The kernel part of the CommuniGate integrated messaging system is the CommuniGate Server. When installed, it runs in background and:
• stores all messages sent and received;
• enables network access for CommuniGate users, maintains their mailboxes, queues, etc;
• loads and runs CommuniGate modules (i.e. FaxGate, UUCPGate, VoiceGate, etc) and creates the run-time environment for those modules;
• maintains system activity log;
• implements routing algorithms;
• maintains a resource database and provides access to that database for CommuniGate users and CommuniGate modules (fax cover pages, sounds, voice scripts, info tables, etc).
The CommuniGate services can be accessed with the CommuniGate client software. The client software allows you to compose and read messages, to manage your mailboxes, etc. It is also used by CommuniGate administrator to configure, maintain, monitor and control the CommuniGate server - locally or remotely.
Installing the CommuniGate Server
1. Drop the CommuniGate Server icon on the System Folder icon. It is a background-only application and it will be automatically routed to the Extensions folder.
2. Restart the computer. The server will start, but you won't see it in the Applications menu - as you don't see other background-only applications (FileSharing, PortShare Task, etc.). You will see, however, a newly created CommuniGate Folder in your System Folder.
Installing the client software.
1. Place the CommuniGator Modules file in the Extensions folder, and copy the CommuniGator application anywhere on your hard disk. You may also install the CommuniGate Setup control panel into the Control Panels folder to be notified of incoming mail when the CommuniGator application is not running (not included with this version).
2. If you want to use CommuniGate for faxing from inside word processing or other applications (creating faxes via the "Print" command), drop the FaxSender and FaxSwitcher files onto the System Folder icon. These files will be placed automatically in the Extensions folder (see the FaxGate ReadMe for details).
Repeat these steps on all the computers on which you wish to use CommuniGate.
Configuring the server.
1. Start the CommuniGator application on the same machine where you placed the CommuniGate Server.
2. Choose General from the Server menu and enter the domain name for this server (if you plan to use Internet e-mail).
3. If you plan to use any of the telephony modules (Fax, Voice, Pager, UUCP), choose Dialer from the Server menu and set the proper values there.
Note: if you plan to use telephony modules, installing LineShare is highly recommended. You should install LineShare if you want to use several modules (for example, Fax and UUCP) on the same modem line. LineShare is also required if you want to share the same modem line with other applications (for example, FaxGate and ARA, or UUCPGate and BBS). You can download LineShare from the same archives you have downloaded CommuniGate.
Enabling network access
CommuniGate services are always available when you access the server from the same machine. To enable remote network access to the server, you should register network users first. If you want to use the system as a single-user one, skip this section. Otherwise:
1. Open the Sharing Setup control panel and make sure that "Program Linking" is turned on in the Sharing Setup control panel. Open the Users&Groups control panel and make sure the CommuniGate users are registered there and the "allow user to link to programs on this Macintosh" option is selected for them.
2. Start CommuniGator on the server computer and choose User from the Edit menu. The list of registered users appears. If file sharing has been activated on this machine, the list of all users registered in the Users&Groups control panel is displayed along with the names registered with CommuniGate.
3. Select a user name from the list or create a new user name. Select the "can Connect" option. To let the user monitor and control the server remotely, you may select other options (privileges). If you access the server locally (i.e. from the computer the server runs on), you always have all those privileges.
4. Start the CommuniGator application on a remote computer and make sure it communicates with the server. When you start it for the first time, a dialog box appears to allow you to select the CommuniGate server to use: select the AppleTalk Zone (if any) where the computer running CommuniGate Server is located, select that computer in the "Macintoshes" list, and select "CommuniGate Server" in the "Programs" list.
See the CommuniGator READ ME FIRST file for details.
Beyond LAN e-mail
After the system works fine delivering messages via your AppleTalk (or other AppleEvent- compatible) network, you can install the communication modules you want to use. Just place them in the Modules folder inside the CommuniGate folder on the server computer.
As soon as you place a new module there and restart the server computer,
new options appear in CommuniGator:
• when the address book panel is open, the menu on the bottom of the panel contains the icon of the new service; you can select that icon to create an address in the "address space" supported with this new module. For example, after you add the FaxGate module, you can create and use addresses in the "fax space", which will be fax phone numbers. Modules like UUCP or SMTP do not create a new "address space", they just expand the generic "e-mail space". So, you won't see a new "UUCP icon" in the menu, you will continue to use the "e-mail" icon, but you will be able to use any Internet and/or uucp address with it. The same applies to other forthcoming e-mail modules.
• the name of the service appears in the Server menu: in the "monitor" section, and also in the "queues" section. You can choose those items to monitor/control/configure the module and to watch the queue of messages scheduled to be processed with that module.
See the description of each module in separate files.
