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May 21, 1998
Copyright ©1995-1998 Neda Communications, Inc.
Published by Neda Communications, Inc. 17005 SE 31st Place, Bellevue, WA 98008 USA http://www.neda.com/ info@neda.com
Who to contact
For more information about this document or its contents, please
contact:
Neda Communications, Inc.
Phone: 1+(425) 644-8026
Fax: 1+(425) 562-9591
E-Mail: mohsen@neda.com
This document describes communication services offered by Neda Communications, Inc. and focuses on the means by which they are accessed.
There are numerous services available to the Neda PCCS user. This paper focuses on Messaging and Information Services.
The architecture for the Messaging Services is based on the client-server model. The architecture provides for a variety of forms of message origination and message delivery. The architecture is a critical mechanism for delivery of all kinds of messages.
The intent of the service is to allow a mobile user access to electronic messaging services from a variety of devices. Users who utilize mobile communicating devices have available to them a number of ways to access computing services. Neda strives to allow for the mobile user to chose which device makes the most sense for each user. For example, it may be easier for the user to use a laptop and a modem, or it may be easier to use a cellular telephone. The user's device is the user's responsibility. The mailbox server, message transfer, transport and routing services are offered by Neda. Directory Services are a shared responsibility.
While the workstation could be viewed as an Internet host in the sense that it must implement IP, nonetheless it is not expected to contain the user's mailbox. It is important for the mailbox to be on an "always up" machine. A user's workstation may be frequently powered down or otherwise unavailable as an SMTP server.
The currently available Messaging Services from Neda include Enhance Two-Way Paging (ETWP), Internet Mailbox services, Internet Mail delivery services, Interactive Voice Response, Pager Gateway, and Fax Gateway; all integrated together.
Figure 1.1 illustrates this.
Neda's two-way paging service is for demonstration purposes only - Neda is not a traditional paging service provider. Neda is a technology developer.
This Subscriber Services is targeted towards:
This manual is written in HyperLATEXinfo. HyperLATEXinfo is a documentation system that uses a single source file for web based documentation, on-line documentation, and a printed manual.
Depending on your needs and goals, you may wish to obtain this document in any of the following particular formats. You may do so by choosing from the following:
If you are looking for a particular piece of hardware, software, or documentation, probably the ``HTML Format'' is more appropriate.
If you are interested in getting the bigger picture first and prefer book style reading, then probably the ``Postscript Format'' is what you want. The Postscript version does not include all the URLs information and does not contain complete information for retrieval of a particular piece of hardware, software, or documentation.
This document includes many references to other documents. Most such references can be obtained in: html, pdf, postscript, info and plain text references. Usually the size of each format is also specified at the point of reference. Choose the format that best suits your purposes.
Neda PCCS provides the following messaging services:
Neda PCCS provides a variety of information services for subscribers. There are many services in limited use at this time, but the primary service for new subscribers is the White Pages Directory Services.
Since e-mail and directory services are so closely linked, it is often thought that they should be completely integrated. This, in fact, is often the case. Eudora, for instance, can be configured to offer a complete directory service, including phone numbers and physical addresses. However, there are still going to be many instances where you will want to retrieve information about a person for reasons other than e-mail. Perhaps you need a phone number, physical address, a pager number or even simply how to correctly spell their name. For these, and many other reasons, there are some tools that offer "people information" or white pages directory service.
The White Pages Directory Services are available through the following clients:
Neda PCCS subscriber services are also available through the Neda Communications World Wide Web site. You can send messages using the Web site, and modify your subscriber profile.
You must subscribe to Neda PCCS to access services. When you
subscribe, you are assigned a subscriber ID. To subscribe to Neda
PCCS, complete the subscription form in Appendix A and submit it to
Neda Communications. For more information about PCCS or this document,
please contact:
Neda Communications, Inc.
Tel: +1 425-644-8026
Fax: +1 425-562-9591
E-mail: info@neda.com
This document will give you an overview of Neda Personal Computing and Communication Services including the description of communications services that are offered by Neda Communications, Inc.
In the next chapter (chapter 2), you will be introduced to ll of the services that are available to the Neda PCCS user. This chapter will list all of the messaging services, information services, and web access to subscriber services provided by Neda.
