|
This chapter discusses how to use post.office. It covers:
While chapter 1 covered how E-mail systems worked in general, explaining for example the difference between a user agent and a message transport agent, chapter 2 provides you with the details of how post.office, your message transport agent, can help you make the most use of your E-mail system.
Recall that the mail program which you use is a user agent, and that post.office is the program that your user agent interacts with. Your user agent is good at helping you read, write, send, and receive E-mail. However user agents are useless for certain things, such as changing your address.
Just as you have to tell the US. postal service when you are moving from one address to another, you may need to tell post.office when you are moving from one computer to another, changing your password, and so forth. post.office will help you:
If any of this seems a bit foreign to you, read on and things will make more sense. Here is how this chapter is organized:
E-mail should be fun and easy. If it's giving you grief, take the time to acquaint yourself with how your user agent and message transport agent work by looking through this manual. You may also find it helpful to talk to people about how they set up their account and how they use their user agent. Once you get over the all the ridiculous jargon and weird computer quirks, you should soon be wondering how you ever managed to get along without it.
post.office has a database which contains a set of configuration options for your account. These include:
The exact meaning of all this is described in section 2.4, below, so we won't go into it yet. The point is that your receiving your E-mail on a regular basis depends on having a correctly configured post.office account. Generally this account is set up for you by the postmaster of your E-mail system, the postmaster being the individual who is entrusted with the configuration and supervision of the post.office program. One of the things that the postmaster does is open new E-mail accounts, such as yours.
The postmaster for your system is the person you should turn to for assistance with any question you have about your account that are not answered in this chapter.
When you make changes to your post.office account, you are making a change to the account database, and post.office will process your E-mail in accordance with whatever changes you make until you make new changes.
You use post.office forms (section 2.3 and 2.4) to make changes to your account.
The three principle security features that protect your E-mail are your password, access domains, and finger access domains. You can change your password using the information form (see section 2.4). In order to change your access domain or finger access domain, you will have to ask your postmaster for help.
Anytime you retrieve your E-mail via POP3 delivery you must give post.office your password. As long as you control access to your password, nobody else can read your mail.
Your password is also required in order to use the information form (section 2.4). You cannot make any changes to your account without it.
If you loose or forget your password, your postmaster can give you a new one.
Note: If your mail is being delivered via UNIX delivery (available only to users with UNIX accounts on the post.office host, you do not use your password to get your mail, since it is delivered directly to your maildrop file.)
As a security precaution, your postmaster can limit the host or hosts from which you can retrieve your mail. If you always retrieve your E-mail from the same host, this is a good idea.
Alternatively, you may wish to retrieve you mail from a site outside the access domain which is specified for your account. If this happens, talk to your postmaster about changing your access domain (the error message you get from your user agent if this happens probably will not indicate why this is happening, so you'll have to deduce it on your own).
The finger access domain can be used to limit the hosts that are allowed to finger your address, and thus get the finger information you've provided for your account. If you find that too many or too few people have access to your finger information (i.e. if a friend complains that they weren't able to finger you), check with your postmaster to find out if you can change your finger access domain.
This section discusses how post.office forms work. Section 2.4, which follows, contains a description of the forms themselves.
There are two ways to obtain post.office forms:
Either way, you will get the same forms. They will look a little different, but both work the same. Each is discussed in turn below.
Forms are obtained from by sending an E-mail message to the address "accounts" on the host where post.office is located. The illustration below (2.3a) shows how a request should be filled out for the information form (the form itself is described in 2.4):
To: Accounts@your.host.domain Subject: <can be blank or anything desired> Other-Headers: Date:, cc:, etc. <not necessary> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- information
|
Figure 2.3a - You request the information form by E-mailing to the address "accounts" at your post.office host .
Generally, if you err in submitting a form request, post.office will send you a list of the forms that are available to you.
Note: You can change the information in your account by replying to the form using the "Reply" feature of your E-mail client program. Make the desired changes and send them in. When you submit an E-mail form, don't forget to include your account password!
You select the HTML (web) version of post.office forms by logging on to the host where post.office is installed with your web browser. Web browsers allow you to manually enter a URL. Simply enter your host's URL:
http://host.domain
For example:
http://chicago.software.com
(or simply http://chicago will likely work)
Note: If your post.office doesn't use the standard Web port (which is port 80) you must also specify the port number in the URL. For example, if your post.office uses port 8080, you would use the following:
http://chicago.software.com:8080
(or simply http://chicago:8080 will likely work)
The post.office web server will ask for your E-mail address and your account password. Using this information, it will verify that you have an account on the host and that your password is correct. Once this checks out, you are presented with the main web menu, which presents you with the forms that are available to you.
