOMM _ Node This document identifies the machine running the PROCOMM software as the PROCOMM Node. For successful mail forwarding this node must be attached to the LANtastic network and must be capable of logging into the mail server. The PROCOMM node may be either a workstation, a server, or both on the LANtastic network. It is also possible to have the PROCOMM node and the mail server be the same machine. - 8 - 3. Files _ Included _ with _ Release _ 1.5c - mailrm.exe - executable file which performs the mail forwarding function - automail.asp - PROCOMM aspect script file to automatically run mailrm.exe after each remote user and at preset time intervals - auto2.asp - Simple PROCOMM aspect script to automatically run mailrm.exe after each remote user - maillst.exe - Support program to create a mail alias file template based on the contents of the PROCOMM user database. - manual.doc - This documentation - mailroom.bat - Sample batch file. This batch file illustrates the steps necessary to run mailrm.exe and is also invoked automatically by the automail and auto2 scripts. - sendmail.exe - Utility to assist network users with sending mail to PROCOMM users. 4. MAILRM _ Execution _ Environment Mailrm needs access to a number of resources for proper operation. These resources must be provided by the user prior to invoking mailrm. First all the required files must be accessable either in the current directory or by passing their path names on the command line. Mailrm uses the LANtastic "NET" command to generate network mail therefore this program must be accessable on the PATH. If used to forward network mail from LANtastic to PROCOMM mail, the machine from which mailrm.exe runs must be logged into the network mail server. The userid used to establish this login session must have the "A" and "M" privileges to successfully manipulate the network mail queues. The maillst program must be able to access the /lantasti.net/system.net/accounts hidden file. Access to this hidden file requires that the server's network control directory be linked to the network node running maillst. Your computer must have enough RAM to simultaneously load mailrm.exe, command.com, and net.exe. If you are planning to use the automail.asp script then sufficient ram for PROCOMM must also be available. - 9 - 5. MAILRM _ Command _ Line _ Switchs The new version of mailrm has a smaller number of required arguments. The defualts can be overridden by passing command line switchs. All command line options begin with the "-", minus, character followed by an option letter and then possibly a further argument. Note that there must be NO spaces between the leading "-", the option letter, and the rest of the option command. Thus "- s amber", "-s amber" are illegal whereas "-samber" is the proper method of specifying that node "amber" is to be used as a mail server. - ? Print instructions screen - a<filename> Set the PROCOMM/network user name alias file to <filename>. If this option is not provided on the command line the default name, "alias.dat", is used. - h<filename> Set the PROCOMM mail message header file to <filename>. If this option is not provided the default name, "pcplus.hdr", is used. - m<filename> Set the PROCOMM mail message data file to <filename>. If this option is not provided the default name, "pcplus.msg", is used. - n<filename> Enable network to remote mail forwarding. Mail from the queue on the server (specified with the -s option) is examined for routing headers and forwarded as appropriate. If the filename argument is included with the -n option then this filename is used as file containing the valid PROCOMM user ids. If the filename is not given then "pcplus.usr" is used. - q Run in quiet mode. All MAILRM generated screen i/o is inhibited however any error messages generated by the NET MAIL commands spawned by mailrm will still print onscreen. - 10 - - r Enable generation of PROCOMM user return receipt messages. The return receipt is a short PROCOMM mail message addressed to the remote user who originally left the mail. The body of the return receipt identifies the time/date of forwarding and the network user name to whom the mail was forwarded. - s<server name> Set the mail server machine name to <server name>. NOTE: for versions earlier than 1.5b there is no default server name therefore this argument is required. The server name should be entered without the initial '\' characters. In order for mailrm to successfully forward mail, the user must be logged in to the specified server PRIOR to running mailrm. Versions 1.5b and later will verify that you are logged into at least one server before attempting forwarding operations. Example "-samber" to set mail server name to machine "amberi". - u# This option takes a numeric argument which can be composed of the SUM of the following numbers with the indicated causes. (1) inhibit mail forwarding... this option will perform all normal mailrm operation INCLUDING marking PROCOMM mail as forwarded but will not actually generate any network mail. (2) unforward all PROCOMM mail... this option will scan the PROCOMM mail database files and mark all mail messages as unforwarded (including any return receipts generated by a previous invocation of mailrm). (4) supress status mail to sysop. If the name alias file contains a valid network user id for the alias "sysop" then mailrm will by default generate a status mail message to this user. The status message lists details about any dead letters generated as well as a summary statistic showing how many letters were forwarded and how many dead letters where generated. This option will suppress the sysop mail. 6. Name _ Alias _ File _ Construction Generally people leaving mail via the PROCOMM mail system do not know (or do not use) the same user names as the LANtastic user accounts. It is therefore necessary for mailrm to have some way of mapping PROCOMM mail recipient - 11 - names to valid network user ids. This is accomplished by the network name alias file (default "alias.dat") which contains a list of valid LANtastic