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                             M I N I - H O S T

                           for Microsoft Windows

                    -----------------------------------
                    Data Management and Mail Processing
                    -----------------------------------

                      Annotation to the demo-version


    Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, SuperPhysica Center, St.Petersburg, Russia.
    =====================================================================


    This document is  a brief description  of Mini-Host project  and its
    demonstration version. It  is intended to  help you in  installation
    and evaluating  the demo  version as  well as  to better imagine the
    project's concepts, features and perspectives.

    The  document  is  written  under  a  supposition that the reader is
    familiar both with basics of Microsoft Windows graphical environment
    and basics of electronic mail.

    We  strongly  recommend  you  to read this document before you start
    the  installation   procedure.  It's   quite  small   but  all   the
    significant information is concentrated here.

    CONTENTS
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      GENERAL
      INSTALLATION
        Software Requirements
        Hardware Requirements
        Installation Procedure
      DEMO EVALUATION
        Creating Database of Users
        Modem SetUp
        Using WinUUCP as an External Mail Transport Agent
        Mail Procesing
      CAUTIONS
      TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS
      CREDITS


    GENERAL
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    Mini-Host  is  an  integrated   software  package  for  E-mail   and
    data  processing.  It  works   under  Microsoft  Windows   graphical
    environment.

    Mini-Host  package   should  give   you  an   ability  to   have   a
    convenient   networking   environment   under   Microsoft   Windows.
    It  should  allow  you  either  to  organize  a quite powerful email
    host  on  your  PC,  or  to  get  your  PC  integrated into external
    network.  It  should  allow  you  to  keep  all  your  various  data
    (messages,  conference  articles,  pictures,  documents  and   other
    files)  in  the  same  database;  each  data  item  could  be easily
    transferred  via  network  without  any  extra  efforts  of encoding
    and packing.

    The  demo  version  is  of  limited  part  of  the  entire  project.
    It  includes  two  main  parts  of  Mini-Host package only: the mail
    user  agent  (MUA)  -  Data  Manager,  and  the mail transport agent
    (MTA) - WinUUCP Communications.

    Demo   contains   several   Windows   applications   that   are  not
    self-demonstrating ones,  so you  may figure  their "real behavior".
    Each part  of the  demo (MUA  and MTA)  can be  installed separately
    (see the INSTALLATION section of this document).


    INSTALLATION
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    Software Requirements

        To  run  demonstration  version  of  Mini-Host,  you should have
        Microsoft  Windows  3.0  or  later  installed  on your computer.
        To  get  the  best  look  of  some interface elements you should
        also  have  two  standard  Windows  fonts  installed - Helvetica
        and Courier.

        Since  the  project  is  oriented  to  Windows  3.1  we strongly
        recommend  to   run  demo   under  this   version  of   Windows.
        The  behavior  of  demo  applications  under  MS Windows 3.0 may
        cause some problems.


    Hardware Requirements

        You should  have at  least about  1.6 Mb  of free  space on your
        hard disk  to keep  demo system  files and  to create  a minimal
        databases  during  evaluation.  We  recommend  to  use a PC with
        4 Mb  of RAM  or more,  although the  applications can  run with
        less memory.  As  for video, it would  be better to look  at the
        demo with VGA or higher resolution.


    Installation Procedure

        If you  have got  the demo  installation files  in the  archived
        form  you  should  unpack  the  archive  either  into  1.44   Mb
        diskette  or  into  separate  temporary  directory  on your hard
        drive (e.g.  C:\TMP). Then  you should  launch Microsoft Windows
        (if  you  are  running  MS   DOS)  and  start  the   INSTALL.EXE
        application.

        Just as the main windows appears, you have to choose

        Setup / Settings

        menu item and specify some parameters in a dialog box:

        INSTALL      - you  may  install  either entire demo,  or one of
                       two  parts  (mail  user  agent  or mail transport
                       agent) of product.

        DIRECTORIES

        Windows      - the  MS Windows  directory  on  your  machine (is
                       determined  automatically)  where  initialization
                       files are to be placed.