Chapter three will give you the information needed for the connection to the internet. This chapter will include the phone number to connect to the terminal server, the router address, DNS, domain name, etc. In addition to that, this section will also explain how to access through CDPD and other ISP.
The next chapter will guide you to accessing Neda PCCS. It will give you detail example for using e-mail services and IVR system.
Chapter 5, 6, and 7 contain information for the user with different environment. Chapter 5 is specific for Windows CE client environment, chapter 6 is for the Netscape user, and chapter 7 is for the emacs client environment.
Finally, chapter 8 will describe how various Neda Messaging Services can be accesses. It will give you the information of the protocols that are used for access to Neda PCCS.
For subscribing to the Neda PCCS, you can used the Subscriber Form in Appendix A. Fill out the form and the mail it to Neda Communications, Inc. For more detail information, see chapter 2.
Appendix B is the Service Reference. This section include the IVR Address reference and the address formats.
Appendix C is the Terms and Conditions of Use. It is important to read this section before you subscribe to Neda in order to avoid any misunderstanding between Neda Communications, Inc. and the subscriber.
Before you can start using any of the Neda services, you must first get a network connection. If you have a network connection and can access neda.com, then you can skip this section.
You can connect to Neda through either SLIP or PPP. There are certain parameters which must first be agreed upon.
First, the form in Appendix A must be filled out and submitted to Neda.
When this form is returned to you it will tell you your IP, e-mail and digit-based addresses. At this point, Neda will be ready to accept a connection from you.
Below are all of the common parameter you will need to make a layer 3 connection into Neda:
The dial-up connection to Neda is through a terminal server. The phone
numbers are:
(425) 644-2886
(425) 562-5954
The router address or gateway at Neda is: 198.62.92.15
Primary DNS : 198.62.92.10
Secondary DNS : 198.62.92.1
The important information that need to be entered that are specific to your computer are :
All of the above informations will be given by Neda. You can change the password later on.
You can download Microsoft Dial Up Networking from Microsoft homepage (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads). This software will have the ISDN Accelerator Pack for Windows 95. This feature will have support for internal ISDN adapters, multilink support for the two ISDN channels, and connection-time scripting to automate nonstandard logon connections. It also delivers PPTP client capability for Windows 95.
You should now have enough information to make a network connection to Neda and move onto using the network applications.
Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) is an open system definition that uses digital transmission on analog cellular (AMPS) channels to provide mobile packet-switched data services.
The purpose of CDPD is to provide mobile access to the services available through standard connectionless data protocols such as IP. CDPD could be considered to be a wireless extension to the Internet that is available anywhere.
You can find a fair amount of information about CDPD from the following sources:
Internetwork Mobility - The CDPD Approach Book
Taylor, Waung and Banan Prentice Hall ISBN: 0-13-209693-5
We have tested the Neda-ETWP software with the CDPD Modems listed in this section. However, any externally powered CDPD Modem should work fine with the Neda-ETWP software.
Visit the Motorola Web Site for information on how to order a Motorola CDPD Personal Messenger 100C CDPD modem.
Because of its form factor, Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100 has probably the most potential for being the best open CDPD based Two-Way Pager. As of this writing (mid 1998), unfortunately it is very difficult to use Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100 as a CDPD modem because of its tight bundlings with PocketNet. Further, what is referred to as ``wireless email'' in PoketNet terminology is so primitive in comparison with ETWP that its existence in the phone can hardly be considered and asset.
Visit the Personal Mobile Communications Division of Mitsubishi Wireless Communications for information about Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100.
As of this writing (mid 1998), Mitsubishi has not published the ``AT Command Set'' for Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100. This also makes use of Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100 as a CDPD modem quite difficult.
Although at this time connecting WindowsCE devices to the MobileAccess 100 is not supported by Mitsubishi, we have managed to use MobileAccess 100 with WindowsCE devices.
Visit the Sierra Wireless Web Site for information on how to order a Sierra Wireless Pocket Plus 210 CDPD modem.