user id names. Following the net user name is a space separated list of valid alternate names or alias names for that user. Consider the following sample alias.dat file JAL littlefield jimbo jlittlefield MANAGER sysop big_cheese NOFWD curt sandy grimes Two valid network users are listed: JAL and MANAGER. PROCOMM mail addressed to "jimbo", "jal", etc will all be sent to net user id JAL. PROCOMM mail addressed to "big_cheese" will be sent to net user id MANAGER. Note that since "sysop" is also included in MANAGER's alias list, this userid will also receive any status mail messages generated by mailrm. Unfortunately, mailrm's string matching abilities are quite limited (this may be improved in a future release). All comparisons are insensitive to case so "bob" and "BOB" are considered equivalent. An EXACT match between the PROCOMM recipient name and an alias name is required. Any PROCOMM mail for which no valid network user name is found is mailed to user "deadletter" unless the sysop has established a NOFWD entry for that userid (See following section). By default mail is also sent to "sysop" (if available) indicating that a dead letter has been generated. 6.1 Alias.dat _ NOFWD _ Option As illustrated in the sample alias.dat file above, Mailrm (ver 1.5 and later) recognizes the special characters "NOFWD" in the network userid field of the alias file. PROCOMM mail which has a recipient name which is mapped to the NOFWD net userid will not be forwarded onto the network. The primary use for this capability is to prevent generation of erroneous "deadletters" when PROCOMM users who do not have network userids send/receive mail. Since mailrm searchs the name alias file from the top down, it is suggested that the NOFWD entries be placed at the end of the alias file. This will ensure that all valid network userids are examined for forwarding prior to processing of the NOFWD entries. - 12 - 7. Network _ to _ Remote _ User _ Mail _ Operations With MAILROOM 1.5 network users can send mail to remote users. This operation is accomplished by using the normal LANtastic mail facilities. To provide routing and other information the first line in the message file must conform to the following format. !remote!<privacy character>!<remote user name>!<comment> Note the the "<>" are not part of the actual string and should not be typed. The privacy control character determines whether the message is forwarded as a PROCOMM private message or not. If this character is set to "p" or "P" the message is private. Any other character will generate a non-private message. The remote user name is case insensitive and is used to determine which remote user id the message will be mailed to. PROCOMM is very particular about the format of the remote user id therefore mailrm will attempt to ensure an exact match (except for case) between the remote user name and a valid remote userid as contained in the PROCOMM user id file (usually pcplus.usr). Generally the required format will be "firstname lastname" (ie exactly one space between the users first and last names). Each time mailrm is invoked with the -n option the network queues on the server specified with the -s option will be scanned for queued mail files. Each valid mail file will be examined for a properly formatted remote routing string on the first line. If this line is found the file will be forwarded and deleted from the queue. If the file cannot be forwarded it will not be deleted from the queue and in addition a network mail message will inform the sender of the addressing error. 8. Support _ Utilities 8.1 Maillst _ Program This release includes a utility program, maillst.exe, which is designed to assist in setting up or maintaining the PROCOMM/network user name mapping file required by mailrm.exe. Maillst.exe must be invoked with two arguments: 1) the file name of the network name alias file and 2) the name of the LANtastic system user accounts file. Usually the LANtastic user account information is contained in the file /lantasti.net/system.net/accounts (assuming the LANtastic default installation names have been used). The program will scan the user accounts file making sure that - 13 - each LANtastic user name appears in the name alias file. LANtastic user names which have no corresponding entry in the alias file are appended to the alias file (but no alias' are provided). The sysop still has to edit the alias file to define any appropriate pseudonyms for the new network user names. 8.2 automail.asp _ Script As noted previously, this aspect script file is designed to automate the mail forwarding function. The script is written to run mailrm both at periodic intervals and after each remote user terminates their session. In addition to lowering the sysop's workload this script provides more timely mail forwarding and makes sure that mailrm doesn't execute while PROCOMM is in host mode. To configure the script for your system two modifications are necessary. Using a text editor (in non- document mode) modify the script variables INTERVAL and "batchname" as appropriate for your system. The string variable, batchname, contains the name of a DOS batch file which will be invoked by the script. You can enter any name you want or simply use the default name, mailroom.bat. A sample mailroom.bat file is included in the mailrm distribution archive. INTERVAL specifies the number of seconds between time based executions of the batch file. If this value is set to 0, the batch file will be invoked only after each PROCOMM caller. Once you have adjusted these parameters, compile the script using PROCOMM's aspcomp.exe utility. Now you can start PROCOMM and automatically execute the script by entering "pcplus /fautomail". For proper operation of this script the CD line of your modem MUST be properly controlled by the modem (or external computer if using a hardwired connection). The script uses the assertion of the CD line to detect a connection therefore CD should be set to follow the state of the carrier. 