IMAP (email)
There are only 3 IMAP clients that we are aware of at this time (Maelstrom, Pine for Windows and POP Mail 2. More investigation of this needs to continue. Dave will ask Eric to brief him on progress/problems with installing an IMAP server on our mail server.
General Unix support/direction
Two issues came up in this discussion: backup of technical staff for Unix; and, cooperating with Central Computing to capitalize upon their resources, both equipment and people.
Currently, the only backup we have for our Unix support is Russ Nelson and Eric Denny. Both are paid consultants. Dave feels this is sufficient as long as we can pay for and use these consultants. To improve our Unix work environment, we need to have a work area for Dave so he can focus on his work w/o interruptions (the consolidation of network equipment should facilitate this).
We need to work with Central Computing so that we are not duplicating efforts that could be handled by a single effort (e.g., backup). We may want to consider FTP'ing our Unix files to Central Computing for backup to their tape-backup system. We should work with them to establish TCP/IP services on the Alpha machines (POP/IMAP/bootp) in order to facilitate the move from VMS mail and to broaden our backup support for these services.