POPMail - Release Notes
Download
The download comes in 2 pieces, the base install which includes a non-functional version of the program's exe and all the dlls and controls, and the latest version of the executable.
Once you have done the base install once, you only need to download the new executable for upgrades (unless advised differently in the Version Info at the bottom of this page..
Download base install
Download current exe (copy to your install directory)
Software License available here.
Installation
Unzip the POPMail-base.zip file in a temporary directory and run the Setup.exe program.
Unless you change the default settings, the program will install in C:\Program Files\POPMail and create an entry in the Start menu.
If you select another directory, make a note of it.
Then download the POPMail.exe file directly into the program's installation directory.
It will overwrite the POPMail.exe file created by the base install.
Prerequisite
To view HTML messages, you need to have Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 at least, or more recent, installed. Internet Explorer is not part of the POPMail program installation files, but if you do not have it, you can always download the most recent version from www.microsoft.com
Setup and Operation
- Select "ISP Setup" from the menu and enter your ISP's information. The top field (ISP) is not critical, enter a name that is easy for you to associate with this account (example "My Cox Account").
The other fields are all critical and should have been provided by your ISP.
- If you click "Add", the account information will be saved in the Registry, otherwise, the information will be lost when you shut off the program.
- You only need to click "Add" when you create a new ISP (either from scratch or by changing the name of an existing account).
If you only change the information for an existing ISP, clicking "Ok" will save that new information.
- If you have selected "Save Password", the password will also be saved to the registry in Base64 encoding, but this is NOT ENCRYPTION. The Base64 encoding will only discourage the casual snoops.
- If you have not selected "Save Password", you will have to enter the password each time you use that account.
- If you have selected to save the pasword, but later change your mind, click "Unsave password".
- At this time, there is no tool to easily and completely remove an account from the registry.
If you need to do that, use Regedit, look for POPMail and delete the key for the ISP you want to remove.
- To retrieve mail, click "Get Mail". The message subjects will display in the top window. When the available message subjects have been downloaded, double-click on one message to display it, or click "View Msg".
If you click "View Msg", the message is downloaded and the next message is automatically selected. This makes checking your mail easy and fast.
- If you click "Delete" (normal left-click), the message currently selected (with the blue background) will be marked for deletion (see below for details) and the next message will be selected (but not downloaded).
- If you right-click "Delete", the message currently selected (with the blue background) will be marked for deletion and the next message will be selected, downloaded and displayed.
- Messages you have read are marked with an "R". This information is lost when you disconnect from the server (using the Disconnect button, or because of time-out.) That means messages that are not deleted remain on the server.
- HTML messages are automatically displayed in HTML. To see the text, click on the "Text" button. This will display the entire message, including all headers.
- Some messages may have some HTML tags, but may miss important tags to tell the program they should be displayed as HTML, so you can force those messages to display as HTML by clicking "HTML". The program will ask for confirmation.
- To view all the headers, click on "All".
- If the message is a MIME multipart message, the MIME Part window will contain the list of the various parts. Click on the part you want to see to display it.
- There are a number of choices under "Options". I tried to pick names that were descriptive of their functions.
- "Confirm Delete" asks for confirmation before deleting a message. Please note that as long as you have not clicked "Disconnect", the deleted messages can be recovered by clicking "Reset".
The "Reset" key undeletes all messages currently selected for deletion though, not just the last message or the current message.
Once you have selected messages for deletion and you click "Disconnect", the messages are gone. If the program crashes, or the connection times out, the messages are NOT deleted.
- "Keep Alive" tickles the POP server regularly to keep the connection open. Once the connection is closed, you have to click "Get Mail" again to see messages.
This does not work perfectly and servers sometimes disconnect even with "Keep Alive" checked.
- "Delete spam" worksw by deleting messages that contain one of the strings entered in the next menu: "Enter spam search string".
Here are the entries I use for my mail providers Cox and Globat:
-- Spam --
***SPAM***
- "Show HTML Msg in Browser" opens a Browser window where the normal text message window is. The browser runs a subset of Internet Explorer and displays relatively simple HTML such as what is used in email messages pretty competently, including downloading embedded pictures (if "No Pictures in HTML" is left unchecked).
Normal precautions regarding IE and security are applicable:
If you are planning on viewing spam in the browser, I strongly recommend that you download and install Ad-Aware software to protect you from spyware and other malware, and if you use Windows XP and have not installed SP2 yet, you should seriously consider doing that now, even more so if you use Internet Explorer, as a standalone browser, or to view HTML messages with this program.
- If "No Pictures in HTML" is checked, pictures embedded in HTML messages are not downloaded (this is much safer with IE)
- "Clear Suspicious IMG tags" suppresses downloading pictures that have your POP server's name embedded in the IMG tag, or images that are generated by scripts (they have a "?" in the image link.)
Such images are used to track the fact that the email address is valid (at least that someone reads the messages). This is valuable information for the spammer, who then knows this is a good email address, so they can send you more spam.
Please note that there are a number of ways to track usage that do not involve either of these methods, so this feature is not as secure as not displaying pictures at all, but if you really want to see the pictures, it provides a little added protection against spamming.
- "Enable Debug Buffer" is used to troubleshoot problems by storing the entire transfer when retrieving the list of messages from the server. It causes a significant slow down when there are more than 10 or 20 messages waiting, so it is not enabled by default.
- "Fixed Width Font" selects Courrier New as the font for the message window. Some messages are formatted expecting a fixed width font and don't look good with the default Arial font.
- "Increase Text Size" and "Decrease Text Size" are self explanatory. You can use the short cuts "Ctrl & +" and "Ctrl & -".
- When you delete a message, the server (your ISP) marks the message for deletion. When a message is marked for deletion, it is not immediately erased, it remains in the server, but inaccessible. It will be physically deleted from the server when you exit the server using "Disconnect"
(this is a feature of the POP protocol, not of this program).
If you change you mind and want to "undelete" a message that has been marked for deletion, use the "Reset" button. This will "unmark" all the messages that may have been marked for deletion.
There is no way to undelete a single message. This is a "feature" of the POP protocol, not of this program.
If you mark one or more messages for deletion, and let the server time-out (or close the program without clicking "Disconnect"), the messages will NOT be deleted and will be displayed the next time you click "Get Mail".
As always, there are no guarantees. If you have questions, I will do my best to address them.
Bugs
Bugs?? Nah!!!
Here are the bugs I have come across, in random order:
- Error 430: If you get error 430 when starting the program, read this article
Acknowledgments
This project includes work by others, including:
Version: 0.1.63 (October 1st, 2005)
Version 0.0.4 (October 24, 2004)