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Judy G. Russell
July 25th, 2006, 11:32 PM
I just got saddled with a Rutgers mail account that runs on Squirrelmail. Is there any way at all to get that forwarded to an account where I can download it and read it offline?

Gary Maltzen
July 26th, 2006, 12:54 AM
Squirrelmail is just a web front-end to an IMAP server; figure out the IMAP (IMAP-SSL?) address and access the account using a conventional e-mail client.

If you can make an FTP connection to the server you could set up a dot-forward file containing one line - the forwarding e-mail address.

sidney
July 26th, 2006, 09:03 AM
I just got saddled with a Rutgers mail account that runs on Squirrelmail. Is there any way at all to get that forwarded to an account where I can download it and read it offline?

Squirrelmail doesn't do it. It's up to the IT department to choose to allow access using something other than Squirrelmail and/or to allow forwarding. Searching the Rutgers web sites, I found

The web mail tools, including setting up forwarding (http://www.ncs.rutgers.edu/tools.html)

Or in case you want to access the mail directly from their server without forwarding it, here are instructions for setting up Netscape 7.0, which will probably give you enough information to do it with your favorite email client:

Instructions for POP access using Netscape 7.0 (http://secure.newark.rutgers.edu/documents/Netscape7_POP/)

Instructions for IMAP access using Netscape 7.0 (http://secure.newark.rutgers.edu/documents/Netscape7_IMAP/)

Judy G. Russell
July 26th, 2006, 12:17 PM
Squirrelmail is just a web front-end to an IMAP server; figure out the IMAP (IMAP-SSL?) address and access the account using a conventional e-mail client. If you can make an FTP connection to the server you could set up a dot-forward file containing one line - the forwarding e-mail address.Errrr... how would I go about finding out that address? (And I'm sure I can't make an FTP connection to the server; if they don't have it totally secured against the likes of me, they're in REAL trouble.

Judy G. Russell
July 26th, 2006, 12:17 PM
Sidney, how would I go about translating these directions for Eudora? (Thank!!!)

Karl Semper
July 26th, 2006, 12:37 PM
Judy,

I would use either "andromeda.rutgers.edu or pegasus.rutgers.edu" as the server name.

You should have a login name.

In "Checking Mail" make sure that at least it show "If available STARTTLS" is showing, You may need to get a SSL certificate.

If you are going to use their SMTP server use either "andromeda.rutgers.edu or pegasus.rutgers.edu" probably best to use the same one.

Under "Sending Mail" make sure that at least it show "If available STARTTLS" is showing,

When you try to send a message or retrieve messages it should prompt you for your password.

That should be everything that you should have to input to EUDORA. This is for using POP.

I think that it will negotiate the SSL automatically, but I am not 100% sure about that.

Karl

Judy G. Russell
July 26th, 2006, 12:44 PM
This is for using POP.Right. But this is an IMAP system, not POP. I don't really understand the difference.

Karl Semper
July 26th, 2006, 12:49 PM
Judy

They have instructions for both. I assumed that you could use either. If not you need to go to "incoming Mail" and check the IMAP instead POP button. It appears to be the only difference in the two.

Judy G. Russell
July 26th, 2006, 01:08 PM
They have instructions for both. I assumed that you could use either. If not you need to go to "incoming Mail" and check the IMAP instead POP button. It appears to be the only difference in the two.Thanks, let me see if I can make sense out of this...

sidney
July 26th, 2006, 06:06 PM
Sidney, how would I go about translating these directions for Eudora? (Thank!!!)

Oh, sorry, I don't know why I didn't include the link for the page with instructions for different mail clients (http://secure.newark.rutgers.edu/). For some reason I thought you use Thunderbird and I posted the one that was likely to be closest to that.

They only list Eudora instructions for Eudora version 5.2.1 (http://secure.newark.rutgers.edu/documents/Eudora5/), which should be close enough for any version 5.x. If you use a different version and it isn't clear what to do, tell me which version you have and I'll translate.

Your other option is to have the mail forwarded using the link I gave you for that, if you don't mind it getting mixed in with your usual personal mail.

sidney
July 26th, 2006, 06:31 PM
Right. But this is an IMAP system, not POP. I don't really understand the difference.

POP is designed for the client to retrieve mail from the server to your client machine. You do have an option to leave mail on the server, but performance becomes increasingly worse the more mail you leave sitting there. If you want to set up mail folders, for example to sort mail by category, those folders are on your client computer and are managed by the mail client program. POP itself won't know about the mail folders.

