Help required!!!

Hello people..This is my first time on the research forum and I don't quite know understand the dynamics of what goes on over here, but nonetheless I need help regarding a project of mine so Im just going to go ahead and explain....

Im working on a project for the which is investigating the internet as a suitable media for transmission of metereological data from remote weather platforms. This is being investigated as an alternative to an existing satellite uplink downlink mechanism due to various reasons,namely signal interference,and inavailability of data storage and backup.and also because it is a more expensive method.The proposal revolves around a computer intelligence being present alongside a data gathering platform.To maintain simplicity of the project ,the computer proposed is a simple desktop which uses a dial up modem to connect to the internet.The desktop mechanism is completely automated.i.e.a microcontroller based system gathers and transmits this data to the desktop using a protocol like rs 232c.based on i/p data parameters,the desktop automatically activates its dialup connection and sends the relevant data in the form of an email,to the destination email address.Hence an already existing telephone line and the internet system can bypass the satellite system.


What I require in terms of assistance and information is the various protocols/methods that can be used to establish such connections and send an email automatically .

Me and my colleagues have to write the relevant code to make such an automation possible.Hence choice of O.S,choice of tranfer protocols,etc,are some of the ambiguities we need to sort out.If any ATS members are experts in this field,Or have relevant knowledge,then please help me out.

I am basically an electronics engineering student.Me and my colleagues have a decent knowledge of C programming and hence we would like to code at the application level and not at the OS level.Also, if anybody can direct me to sites/fora where such ijnformation is available,then that would be appreciated.

An email protocol isn't that difficult to deal with -- you'll be coding for the daemons and using an existing mailserver and basically it should be a tool right in the programming package you're using. The real pain is getting together with the network admins and figuring out how to set up the emailing using dot-net or whatever in the heck you're using.

Ask your network admin what mailserver they're using and what protocols address it.

You'll have to deal with lag time and signal (packet) loss. For that data, google on "internet weather" and glom onto some of the realtime sites.


However, for just straight transmission, it's actually a fairly simple thing: glom the data, format into xml/html/readable data, and use the ISP's own mailserver to mail the data.

Oh... one other thing. You'll have to watch out for bandwidth problems if you're mailing Chunks O' Data.

If I was doing it from the ground up, I'd run it off a Linux server (not because I'm so fond of Unix/Linus but because this is server based and you have access directly to the daemons rather than running through a whole series of objects that may or may not be terribly useful. It's "raw code" versus "canned code.

[edit on 8-11-2004 by Byrd]

If you are looking for a good example on how to write code for email submission, then look no further than PJ Naughter. The guy is a genius in this area, and can save you months of work with his SMTP class. I have personally used this class to make a very reliable automatic email notification service for some of our clients. I personally emailed this guy and gave him a huge pat on the back.

Of course you'll have to implement the coding to gather your data, but once you have that transmission over the internet is a snap. Plain text, html, and attachments are all covered and ready to go. There's even a little bit of RSA security thrown into the mix if you feel the need to use it. Good luck and hope this helps.

^^^ Thanks a lot. Yea I was alos directing my thoughts in the SMTP direction although ideas like 'socket programming' were popping up.Also tell me something, IMHO it would be better to use LINUX as the OS because of its more programmer friendly environment, but I was not so keen about using an online mail service like yahoo or hotmail to send mails. Any sites which offer good amounts of information on LInux? I wanted to investigate using the LINUX equivalent of "outlook express". Is there something like that? Also would it be easier to use something liek that instead of an online service like yahoo etc.. i.e. would it simplifythe complextiyt of the coding involved?