Note from the Wildcat! File Network Coordinator - July 1, 1998
==============================================================
I have not installed MailTraq, so I'm not sure what is in the archive for
documentation or vendor contacts.  The information in this file was
copied from the MailTraq home page at the http addresses listed below.
I'm providing it mainly to make sure you have an idea where to look for
additional information about MailTraq and how to license it.



General information taken from http://www.fastraq.co.uk/mailtraq/about.html

Mailtraq is a complete messaging solution for both small companies and home
offices.  In combination with either Windows NT or Windows '95, Mailtraq
provides a comprehensive range of communication services.

- Fully functional Internet E-mail server and router
- Internet news server
- Mailing list server
- Public access mail archives and autoresponders
- Internet dialup scheduler
- Proxy server
- Web server
- Web based remote administration
- Extensive customisation through templates and scripting 

How does Mailtraq work?  Mailtraq is an email and news server, suited to a
variety of environments from the single user, right through to a reasonably
large organisation.  Mailtraq works by collecting (or receiving) mail from
your Internet Service Provider, and providing a local source for users to
access their mail. 

Mailtraq makes your machine appear to have a permanent Internet connection
(from the point of view of mail and news software), while it andles the 
later delivery and collection automatically. 

Additionally, Mailtraq needn't be connected to the Internet at all.  If your
company requires email only for inter-department communication, you won't
need any Internet Access. If your company has a direct connection (without
the need for Modems) then it is still useful to have a local server handling
news and mail. 

Whether your one person who needs their email and news ready before
breakfast, or a company who need safe and comprehensive mail services for a
number of people, Mailtraq may be the solution. 

User Interface

One of the great strengths of Mailtraq is it's user interface, which is
simple, clear, and practical.  The console provides a real-time view of
Mailtraq activity, giving the user a clear picture of what is happening, and
making fault location easier than ever.

The E-Mail Services

The mail server handles mailboxes for any number of users (or purposes).
These mailboxes can be accessed by the POP3 protocol, which is currently the
most popular method for mail access, supported by practically every mail
client available.  Mail can be left on the server, or downloaded to the
user's own machine. 

Powerful administration facilities allow you to automatically expire mail
that has been left in the mailbox too long, to reduce resource demand
without having to persuade the users to do this themselves.  Mailtraq also
provides a number of secretarial duties.  If the user hasn't collected
their mail within the specified time, a copy can be forwarded to someone
else to get their attention fast. 

For older clients, Mailtraq can also gateway mail addressed to specific
users to a KA9Q style directory.  This permits users on a non-TCP/IP
network to access their mail without having to upgrade their software. 

Each user can also have a number of aliases, which can be very useful for
users who wish to maintain different identities (particularly on the News
Services).  In addition, aliases can be shared by other users forming
mini user groups (where a mailing list is unnecessary).  Users can have
all their mail forwarded to another location (temporarily, or
permanently) if they prefer, which is ideal for making sure that even
when they are at home their mail follows them. 

Mail Collection

This allows Mailtraq to go looking for your mail instead of waiting for it
to arrive.  Some service providers only supply mail via POP3, which is
only really suitable for a single user.  Perhaps some of your users wish
to collect mail from their own ISP accounts too.  Mailtraq can have any
number of remote POP3 collection points to which it will regularly visit
and collect new mail. 

This facility is particularly powerful, in that instead of blindly
downloading all new mail, you can have certain messages filtered out, and
go and fetch them only after you have seen the preview.  Great for avoiding
those 15mb accidents... In fact, you can have a summary posted to a
specific user, to which all they have to do is reply in order to select
messages to download. 

This is the idea way to share mail between different installations.  Mail
can be left on the remote server, or deleted after download.  It won't be
downloaded a second time, but other sites collecting from the same source
(such as users working from home) can still access it. 

Messages collected in this method can still be routed to different
mailboxes, even if you only have a single POP3 account.

Mail Routing 

Mailtraq provides powerful message routing facilities to support both
direct to ISP delivery, routing via Mail Exchanges, and local area network
routing.  Messages are delivered to hosts in parallel streams for the most
efficient delivery possible. 

Alternative routes and fallback methods can be configured, and where
routes are temporarily unavailable, Mailtraq can continue trying and keep
the original sender notified of problems and delays. 

If you wish to configure your own mail routes, Mailtraq can accommodate
with explicit mail routing to both Internet and local mail servers.