        Source       - directory     of   the   source   binaries    for
                       installation      (should      be      determined
                       automatically).

        Executables  - directory  where  all  the  demo executable files
                       should be placed.

        Database     - directory  where  all  the  databases  should  be
                       created.

        Mail         - directory  where  mail  system  files   (spooler,
                       routes and aliases tables) should be placed.

        OPTIONS

        Install BWCC - demo  applications  uses  the  Borland's  Windows
                       custom  control  DLL  (BWCC.DLL);  if you already
                       have  this  library  installed  on  your  machine
                       do not check on this option.

        Create Group - if  you  use  the  Program Manager  as a shell in
                       your Windows graphical environment, you may check
                       on  this  option  and  the  setup program creates
                       special  application  group  for  Mini-Host  demo
                       applications.

        Just  as  you  have  specified  all  the  required  settings you
        may choose

            Setup / Go!

        menu item to start the actual installation.


    DEMO EVALUATION
    ------------------------------------------------------------------

    Here  we  would  like  to  suggest  you  the most effective scenario
    of   demo   evaluation   (where   you   can   avoid  some  redundant
    difficulties).

    Creating Database of Users

        Since the  Users Database  is empty  after the  installation the
        first step is to  fill it by some  data. To do this  you have to
        run  User  Server  application  and  register  one or more users
        of the system.

        First,  you   should  register   one  human   user  to   be   an
        administrator  of  the  system  (the  most  appropriate  name of
        that user is "postmaster").

        NB! Take care of the first  human user - he should have  highest
            access permission to be  able to maintain database  of users
            in  the  future.  See  Q&A.TXT  file  for more details about
            user registration procedure.

        If  you  wish  to  evaluate  MUA  part  of system (Data Manager)
        you  have  to  register  one  or  more  additional  human  users
        to be  able to  send at  least local  mail between  them. Do not
        forget  to  specify  a  home  directory  for each user where all
        the user-specific parameters should be kept.

        If  you  wish  to  evaluate  MTA  part  of  the system (WinUUCP)
        you have  to register  at least  one UNIX  host (your  uplink or
        boss  node)  in  the  Users  Database.  Pay  your  attention  to
        difference   between   log-in   and   log-out   passwords    for
        registered  UNIX  hosts:  the  former  are  for  those  hosts to
        access your  machine, the  latter are  for you  to access  those
        hosts when you call them.

        NB! If you are going to write test letters and to send them  you
            must  specify  your  host's  main  attributes (name, domain,
            etc.)  in  the  corresponding  section  of  WinUUCP's setup.
            Otherwise,  all  your  outgoing  mail  will not have a valid
            source address.

    Modem SetUp

        If  you  are  going  to  evaluate  MTA,  you should tune WinUUCP
        to  work  with  your  modem  properly.  Primarily,  you  have to
        specify  correct  COM  port  your  modem  is  attached  to,  and
        modem-specific   commands   (use   documentation   supplied   to
        your hardware).

    Using WinUUCP as an External Mail Transport Agent

        Our  MTA  -  WinUUCP  application  -  can be used as an external
        mail   transport   agent   for   several   famous  Windows-based
        E-mail   packages.   There   is   WUSMAIL.EXE   application   to
        be  an  entry  point  to  WinUUCP.  For  example,  see   CMM.SET
        file  to  get  information  about   how  to  use  WinUUCP   with
        Cinetic Mail Manager.

    Mail Procesing

        Our  MUA  -  Data  Manager  -  allows  you to perform almost all
        the   basic   mail   operations.    Also   it   provides    some
        additional   features.   You   can   evaluate   the    following
        operations and procedures in demo version:

          - creation,  modification and  support of  tree-like structure
            of folders;

          - creation and  sending of new  mail; replying and  forwarding
            of received mail;

          - mporting   of   messages  from  standard  mailboxes  on your
            machine and vise versa;

          - encoding/decoding    of    mail   by   means   of   built-in
            UUENCODE/UUDECODE converter;

          - simple searching operations in mail database;

          - creation and usage of simple Address Database;

          - usage of mail message templates and patterns;

          - etc.

