The CommuniGate Server is the kernel part of the CommuniGate integrated messaging system. When installed, it runs in background (no dedicated machine required) and:
• stores all messages sent and received;
• enables network access for CommuniGate users, maintains their mailboxes, queues, etc.;
• loads and runs CommuniGate modules (i.e. FaxGate, UUCPGate, SMTPGate, etc.) and creates the run-time environment for those modules;
• maintains system activity log;
• implements routing algorithms;
• maintains a resource database and provides access to that database for CommuniGate users and CommuniGate modules (fax cover pages, sounds, voice scripts, info tables, etc.).
The CommuniGate services can be accessed with the CommuniGator client software. The client software allows you to compose and read messages, to manage your mailboxes, etc. It is also used by CommuniGate administrator to configure, maintain, monitor and control the CommuniGate server - locally or remotely.
When the POPGate and SMTPGate modules are installed, the CommuniGate Server can be used as a messaging server for clients running not only the CommuniGator application, but plain POP-based mailers (as Eudora and Claris Emailer) - on any platform.
Before you install or upgrade:
• If you use OpenTransport, please make sure that the OT 1.1.1 or better is installed!
• If you use MacPPP, please switch to FreePPP.
• If you use FreePPP, please make sure you use the latest version available.
• If you use the VICOM gateway, please make sure you use the latest version available.
The latest version of the CommuniGate System components can be obtained from:
<http://www.stalker.com>
or
<ftp://ftp.stalker.com>
Installation
Read the Installation chapter of the CommuniGate System Guide for the instructions. Read other chapters to configure your system. When the system is up and running, you can install communication modules to support faxing (FaxGate), printing (PrintGate), paging (PagerGate), Internet E-mail (UUCPGate, SMTPGate and/or POPGate), voice messaging (VoiceGate), and other modules. See the manuals that come with each module for the instructions.
Note: If you plan to use MacPPP/FreePPP link modules, place the TCP Agent file into the Modules folder inside the CommuniGate Server folder.
Note: If you use the TCP Agent under the Open Transport TCP/IP, open the TCP/IP control panel, set the Advanced mode, and click the Options... button. Check that the "Load only when needed" option is NOT selected.
Licensing
The client parts of CommuniGate are free and do not require any licensing. You can run CommuniGate Server and communication modules without prior licensing, too, but there are several restrictions: the server does not allow more than 5 users to be registered. The modules may add special signs to all messages received or sent. For example, the unlicensed version of FaxGate adds a page to the end of all faxes it sends stating "sent with a trial version of CommuniGate".
To buy a license you should call Stalker Software, Inc. at 800-262-4722 (415-383-7164) or fax to 1-415-383-7461. You will get a Master Key (which will identify your server and will contain your organization name), and keys for the features you have licensed. To enter the license keys, you choose the Keys command from the Server menu.
You may check the licenses in effect with the CommuniGator application by choosing About CommuniGate from the Apple menu. You may download and install the new versions of the server and/or modules, and your keys will automatically remain in effect (i.e. you will not have to reenter them). The licenses are not limited in time, but may be restricted to the versions released (call Stalker for details and pricing).
Revision History
2.5
• The Japanese (ISO-1022-JP) encoding is supported now.
• A workaround to solve the FreePPP/FileSharing conflict is implemented.
2.4.1
• Dial-up connections are supported in the OpenTransport-native mode.
2.4
• Many internal changes to improve queue management algorithms - important for heavy-duty installations (thousands of messages per day, dozens simultaneous connections, etc.)
• The new Open Transport-based algorithm is used for the interrupt-driven tasks to improve stability and performance.
• The native OpenTransport TCP environment for communication modules.
• Session management has changed; when the first person with the "is Postmaster" attribute logs in, she sees the Postmaster messages in her In Box, when she logs out, the Postmaster messages appear in the In Box of a next available connected user with the "is Postmaster" attrbute set. Logging in as "Postmaster" revokes the Postmaster messages from the current "postmaster on duty" In box.
• The LocalGate monitor shows the computers the local users are connected from, as well as the names of the applications they use.
• New queue services are available for communication modules.
• The new General Setting "delete failed messages" allows you to specify how long the failed messages should stay in the CommuniGate Server queues before they are automatically deleted.
2.3.4
• The Server can now show resources provided with the modules, so there is no need to store unusable resources in the server file itself: the fax *Header* resource is now built into the FaxGate, not into the Server, etc.
2.3.3
• The Errors-To: addresses are supported now.
2.3.2
• Several internal improvements for the Client 2.2 and FaxSender 2.2.
2.3.1
• More conditions are supported in the User Rules now: Relative Time, Current Day of Week (in Local time of the server), Current Time of Day (in the local time of the server), Total Message Size.
• The TCP Schedule limits how often TCP/IP streams can be created for non-PPP links. TCP streams can be open during the first 2 minutes of the "session", then new streams are open only when the schedule allows.
• If the Open Transport is installed, it is initialized (preparation for OT-native Internet modules).
2.3
• The Dialer settings are improved: now you can specify how short a number should be to be treated as a local one.
• Compatibility with PortShare Pro server is enchanced: the server does not touch a port that is busy with a PortShare client, even if the Serial Port Arbitrator is not installed: PortShare warning alert messages are not gernerated any more.
• The "Redirect" server function is implemented (to allows redirection of messages without transferring them to and from a client).
• Unrecognized MIME "text" portions are processed as text/plain now (before they were stored as attachments).
• Working with the Server Documents is improved.
• Special-call interface is supported to pass data directly to modules (used by the Voice System Compiler and the Phone Agent now).