News Server

The news service is a complete solution for using the huge wealth of
knowledge that is the USENET.  Mailtraq can download messages from
specified networks, and then provide these to local users.  Mailtraq can
support practically any news client (supporting standard NNTP and all
the common extensions). 

Mailtraq can collect news from your service provider at high speeds by
using multiple simultaneous connections, making latency delays a thing
of the past.  This ensures that your available bandwidth is used as
efficiently as possible. 

News Gateways

Not everyone wishes (or is able) to use a news client to read news, so
Mailtraq can deliver news articles to users via mail if they wish
(filtering out unwanted articles).  In addition, users can post news
articles via email instead of using a news client.  This could be the
ideal way to keep an eye on news groups for relevant articles. 

The news gateway can also be used to convert a mailing list into a
local news group.  If you are a member of a discussion mailing list,
then you will know how similar it appears to a news group -- so why not
make it one!  Articles will appear in a news group, and when you reply
to them the message will be sent back to the mailing list. 

Mailing Lists

Mailtraq provides very comprehensive mailing list facilities, equal to
most dedicated expensive list processing software.  The mailing list
facilities support both open (anyone can post) and closed (only members
can post) lists, ideal for discussion forums, announcement lists and work
groups.  Message pooling (where each message is delivered to only one
subscriber) is also supported, ideal for handling facilities such as
technical support groups. 

Subscription by Mail

Mailing Lists can be automated to allows subscription by mail, and each
subscriber can have their own properties.  These control which messages
they receive (or exclude), whether or not they wish to receive binary
attachments, and options to receive summary digests in addition (or as an
alternative) to ordinary mail. 

Mailing List security is provided by user passwords, and new subscribers
can be automatically confirmed to prevent malicious use.  (A confirmation
address is sent to the new address to which the user must reply.) 

Subscribers can choose to hide their identity, in which case any
reference to them will be removed from their messages.  On the other hand,
they can permit their name and details to appear in the public membership
list, which can be retrieved by any subscriber. 

Subscribers can also use other mail-commands to change and view their own
properties. 

Dialup FacilitiesThe dialup services let you have Mailtraq connect
automatically at scheduled times, or when outbound mail is waiting.
Mailtraq can connect to a number of ISPs, or a variety of telephone
numbers (where your service provider offers backup lines). 

In addition, whenever the machine operator makes a connection, Mailtraq
will detect this and make use of the connection for email and other
configurable services. 

ISDN 

Direct Connections Mailtraq has been proven to work effectively with
ISDN connections, providing an ideal solution for larger companies or
organisations.  Mailtraq can be configured to make frequent, brief
connections to minimise delivery times.

Direct Connections

Mailtraq works equally well with direct network connections to the
Internet.  Each service can be configured to operate at regular
intervals. 

Outbound mail delivery normally takes place immediately, but in
situations where other network facilities automate the connections,
Mailtraq can be configured to buffer all outbound mail to reduce
connection frequency.

Archives and Auto-responders

A unique facility, the Public Archives allow users to request messages
by writing to an archive. This is the ideal way to support discussion
forums (where users can examine older messages), or to provide a
number of standard documents on request.  In addition, some of these
documents can be templates (using the scripting facilities) that
automatically execute when retrieved.  The ideal way to connect to a
database and get the latest prices! 

Archives can be configured as mailing list subscribers to
automatically add delivered messages, and both retrieval and addition
access can be limited to specific users. 

Mailtraq can provide automatic response to messages in a variety of
ways.  The archives can respond automatically with default messages,
or use the subject line to return a specific message.  Mailing lists
can acknowledge all posted messages automatically with a user
defined script or message.

Proxy Server

Mailtraq Proxy Service can make it possible to browse the web with any
machine on your network, using only one dialup connection to the
Internet.

Web Proxy

This service appears to the local network to be a web server, and page
requests made to the proxy are forwarded to other servers on the
Internet.  Most web browsers support the use of web proxies, making it 
possible to operate your entire network through a single Internet
connection.

When a user wishes to browse a page not available on the local
network, their browser requests the page from Mailtraq.  If Mailtraq's
machine is not currently connected to the Internet, it can initiate a 
dialup connection and then pass on the request to the appropriate 
machine.  Mailtraq can handle any number of simultaneous connections, 
and can automatically disconnect from a dialup connection when it is 
no longer needed.  This works in harmony with your mail and news 
services, so while you are browsing, your colleague can use the same 
telephone time to collect new e-mail.

The Big Benefit is cost effectiveness.  Mailtraq provides a 
comprehensive proxy service that covers far more than simply web 
services, and such a facility is usually found in very expensive and 
highly demanding software.  And like every service that Mailtraq 
provides, you'll have it configured in seconds.

Web Server

Running a company wide Intranet can be the ideal solution for 
information sharing.  If you need to publish documents throughout 
your organisation, why not take advantage of the browser technology 
available on all your machines already?  This familiar document 
interface is powerful, and remarkably easy to administrate.  In fact, 
Mailtraq even supports direct page editing for Netscape Navigator.

Web Administrator

One of the most important features of Mailtraq is its ability to be 
administrated from a remote Web browser.  You can configure services, 
manage mailboxes, administrate mailing lists, monitor and control 
dialup connections, and even read mail.  All this from a machine 
thousands of miles away from your server.  And because web browsers 
are cross-platform, this is an ideal way to integrate a network made 
up of different operating systems and machine types.  Since web 
browsers are installed as standard on practically every machine 
nowadays, you can get at your mail within moments of using a machine 
right out of the box.

Now you can leave your server locked away in the basement and manage 
it from your workstation.  More importantly, you can share the 
administrative workload by having many users administrate the 
various Mailtraq services you provide to your network.

Templates and Scripting

Mailtraq uses a number of automatically generated messages (such as 
delivery failure warnings, welcome messages for new mailing list 
subscribers, etc).  Administrators can edit any of these, and 
cusomise them for specific objects (such as lists).  In addition, 
Mailtraq scripting facilities can be incorporated into templates. 

The scripting language allows you to customise Mailtraq to your 
precise requirements.  Whether you want to access files outside 
Mailtraq for automatic respones, process messages generated by Web 
Forms, or access databases -- the scripting language provides a 
means to do all this. 

You can attach plug-ins to extend Mailtraq's facilities, allowing 
you to write your extensions in any language you choose.  These 
facilities provide maximum customisation for any situation. 

Potential for Third-party support is huge, and developers are 
already working on providing additional software that can be 
integrated into Mailtraq using the scripts to control them. 



Download information taken from http://www.fastraq.co.uk/mailtraq/download.html

The full version of Mailtraq is available for download here. When you download
Mailtraq you will be able to evaluate it as a "Lite" edition for 60 days. This
version is a single user system where login passwords are not verified by
Mailtraq. 

If your company requires a multi-user 60 day evaluation copy, please write to
sales@fastraq.co.uk for a special case evaluation number.  Please indicate how
many users you require.

Pre-Release Users: You may use the registration number
UX-EV-1671-1111-1111-111221 during June.  We will no longer be issuing monthly
registration numbers.



Pricing information taken from http://www.fastraq.co.uk/mailtraq/sales.html

Mailtraq is sold in a boxed edition which includes a CD-ROM containing the 
software and support files, and a printed User Guide.

There are three ways to purchase Mailtraq :-

- Directly from Fastraq
- From our Credit-Card agent Atlantic Coast PLC <Picture>
- Through an Authorised Reseller or Consultant 

If you have any queries, please write to sales@fastraq.co.uk.

Purchasing Directly from Fastraq

The prices directly from Fastraq are

                License  (Ex VAT) (Inc VAT)
                 1 User   £75.00   £88.13
                 5 User  £145.00  £170.38
                10 User  £195.00  £229.13
                20 User  £275.00  £323.13
                50 User  £395.00  £464.13
               100 User  £495.00  £581.63
 Unlimited Site License  £695.00  £816.63

Simply send a cheque or British Sterling Eurocheque made payable to 
Fastraq limited to the address below :-

Fastraq Limited
P.O. Box 933
Barton
Cambridge CB3 7AT
United Kingdom


All customers within the United Kingdom should include VAT in their
payment.  Customers within the European Union (but outside the United
Kingdom) can omit VAT only if they are VAT registered and supply their
VAT number.  Customers outside the European Union may omit VAT,
although they may be subject to local customs taxation when the package
is received.

Customers who cannot issue cheques or use credit-cards may consider a 
pro-forma invoice which can be paid by bank transfer.

Pro Forma Invoices

You may purchase Mailtraq by supplying a numbered purchase order to the
address above, detailing the items you wish to purchase.  Fastraq will
issue a pro-forma invoice via fax or post (please specify).

These invoices can be paid by cheque (as above) or via bank transfer.