Any externally powered CDPD Modem should work fine with the Neda-ETWP software. Expect exciting new CDPD modems from Sierra Wireless, Uniden, Novatel, ... in the near future.
Now that you have got your CDPD modem, you need to activate it on the CDPD Network.
This is probably the toughest part of the process. Primarily because CDPD Service Operators do not understand the very basics of Data Communications. CDPD Service is still relatively expensive and obtaining a CDPD service account is still not as easy as it can be. The gravity of this problem is probably best expressed in the following quote from W. Frezza, ``Going the Way of Wireless'', Network Computing, October 1, 1995.
The public telecommunications carriers don't understand the data communications business and couldn't market modems to PC users if their lives depended on it.
Having Sian that, this section provides information to assist you in choosing your service provider and activating the CDPD service for your modem.
First you need to make sure that the geographical areas in which you are interested in, do have CDPD service coverage.
Neda keeps a relatively recent coverage map for CDPD. Visit Neda's copy of CDPD Coverage Map or see the next sections for more information about CDPD Coverage Maps.
Visit the Wireless Data Forum Web Site for information on CDPD geographic coverage maps and other relevant information.
As an example let's take the case of Mohsen Banan. Mohsen lives in Seattle. The Cellular CDPD Service Provider covering Seattle is AT& T Wireless Services (AWS). These are the steps that Mohsen needs to go through.
Any WinCE HPC should work fine with the Neda-ETWP software. The following have been explicitly tested.
You need to configure the WCE 2.0 device to use the SLIP mode.
The information you need to obtain the relevant documents and software are as follows:
A summary of the installation procedure is included below. The text was partially reproduced from Motorola's Web site on May 28, 1998. Again, refer to Motorola Web Site for the Motorola's most up-to-date notes on installing for WindowsCE 2.0.
The following assumes that you have already programmed a working IP address into your Personal Messenger 100C modem. If this is not the case, consult the modem's manual and set your IP address first.
As of this writing (mid 1998), Mitsubishi has not published the ``AT Command Set'' for Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100. Further, at this time connecting WindowsCE devices to the MobileAccess 100 is not supported by Mitsubishi. However, we have managed to use MobileAccess 100 with WindowsCE devices.
Below is the summary of key pieces of information that you need to know.
You need a special cable that let's you use the Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100 phone as a CDPD modem. The required cable is part of what Mitsubishi calls the ``PC Connection Kit''. Its price is very unreasonably (about 100.00 US Dollars, as of mid 1998).
The Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100 Cable is terminated with a female DB-9 configured as a DCE (Data Communications Equipment).
Getting the cables to work is the trickiest piece.
WindowsCE cables are terminated with a female DB-9 configured as a DCE (Data Communications Equipment).
In order to connect the Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100 cable to a WindowsCE cable you need a male-male DB-9 null modem cable.
We can build some custom WindowsCE to Mitsubishi MobileAccess 100 cables. Contact Neda Communications, Inc. for more information.
at!cdpd atdt
When the Connected window appears, you are connected to the Internet.
Sierra Wireless has put together an application note that describes in detail what you need to do to use the PocketPlus with WindowsCE Handheld PCs.
The information you need to obtain the relevant documents and software are as follows:
In order to get the Motorola 100C to work with a WCE 1.0 HPC, you need bMOBILE software from bsquare development http://www.bsquare.com. This is a SLIP (Serial Line IP) driver for the Motorola Personal Messenger PM100C CDPD modem.
You should verify that your WindowsCE HPC and your CDPD Modem are properly configured and are fully functional by using some TCP/IP application such as the Pocket Internet Explorer, before proceeding any further.
First of all, we need to customize the new PM100C using the utilities disks included with the PM100C.
Neda Users can access the software from: /dos/u/win32-neda-std/motorolaPM100C/disk1
The objectives of this document is to define a name and numbering plan which will be able to uniquely identify all of the mailboxes which a Neda subscriber may have, based on digit-based addressing.
For more information, please visit the ByNumber Messaging Services (http://www.bynumber.com)
This document explains how the By Name Service can be used for various purposes in dealing with email.
