Re: using TELNET (in batch mode) to send e-mail

Hi,

     this query might sound a bit weird to some of you but here goes:

We would like to send e-mails (with attached text files) from the AS/400.
Of course we can use the SNDDST command to do this (as suggested by
numerous posts in this very list). We've tried that and it works fine.
However, it is our understanding that the SMTP server MUST be active for
this to work. This was the case in our tests. When we downed the SMTP
server, no mail was sent.
The problem is that  this SMTP process on the AS400 is 'visible' on the
internet & hence can be prone to attacks (let's forget about any firewall
issue for the time being).
In fact our mail server is a linux box running Notes. What we would like to
do is to use that linux mail server as a SMTP relay to send the e-mail from
the AS400. This works fine interactively : You can telnet, from an AS400
screen to that mail server and specify port 25 (the SMTP default port) to
request the mail server to send mail
e.g TELNET  ip address 25.
This gives you a SMTP conversation with the linux mail server which will
relay mails from the AS400 to any e-mail address. We have tried this and it
works ok. And this does not require the AS400 SMTP server to be active,
hence not accessible on the internet.
Our problem is that want to automate this e-mail sending process using
telnet in 'batch' mode.  (This is similar to using FTP in batch mode by
overriding the input to a file containing FTP commands).

This may seems a bit convoluted but is the above possible and has anyone
done this? We would be glad to have your input.


Regards