This isn't entirely correct. True, I know of no TCP/IP stack that'll run on the Zoomer's
GEOS. Hence, there are no SMTP/POP3 mail applications designed to use the stack.
However, by using clever scripting and a unix shell account, GEOS programs running on
the Zoomer *could* access Internet mail.
The trick is using the unix shell account to telnet to your desired destination IP & port
... thus giving you access to SMTP & POP3 (or whatever other protocol you'd like)
streams without having to provide a TCP/IP stack on the Zoomer. (Many mail packages
for the Newton work this way.) Unfortunatly, the Zoomer offers no native in & out
boxes, or message reading functionality (unless someone can hack the AOL structures).
>... I toyed with the idea of a pop-up DOS keyboard
>but have not found any that don't at least require a mouse input, which the
>Zoomer does not take the pen as in DOS.
Someone just has to write the DOS-level mouse driver. It shouldn't be too difficult if
one knows how to write device drivers & can get info on the hardware.
>(a possible work-around I have not tried
>would be to use the modem(straight serial?) cable and hook it up to a mouse/
>trackball/whatever and then load the appropriate drivers and voila a mouse in
>DOS!
Zoomer's serial ports aren't standard. Generic drivers for PC-based mice won't work.
(If those serial ports were standard, we'd have had fax drivers running on this puppy
*years* ago.)
>like Net-Tamer. One other option is to possibly go to another provider that
>may have a GEOS app(didn't CompuServe have a Geos app at one time?).
Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten about that. If I remember correctly, the CServe app was
*very* bloated (read: have a RAM card) but used standard text files for storing it's
messages (much easier to hack & mess around with than those %$##$%$ geos
vm-files). Also, it's log-in scripts were in text format (and, I think were standard
CServe scripts), so one should be able to get the scripts that work with CServe's
current network access protocols.