        We  suppose   that  some   user  interface   details  of    Data
        Manager  (and  maybe  even   overall  user  interface   concept)
        are  quite  different  from  what   we  have  ever  seen   among
        various   mail-related   software   products.   So   the  primer
        interest   for   us   would   be   your   responses  about  user
        interface  of  the  product.   This  would  affect  the   future
        development of the entire project.


    CAUTIONS
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    The main limitations of the demo version of Mini-Host are:

        1)  WinUUCP   allows   you   to  transfer a  limited  number  of
            messages per session.

        2)  WinUUCP does not contain any internal call scheduler.

        3)  WinUUCP does not allow to transfer squeezed mail.

        4)  Data  Manager   does   not   support   any   external   mail
            transfer agent except WinUUCP.

        5)  Data  Manager  does  not  allow  to  store  files  (objects)
            except ordinary mail messages.

        6)  Data  Manager  does  not  allow  to  handle   messages  that
            have size larger than 32 Kb.

        7)  Data   Manger  does   not  fully   support   access   rights
            distinguishing   between   users   of   the   system.   Also
            it does not provide automatic mail confidentiality.

        8)  Data  Manager  does   not  have  any   additional   features
            to ease netnews (electronic conferences) handling.

        9)  There   is  no  any   help  supplied  to  the   applications
            (neither   on-line    nor   documentation)    except    this
            document  and  Q&A.TXT  file.   However,  you  may  ask   us
            directly  for  any  help  information  (see  CREDITS section
            of this document).

    Data  Manager  is  not  fully  optimized  for  speed  (we  hope this
    is  not  a  great  problem,  but  our main goal of demo distribution
    is  to  get  responses  primarily  about  user  interface   concepts
    used in Mini-Host).

    Data  Manager  still   may  contain  some   bugs,  so  we   do   not
    guarantee  that  the  mail  database  created  by demo version would
    not  be  corrupted  one  day.  There  is  some  special  utility  to
    repair  corrupted  databases,  but  it  is  not  included  in   demo
    package.

    Some  troubles  may  occur  when  you  try to terminate applications
    in  unappropriate  order.  The  best  sequence  is  to  launch  User
    Server  first,  then  WinUUCP,  then  Data  Manager and to terminate
    applications in the reverse order.

    Demonstration   package   has   not   a   perfect   defence  against
    all  users'  mistakes.  So  some  non-trivial  user's  actions   may
    cause the system to fail.


    TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS
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    MS DOS and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
    BWCC.DLL is copyrighted by Borland International.

    This  demonstartion  package  is   being  under  the  copyright   of
    SuperPhysica  Center.   It  may   be  freely   distributed  provided
    neither applicaation, nor this document are not modified.

    CREDITS
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    The  Mini-Host   project  is   developed  by   SuperPhysica  Center,
    St.Petersburg, Russia.

    Software development team:

        Wojciech Rizhy          - ideas, system analysis.
        Yaroslav Mezheritsky    - senjor project manager, user
                                  interface.
        Eugene Vernikovsky      - databases.
        Alex Shturm             - communications.

    Administration:

        Levon Grigorian         - commercial director.
        Kirill Dmitriev         - manager.

    Contact us:

        Internet/Relcom:        minihost@sph.spb.su
                                minihost%sph.spb.su@ussr.eu.net

        Sovam Teleport/IASNet:  sph@sovamsu.sovusa.com

        FidoNet:                2:5030/43.6

        Snail:                  SuperPhysica Center,
                                190031, POB 418,
                                St.Petersburg, Russia.

        Phone:                  +7 (812) 310-4631

    All  the  contact  addresses  above  are  open  for  your questions,
    opinions,  critics  and  recommendations.  Any  responses  would  be
    greatly appreciated.

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