The initial login window will look like this (figure 2.3b):
|
|
Figure 2.3b: When you log onto post.office with a web browser, the first thing you have to do is submit your name and password for authentication.
Web forms include numerous highlighted words which you can click on in order to obtain further information. For example, clicking on a field name will give you a description of what the field means and what your options are in filling it out.
In order to make the most efficient use of post.office, you need to understand how forms work. You need to know what a field is, how to use MIME (multimedia) attachments (applies to E-mail forms but not Web forms), the role of forms in security, and how to figure out what you did wrong if a form is returned. These topics are discussed below.
When you get an E-mail form from post.office, use the reply feature of your user agent to fill out the form and return it. Don't worry about it if your user agent puts a bunch of symbols such as an angle bracket (>) down the left margin of the form. post.office will be able to read the form anyway.
Web forms can be filled out as soon as you receive them. Generally they are a little easier to use than E-mail forms.
A form is made up of fields and their corresponding values. Each field consists of a parameter which can or must be specified in order to operate post.office. Whenever possible fields are multiple choice with the options available listed adjacent to the field (E-mail forms), or selectable from a scroll menu or buttons (web forms), to keep things easy. The figure below serves to illustrate what a field is and the rules you should follow when filling out an E-mail form
|
Figure 2.3c - Fields: where information is entered on an E-mail form.
If you make a mistake either the form will be returned to you, with an explanation that a field is missing, or in some cases the entry for the field may be ignored. With E-mail forms, you must include your account password for post.office to accept the form.
Note: E-mail forms include one or more lines at the very bottom which are there to tell the post.office program which form it is. Do not edit or modify these lines.
MIME is a standard message format that allows users with MIME-enabled user agents to send attachments of various formats along with their E-mail. Frequently it is used to send files from one user to another
Aside from including just about anything you want in an E-mail message, you can use MIME in post.office E-mail forms. You can attach files to your forms when you want to avoid entering large blocks of text between the brackets or in text boxes. You can also use MIME attachments in order to use the vacation feature.
For example, you can use the vacation feature to send a text message taunting those who E-mail you while you're away about how much fun you're having while they are working. More appropriately, you might use it to let those who sends you E-mail while you're on vacation know that you're not currently available to read your mail. You might also let them know when you'll be back and who to contact if they can't wait that long.
Here's how you include a MIME attachment in a post.office E-mail form (If you're using the Web, don't worry about this stuff since MIME attachments don't apply to the Web interface):
| Vacation-Message: [Attachment] |
Figure 2.3d: A MIME attachment can be used to specify field information. In this case only one attachment is used, so it is not necessary to differentiate between attachments.
or, with two attachments:
Vacation-Message: [Sorry, I'm at my farm this week]
[I'll be busy calf-roping until 4/12]
[I'll be unable to read your message until then]
[If you need to resolve a work related issue before then]
[you can contact someone from the following list:]
[Attachment 1]
[If you need to contact me about personal issues]
[during my vacation, you can use the following information:]
[Attachment 2]
|
Figure 2.3.e: When more than one attachment is used you should specify which is which by numbering them.
Here are a couple of the most common mishaps encountered with forms and helpful tips for dealing with them :
I. post.office won't accept an E-mail form
The main reason that appliances don't work is forgetting to plug them in. Similarly, the main error when filling out an E-mail form is forgetting to put in your account password.
You don't have this problem when using the web forms since you have to submit your password up front.
Additionally, your mail client program must be set up so post.office recognizes you. It must indicate the appropriate "From:" address, and, if using a POP client (such as Pegasus or Eudora) it must have the appropriate POP login and password.
II. When I get forms, they are messy and mis-aligned.
The forms aren't exactly art, but they should look fairly neat as long as you have your font size and screen width set correctly and are using a non-proportional font such as courier, which is used in the example below. If you don't see something that looks like the example below, adjust your window size and/or your font.
We use E-mail forms to illustrate this example, but you can make you're forms look weird by using the wrong settings on your web browser too.
