Welcome to WaterGate,
The demand for electronic mail is increasing daily, as is the number of
people reading and writing electronic messages. There is FidoNet, connecting
thousands of Bulletin Board Systems and their users on all continents, and
there is Internet, to which almost every university and major company has a
connection. Then there are numerous other networks, using technology similar
to the ones mentioned.
WaterGate is a mail processing program capable of processing both messages
that were created by a FidoNet Technology compatible program, and messages
created by a program that supports RFC822, the protocol widely used within
Internet for e-mail. Finally, it supports a variant to the RFC822 protocol
that is used for the over 10000 newsgroups within Internet, also known as
Usenet.
From now on, the term UUCP will be used for both Internet e-mail and Usenet
news, just like FidoNet refers to both netmail and echomail.
WaterGate was written to simplify the process of connecting both FidoNet
and UUCP compatible systems by integrating the four steps needed to build
a FidoNet/UUCP message host:
- Process and distribute UUCP messages, for us and other systems.
- Process and distribute FidoNet messages, for us and other systems.
- Translate (gate) messages between the two formats.
- Import either style message into message bases.
So, no matter if you are a Fido point, node, hub, zonegate, or UUCP node or
hub, WaterGate is the program to use for processing all your netmail,
echomail, mail and news.
In addition to that, it is loaded with tools and features like AreaFix
for both FidoNet and UUCP(!!), mailing list server, read-only areas, file
robot and options to import data from your previously favorite programs.
We plan to support other transport mechanisms and mailers in future as well.
It was designed to do this.
We hope WaterGate achieves its design goals: ease of configuration of both
WaterGate and your complete mail processing system, speed of operation,
computability, and stability.
The authors
Contacting the authors
The authors can be contacted at the following addresses:
Ramon van der Winkel
Internet:
ramon@wsd.wline.se
Michel van der Laan
Internet:
michel@nijenrode.nl
Support site, newsgroup and the mailing list
The WSD (Waterline Software Development) system at wsd.wline.se is our
support site, operated by Ramon van der Winkel. Mail your problems and
requests to
ramon@wsd.wline.se. The latest patches are always requestable from our file robot.
Send a message to watergate-info@wsd.wline.se to get a text file with a description of all the files you can request.
There is a newsgroup as well:
alt.bbs.watergate.
Unfortunately, there are some distribution problems, apart for the
continuous spam postings. Everything seems to work properly from the USA
side, but posting in Europe doesn't make it far.
Finally, there is the WaterGate mailing list. To subscribe, write a
message to
listserv@wsd.wline.se and put the following command in the body of the message:
"connect watergate" (without the quotes). After the reply from the
listserver, you can send your problems to watergate@wsd.wline.se to have them distributed to everybody else that is connected to the
mailing list. The main use of the mailing list is for announcements
by the authors.
Disclaimer, legal stuff, license, money and you!
"WaterGate" refers to all executables and documentation included in the
package that was released.
WaterGate is © Copyrighted material by Waterline Software Development
V.O.F. in The Netherlands. By using this software you accept the terms
of the license agreement stated below.
- WaterGate is released as Shareware, you may use the unregistered
version of this program for a trial period of thirty (30) days.
After this period you MUST either register WaterGate or stop using it.
- WaterGate is provided 'as is', without warranty of any kind, neither
expressed nor implied. Waterline Software Development only guarantees
that WaterGate will occupy disk space.
- In no event is Waterline Software Development liable to you or
anyone else for any damages, including lost profits, lost savings or
other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of
WaterGate.
- In no way is Waterline Software Development obliged to you or anyone
else to provide future versions of WaterGate.
- All mentioned products and packages are copyrighted by and
trademarks of their respective holders. If you are using WaterGate
in a non-commercial environment refer to the REGSITES.DOC file for
information on how to register. Commercial users have to contact the
authors for more information.
A commercial environment is any of the following:
- Business
- Government
- Organization
- Foundation
- School
- Any other form of juridical person
- Any form of system where WaterGate is used to make a profit,
direct or indirect.
Remember that WaterGate is currently in a GAMMA phase. This means it needs
extensive testing by YOU! Most parts of it are currently used by a number
of larger sites, but this doesn't mean it is trouble-free all through!
Stay up to date with the latest release. We try to release a new version
at least every two months, so read ALT.BBS.WATERGATE or connect to the
mailing list for release announcements.
Please do support the Shareware concept.
Limitations in the unregistered version
You can use all options when not registered. WaterGate does not contain
a time lock or limitations whatsoever, except for the following:
- The fact that you are not registered is reflected in a few places,
like the Received: header in an e-mail, the tear-line in a netmail and
echomail, the PID, TID and Via kludges.
- The tear-line replacement option is always ON which means all
tear-lines are replaced by "WtrGate vX.yy Unreg".
- WtrGate accepts only five (5)
MAP-UUCP statements in the ROUTE.TDB
file. This statement allows you to connect a nice e-mail address to a
FidoNet style user. You can do without this, so five is not really a
limitation.
- WtrGate accepts only four (4) TUNNEL statements (TUNNEL-TO and
TUNNEL-FROM) in the ROUTE.TDB file. This limits you to two
bi-directional
Mail Tunnels.
- WtrGate waits five seconds when you exit the program and then
continues.
That is all. There is no limitation to the number of users, areas,
mailing lists, send files, routings, domain names, networks, AKAs or
what so ever. The limitations still allow you to evaluate the product
to its full extent.
Back to Table of Contents or continue to the next section.
Comments or questions? Send an e-mail to editor@wsd.wline.se.
Last updated 13 October 1996