MEMORANDUM
   
   TO:     Wendy Rowe
   
   FROM:   Keith Corbett
   
   DATE:   July 11, 1986
   
   SUBJ:   Andover/Cambrdidge Mail Link Problems
   
   COPY:   John Salis, John Conway, Dan Thomas
   
   
   We still need some assistance and ongoing support for the mail link
   between Andover and Cambridge.  The Bug Information Management system,
   as proposed, simply will not work without reliable mail.
      
   Although reliability is much improved, compared to several months ago,
   the link is still not in an acceptable state. Following are some of
   the problems we have experienced lately:
    
      * Messages are not sent, with no warning.  For example, frequently I
    get messages saying "remote access path denied" or "parsing error". It
    is not possible to find out which message was not sent.
    
      * We can't automatically reply to anything from cambridge.
    
      * Split up messages -- that is, some of the text is carried across to
    a second, headerless message. 
    
      * Extra (duplicate) copies of messages.
    
      * Large files are not transmitted, and no warning is received.
    
      * Cryptic error on send: "temporary error from host for the body of
    the message: queue file close error: status is 17152". (This means,
    generally, that one of the addressees is unknown.)
   
   Since mail reliability and the integrity of messages is critical to BIM,
   I am not optimistic about going on-line under these conditions.
      
   Eliminating UUCP (the weakest link in the chain) seems more desirable
   than ever.  Apropos of this, what is the status of the "bridge boxes"?
   
   At the Release 3 status meeting two weeks ago, you made a committment that
   Engineering would provide technical support to improve the situation.
   Can you please let me know what is being done?
   
   KMC