For more information, please visit the Neda By Name Service document
Before you can access Neda PCCS you must register with Neda Communications. To register, complete the subscription form in Appendix A and submit it to Neda Communications. If you need assistance in completing the subscription form, contact Neda Communications:
Neda Communications, Inc.
Tel: +1 425-644-8026
Fax: +1 425-562-9591
E-mail: info@neda.com
One of the primary services offered by Neda Communications is wireless messaging, using the Enhance Two-Way Paging (ETWP) protocols.
The wireless messaging provided by Neda Communications allows you to send and receive standard e-mail messages using a wireless device. The wireless device can be any computer outfitted with a CDPD modem, including the HP 200 Palmtop computer. To access the Neda services, the CDPD device must by activated. When you activate the CDPD device with your provider, you are assigned an IP address. You must install and configure the TCP stack as instructed by your provider. Once the CDPD device is configured, and connected to the Internet, you can install and configure the ETWP client.
The ETWP client must be properly installed and configured for the Neda Communications message center. Neda offers the Submission and Delivery Plus (SDP) for Windows client for wireless messaging. SDP for Windows includes a mail user interface, and allows the client to send and receive messages using ETWP. For detailed information on SDP for Windows, contact Neda Communications.
When you send an ETWP message, the client uses the ETWP protocol to submit the message to the ETWP Message Center at Neda Communications. The message is then forwarded to the appropriate destinatation.
You can send e-mail messages using ETWP to any valid Internet e-mail address, including other ETWP users. The destination is specified as localname@host.domain. When you send a message to an Internet e-mail address, the message is forwarded from the ETWP Message Center to an e-mail gateway.
When you subscribe to Neda Personal Communication Services, you select an ETWP nickname. Your ETWP address to receive e-mail messages is nickname@etwp.neda.com, where nickname is the name you selected. Internet e-mail messages sent to this address will be delivered to your ETWP device.
Any Internet e-mail client can send messages to your ETWP address. For example, if your nickname is ford, any Internet user can send a message to ford@etwp.neda.com to send a message to your ETWP device.
Because the ETWP messages are sent using wireless communication, and you must pay for each wireless connection, you probably do not want to use ETWP as your primary e-mail address. One way to use ETWP is to configure your standard e-mail client to forward only certain messages to your ETWP address. For example, you can configure your standard e-mail client to forward only urgent messages to your ETWP address.
The POP mailbox service is not available to the public at the time of this printing. Contact Neda Communications for the current status of POP mailbox services.
The IMAP mailbox service is not available to the general public at the time of this printing. Contact Neda Communications for the current status of IMAP mailbox services.
The SMTP service is not available to the general public at the time of this printing. Contact Neda Communications for the current status of SMTP services.
User Agents can be used to originate plain-text faxes.
Plain text e-mail can be sent as fax by sending a message to:
[name]/[phone-number]@fax.neda.com
where [name] is the recipient's name and [phone-number] is the recipient's fax number.
For example one could send a fax to the author of this document by sending an e-mail to:
Mohsen/2065629591@fax.neda.com.
User Agents can be used to originate pages to numeric and alphanumeric pagers.
A page can be sent to an alphanumeric pager by sending a message to:
[pager-company-phone-number]/[pin]@pager.neda.com.
Where [pager-company-phone-number] is the phone number of the paging system's access unit (e.g., 1-800-SKY-MEMO) and [pin] is the recipient pager's PIN number.
For example you could page me by sending a message to:
18007596366/1882263@neda.com.
Figure 7.1 illustrates this.
The finger and ph are utilities used to find out more about a given user. For instance, you receive e-mail from hank@acme.com and you may wish to find out a full name for this person. Neda has implemented finger and ph to allow remote access to full white pages directory. This will allow users to access such personal information as name, phone number, fax number, mobile number and postal address.
To use finger to access the White Pages Directory Service use the following syntax:
finger username@wp.neda.com
Where username is the name to look up.
To use ph to access the White Pages Directory Services use the following syntax:
ph -s wp.neda.com
To use whois to access the White Pages Directory Services use the following syntax:
whois -h wp.neda.com username
The complete documentation for Windows CE Client Environment can be obtained from Neda's web site (http://www.neda.com/products.html).
