Message Handling System (MHS) is an important early email protocol developed by
Action Technologies, Inc. (ATI) in 1986.
Novell
Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare.
Under the lead ...
licensed it in 1988 then later bought it.
Email clients
A wide variety of email clients used MHS, including:
*
Para-Mail - Paradox Development introduced version 2.0 along with Novell at Comdex 1986.
*
DaVinci Email - The first Microsoft Windows-based email client used MHS natively.
*
Pegasus Mail
Pegasus Mail is a proprietary email client developed by David Harris (who also develops the Mercury Mail Transport System). It was originally released in 1990 for internal and external mail on NetWare networks with MS-DOS and later Apple Macint ...
- A free mail client, this used MHS its native protocol.
*
ExpressIT! and
ExpressIT! 2000 - Infinite Technologies' MHS compliant email clients.
*
FirstMail - A cut-down version of
Pegasus Mail
Pegasus Mail is a proprietary email client developed by David Harris (who also develops the Mercury Mail Transport System). It was originally released in 1990 for internal and external mail on NetWare networks with MS-DOS and later Apple Macint ...
, bundled with some versions of
NetWare
NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol.
The original NetWare product in 19 ...
.
*
Futurus TEAM - Early
groupware package offering an MHS compliant email client.
*
MacAccess - An Apple Macintosh MHS-based email client.
Role as a gateway
MHS was a very 'open' system, and this, with Novell's encouragement, made it popular in the early 1990s as a 'glue' between not only the proprietary email systems of the day such as
PROFS,
SNADS SNADS or Systems Network Architecture Distribution Services is an "asynchronous
distribution service that can store data for delayed delivery."
SNADS uses SNA data links to allow messages and objects to be sent from system to system using the AP ...
,
MCI,
3+Mail,
cc:Mail,
Para-Mail and
Microsoft Mail
Microsoft Mail (or MSMail/MSM) was the name given to several early Microsoft e-mail products for local area networks, primarily two architectures: one for Macintosh networks, and one for PC architecture-based LANs. All were eventually replaced ...
, but also the competing standards-based
SMTP
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typical ...
and
X.400. However, by 1996 it was very clear that SMTP over the Internet would take over this role.
Work-alike products
A compatible family of products from
Infinite Technologies (now Captaris) and marketed under the name Connect2
''"...offers improved performance, greater reliability and much more flexibility in everything from communications hardware to scheduling..."''
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330215111/http://www.networkworld.com/archive/1994/94-03-07hot_.html , date=2014-03-30 , 03/07/94, Mark Gibbs,
Network World were also very widely used as part of MHS-based email networks.
Decline
Novell became increasingly less supportive after their 1994 purchase of WordPerfect as they worked to transform WordPerfect Office into GroupWise
GroupWise is a messaging and collaboration platform from Micro Focus that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The GroupWise platform consists of desktop client software, whi ...
.
At about the same time, confidence in the future of X.400 collapsed and SMTP
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typical ...
email across the public internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
became the compelling choice for mail between unrelated organisations, replacing MHS's former "glue" role.
References
Para-Mail from Paradox Development Corporation was the first email package to be brought into Novell and MHS. Paradox Development Corporation introduced Para-Mail version 2.0 with Novell at Comdex 1986.
External links
Chronology
Action Technologies
Novell
Email systems