Send E-Mails From Your TI-99 With Cortex BASIC and Lantronix UDS-10

[Stuart]

You can now send e-mails from your TI-99 if you've got Cortex BASIC and a Lantronix UDS-10. I've no idea why you'd actually want to, but it is an interesting little experiment.

 

The program listing you need is here: E-Mail Program Listing.txt

 

Your UDS-10 needs to have the same configuration as for my Internet Web Browser program.

 

The program is based on Telnetting to an SMTP server from a PC, as described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol#SMTP_transport_example and many other places.

 

You need to get some information and make some changes to the program as described below. It looks complicated but it isn't really. Once you've got the ISP details correct then you can re-save the program ready for next time.

 

First, you need to edit line 150 to match the serial port you're using. See the REM statements as the start of the program.

 

Next, you need to edit some of the DATA statements at the end of the program:

 

-- You need to find out the IP address of your ISP's SMTP server. A bit of Googling will normally help if needed. You need to edit the first DATA line to include this. The IP address needs to be prefixed with "C" and have "/25" on the end, as shown on the current line. (If you try to use a different ISP's SMTP server, the server will normally reject you to prevent you sending spam through it. You *need* to be connected to the ISP's network in order to connect to the SMTP server.)

 

-- Edit the line DATA "HELO ..." to include your ISP's domain name. (Note: the spelling of "HELO" is correct - just one "L".)

 

-- Edit the line DATA "MAIL FROM:..." to include the e-mail address you're sending from. This can be just an e-mail address or a "name <e-mail address>" format. This doesn't have to be an e-mail address associated with your ISP, but the domain name specified must exist.

 

-- Edit the line DATA "RCPT TO:..." to include the e-mail address you're sending to. If you want to send to more than one person (including cc'ing someone), add duplicates of this line. This can be just an e-mail address or a "name <e-mail address>" format.

 

-- Edit the line DATA "From: ..." to include the e-mail address you're sending from. This can be just an e-mail address or a "name <e-mail address>" format. In the latter case, the "name" is displayed as the sender's name in the e-mail. (Note: This is who the e-mail says to the reader it is from - but as far as the e-mail servers are concerned, the e-mail is 'from' the address specified by the "MAIL FROM" field. The "From" and "MAIL FROM" fields can actually specify different e-mail addresses.)

 

-- Edit the line DATA "To: " to include the e-mail address you're sending to. This can be just an e-mail address or a "name <e-mail address>" format. In the latter case, the "name" is displayed as the recipient's name in the e-mail. (Note: This is who the e-mail says to the reader it is to - the e-mail is actually and only sent to the recipient(s) in the "RCPT TO" field(s). The "To" and "RCPT TO" fields can actually specify different e-mail addresses.)

 

-- Edit the line "DATA "Subject: ..." to include the subject.

 

(The line following the "DATA "Subject: ..." line must be a blank string)

 

-- Edit the next DATA lines to include the message. Keep each line below about 80 characters. Add extra lines if needed.

 

-- Following the message DATA lines must be the three lines DATA ".", DATA "QUIT" and DATA "***END***".

 

The program displays each line as it is sent to the server. For each of the lines up to and including DATA "DATA", a response from the server should be shown. A response should also be shown for the DATA "." and DATA "QUIT" lines at the end.

 

*** If an e-mail you send is not received, check your spam folder! ***

Edited December 19, 2015 by Stuart

[+Schmitzi]

.

Crassus Maximus

 

what a nice christmas gift

thanks

[+Ksarul]

Neat! I like the growing number of use cases for Cortex BASIC too!

[+mizapf]

Some points to be mentioned:

 

- As for setting MAIL FROM and RCPT TO, one of them must be a mail user known to the SMTP server. Otherwise, as Stuart said, the mail server would be open to spam, and such Open Relays are usually collected in black lists. That way, you can either send away through that SMTP server as a user of the provider, or you can send mail to your mail account.

 

- When you try to send mail to somewhere else, you may notice that lots of SMTP servers are getting increasingly reluctant to non-authenticated users. Sometimes, it suffices to poll via POP3 before the SMTP to be authenticated. Most of the mail servers I am using require a login via ESMTP (SMTP-Auth).

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POP_before_SMTP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMTP_Authentication

 

- To make things even more complicated, in recent times, many mail servers (at least here in Germany) refuse to accept mail that is not submitted via a TLS channel, that is, by encryption. (STARTTLS)

 

I once tried to demonstrate a simple telnet (netcat) connection to the web.de server in my lectures, but this seems to be blocked by now. It used to work years ago.

[Stuart]

- As for setting MAIL FROM and RCPT TO, one of them must be a mail user known to the SMTP server. Otherwise, as Stuart said, the mail server would be open to spam, and such Open Relays are usually collected in black lists. That way, you can either send away through that SMTP server as a user of the provider, or you can send mail to your mail account.

 

 

I can send an e-mail through my TalkTalk (Pipex) account where *neither* the sender or receiver are known to the SMTP server (but I have to be logged on to their network). Their level of security may help to explain TalkTalk's appearance in the news of late for being hacked ...

[+Schmitzi]

.

in my case, I´ll just give a relay-permission on my local MS-ExchangeServer, for the UDS´ IP-address.

 

no login, no cry ♫

[+mizapf]

I should say: your mileage may vary. Just be aware that if you don't succeed, you may have done everything right, but the SMTP server you try to connect to may enforce some stricter security policy.

[Omega-TI]

Neat! I like the growing number of use cases for Cortex BASIC too!

 

Hell yeah! From the communications side of things, it's looking so bright we need shades. 80 column communications programs like TIMXT and a totally neat Internet Browser on cartridge, and now apparently Email capability... all on our TI's. Wow, just wow. I just wish I had more time to play with this stuff right now.

[Omega-TI]

.

in my case, I´ll just give a relay-permission on my local MS-ExchangeServer, for the UDS´ IP-address.

 

no login, no cry ♫

 

Please everyone, feel free to post HOW you do all this stuff. In the new year I'm going to want to try this out, but at this point I don't even know if my DSL/IP offers this capability. I've been using a log-in service for years and have not had to mess with stuff.