Your forms should look like this (this is part of the account form):
GENERAL INFORMATION -- (See the Description Section Below for help)
Account-Name: [] (Jane Q. Smith)
Account's-Password: [] (password)
Access-Domains: [] ("none", host.domain or domain, blank) |
Not like this (font size too large):
GENERAL INFORMATION -- (See the Description
Section Below for help)
Account-Name: [] (Jane Q. Smith)
Account's-Password: [] (password)
Access-Domains: [] ("none", host.domain
or domain, blank)
|
(Notice that the phrase "Section Below for help" ran over to the next line.)
Nor like this (proportional font):
|
GENERAL INFORMATION -- (See the Description Section Below for
help) Account-Name: [] (Jane Q. Smith) Account's-Password: [] (password) Access-Domains: [] ("none", host.domain or domain, blank) |
(Nothing lines up and its hard to see what's going on.)
There are two forms available to you:
The greeting form, which is sent to you when you first open a post.office account, is illustrated in figure 2.4a bellow:
To: You@Your.domain
From: Account-Manager<>
Reply-To: Account-Manager<>
Subject: Form: Greeting
MIME-Version: 1.0
Information
An electronic mail account has just been opened for you. This account is
configured as indicated below. Make sure you note your password and
safeguard it since this is the only time it will be sent to you. See the
instructions below the account summary for information on how to make
changes to your mail account as well as for explanations about each of the
fields.
Your-Name: [your name here]
(Note: your name is sometimes referred to as your account name)
Mail-Account-Password: [your secret here]
Internet-Addresses: [your address@your.domain]
Finger-Information: [Tell the world how happy you are]
[about post.office]
==========================================================================
Here's some information about changing your account:
Only the system administrator can change your name or addresses. If you
want to change your password or your finger information, you can do so
with a World Wide Web browser (such as NCSA Mosaic), or via E-mail. You
simply fill out a form indicating the desired changes and submit the form
to the mail system. To request the user Information form:
via the Web: connect to http://
via E-mail: You can get the E-mail form to modify your
account by simply replying to this message
and sending it in, or
send a new message To: <Accounts@oslo.software.com>
with the word "Information" as the message body
like this:
To: Accounts@oslo.software.com
Information
After receiving the Information Form, make the appropriate changes to the
form (use the "Reply" feature of your mail client if you are using the E-
mail interface), put in your password, and submit the form. If you don't
receive an error message, the changes have been accepted.
==========================================================================
Here is an explanation of each of the fields shown for your account:
Your-Name
---------
This field is for your real name as you prefer to see it in written form.
It is not your e-mail address, although it will be included along with
your E-mail address on messages sent out from your account if the
Postmaster has configured your account to rewrite the "From" addresses on
your outgoing mail. If your name is mis-spelled, you probably want to let
your Postmaster know.
Mail-Account-Password
---------------------
Your account password is needed to modify your account. Since it prevents
other people from changing your account, you should keep it secret and
change it often. This same password is used to retrieve your mail over the
network if you use the Post Office Protocol (POP) method to get your mail.
(POP is the method used with such mail client programs as Eudora, Pegasus,
etc.). The password is CaSe-senSiTive, so remember exactly how it is
typed. This is the only time your password will be presented to you;
however, if you ever forget your password, the Mail Administrator can give
you a new one.
Internet-Addresses
------------------
Your account will receive Internet mail that is sent to any of these
addresses. All addresses are matched in a case insensitive manner so they
may be written with any mixture of upper and lower case characters (e.g.
Jane.Doe@Domain, and jane@host.domain). The first address is your primary
address. It is used as the "From:" address for outgoing mail (if your
account is configured to rewrite the "From" address on your outgoing
mail), and is the address you should generally give out to people.
Finger-Information
------------------
The "finger" directory service lets you find information about other
people with E-mail accounts. The information specified here will be
returned to other users who request it using the finger service. This
information can be anything you desire (e.g. your postal mailing address
and favorite quote). When someone "fingers" your E-mail, the Finger-
Information will be returned to them (as long the Mail Administrator has
not limited access to your account).
|
Figure 2.4a: This is the message you should have received when an account was opened for you.
When you get your greeting form, you want to make sure that your Internet address is the way you want it. If not, let your postmaster know and ask her to change it.
If you wish, you can change the password and/or the finger information by using the information form (below).
You can use the information form to:
The E-mail version of the information form is shown in figure 2.4b below (The web version of the form is cosmetically different, but there is no difference in content). Each field is accompanied with a thorough discussion of how to fill it out. Note that you must include the account password when you submit the form (E-mail only).
If you need to make changes to your account which beyond what is possible with this form, you should consult the postmaster of your system.
To: You@Your.domain
From: Accounts@[198.17.234.35]
Reply-To: Accounts@[198.17.234.35]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Account-Password: [] (REQUIRED FOR THE FORM TO BE ACCEPTED)
Reply to this form, placing the desired information between square brackets.
For help with individual fields, see the descriptions following the form.
Example Field Name: [Entries belong in brackets] (Hints appear here)
===== GENERAL INFORMATION FOR YOUR ACCOUNT ================================
Change-Password-To: [(Not Shown)]
(Note: leave as "(Not Shown)" to retain current password)
Finger-Information: []
[]
[This finger information brought to you by:]
[ post.office v.1.6!!!]
[]
Send-Vacation-Notices: [no]
Vacation-Message: []
[]
----- INCOMING MAIL DELIVERY INFORMATION ----------------------------------
(Note: A login name is required to turn on POP delivery. Only
the Postmaster can provide or modify your login name.)
POP3-Delivery: [no]
POP-Login-Name:
Forwarding-Addresses: []
[]
[]
[]
[]
----- OTHER ACCOUNT INFORMATION (Only your Postmaster can change these) ---
Your-Name:
Internet-Addresses:
Access-Domains:
===========================================================================
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR YOUR ACCOUNT
===========================================================================
Mail-Account-Password
---------------------
Your account password is needed to modify your account. Since it prevents
other people from changing your account, you should keep it secret and
change it often. This same password is used to retrieve your mail over the
network if you use the Post Office Protocol (POP) method to get your mail.
(POP is the method used with such mail client programs as Eudora, Pegasus,
etc.). The password is CaSe-senSiTive, so remember exactly how it is
typed. This is the only time your password will be presented to you;
however, if you ever forget your password, the Mail Administrator can give
you a new one.
Finger-Information
------------------
This information can be anything you desire (e.g. your postal mailing
address and favorite quote). When someone "fingers" your E-mail address,
the Finger-Information will be returned to them (as long as the Mail
Administrator has not limited Finger-Access for your account). You may
enter as many lines as you desire. (If submitting the form by E-mail, make
sure you use a pair of brackets for each line. If you prefer you can use a
MIME attachment to accommodate long messages - simply attach the Finger
message in a text file and type "Attachment #" in this field where # is
the sequence of the attached messages. For example, if you attach one
document for finger information, you would put "Attachment 1" in the
brackets. MIME attachments do not apply to Web Forms.)
Send-Vacation-Notices
---------------------
Enter "Yes" (without the quotes) to have an E-mail reply automatically
sent out in response to incoming mail while you are on vacation or
otherwise unavailable to receive your mail. If you turn this feature on,
you must also specify the message to send out as detailed below. The
vacation message is only sent to a specific sender one time regardless of
the number of incoming messages you receive from that person. Be sure to
leave your usual Incoming Mail Delivery Items enabled (with "Yes") so your
mail will be saved for delivery to you upon your return. You may also want
to consider forwarding your mail to another person (in addition to your
POP or UNIX delivery) while you are away - see the Forwarding-Addresses
field to do so.
Vacation-Message
----------------
This field is required if the Send-Vacation-Notices field entry is "Yes"
(and has no effect if it is "No"). This message should state that you are
not able to read your mail, and include the date you plan to return. You
may also want to include an alternate way to contact you, or the name (or
address) of someone who can relay messages to you. You may enter as many
lines as you desire. (If submitting the form by E-mail, make sure you use
a pair of brackets for each line. If you prefer you can use a MIME
attachment to accommodate long messages - simply attach the message in a
text file and type "Attachment #" in this field where # is the sequence of
the attached messages. For example, if you attach one document for finger
information, and one for the vacation message, you would put "Attachment
2" in the brackets for this field. Beware that a few mail client programs
send files in the opposite order from the way they were attached by you.
MIME attachments do not apply to Web Forms).
===========================================================================
INCOMING MAIL DELIVERY INFORMATION
===========================================================================
These fields dictate how incoming mail for this account is delivered, and
where it is forwarded, if applicable. You may specify any combination of
POP3-Delivery and/or Forwarding addresses; however, the Mail Administrator
must have given you a POP login to enable POP3 Delivery.
Forwarding can be used alone (known as an Alias Account) or in combination
with other delivery options, as desired; however, it is important to note
that if forwarding is used by itself (i.e. POP3-Delivery is set to "No")
you will only be able to get mail and change your Information Form by
E-mail from the forwarding addresses account once the change is submitted.
POP3-Delivery
-------------
Enter "Yes" (without the quotes) for Delivery via the Post Office
Protocol, version 3 (POP3). This enables pick-up with a POP3 mail client
(such as Eudora, Pegasus, etc.) A POP Login Name must be shown to be able
to turn on POP3 Delivery. The Mail Administrator can add or modify the
POP Login Name for this account.
POP-Login-Name
--------------
This field is not user changeable. Your POP login name is used to
retrieve your mail from the post.office POP server. You need to configure
your mail client to use this POP login name when connecting to the server.
Forwarding-Addresses
--------------------
Specify as many forwarding addresses as desired, entering one per line.
Forwarding can be to other post.office accounts on this host or to
addresses at remote hosts throughout the world. When you retrieve this
Form from the post.office system, local accounts will show the user's real
name in addition to their address. Remote forwarding addresses will show
only the SMTP address. New entries can be made by typing the address of
the recipient, and post.office will figure out if the recipient is local
or remote. Forwarding can be used alone (known as an Alias Account) or in
combination with other delivery options, as desired; however, it is
important to note that if Forwarding is used by itself (i.e. all other
Local Delivery Items are set to "No") you will only be able to get mail
and change your Information Form from the forwarding address. Generally,
you will not want to change your account to Forwarding delivery only.
===========================================================================
OTHER ACCOUNT INFORMATION (Not user modifiable)
===========================================================================
The following fields are changeable only by the person responsible for
administering your mail system, known as the Postmaster. If you need
these items changed, you can contact your Postmaster by sending mail to
<Postmaster@oslo.software.com>.
Your-Name
---------
This field is for your real name as you prefer to see it in written form.
It is not your e-mail address, although it will be included along with
your E-mail address on messages sent out from your account if the
Postmaster has configured your account to rewrite the "From" addresses on
your outgoing mail. If your name is mis-spelled, you probably want to let
your Postmaster know.
Internet-Addresses
------------------
Your account will receive Internet mail that is sent to any of these
addresses. All addresses are matched in a case insensitive manner so they
may be written with any mixture of upper and lower case characters (e.g.
Jane.Doe@Domain, and jane@host.domain). The first address is your primary
address. It is used as the "From:" address for outgoing mail (if your
account is configured to rewrite the "From" address on your outgoing
mail), and is the address you should generally give out to people.
Access-Domains
--------------
Entries in this field limit the ability to configure your account to
within the listed domains or hosts. It also limits from where you can
pick up your mail using a POP3 client (for accounts which use POP3
Delivery). If this field is blank, no restrictions are made. Entries are
Internet domain names (e.g. software.com), full host names (e.g.
rome.sales.software.com), or IP addresses (e.g. 123.45.67.8). A zero in
any of the IP address places acts as a wildcard (e.g. 198.17.234.0) and
matches any number in that place. The special keyword "none" prevents any
access to the account (except, of course, by the Postmaster).
---------- Please Do Not Modify Anything Below ----------
Software License:0-1001
Form: [Information] (Informs the system which form is being used)
Form-Identifier: [5380b91db3e8eb2dbf18e96904f30389]
Account-Identifier: [Postmaster] (Unique identifier for the account)
|
Figure 2.4b: The information form includes enough directions so that it should be self-explanatory. Follow the directions on either the E-mail or the web version of the form in order to make changes to your post.office account.
A short list of common problems.
Make sure you're looking in the right place. With POP3 delivery, you need to configure your user agent to point to the machine where post.office is installed, and you must specify the correct POP login name and password - Your user agent should be articulate enough to tell you if the password is the problem. If you have UNIX delivery, your messages will be delivered directly to your maildrop file. To be able to get E-mail forms, you must make sure your user agent puts the correct "From:" address in outgoing mail, so post.office can match it to your account.
Check to make sure the computer you are using is within your access domains - you may have to ask your postmaster about these if you're new to wide-area networking.
Call them up on the phone, or ask a mutual friend. There are a couple other ways, but they're a whole lot more work. The Internet, due to its distributed nature which also spawns its awesome power, does not yet have a comprehensive address directory service.
Ask your postmaster or system administrator. They tend to be real good at this stuff.
We've put together a short bibliography of books that relate to E-mail issues. It's appendix B of the postmaster manual for post.office, and you can get it by anonymous FTP or via web from Software.com. Feel free to grab a copy (For web, manually enter "http://www.software.com" with your browser.)