Microsoft Mail Gateways

Many large organizations have multiple electronic messaging systems. In your organization, you might need to communicate with workgroups or organizations using electronic mail systems other than Windows 95 mail, such as cc:Mail, HP® Openmail, or IBM PROFS®. Microsoft offers a complete line of advanced gateways that provide reliable and sophisticated connectivity between Microsoft Mail Server and virtually any other electronic mail system within your organization.

Gateways ensure that messages always get across to their intended recipients. Addressing messages remains an easy process because people using other mail systems will be listed in your Microsoft Mail global address list — all you need to know is the name of the person you need to communicate with.

Microsoft offers gateways for the following:

Note Microsoft Exchange Server will provide built-in support for X.400 and Internet Mail (SMTP). Users who upgrade to Microsoft Exchange Server will not need to purchase gateways for X.400 or SMTP.

Microsoft gateways support key features such as messaging backboning and message encapsulation.

• Messaging backboning lets organizations leverage their existing messaging resources by using these systems as high-performance bridges — or messaging backbones — between multiple Microsoft Mail sites.
• Message encapsulation makes it possible for users to place graphics, charts, sound, and video objects directly in mail messages for richer communication. Moreover, these complex messages can be sent across messaging backbones between distant sites without any loss of data integrity.

To connect a workgroup postoffice to another workgroup postoffice, you must purchase Microsoft Mail Postoffice Upgrade for each postoffice. To connect to another message system, such as X.400 or SMTP, you'll need to install both Microsoft Mail Postoffice Upgrade plus the appropriate gateway software.

Note

You will need at least one dedicated computer to act as the mail router, or the EXTERNAL.EXE program. Some gateways might require additional dedicated computers to connect to host systems. Before proceeding, you should determine your requirements by obtaining gateway datasheets.

Each message system can connect to the workgroup postoffice by using one or more specific gateways. The following table is a partial list of the Microsoft gateways needed for various message systems. If you use one of the message systems listed in this table, you need to purchase the appropriate gateway.

Microsoft Mail Gateways for Message Systems

1 Or through PROFS Distribution Manager if you have a VM host.

2 Or the MS Mail-Notes Gateway by Corporate Software.

3 Or in some cases, the AT&T Gateway

4 SMTP is a part of TCP/IP, not UNIX. You can also have SMTP origination to a VAX or IBM host.

5 Requires connectivity to an SMTP host that acts as a router to UUCP.