8.3 Sendmail.exe _ Utility Routing of mail messages from the network mail system to the PROCOMM mail system requires that certain addressing information be on the first line of the message. To assist non-technical users with net to remote mail operations the sendmail.exe utility has been provided. This program will collect all the required addressing information plus the body of the message and will then automatically create the necessary addressing line and network mail item. Addressing information is collected from the program's command line - 14 - arguments and/or from the user during an interactive session. If no command line options are provided, the user must enter the remote user id, whether the message is private or not, a comment field, and the message text. Based on this information, sendmail.exe will generate a net e-mail item containing the necessary addressing line. At the other extreme sendmail may be invoked with enough command line options to fully specify the mail item. In this case no interactive session is required. As with mailrm, the user must have established a login to the mail server machine prior to running sendmail. Two command line options allow more detailed control over sendmail's operation. The "-uid" option allows a user to cause mail outbound to remote users to be mailed to a specified network user. If this option is not used, sendmail will send all outbound mail to network user "MAILROOM". The second option, "-server", allows you to specify a specific network server to receive the mail item(s). In the absence of the server option, sendmail will use the server to which a login session was first established. 9. Installation _ Procedures This section outlines the general steps necessary to install and use mailrm's e-mail forwarding capabilities. Each step is described in general terms and where appropriate an example is given. 9.1 PROCOMM/LANtastic _ Mail _ Installation _ and _ Test Prior to attempting installation of the MAILROOM programs and scripts you must successfully install the PROCOMM software and the LANtastic network system. Since it is quite difficult to debug/test several things at one time, be sure to fully test the network mail system and PROCOMM operation individually BEFORE trying to run MAILROOM. If you cannot send and receive e-mail over the network or connect to the PROCOMM network node via a telephone line then MAILROOM will surely fail. 9.2 Unpacking _ the _ files All the relevant files are included in a single archive, mailrm15.arc. Since you are reading this file you must have already unpacked the archive. Although the mailrm executables, datafiles, and scripts can reside anywhere on your hard disk, most users find it convenient to place these files in the same directory where the PROCOMM files have - 15 - been installed (default cplus). If you choose to install mailrm in some other place you must be sure to supply full path names to all the required files on the mailrm command line. 9.3 Making _ the _ alias.dat _ file Mailrm needs to have some way of converting (or mapping) PROCOMM mail recipient names to valid network userids. The alias.dat file contains a list of entries which provide this information. Alias.dat can be created with any text editor (non-document mode). You may find it convenient to use the maillst utility program to start the alias.dat creation process. As described below, this utility will scan the user accounts file on a specified network mail server and will ensure that each network userid has an entry in the alias file. 9.3.1 Using _ the _ maillst.exe _ Program See "Support Utilities Section of this Document" 9.3.2 Preventing _ Mail _ Forwarding _ for _ Certain _ Users If the network user id field of the alias.dat file contains the letters "NOFWD" no PROCOMM to network forwarding will be performed for the corresponding names. Any PROCOMM users who do NOT have accounts on the local area network should be entered at the end of the alias.dat file with the NOFWD net username field. 9.4 Picking _ a _ mail _ server Mailrm attempts to perform mail forwarding between the PROCOMM node and a network mail server. The network must have at least one machine capable of handling network mail (ie the @MAIL resource must be defined on that machine). On large networks there can be more than one mail server. (See Special Notes for multiple mail server configurations). For each mail server to which you want mailrm to send/receive mail perform the steps listed below. 9.4.1 Creating _ a _ User _ Account _ For _ Mailrm Follow the procedure outlined in the LANtastic documentation to create a network userid for mailrm. Be sure to assign the "A" and "M" privileges to this network userid. The id you create will be used in the steps below to define a login procedure which allows mailrm to have access to the mail server machine. If a mail queue resource is not already defined then create one following the procedure outlined in the LANtastic documentation. - 16 - 9.4.2 Identifying _ the _ System _ Operator Mailrm will provide most of its feedback by sending e-mail to the network system operator. This net user is identified by placing the name "sysop" as one of the fields in that net users alias.dat file entry. Thus... Joel sysop joel smith in the alias.dat file will cause mailrm status messages to be mailed to the network user whose id is "Joel". 9.5 Creating _ Your _ mailroom.bat _ File As previously noted, the PROCOMM aspect scripts are configured to automatically invoke a DOS batch file at certain times. The defualt name for this file is "mailroom.bat". Since running mailrm requires a number of steps, create the mailroom.bat file. Once written, mailroom.bat can be manually invoked to test the installation prior to starting the automatic execution scripts. A sample mailroom.bat file is included in the distribution archive. In general the steps to be performed in the batch file are.. 1. If not already done, log into the network mail server(s) using the user ids previously created. 