Expert Knowledge: POP3, IMAP, HTTP, and SMTP

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E-mail settings are full of acronyms: POP3, IMAP, HTTP, SMTP, and others. What do they mean, and how much should you worry about them?

To answer the second question first, you shouldn’t worry about them too much beyond giving Windows Mail the correct information. Usually you won’t have a choice of server types - your ISP will support either POP3 or IMAP for incoming mail and will use SMTP for outgoing mail.

Here’s what these terms mean:

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the protocol on which much of the Web is based.

SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the protocol used for sending e-mail. SMTP is part of the TCP/IP protocol suite which is largely responsible for the running of the Internet.

POP3 Post Office Protocol, the common or garden variety Internet mail-server protocol for storing and passing on mail. POP3 works well and is very widely used, but it doesn’t have advanced features that IMAP has. POP3’s major limitation is that when you check your mail, you have to download all the messages waiting for you. You can leave copies of all your messages on the server, but each time you download them, you download everything waiting for you. Some e-mail programs are bright enough to download only the messages that they haven’t downloaded before. Tech moment: POP3 actually uses SMTP to move the messages from the one server to another and from the server to the client.

IMAP Internet Mail Access Protocol, a newer protocol than POP3 and one that has more features. IMAP offers strong authentication and supports Kerberos security, but from the average user’s point of view, IMAP’s big advantage is that it’s smart enough to allow you to manage your mail on the server. You can download just the headers of the messages so that you can decide which you want to download, delete messages off the server without reading them, and shuttle them between different folders on the server. These capabilities make IMAP especially useful for checking mail from multiple computers - for example, when traveling.

For e-mail users, IMAP offers many advantages over POP3. The only disadvantage is that you may have to do more configuration with IMAP than with POP3, depending on how smart your mail client is. Unfortunately, many ISPs aren’t enthusiastic about implementing IMAP because doing so would probably result in a huge amount more mail lying around on their servers than is currently on them which is already more than enough. Given that spam still seems to be increasing, and that legitimate nonspam advertising e-mail messages seem to be getting not only more frequent but also larger, and that more people are using e-mail and sending more messages and attachments, you can understand their concern.

The Windows Mail Screen

Once you’ve configured Windows Mail, and thereafter when you start it, it displays your local Inbox . If you chose not to have Windows Mail store your password, you’ll need to log on when you launch Windows Mail. If you change your mind about having Windows Mail store your username and password, select the Remember My Credentials button in the Windows Security: Logon dialog box before clicking the OK button.

Choosing Options for Windows Mail

At this point, you could start sending e-mail straight away, but it’s a good idea to configure Windows Mail first. This section discusses the configuration options that Windows Mail offers. Because of its complexity, Windows Mail has a host of options, many of which it’s a good idea to know about. Because there are so many options, you may prefer to skim this section rather than read it in detail, and then return to it when you find there’s an aspect of Windows Mail’s behavior you want to change. To configure Windows Mail, choose Tools Options. Windows Mail displays the Options dialog box. Then choose settings as appropriate.

General Page Options

The General page of the Options dialog box contains three sets of options.

General Area

The General area of the General page contains three options:

Notify Me if There Are Any New Newsgroups Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to notify you of new newsgroups on the news server you’re using. This option is a doubleedged sword: It may be good to learn about new newsgroups that might interest you, but new newsgroups are created so often that leaving this option selected means that Windows Mail will offer you new newsgroups every time you fire up the newsreader. You may prefer to check for new newsgroups manually every now and then.

Automatically Display Folders with Unread Messages Select this check box you want Windows Mail to automatically display e-mail folders and newsgroup folders that contain messages you haven’t read. Most people find this option helpful. If you don’t, clear this check box.

Use Newsgroup Message Rating Feature Select this check box if you want to be able to use Windows Mail’s feedback features for rating messages in newsgroups.

Send/Receive Messages Area

The Send/Receive Messages area of the General page contains four options:

Play Sound When New Messages Arrive Select this check box to have Windows Mail automatically play a sound when it receives a new message. Clear this check box if you prefer to be uninterrupted; the Windows Mail status bar will still indicate any new messages that come in.

Send and Receive Messages at Startup Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to send any pending mail and receive any incoming mail when you start it. Clear this check box if you want to choose when to send and receive mail.

Check for New Messages Every NN Minutes Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to check for messages at regular intervals. Specify the interval in the text box the default is 30 minutes. Clear this check box if you prefer to check for messages manually.

If My Computer Is Not Connected at This Time If you leave the Check for New Messages check box selected, use this drop-down list to specify what you want Windows Mail to do if your computer isn’t connected to the Internet when Windows Mail needs to send and receive mail. Choose Do Not Connect if you don’t want Windows Mail to dial a connection. Choose Connect Only When Not Working Offline when your computer is disconnected from its Internet connection for example, if it’s a laptop and you’re on the move. Choose Connect Even When Working Offline for dial-up Internet connections.

Default Messaging Programs Area

The Default Messaging Programs area of the General page notes whether Windows Mail is your default mail handler and news handler.