IMAP is designed for mail to be left on the server, although you do have an option to download mail to your client machine for offline reading. With an IMAP server you can set up mail folders on the server. The IMAP protocol knows about mail folders. You don't have to worry about backing up your mail if you trust your service provider to back up their servers reliably. You can easily read your mail from different computers, perhaps using an IMAP aware mail client such as Eudora or Thunderbird on your computer at home or office, and a web based IMAP client such as SquirrelMail when you are at a library, Internet cafe, or visiting someone and using their computer.

A disadvantage of IMAP is that a service provider may give you a smaller disk quota than the ampount of mail you want to save, requiring you to archive mail on your own hard disk anyway. Since POP always downloads all your mail you usually don't have to think about the quotas on the server.

Modern email clients such as Eudora handle POP and IMAP seamlessly. You can create separate settings for an IMAP server. I think in Eudora that would be a separate "personality".

You could configure Eudora to use the IMAP server at Rutgers to see what it is like. Since IMAP leaves mail on the server, you can play with it, then switch to POP if you prefer and at that point it will download the old mail to your computer the way that you are used to.

-- sidney

Judy G. Russell
July 26th, 2006, 09:12 PM
Got it and thanks, Sidney. I now have my home email setup to work. I'm still having a little trouble with the office stuff since it goes through a firewall. I'll have to get our tech folks to look at that for me.

Now with this account, it appears (and correct me if I'm wrong, please) that I can (if I choose) do the same as I do with my work email: use POP3 on two computers, home and work, but tell my client at one location NOT to delete the mail from the server so that everything gets permanently downloaded to one location. Yes?

Thanks!

sidney
July 26th, 2006, 10:48 PM
use POP3 on two computers, home and work, but tell my client at one location NOT to delete the mail from the server so that everything gets permanently downloaded to one location. Yes?

Yes, that's right. If you wanted to leave it on the server all the time and be able to read the email from both home and office, then you would use IMAP. But what you are describing is best done with POP3.

- sidney

Judy G. Russell
July 27th, 2006, 12:09 AM
Understood, and thanks. (I never really did understand what IMAP was!)

Lindsey
July 28th, 2006, 10:57 PM
Understood, and thanks. (I never really did understand what IMAP was!)
I may be wildly off the mark, but I always understood "IMAP" to mean, roughly, "web mail". Not the MAIL2WEB sort of web mail, but the kind where you had your own folders online.

--Lindsey

sidney
July 29th, 2006, 02:40 AM
I always understood "IMAP" to mean, roughly, "web mail". Not the MAIL2WEB sort of web mail, but the kind where you had your own folders online

The second part of what you said is most correct. IMAP is designed for keeping the mail online, having folders online, and accessing it from different clients with all the important information about what you have read, sorting by folders, etc., kept on the server so it doesn't matter what mahine you are using for the client.

When someone sets up web mail it is most likely to be done by using an IMAP server, because then you don't need a mail client storing everything on your local computer.

-- sidney

Judy G. Russell
July 29th, 2006, 01:49 PM
It is, but I can read it with Eudora and not just online (I think). If I can't read it offline, then I'll do POP3.

sidney
July 29th, 2006, 04:54 PM
It is, but I can read it with Eudora and not just online (I think). If I can't read it offline, then I'll do POP3.

Eudora allows you to work offline with IMAP, synchronizing with the server when you go back online. Here are instructions (http://www.css.qmul.ac.uk/mail/eudora/basics/basics.html) on how to do that, from a help page at a university that has an IMAP server.

-- sidney

Karl Semper
July 29th, 2006, 06:52 PM
One of the nice things about IMAP is that if your hard drive dies, then your email should still be safe on the server, providing of course that the server is properly backed up. Our German company uses Lotus Notes for email which is a IMAP system, but we use POP3. Of course one of our sales persons didn't back up the hard drive, you can guess what happened. All of sales contacts were gone, so she ask us to send her a copy of all the email she sent us so that she could recreate her contact list out of the emails. Like I don't have better things to do at work.

After that the company finally created a Web based contact list. I would not like to bet how many of the sales people actually have a current back up.

Judy G. Russell
July 29th, 2006, 10:59 PM
Eudora allows you to work offline with IMAP, synchronizing with the server when you go back online. Here are instructions (http://www.css.qmul.ac.uk/mail/eudora/basics/basics.html) on how to do that, from a help page at a university that has an IMAP server.Ah, thanks, Sidney. That's just what I need!