I managed to track down the architech who worked on the Mailstation source code for Cidco. I can not provide his details for privacy reasons but here is his response to two questions I asked.
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Question - Does the Mailstation use standard SMTP & POP protocols?
Answer - The Mailstation does a standard RADIUS authentication with PPP--the
network connection should work fine anywhere as you've described.
The POP3 code is "bog standard" with the exception of the XTND
commands, which may or may not be enabled in the firmware of the device
you are using. Assuming you got the device from someone outside of
North America, it is unlikely that XTND is enabled for your device. If
the device was originally purchased for use in North America, it is
likely that XTND is enabled.
Either way, the XTND commands can cause issues with older MTAs.
Following the RFCs for POP3 and XTND (there's also one for XTND, can't
recall the number), POP3 servers should blow off non-conforming
commands (which XTND is). In rare cases, especially with very old POP3
servers, the XTND commands can cause the POP3 server to blow up. Oddly
enough, one of the very few cases I can remember where XTND caused
problems was in an ISP in South Africa...
SMTP should be no problem, totally standard.
Of course, make sure your PPP/RADIUS setup is seeding a good name
resolver, which is required for server hostname lookups.
Hope this helps, ...name removed...
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Question - Can a person disable the use if XTND commands in the Mailstation?
Answer - Unfortunately, you cannot disable the XTND commands if they are on. To
do so requires a special firmware utility attached via the parallel
port.
I don't believe that the MailStation will fail if it receives an -ERR
response--the XTND commands were designed into the product with the
intent that if the server can't handle the XTND command, the device
simply moves on using compliant POP3 commands. I don't think the
MailStation will even parse the response to the XTND commands at all.
It has been a while since working with the product, but my recollection
is that "normal" behavior for a POP3 server is to silently disregard
any commands it doesn't understand. There is a slight chance that the
-ERR response causes a problem, but I doubt it.
Keep in mind that the device has a per message size limit (I think it
is 8K), so this can also cause retrieval problems. If no messages exit
in the LIST command less than 8K, the device will not attempt to
retrieve messages. This is true for any single message in the LIST
also--messages over 8192 are skipped.
