Re: Looking for a free mail provider for PBEM

From: Nick Protokowicz <protokow@cpinternet.com>

Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 03:09:06 +0000

Hi Roger

Your dreams are definitely possible.  I believe there are free email
providers out there that provide pop3 or IMAP accounts.  Just do a
search on free pop mail providers.

You mentioned that you have experience with VB.  While I don't think
this would be the language of my choice, I'm sure you could write an
automated script to download and process the incoming messages.

Many languages  come with modules and/or an interface to POP  or SMTP.
Some examples are Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java...not to mention
others.  But like I said, I'm guessing you could write one in VB also.

Let us know what you come up with.

Nick Protokowicz

On 13 Dec 2001 08:12:57 -0800, schiavonir@hotmail.com (Roger
Schiavoni) wrote:

>I am currently hosting a PBEM game of the classic board game Advanced
>Civilization by Avalon Hill.  (Email me if you are interested - new
>game starting soon!)  I am a software developer, and I have written a
>small application to help me with the management of outbound
>communication - sending turn files and messages.  What I'm looking for
>now is a way to programmatically handle the inbound files.  I
>currently receive the files via hotmail, and each inbound file
>requires no less than about 6 clicks to download into the proper place
>on my machine, then several more clicks to archive the message.  It
>gets very tedious.
>
>What I'm looking for is a free (or very cheap) mail service which I
>can easily write a VB program to query and retrieve messages and files
>and put them in the proper location.  In my dreams, I imagine coming
>home at night to a message on my screen that says - "All files
>received for Game 1.  Generate new turn file."
>
>Can anyone recommend any service or software that would help me?
>
>  Thanks,
>     Roger

References

Looking for a free mail provider for PBEM
schiavonir@hotmail.com (Roger Schiavoni)
Thu, 13 Dec 2001 16:12:57 +0000