Tutorial:Internet
Understanding
Mailing List Servers
Mailing lists were used traditionally for Internet based discussion groups on
special interest topics. Now corporates are harnessing the power of the medium to
disseminate marketing information or technical support to customers, providing
benefits for both customers and the company.
By Andrew Ward
M
ailing lists are widely used
dedicated list server rather than the
absolutely everyone to have remote
on the Internet for both pub
facilities already built into corporate
access to the corporate network. Peo
lic and private discussion
mail systems such as Microsoft Ex
ple will be using a variety of different
groups on a variety of special interest
change.
Internet addresses when working out
technical and social topics, but they
Most obviously, where the user
of the office.
also have huge potential in the corpo
population addressed by the mailing
Furthermore, internal systems and
rate market, when dealing both with
list would include large numbers of
intranets are being opened up to busi
internal and external user groups.
people who wouldn't already have ac
ness partners, customers and suppli
Possible external uses range from
counts on the mail server and the most
ers, and it doesn't seem unreasonable
technical support to providing cus
obvious example of that is present or
to suppose that a similar progression
tomers with sales and marketing infor
potential customers within the general
will happen in the case of mailing list
mation on products and services.
Internet population there would be a
deployment, so what may today be
Technical support is a good illustra
significant administrative burden in
perceived as an internal user popula
tion of how list servers can be used for
adding accounts for those people.
tion may extend tomorrow to include
either one or two way communica
Internet based users.
tion, which can be moderated or un
In house
Other technologies such as Web
moderated.
based discussion forums and confer
For example, news of bugs and
But even where the users are all
encing systems can form a better and
patches could be sent out without any
sitting on the LAN, there are still good
more productive environment for cer
subscriber participation being al
reasons for using a mailing list, and
tain sorts of collaborative working, but
lowed, whereas a peer technical sup
they are generally to do with usability
mailing lists can still be extremely ef
port discussion group could be used
and ease of administration. For exam
fective in many circumstances. One of
by users to both ask and answer tech
ple, NTList version 4 can interrogate
the biggest benefits is that users don't
nical questions, possibly overseen by
an on line database using ODBC and
have to run a different program or
someone from the company who can
modify the audience or even the con
learn a new interface they interact
feed comments back to developers and
tent of the messages accordingly.
with the mailing list via their familiar
offer assistance where appropriate. In
Thus, assuming that a suitable asset
email client software.
some cases, such a peer support list
database was in place, a support team
However, mailing list servers have
would need to be moderated, to avoid
could create a mailing that would
in general suffered from a major prob
unnecessary traffic relating to irrele
automatically target all users that have
lem, which has been a severe lack of
vant or unnecessary questions.
a particular make of PC on their desks
ease of use whether for subscribers,
Of course, to operate a one way
to inform them of a required software
list administrators or server adminis
mailing list a newsletter list you
or hardware upgrade.
trators. List server software often dates
don't really need a list server. The sim
Even where a mailing list is purely
back to the early Unix based days of
plest mail client will generally allow
used by the company's staff, they
the Internet, when the more obscure
mail to be sent to a group of people,
wouldn't all necessarily have accounts
the user interface, the happier people
and mail servers will offer even more
on the in house mail server. Increas
were.
sophisticated mailing list features and
ingly, companies have to accommo
List servers also frequently have
probably also some degree of pro
date users who work from home, from
other problems for example, with
grammability or scripting. But there
branch offices or while on the road,
many of them, you need to know what
are a number of reasons why a com
and not all organisations will have the
email address you used when you sub
pany might want to consider using a
remote access infrastructure to allow
scribed to the list in order to unsub
Issue 114 (January 2000) page 3
File: T1830.1
PC Network Advisor
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