RFC 1506 (rfc1506) - Page 1 of 39

A Tutorial on Gatewaying between X

Network Working Group                                      J. Houttuin
Request for Comments:  1506                           RARE Secretariat
RARE Technical Report: 6                                   August 1993


        A Tutorial on Gatewaying between X.400 and Internet Mail

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

Introduction

   There are many ways in which X.400 and Internet (STD 11, RFC 822)
   mail systems can be interconnected. Addresses and service elements
   can be mapped onto each other in different ways. From the early
   available gateway implementations, one was not necessarily better
   than another, but the sole fact that each handled the mappings in a
   different way led to major interworking problems, especially when a
   message (or address) crossed more than one gateway. The need for one
   global standard on how to implement X.400 - Internet mail gatewaying
   was satisfied by the Internet Request For Comments 1327, titled
   "Mapping between X.400(1988)/ISO 10021 and RFC 822."

   This tutorial was produced especially to help new gateway managers
   find their way into the complicated subject of mail gatewaying
   according to RFC 1327. The need for such a tutorial can be
   illustrated by quoting the following discouraging paragraph from RFC
   1327, chapter 1: "Warning: the remainder of this specification is
   technically detailed. It will not make sense, except in the context
   of RFC 822 and X.400 (1988). Do not attempt to read this document
   unless you are familiar with these specifications."

   The introduction of this tutorial is general enough to be read not
   only by gateway managers, but also by e-mail managers who are new to
   gatewaying or to one of the two e-mail worlds in general. Parts of
   this introduction can be skipped as needed.

   For novice end-users, even this tutorial will be difficult to read.
   They are encouraged to use the COSINE MHS pocket user guide [14]
   instead.

   To a certain extent, this document can also be used as a reference
   guide to X.400  RFC 822 gatewaying. Wherever there is a lack of
   detail in the tutorial, it will at least point to the corresponding
   chapters in other documents. As such, it shields the RFC 1327 novice



RARE Working Group on Mail and Messaging (WG-MSG)