MultiPOP Help Contents
MultiPOP Help

MultiPOP is an Extension (or Plug-in module) for Pegasus Mail for Windows v2.30 and later that allows you to retrieve mail from more than one POP3 mailbox. You create a list of different mailboxes it should access on your behalf and MultiPOP will manage them for you. It also provides an easy means of enabling and disabling mailboxes "on the fly". You will probably need MultiPOP if you have more than one mail account you need to access from within Pegasus Mail. Practically all of the standard POP3 features supported by Pegasus Mail are available in MultiPOP, and it also provides slightly more scheduling flexibility than the built-in POP3 agent.

Using MultiPOP

Defining a mailbox entry

Having MultiPOP run automatically at startup


Using MultiPOP

To load MultiPOP, run WinPMail then choose "MultiPOP" from either the Extensions menu or from the Extensions Manager window.

MultiPOP displays a list of mailbox the entries currently defined, and a set of seven buttons.

Add, Edit:  Allow you to create or modify the information MultiPOP needs to be able to access a particular mailbox on your behalf. For more information, see Defining a mailbox entry.

Enable, Disable:  Click one of these buttons to enable or disable the selected entry in the mailbox list. When a mailbox list is disabled, MultiPOP will not attempt to access that mailbox at any time.

Remove:  Clicking this button deletes the selected entry from the mailbox list.

Check now:  Clicking this button forces MultiPOP to check for new mail in the selected mailbox entry immediately, irrespective of any scheduling you have defined for that mailbox.

The mailbox list shows the host and mailbox name for each entry, and a number indicating the number of mail messages the mailbox contained last time MultiPOP accessed it. MultiPOP remembers its position on the screen from session to session and will operate even if Pegasus Mail is minimized on your desktop.

NOTE: There is a basic expectation that if you use MultiPOP, you will probably not use the standard WinPMail POP3 agent at the same time. If you do decide to use both MultiPOP and the built-in POP3 agent, you must not access the same mailbox in both modules - that is, MultiPOP must only access mailboxes other than the one serviced by the standard Pegasus Mail POP3 module.


Defining a mailbox entry
Defining a MultiPOP mailbox entry

Defining a mailbox entry for MultiPOP is basically the same as defining a POP3 mailbox for Pegasus Mail's standard POP3 service and most of the options and required information are the same.

POP3 host  The name of the machine from which Pegasus Mail should retrieve your new mail. The format of the address you provide here depends on your WinSock implementation: many will allow you to enter a normal internet name (for example, parnassus.pmail.gen.nz), but some may require that you enter the address in dotted notation (for example, 192.156.225.2). Consult your system manager or WinSock manual if you are unsure which form to use.

Port  The TCP/IP port on which the server listens for your connections. The default for this field is 110, which is the port defined by the POP3 standard. On rare occasions, your POP3 server may listen for connections on a different port number, in which case you would enter that port number here. You should only change this value if advised to do so by your service provider, network administrator, or by Pegasus Mail technical support.

Username  The name of the account on the machine under which mail is being held for you. WinPMail logs into the host using this account name and retrieves any mail waiting there. WinPMail only wants your username in this field, not your address - if what you have entered here contains an '@' symbol, then it is probably incorrect.

Password  The password for the account on the host. The password is not displayed on the screen and is stored in an encrypted format in your configuration file.

Leave mail larger than x KB If you are connected to the mail host by a slow TCP/IP link (such as a SLIP link) then downloading large messages can be very time consuming. If you enter a value in this field, WinPMail will not attempt to retrieve any mail larger than the size you specify (in kilobytes) - it will be left untouched on the host. A value of 0 in this field means no limit - WinPMail will download all mail.

Download only unread mail  The usual practice when retrieving mail from a POP3 host is to delete it from the host when it is successfully downloaded. If you do not delete it, you would normally expect to see it again the next time you download mail from the host. WinPMail incorporates a powerful and complicated facility which allows you to leave mail on the POP3 host without deleting it, but only download mail you haven't already seen. Because the POP3 protocol does not actually provide this facility, there are some limitations on this command, the most specific being that if you run WinPMail on more than one machine, each one will have a separate list of what you have already seen; so, if you download mail using one machine then access your account later from a different machine, you will probably get the mail you downloaded the first time again, where downloading the mail on the same machine you originally used would only show mail which had arrived since the last time you accessed your account. Check this control to instruct WinPMail to attempt to download only mail you have not read. The effect of this control is probably meaningless if you do not also uncheck the "Delete retrieved mail on host" control. Using this feature can significantly increase the time it takes for WinPMail to retrieve your new mail.

Delete retrieved mail on host  If you check this box, WinPMail will delete the host's copy of each mail message it successfully downloads, which will prevent it from being presented to you again the next time you retrieve mail. Leaving this box unchecked tells WinPMail to leave the mail on the host even if successfully downloaded. Mail left on the server will be retrieved every time you download mail.

Message count only (don't download)  If this control is checked and you have set an idle poll cycle (see the last entry) then WinPMail will simply check the number of new mail messages on each idle check and report that number on the status bar. If this control is unchecked, WinPMail will automatically download any new mail it finds on the host on each idle check. On slow links, checking this control can result in a lower performance demand on your machine.

Place mail in: the location into which mail retrieved using this entry should be written. This will usually be your Pegasus Mail new mailbox location, but it's perfectly acceptable for you to have MultiPOP download mail for more than one user, in which case you will enter here the new mailbox location for the appropriate user.

Connect to this host

The settings in this group control how frequently MultiPOP should check this entry for new mail. You can either tell MultiPOP to check after a certain number of hours and minutes have elapsed since the last check, or else to check just once per day at a particular time.

Outgoing Mail Handling

Just as MultiPOP allows you to access mail on behalf of another Pegasus Mail user on your system, so it also allows you to send mail on behalf of other Pegasus Mail users, although it is generally better to avoid doing this if you can because of complications in the way outgoing mail is processed.

SMTP host  Enter here the name of a machine which can process outgoing mail on your behalf. This is usually the same machine you entered as your POP3 mail host, and the address is subject to the same restrictions and rules described there. WinPMail asks the relay machine to send outgoing mail on your behalf, so the machine you name must be running an SMTP server; your system manager or service provider will be able to tell you which machine or address to use for this field.

Find mail in  Enter here the path to the directory where MultiPOP should look for queued mail to send. By default, this value is your home mailbox location, but if you want MultiPOP to send mail for another user on your system, you should enter that user's home mailbox location instead. MultiPOP can only send final form mail -- it cannot send mail until it has actually been committed to the queue for sending.

From field  You should specify in this field the From: field that WinPMail should write into mail sent using this entry. This facility should not be used capriciously -- using it to masquerade as another person constitutes criminal fraud in many countries. In order to prevent message forgery using this feature, WinPMail will only send mail if you have entered a valid username and password in the POP3 section of the configuration dialog, and will check the validity of these details when sending. The valid POP3 address is written into a field in the message for security reasons.


Having MultiPOP run automatically at startup

If you want to have MultiPOP load automatically each time you run WinPMail, follow these steps:

1: Locate the file MULTIPOP.FFF in the same directory as your copy of WINPMAIL.EXE.

2: Open this file using a text editor such as the Windows NotePad editor, or the MS-DOS EDIT command.

3: Find the line near the end of the file that reads:

Form flags = 80

4: Change this line so that it reads:

Form flags = 81

5: Save the file.

The next time you run WinPMail, MultiPOP will be automatically started for you.