Claremont, California-based Innosoft International Inc has an electronic mail-to-facasimile gateway that can be accessed by any user running Digital Equipment Corp’s VMS and Ultrix, IBM’s OS/2, as well as Unix, MS-DOS or Macintosh operating systems. The snag is that there must be at least one DEC VAX mini machine on the network, running Innosoft’s PDMF’s distribution system with which the PMDF gateway operates. Mail messages can be generated using any electronic mail system which is TCP/IP-based, such as cc:Mail. The faxes are created using any electronic mail system or text editor and then routed to the gateway. They can be sent as plain text, PostScript files or a combination and addressed to be received either as electronic messages or facsimiles. The gateway operates in conjunction with PMDF V3.2, and VAX/VMS 5.2 up. Hardware required is a fax modem and a 9,600bps or 19,200bps RS-232 terminal port on the host machine.
