[plug] Easymail

[Telford Tendys]

> 1. (easiest option).  See if we can get the program to run under wine.

Workable but difficult.

> 2. Harder solution.  See if we can reverse engineer the thing (decompile or
> whatever) in order to figure out the protocol (I expect it wouldn't be too
> much different to a standard pop protocol (may have some odd tweaks
> here-and-there).

decompiling is really the hard way... most likely the protocol is not
encrypted so just run it on a windows box through a serial line to the
modem. Then put a linux box into the serial line monitoring both channels
and look at the transcripts. You must at least get the number that it
calls and the messages sent from either side.

If it does turn out to be encrypted then you are pretty much stuck unless
you have a lot of time and CPU power to spare.

The legality of releasing a client based on reverse engineered protocols
is a bit questionable in Australia. To the best of my knowledge no one has
really pushed the issue here (yet).

> 3. Long-term solution... send lots of emails to anyone/everyone in Telstra
> complaining loudly and insisting they release the protocol so we can write a
> linux client for it.

Yeah, there are plenty of good reasons for everyone (including Telstra)
but it is one of those ``horse to water'' problems and if they decide to
be difficult about it then the only answer is total boycott and a bit of
bad press regarding incompatibility and lack of specification where the
chance turns up.

Hopefully the market will eventually feature competition...

	- Tel