8. Email

Fermilab is promoting the use of server-based email. The Computing Division supports two Internet-oriented methods of accessing electronic mail or bulletin board messages stored on a mail server:

In this chapter we provide information on available mail handlers that support these protocols.

For information on mail storage and management in IMAP and POP, and to find out how to get an account of one type or the other, see the Computing Division's Email Web page and navigate to Mail Server Protocols: IMAP and POP . For information on obtaining the recommended mail handlers and other products, see the Web page Software Products for Windows NT .

If you choose POP, we recommend that you store your downloaded messages on your departmental server rather than on your local drive.

8.1 IMAP Clients

The supported IMAP clients on NT are Netscape Communicator and Outlook Express .

Netscape Communicator 4.5 (See: Configuring and Using Netscape 4.5 as a IMAP client, or for versions previous to v4.5, see Configuring and Using Netscape 4.x as a IMAP client )

A few of its desirable features are:

disconnected mode of accessing remote mailboxes (wherein the mail client connects to the mail server, makes a cache copy of selected messages, and then disconnects from the server; later client reconnects and resynchronizes with the server)
filtering of incoming mail into different folders
notification of new mail

Outlook Express 4.x or 5.x (See: Configuring and using Outlook Express on Windows 95 / NT as an IMAP client )

It supports simultaneous connection of multiple servers/accounts, but its limitations are:

no server-to-server file/folder copying
no filtering (messages not sorted and dropped in particular folders or deleted) in IMAP mode
no new mail notification in IMAP mode for OE 4.x ( OE 5 does support it)

A product called WinBiff is available for new mail notification, and can be used in conjunction with Outlook Express and other mail readers.

You can also get to these configuration documents via the Windows IMAP Client configuration Web page.

8.2 POP Clients

The two mail handlers supported for IMAP on NT ( Netscape Communicator and Outlook Express ) also can be used as POP clients. A few notes:

Netscape Communicator cannot run in disconnected mode using POP (disconnected mode is meaningless in POP).
Outlook Express supports new mail notification and filtering when used in POP mode.

Additional supported POP clients are Eudora 1 and Pegasus . They both support new mail notification and filtering, and are considered good mail handlers.

For information on configuring Eudora , see the document Eudora Light for Windows (WfW, 95, NT) .
To configure Pegasus , see Pegasus for Windows (Windows 95 and Windows NT) .

The product WinBiff is available for new mail notification, and can be used in conjunction with any of these mail readers.

1. There are two versions of Eudora , Eudora Pro and Eudora Light . Eudora Pro supports filtering; Eudora Light does not.