Need email server aid

[Christopher Chan]

On Thursday, April 29, 2010 03:30 AM, Alvin Thompson wrote:
> On 04/28/2010 08:57 AM, Chan Chung Hang Christopher wrote:
>> Really comes down to http is definitely on and whether you really would
>> like to offer remote control/commands via email for the clueful and
>> choosing between a more user friendly pop/imap option  the less clueful
>> or embedding an mta to accept email for those who are willing to setup
>> the infrastructure. Checking a mailbox for commands is probably the
>> simplest way of receiving commands from the user when the user is not at
>> home and does not know how to setup a vpn, ddns, or port forwarding.
>
> This isn't very well worded, so I'm not sure exactly what you're trying
> to say, but it seems that you're now reversing course and agreeing that
> using a mail server to receive the messages would be less complex than
> trying to set up a peer-to-peer network?

Hahaha, you have got to be kidding. How are you supposed to discover 
other devices via smtp to get peer-to-peer working? Oh, I know, push all 
that to the user just like making the user set up mailboxes per device 
or setup dns so that the things can get their messages. Let the user 
sort it out. Brilliant! This thing is so going to sell. Nah, I am all 
for a custom protocol + gui and http for remote control. Forget smtp. 
Maybe pop3 or imap but I won't make that a selling point.


>
>> If your devices talk to each other and negotiate stuff, then also a
>> custom protocol or as per Alvin's insistence you could use mdns/bonjour
>> and smtp I suppose. Maybe he can explain he gets his servlets/web
>> services to be remote controlled by smtp.
>
> As I mentioned in a previous post, J2EE would be too heavyweight for
> this application. But yes, servlets and webservices can be decoupled
> from the transport layer. They were designed that way, and you can use
> any transport you want. You could use x-modem if you wanted.
>

Are your servlets/web services at all remote controlled via smtp or do 
you just send reports over smtp?