This User Guide For ETWP Product For Use Over The CDPD (Wireless IP) Network With Windows CE Hanheld PCs is available in these formats:
Neda also provides Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) For Mobile Professionals. This paper can be obtained in these formats:
This chapter assumes that you have a network connection to neda.com and a mailbox with Neda. If you are not connected to the Internet, see Chapter 2.
For any of the messaging services, you will need an IPM (Inter-personal Mail) User Agent to send messages. Netscape package offer services, as well as messaging and have been tested with Neda's Communication Services.
Any user agent utilizing the POP or IMAP protocols will work with Neda's Messaging Services. See Chapter 6 for more information on the messaging protocols and Neda's Communication Services.
You need to download the Netscape Communicator software which is available on the Netscape Web Site.
Typically Neda Subscribers set their ``Home Page'' to be www.subscribers.neda.com. You can do so, by:
At this point, we assume that you already has the Netscape installed. In order to sending and receiving e-mail using Netscape, you need to configure your preferences.
In order to use the newsgroup, you need to subscribe it. First thing to do is to configure your discussion group (news) groups. To do so, please follow these steps :
The complete documentation for Emacs Client Environment can be obtained from Neda's web site (http://www.public.neda.com
This Emacs Office Environment (EOE) is available in these formats:
This section describes how various Neda Messaging Services can be accessed. Access mechanisms described in this section reflect the current state. This document will be updated as these access mechanisms are updated.
Neda Messaging is built around openness. We emphasize and promote "Mainstream Networking". Openness is achieved through use of publicly available standards.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) [RFC-821], the native Internet Mail protocol, is used as the backbone to interconnect most e-mail environments in the Internet. The samething holds true of Neda Messaging Services.
The following lists the pertinent Messaging RFCs:
Figure 11.1 illustrates this.
Access to Neda messaging services is through a set of well defined interfaces. Most of these interfaces are standard protocols. This section enumerates the specific requirements that a host should meet to gain access to Neda messaging services.
The intent of the Post Office Protocol (POP) is to allow a user's workstation to access mail from a mailbox server. It is expected that mail will be posted from the workstation to the mailbox server via the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
Neda offers a POP Server access, so the user only needs to be responsible for implementing a POP Client. Some examples of POP mail clients are PC Eudora and Z-Mail.
Neda POP service users should conform to RFC-1460 [RFC-1460].
Messages should be submitted to Neda Messaging services by using SMTP, RFC-821 [RFC-821]
IMAP2 is the "glue" of a distributed electronic mail system consisting of a family of client and server implementations on a wide variety of platforms, from small single-tasking personal computing engines to complex multi-user timesharing systems. Although different in many ways from the POP, IMAP2 may be thought of as a functional superset of POP.
Like POP, IMAP2 specifies a means of accessing stored mail and not of posting mail; this function is handled by a mail transfer protocol such as SMTP (RFC 821).
Neda offers an IMAP Server access, so the user only needs to be responsible for implementing a IMAP Client. An example of an IMAP mail client is PINE.
Neda IMAP service users should conform to IMAP-2, RFC-1176 [RFC-1176].
Messages should be submitted to Neda Messaging services by using SMTP, RFC-821 [RFC-821] IMAP4 will be supported in future.
SMTP provides mechanisms for the transmission of mail; directly from the sending user's host to the receiving user's host when the two host are connected to the same transport service, or, when the source and destination hosts are not connected to the same transport service, via one or more relay SMTP-servers.
SMTP comes with all UNIX and UNIX-like (e.g. Xenix) operating systems. It is also available as a WinSock application.
Messages should be submitted to Neda Messaging services by using SMTP, RFC-821 [RFC-821]
Refer to the Neda Computing and Personal Communication Services - Overview document.
When sending messages using the IVR System, you must identify your request using the following address format:
The following addresse are used with Neda PCCS:
E-mail to fax: [name]/[phone-number]@fax.neda.com E-mail to pager: [pager-number]/[PIN]@pager.neda.com Internet e-mail: [subscriber]@neda.com LSM e-mail: [subscriber]@lsm.neda.com White Pages database: wp.neda.com SMTP Host Address: POP Server Address: IMAP Server Address:
