E-mail for DOS

English / Dutch / Home
INTRODUCTION

Because there are many older PC's around which are still usefull for the internet and especially for mail, I have written a document on how to setup e-mail in DOS. It should even work on a 286 with a 9600 Baud modem. On this page you can read the instructions on how to set it up and which programs you need. It's probably very usefull to make a hardcopy of this page making it easier to step through the intsructions.

What kind of software do I need?

You need at least 4 softwarepackages tot start with your e-mail, which are:

1. DOSPPPD 0.6 de Antonio Lopez Molero (dospppd)
2. SMTPOP12 de Alfredo Cole (smtpop12)
3. Pegasus mail 3.22 for DOS from David Harris (pmail322)
4. MAIL4DOS Menu de Konrad Wojas (mmenu)

All these programs are freeware.

DOSPPPD 0.6

This program is the dialer, which makes the connection to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Unzip the file and place it in a directory, for example: c:\dospp. There are 4 important configuration files which are described below. (The texts between brackets describe the parts which have to be changed
by you).

MYISP.DAT

nameserver=194.134.7.10    (Called Primary DNS)
nameserver=194.134.7.20    (Called Secondary DNS)
domainstlist="concepts.nl" (Domainname, ex. pi.net or wxs.nl)
smtphost=mail.concepts.nl  (SMTP to send mail)
nntphost=news.euro.net     (For Newsgroups, it is not required)
mailaddr=naam@concepts.nl  (Your own e-mail adress, also not required)

PPPDRC.CFG

COM4                (Communication port of the modem)
57600               (De maximum speed of the modem)
irq 3               (Interrupt for the modem)
modem
crtscts
asyncmap 0
connect "chat -v -r pppdconn.lst -f chatscr"
user loginname      (This is your loginname for your internet connection)
passwd password     (This your password for your internet)
namsrv 194.134.7.10 (Your primary DNS address)
namsrv 194.134.7.20 (Your secondary DNS address)

CHATSCR

ABORT ERROR ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO DIALTONE'
ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT RING
REPORT CONNECT
TIMEOUT 10
'' ATZ
OK AT&F           (This your modem initstring, AT&F is usually sufficient)
OK ATDT0164240024 (The phone number of your internet service provider)
TIMEOUT 60
CONNECT

There is still one file left, the file DIALER.BAT. But this one doesn't need to be changed, as it is configured as BOOTP.
This completes the configuration of the dialer. Check if you can make a connection with this configuration without any errors appearing.
If you wish to hang up, you just enter the command: TERMIN 0x60

SMTPOP12

This program allows you to send and receive mail.
You can also put it in the dospp directory, if you want...
First you have to create a mail directory,call it for ex. c:\mail
In your autoexec.bat you MUST add a line: set smtpop=c:\dospp. (If this is your dosppp directory)
Then you run the program with smtpop12 -m, after which the next text appears:

Server:       This is the mailserver for mail, if you have 2 different mailservers, for receiving 
              and sending then you should make this field twice
User ID:      This is your login name for mail, mostly wat is after the @ sign
Password:     This is the password which belongs to your mailaccount
Action:       Put here an R for receiving mail, an S to send, a B for both, or I to ignore this account
Delete Mail?: If you want to delete your mail from the mailserver of ISP, after you have received it from your ISP
Drive:        The drive where you want to put your mail
Mail Dir.:    This is the directory where your incoming and outgoing mail is placed, start this field with \
Full Name:    The name for this account

This is all you need to do in SMTPOP.

PEGASUS MAIL

PMAIL version 3.22 is not the latest version but for internet mail there is no difference, but for version 3.4 there are no language modules, so therefore stay with Pmail 3.22.

Unzip pmail32.zip in a temp directory. Run PCONFIG.EXE which presents a menu.
From this menu choose Configure Pegasus mail/DOS and then Standalone configuration.
This creates a C:\PMAIL directory containing the following files:

PCONFIG.EXE
PCONFIG.RSC
PMAIL.CFG
PMAIL.EXE
PMDICT3.PMD

The file PMDICT3.PMD could be deleted as it is an english spellchecker.

Now you configure Pmail to make it's incoming and outgoing files compatible with internet.

Run Pconfig.exe, choose 'config pmail/dos', then 'manage user defined gateways'. You will see that there are no 'gateways' . Press on the 'insert' key to create one. Call the gateway ex. SMTPOP12. Now you'll see a screen called User Gateway Defination. This is what you should enter :

Gateway name: SMTPOP12
New mail path:
Is   a program to run?: N
New mail search mask:
Outgoing mail path:~h
Run for outgoing mail:
Filename format:~d~d.MSG
Run to validate address:
Replay adress format:~p <piet@internetprovider.nl
Accepts SMTP adresses: Y
Simple message headers: 'Glue' headers
UUEncode attachments: Y
Burst messages: N
Strip gateway name: Y
Forces all mail through: Y

Then answer 'Yes" on the question 'Accept this data?', Press CTRL-Enter and choose exit,' saving setup'.

Now run Pmail. It will ask you for a username. Enter your name. Pmail will ask if it has to create a new directory for you. Choose 'Yes', although this directory exists because PMAIL will put his initialization files in it.

Now you'll see the Pmail mainmenu. Choose Preferences, then General Settings. The following changes should be made:

Personal name: Your own name
Dflt reply to: Your complete e-mail adress
Work directory: c:\mail; Your mail directory

This is the required part, the rest is up to you.

MAIL4DOS Menu

Well this is the last part, this is not required but optional. It is a menu for using these programs more friendly, else you have to write thos 'ugly' batchfiles. It's very simple to use: MMENU.BAT is the startup file, in the MMENU.INI you put the programs, and where the are. Here is an example of the MMENU.INI, the MAIL4DOS Menu is placed in the dospp directory.

MMENU.INI

[Exec]
Connect=dialer.bat                          (The dialer.bat from DOSPPPD)
Disconnect=termin 0x60                      (Disconnecting from the internet, shipped with DOSPPPD)
SendReceive=d:\dospp\pmail\smtpop12.exe -a  (SMTPOP12.EXE)
Pegasus=d:\dospp\pmail\pmail.exe            (Pegasus Mail)

Well that's it.... If you have Questions, Bugs, Comments, mail me...(and let met know if it's working)....

Credits go to: Vlad Lissine, for a part of setting up Pegasus Mail, Dan Komáromi for a great discussion forum...and ofcourse Konrad Wojas, for his great MAIL4DOS Menu...