Licensing
The client parts of CommuniGate are free and do not require any licensing. You can run CommuniGate Server and communication modules without prior licensing, too, but there are several restrictions: the server does not allow more than 5 users to be registered. The modules may add special signs to all messages received or sent. For example, the unlicensed version of FaxGate adds a page to the end of all faxes it sends stating "sent with a trial version of CommuniGate".
To buy a license you should call Stalker Software, Inc. at 800-262-4722 (415-383-7164). You will get a Master Key (which will identify your server and will contain your organization name), and keys for the features you want to license. When you license the keys, you choose the Keys command in the Server menu to enter them.
You may check the licenses in effect by using the About CommuniGator command in the Apple menu. You may download and install the new versions of the server and/or modules, and your keys will automatically remain in effect (i.e. you will not have to renter them). The licenses are not limited in time, but may be restricted to the versions released (call Stalker for details and pricing).
Advanced users only
Aliasing & Routing
You may want to redirect all messages coming to a particular addressee on your server to some
other address. It may be useful if you want to use several e-mail addresses for one person, if you want to redirect the mail for that person who has moved to some other location, etc.
To enter aliases, choose Router from the Server menu. The dialog box with a text editor appears.
Each line can contain one alias in a form:
<username> = address
For example, if your company domain is mycompany.com and the user Bill is responsible for processing sales messages, you can enter the following line:
<sales> = Bill
in this case, all messages to sales@mycompany.com will go to Bill, as if they were sent to Bill@mycompany.com
If the sales office uses a different server with the domain name hq.mycompany.com, then you can create the following alias:
<sales> = Bill@mycompany.com
If you have one, or several e-mail gateways installed, you may want to specify the routing information for the messages going through your server to other computers. For example, if you use the UUCP module and want to provide e-mail access to Internet for several other computers connecting to yours via UUCP links, you should specify the routing information, so when your computer gets some mail from Internet for those computers, it will know to which UUCP system it should route the mail. The routing information is entered in the following form:
domainName = domainName
or
domainName = <serviceName>address
Example:
There are 3 systems with domain names: hq.mycompany.com, delivery.mycompany.com, and warehouse.mycompany.com. The first two communicate with your server via UUCP and have UUCP names hq and deliv. And the third system (warehouse.mycompany.com) communicates through the system delivery.mycompany.com.
In order to route incoming message to those systems, you should enter the following lines:
hq.mycompany.com = <UUCP>hq
delivery.mycompany.com = <UUCP>deliv
warehouse.mycompany.com = <UUCP>deliv
Instead of the last line you can also put:
warehouse.mycompany.com = delivery.mycompany.com
The';'symbol can be used for comments: all symbols between it and the end of the line are ignored.
Routing non-email messages
When a message is received by the server, each address is first converted into an e-mail address.
For example, when a message has a fax address 101-555-1212, this address is first converted into an e-mail address: 1015551212@FaxGate. If there is no special routing for the domain "FaxGate" in the routing info, it is routed to the FaxGate module.
This means that if your server has FaxGate installed and receives an e-mail message addressed to 1015551212@FaxGate, this message will be routed to the FaxGate and sent to the phone number 101-555-1212. It also means that you can send a message to your system via Internet, so it will be faxed, i.e. your server can work as e-mail-to-fax gate: each message sent to nnnnnn%FaxGate@mycompany.com will be delivered to your server (mycompany.com) via Internet, then the server will route it to the FaxGate module, and it will fax the message to the phone number nnnnnn.
Since the addresses like nnnnnn%FaxGate@mycompany.com (another form is <@mycompany.com:nnnnnn@FaxGate>) are not so easy to use, you may want to create a special domain for faxing over e-mail: fax.mycompany.com and then you should use Router:
fax.mycompany.com = FaxGate
When such a rouing line is added, you may use fax over e-mail by just sending messages to nnnn@fax.mycompany.com
Aliasing is not limited to e-mail addresses. If all messages coming to user BigChief should be just sent as faxes to the international number 46(555)666-7777, use the Router menu item to enter:
<BigChief> = "+46(555)666-7777"@FaxGate
The same can be done with other modules as well: use PrintGate to print messages over Internet, etc.
On the other hand, routing can be used to provide services your own server does not support itself. If your server (mycompany.com) does not have a fax modem, but the server hq.mycompany.com has, your users still can send faxes. Just use router to enter:
FaxGate = FaxGate@hq.mycompany.com
Since all fax addresses are first converted to e-mail addresses nnnn@FaxGate, the CommuniGate Server Router will route those messages as sent to nnnn%FaxGate@hq.mycompany.com. They will be delivered to the hq.mycompany.com server first, were they will be routed to the FaxGate module and will be actually sent as faxes to the fax number nnnn.
If you have access to several CommuniGate Servers around the world, it can save you a lot of money on international phone calls.