2. Execute the mailrm.exe program using the proper command line options 3. You may also wish to optionally execute the pcmail program with the "/c" option to compress the PROCOMM mail message database to remove any files which have been deleted. DO NOT include the pcmail line if you need to preserve copies of deleted PROCOMM mail messages. You SHOULD still manually compress the message datatbase periodically. 4. If you logged into the network mail server machine as the first step in the batch file, then be sure to log out as the last step. 9.6 Testing _ the _ Initial _ Installation Once the alias.dat and mailroom.bat files have been properly configured and you have created a userid for mailrm on the network mail server, its time to test things. A good first step is to use the PROCOMM pcmail.exe program to create a message to yourself. Invoke the pcmail program and - 17 - select the add message option. Be sure to enter your proper network user name (or a valid alias for that name as defined in the alias.dat file) in the "To:" field. For the message body just enter a short message for now. At this point please make sure that PROCOMM is NOT running. Invoke mailroom.bat and watch for any error messages. Next log into the network mail server and check for mail. You should see your message (plus possibly a lot more if there were several messages in the PROCOMM mail database). If you did not inhibit the mailrm status report message there should also be mail to the system operator. If you have the proper priviledges you (or your sysop) can read this status report to get a more detailed history of what mailrm did. If you enabled mailrm's return receipt feature then go back to pcmail and review the message database again. There should be a new message from mailrm indicating the success or failure of the forwarding operation. 9.7 Installing _ the _ Automatic _ Execution _ Scripts Once the mailroom.bat script has been tested, you might want to install one of the PROCOMM scripts. The advantage of using the scripts is that mail will be more promptly forwarded both immediately after each remote user logout and at a time interval which you can set. In addition these scripts will ensure that mailrm.exe is not invoked while PROCOMM is in host mode. The disadvantage is that somewhat more memory will be required on your PROCOMM node. In addition use of the same line for dial out operations will be complicated since the script must be stopped and then restarted before/after the dial out session. If you decide to use one of the scripts, simply make the changes previously described and invoke PROCOMM with the "/f<scriptname>" argument. If you elect not to use the script, it will be necessary for you or your system operator to manually run mailrm with some regularity. Mail will not be forwarded between PROCOMM mail and the network or vice versa until mailrm is run. When manually running mailrm, you must be SURE that PROCOMM is not running in host mode. This consideration is especially important if you are running PROCOMM in a multitasking environment. It is also dangerous to select the DOS shell option from within host mode and then run mailrm from the DOS shell. Either of these methods will cause mailrm to run possibly changing the contents and lengths of the pcplus.msg and pcplus.hdr files while these files are in use by PROCOMM host mode. This simultaneous use of the files will almost ensure corrupt mail files and potential loss of messages. - 18 - 10. Special _ Configurations 10.1 Optimizing _ Performance Keep PROCOMM mail database small by regularly removing deleted messages Set the beep and popup delay time to zero for the mail server. Run mailrm frequently. 10.2 More _ than _ one _ mail _ server Support for this configuration will be provided in a future release. It is possible to use multiple mail servers with the current release provided that multiple network name alias files are setup. To avoid lots of dead letters you must create a separate alias.dat file for each mail server. Run mailrm once for each mail server (making sure you specify a different server and alias file each time). The alias file for each server should have NOFWD entries for all valid users in the other servers. This will ensure that erroneous deadletters are not created. 10.3 More _ than _ one _ PROCOMM _ node Support for this configuration will be provided in a future release. 10.4 Getting _ Help _ - _ Trouble _ Shooting _ - _ Adding _ Features The author will provide limited assistance over Compuserve. You may send questions, comments, suggestions to 71611,2121. If you would like to enhance mailrm's capabilities, source code with extensive comments is available for a modest registration fee (See beginning of this document). The best approach to trouble shooting is to first rigorously verify that both your PROCOMM installation and your LANtastic network mail system are operating properly. Once these two subsystems are working correctly you can isolate the nature of any problems by examining mailrm's screen displays and by looking at the status mail files which mailrm sends to the system operator. Note that it is possible to inhibit both the mailrm screen output and sysop status mail via command line options. When debugging make sure that you have not inhibited either source of feedback. Many mailrm problems can be traced to either insufficient RAM on the PROCOMM node or mailrm's inability to access files it needs to run. If you don't have enough - 19 - RAM to contain PROCOMM, the mailrm.exe file, the Artisoft net.exe command, and a copy of command.com you cannot use the automatic execution scripts. In these situations you can still use mailrm by first terminating PROCOMM. File access problems are usually related to insufficient file handles (adjust your config.sys), bad filename arguments passed to mailrm on the command line, or network access permission problems. Mailrm will usually identify the file it couldn't access either onscreen or in the sysop status message. Failure to establish a login session with the desired mail server will cause mailrm to complain whenever it attempts to send mail messages or access any of the mail queue files.