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I've been using POP style e-mail over SLIP and later PPP connections since the Summer of 1985. I was part of the active group of developers building Phil Karn's KA9Q Net/NOS code in both DOS and Xenix platforms. PPP was incubated on this project before being released as an official RFC supported framing protocol. We hacked together a PPP style link protocol call KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) to interface the amateur radio terminal node controllers (TNC). The TNC carried TCP/IP wrapped inside an AX.25 frame wrapped in a KISS frame to/from the local computer. Much of the nice mobile TCP/IP that you enjoy today was an outgrowth of Phil Karn's subsequent employment at Qualcomm in San Diego. My old packet gear is wrapped in a box about 10 feet from where I'm currently seated. It has been largely idle since I moved from the Mira Mesa area of San Diego to Idaho in December 2000.