Emmesmail FAQ

Q1. What is Emmesmail's raison d'etre? What makes it better than other mail programs?

A1. Important features in any mail-handling program are speed, safety, reliability, control, and the ability to handle many different types of email. Because Emmesmail was written as a suite of programs rather than as one extremely large program, each program could be optimized for the task it was needed for. The idea behind Emmesmail is to run msp in background, checking for mail as frequently as the user likes. When new mail arrives at the user's POP3 server, msp downloads a copy of it to the local PC. msd then distributes the mail to the proper local account and flags the user that there is mail. Since the mail is already downloaded, and since the mail reader, msv, has very little overhead, the processing of mail by the user is very quick. Emmesmail uses a whitelist and Bayesian filter that allows ~99% rejection of annoying spam email.

Q2. What are some of the special features of Emmesmail?

A2. One important feature of Emmesmail is the ability to download mail securely using TLS. Another feature is the downloading of the mail in background before notifying the recipient. This allows for rapid handling of emails, although this feature in the days of high speed Internet is less significant. Another useful feature is the provision of a single "Action Menu" from which the most common actions (printing, saving, forwarding, replying, etc.) may be initiated. A unique feature of Emmesmail is its powerful handling of spam email. Emmesmail rejects ~99% of spam emails.

Q3. When does Emmesmail delete messages from the POP3 mail server?

A3. We run Emmesmail's deliver program with the -d option, which, by default, deletes the message from the POP3 server after it is successfully delivered to the local system mailbox. Mail to a given addressee is delivered to that addressee's mailbox on the PC and is stored there until the "save" "read action button" of msv is clicked, at which time the message is removed from the user's mailbox and stored in the user's chosen incoming mail archive. It is possible for a single user to have multiple save-archives. Clicking the "delete" "read action button" of msv will remove the email message from the user's mailbox without copying it to the user's mail archive.

Q4. What is spam and what does Emmesmail do about it?

A4. Spam is unsollicited email, usually sent out in bulk, to a list of email addresses presumed to be valid. Most people regard spam, or "junk email" after its snail mail equivalent, as a great nuisance, cluttering up mailboxes and interferring with handling of important emails. Emmesmail diverts ~99% of incoming spam to the spam mailbox.

Q5. How may one address email using Emmesmail?

A5. Emmesmail allows three ways of addressing mail. A valid email address may be typed in, a previous chosen alias may be typed in, or a name may be selected from the users addressbook. If the email address typed in is not in the user's addressbook, the user is (optionally) asked if he or she wishes to create a new addressbook entry.

Q6. Does Emmesmail have to be configured before use?

A6. Eventually Emmesmail will need to be configured. This may be done by hand, using any text editor.   Directions for configuring Emmesmail by hand can be found in <installation-dir>/help/handconfig.html, and also are available by clicking on "Help" in the first window that appears when Emmesmail is launched.

Actually, configuration need not be done beforehand by hand, since the program will ask for the necessary information as needed.

Q7. How does one stop Emmesmail mail checking and collection?

A7. Since the Linux version, all mail checking is controlled by cron with appropriate crontab entries.

Q8. What are some of the latest features in Emmesmail?

A8. The most signicant improvement to Emmesmail, aside from its continuous improvement in spam rejection has been the addition of the option for TLS (Transport Layer Security), so that communication between your computer and the email servers is secure and encrypted.