[drats_users] d-rats and email question

[Dan Smith]

> Assume KK7DS is running D-Rats and wants to send an email to
> yahoo-email at yahoo.com over RF to KG5WU also running D-Rats.

I'm not sure I completely understand your question, so I'm going to try
to restate what you're saying for clarification, so tell me if I get any
of it wrong.

KK7DS is a station with no internet connection, but has an RF path to
KG5WU, who does have an internet connection.  KK7DS wants to send an
email message to yahoo-email at yahoo.com which is a third party.

> Assume that KK7DS wishes to receive a reply from yahoo-email at yahoo.com.

The third party needs to be able to reply to the message they get and
have the response make it back to KK7DS somehow.

> Assume KG5WU is configured with an SMTP Outgoing Email account of
> kg5wu-example at gmail.com.
> 
> Assume KK7DS is configured with a POP Incoming Email account of
> kk7ds-example at gmail.com.
> 
> So ... The email from KK7DS passes through KG5WU (via RF) then out
> through kg5wu-example at gmail.com and arrives in the inbox of
> yahoo-email at yahoo.com and the person replies.

Correct.  The third party sees the message as coming from "KK7DS" and if
they examine the actual email address that they're replying to, they
will see "kg5wu-example at gmail.com".

> The question is:  What is the path back to the D-Rats inbox of KK7DS ?

The third party replies to the email, which goes back to
kg5wu-example at gmail.com.  KG5WU is polling that account via POP3 and
eventually downloads it.  When processing the message, KG5WU sees that
there is something resembling a callsign in the reply address, which it
strips out and places in the "Destination" field of the message.  It
places the message in the Outbox.

The next time the message flush cycle runs on KG5WU, it sees the message
in the Outbox for KK7DS, knows it has heard KK7DS recently, and starts
the transfer.

> Here's my assumption:  When the person at yahoo-email at yahoo.com clicks
> "Reply", email should go to kk7ds-example at gmail.com and be received into
> the D-Rats inbox of KK7DS via the POP account the next time it polls.

Nope, it goes back to KG5WU's email address.

The outgoing email service that you're using here is "masquerading" as
KK7DS using KG5WU's email address (both incoming and outgoing accounts).
 Since KK7DS doesn't have an internet connection, KG5WU would have to be
monitoring KK7DS' email account to be able to ferry it back.

If I were to do the whole thing, where you send the email from and
receive the reply to KK7DS' email address on the KG5WU station, then I'd
need to have KG5WU know KK7DS' incoming and outgoing account details.
In addition, if you're using something other than gmail which may not be
accessible from outside of KK7DS' ISP, then KG5WU may not be able to
contact the outgoing mail server that KK7DS needs to send his mail from.

Using Winlink to fill this gap works rather nicely, actually.  There are
no passwords on the Winlink system so there's no security in the system
to be lost by accessing it over D-RATS.  Further, anyone can connect and
check your Winlink mail and/or send mail from your Winlink account.

If you don't mind using Winlink for this, then it's easy to get what you
want from across an RF link.  If you send a message from KK7DS to
yahoo-mail at yahoo.com via Winlink (prefix the address with WL2K:) then it
will be sent from KK7DS at winlink.org and the reply will go back there as
well.  KK7DS can then occasionally ask KG5WU to check his Winlink mail
to receive the reply.

> A second question:  Is it possible to receive a reply via RF?  That is,
> the reply comes back to the pass-through station via internet (KG5WU in
> the example) and is auto-forwarded to the sending station via RF (KK7DS
> in the example)?  I know I can initiate a forward.  But can D-Rats do it
> without me?

Yes, you just have to have "automatic message routing" enabled in the
preferences, as well as an email access rule to allow KK7DS to pass
email in "Both" directions through KG5WU.

I hope I answered all of that, but let me know if you need any
clarification :)

-- 
Dan Smith
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS