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From: crum%lipari.usc.edu@usc.edu (Gary L. Crum)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: AT&T Mail and the internet
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Date: 14 Aug 89 21:08:26 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 296, message 5 of 8

What is the relationship between AT&T Mail and the internet?  By
"internet", I mean the collection of computer networks that exchange
information with the Internet (NSFNET backbone and regionals and other
TCP/IP networks accessible at the IP level from NSFNET sites) and
world UUCP network (described by comp.mail.maps postings, larger than
the set of sites receiving USENET news).

If there exists a two-way gateway service between the AT&T Mail
Network and the world UUCP network, then I would consider AT&T Mail
part of the internet (not Internet -- following the distinction
between "internet" and "Internet" used by A. Tanenbaum and D. Comer
in their respective books, "Computer Networks" and "Internetworking with
TCP/IP").

Does anyone have a better name and description for what I am calling
"the world UUCP network"?

I ask about all this, because I received literature about AT&T Mail
today.  The literature doesn't even mention any of
{NSFNET,BITNET,CSNET,UUCP, USENET}.  Yet, it does mention UNIX and
states "AT&T Mail lets you send messages to almost anywhere in the
world through service and delivery options like MailFAX, telex, and
special gateway interfaces.

If there is a gateway between AT&T Mail and the "world UUCP network", then
it seems that the services provided by AT&T Mail and UUNET overlap somewhat.
Perhaps AT&T Mail is closer to MCI Mail.

A related issue is the relationship between the world UUCP network and
the TCP/IP Internet.

The AT&T Mail technical representative didn't know what I meant by
world UUCP network, USENET, Internet, and TCP/IP.  She started talking
about gateway interface products (e.g. MHS X.400) when I asked about
gateways.  Maybe I should have used the word "relay".

Gary Crum