• The $F, $f, and $n symbol combinations are processed in the User Rules "reply" and "react" Letters.
• The 'Reply-to:' Address User Setting is supported now.
• The Personal User Settiings Editor checks for incorrect symbols and substitutes them with '?' now.
• Bug fix: the Rules Conditions dealing with address names did not work properly if an address did not contain a name.
• Bug fix: very long (>200 characters) E-mail addresses could corrupt some Server data.
2.2.1
• On startup, the "Message From" and "Routed To" log messages for old files in the Queue are generated only if the Low-Level Log level is set (in the General and Router settings).
• Bug Fix: when the server (User Rules) composed a reply/reaction the plain text letter bodies were not processed and characted combinations ($S,$F,etc.) were not substituted.
2.2
• The PPP Dialing setting has been changed to "TCP Schedule". The TCP Schedule option is now available for all types of TCP links, so you can restrict TCP/IP activity even if you are on Ethernet TCP/IP (for example, if you have an IP router on your Ethernet, and you want to restrict IP activity of the CommuniGate System to decrease the number of calls the router makes).
• The LocalGate is enabled to route entire domains to local accounts: doman.name = <localGate>account. This can be useful to provide unified domain-wide accounts for other systems.
• The domain "local" is recognized by the LocalGate, and it is equivalent to an empty string (i.e. no domain name).
• The user "Unknown" is supported: if such a user is registered, all mail to unregistered names on the local system is routed to the user Unknown (without generating error reports).
• Serial port allocating is made more coooperative with PortShare Pro and ARA.
2.1.2
• The "SUBMIT MESSAGE" AppleEvent is supported now.
2.1.1
• The PPC module has been changed to get rid of the -917 type errors in FaxSender.
2.1
• Several internal changes.
• Generating error and return-receipt messages with additional info is implemented.
2.0.2
• MIME stream encoding is supported now.
• AppleSingle and AppleDouble encoding is supported now.
• UUencode encoding and decoding are supported now.
• The Attachments Encoding option is set for incoming letters to ensure smooth relaying.
• Trailing spaces coding is corrected for MIME quoted-printable encoding.
2.0.1
• MIME quoted-printable encoding is improved to break long lines on word boundaries.
• The MIME Mode option in outgoing letters in processed now.
• The MIME Mode option is set for incoming letters to ensure smooth relaying.
• The TCP Agent is modified to work with OpenTransport 1.1.
• Non-Text (Fax) messages can be sent and received via Internet now (with MIME enabled).
2.0
• MIME support is implemented.
• The Default Internet Character Set option is implemented.
• Base64, AppleSingle and AppleDouble decoding is implemented.
• The charset headers in MIME letters are processes for text coding/decoding.
• Internet Coding, MIME mode and Attachment method options are supported.
• Bug fixed in the PPC handler that serves requests from FaxSender.
• The Add Note command is implemented.
• The special names ERROR and NULL are supported in the Router to reject/discard messages.
1.9
• The User Rules are implemented.
1.8.7
• Dial-up TCP/IP communications are now supported. The PPP Dialing item appears in the Server menu if MacPPP/FreePPP is installed. MacPPP connection should cause much less problems now, with introduction of the TCP Agent applet.
1.8.5
• Several internal improvements and fixes. Workaround for the MacOS File Manager bug causing the -43 error.
1.8
• Server-based User resources (settings) are implemented.
• Resending of messages to selected addresses is implemented.
• Remote access to local mailboxes (via POP, etc) is implemented.
1.7
• Log Monitoring implemented
• Bug Fix: Incoming faxes are now placed into the New Messages, so they are processed when received.
• Bug Fix: operations wth serial port driver names are corrected.
1.6
• Return-Receipt-to and Return-Path addresses are supported.
• Creating and processing Internet (RFC822) headers was moved to the server kernel, so all internet e-mail modules can share them. Also, the kernel now supports BinHex encoding/decoding.
• Text coding/encoding tables are supported.
• Log files are closed at midnight and new log files are created automatically. Log viewer is supported.
• Queue processing has changed to improve the speed when several hundred messages are in queues. The New Messages and Bad Messages folders are used now.
• When starting up, the Server re-processes stored messages one-at-a-time, so during startup the server computer is not locked for minutes if too many messages are in queue.
• Server-based address books are implemented.
• The Route Failed to Postmaster option is implemented in the Router.
• The Router polls the modules twice to support foreign "Mail Servers": messages are now forwarded to some foreign mail server only if all other modules cannot route a message.
1.5
• Bug Fix: stack size check corrected (bug caused crashes on old low-end machines).
• Bug Fix: Initialization code in 1.3-1.4 versions could damage system memory: it caused various crashes
one some machines when CommuniGate Server was starting up.
• Several internal changes (partial TCP/IP support).
1.4
• Routing is improved (see the Routing file for details). Wildcard (*) symbols are supported in the Routing Table.
• Return-Receipt and Error notifications are implemented.
• Multiple local addresses are supported: if the message is directed to several local users and one of them deletes the message from her/his In Box, the message is not removed from that In Box, not from the server. A message is deleted only when all recipients delete it from their In Boxes.
• Message deleting speed has been improved.
• The Message Delivered and the Message Transmitted states were added instead of the single "Message Sent" state.
• Bug Fix: the "serial port busy" situation is detected correctly again (this bug was introduced with 1.3, which was complied using Metrowerks C).
1.3
• Version checks are implemented (outdated modules are not loaded, new modules don't work with an outdated server).
• "Server Documents" are now supported.
• Bug Fix: the "-" in phone numbers is now processed correctly.
