It sounds like you need an SMTP control. With one, you can send mail
directly from your program (no need for an intermediate mail app on
your local network). It just so happens that we build these sorts of
things. Take a look at http://www.*-*-*.com/
you have any questions.

Good luck with your project,
Mike

----

Catalyst Software, Oak Park, California   Fax:   818.879.1211

Crescent Software offers two solutions for you. The first is our new Internet
Toolpak. It offers an SMTP control along with FTP, HTTP, NNTP, POP3, and a
generic socket control. If you are not interested in a full feature Internet
package, our VB4 PlusPak offers the SMTP control as well as other features
usefull to the VB4 developer. The Internet Toolpak lists for $199 and the VB4
PlusPak lists for $49. You can get more info from our web site at
http://crescent.progress.com.

Dave Cleary
Crescent

Not exactly true. MAPI uses "Service Providers" that handle getting
the mail to their destination via different methods. If you use
Microsoft Exchange (a MAPI based application) and have the Internet
Explorer installed (which adds an SMTP service provider) you can send
Internet mail from Exchange and therefore from the MAPI control.

It does work, but it has bugs. Attachments don't get UU encoded
correctly for example but if you're using Windows 95 and just need to
send text messages via the Internet, MAPI should do the trick.

On the other hand, writing a program to talk to an SMTP server with
VB4 is really quite easy. There are plenty of VBXes and OCXes around
that will allow you to talk to WinSock or you can hunt around for the
Mabry Mail OCX which encapsulates both the SMTP protocol and the
WinSock interface.

Regards,
Rod