Read Page Options

The Read page of the Options dialog box contains three areas: Reading Messages, News, and Fonts.

Reading Messages Area

The Reading Messages area of the Read page contains the following options:

Mark Message Read after Displaying for NN Seconds Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to mark a message as having been read when you’ve displayed it for the specified number of seconds in the Preview pane. Adjust the number of seconds if you want to be able to browse quickly through messages in the Preview pane without Windows Mail marking them as read. Clear this check box if you prefer to mark messages as read manually.

Automatically Expand Grouped Messages Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to automatically expand threads of messages in newsgroups. Clear this check box to have Windows Mail display just the original message.

Automatically Download Message When Viewing in the Preview Pane Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to download the body of a message when you select its header in the message list. Most people find this option useful - but be warned that you’ll also get any attachments the message has, which can slow things down greatly if you have a dial-up Internet connection. If you clear this check box, you can press the spacebar to display the body for the header you’ve selected.

Show ToolTips in the Message List for Clipped Items Select this check box to have Windows Mail display a tooltip over a message header when the header is too long to fit in its column. To display the tooltip, hover the mouse pointer over the header.

Highlight Watched Messages In this drop-down list, select the color you want to use for watched conversations. More on this later in the article.

News Area

The News area of the Read page contains two options:

Get NN Headers at a Time These controls let you choose between downloading the specified number of headers from the newsgroup if there are that many; otherwise you get however many there are and downloading all the messages. If you frequent very busy newsgroups, select this check box, and reduce the number in the text box if necessary.

Mark All Messages As Read When Exiting a Newsgroup Select this check box if you want Windows Mail to mark all messages in a newsgroup as read when you exit the newsgroup. Clear this check box to have Windows Mail mark the messages as read only when you’ve read them this is normal behavior. This check box is useful if you tend to browse newsgroups that have a high volume of traffic with many posts that you don’t want to read or manually mark as read but that you want to treat as read the next time you open the newsgroup.

Fonts Area

This area contains two buttons:

• The Fonts button displays the Fonts dialog box, in which you can choose font settings for reading messages. For example, you might increase the font size or choose a different font.

• The International Settings button displays the International Read Settings dialog box, in which you can specify whether to use default encoding for all incoming messages. You shouldn’t need to do this unless you find yourself coming up against apparently garbled messages that use different language encoding.

Receipts Page Options

The Receipts page of the Options dialog box contains three areas: Requesting Read Receipts, Returning Read Receipts, and Secure Receipts.

Requesting Read Receipts Area

The Requesting Read Receipts area of the Receipts page contains only one option, but it’s an important one: the Request a Read Receipt for All Sent Messages check box. Select this check box if you want to try to get a notification of when the recipient opens “reads” the message. Whether you receive a receipt depends on whether the recipient has chosen to send receipts and on whether the ISP’s mail server supports requesting receipts. Receipts often don’t work, so don’t rely on them. If you want to request receipts only on certain messages you send, leave this check box cleared and choose Tools Request Read Receipt from the New Message window when composing a message for which you want a receipt. Similarly, if you want to request receipts on all but a few messages you send, select this check box and choose Tools Request Read Receipt from the New Message window to turn off the request on any given message. A read receipt appears as a regular message in your Inbox, with the subject Read: and the original subject for example, Read: Dinner at 8? for a message with the subject “Dinner at 8?” and details of when the message was sent and when it was read.

Returning Read Receipts Area

The Returning Read Receipts area of the Receipts page contains three option buttons and a check box for specifying how Windows Mail deals with requests you receive for read receipts.

Never Send a Read Receipt Select this option button to make sure that Windows Mail never sends read receipts. This setting helps you avoid others tracking your e-mail reading habits, but it also prevents you from sending an e-mail receipt on those usually rare occasions when it might be helpful. Windows Mail simply suppresses the requests without mentioning them to you.

Notify Me for Each Read Receipt Request Select this option button if you want Windows Mail to warn you about each request for a read receipt, as shown here. You can then decide whether to send the read receipt or not. Most people find this the best setting, because you find out whenever someone requests a receipt but you can decide whether to send it.

Always Send a Read Receipt Select this option button if you want Windows Mail to go ahead and send a read receipt whenever anyone asks for one. This setting isn’t a good idea for anyone who accepts e-mail from strangers, as the read receipts can confirm to spammers that your e-mail address is live in other words, that it’s in use. However, if you use the Safe Senders Only option see the section “Suppressing Junk E-mail Messages,” later in this article to restrict your incoming e-mail to only approved senders, sending a read receipt on request isn’t dangerous. If you select this option button, select the Unless It Is Sent to a Mailing List and My Name Is Not on the To or Cc Lines of the Message check box to prevent you from sending read receipts to mailing lists. Sending these receipts will annoy everyone on the group if they’re not filtered out by software or by humans.

As Well As Read Receipts, Web Bugs Can Track Your Reading E-Mail

Read receipts aren’t the only way that someone can track that you’ve read a message. Instead or in tandem, a sender can include in an HTML-formatted message a hyperlink to a graphic or other content on a website. When Windows Mail goes to retrieve that graphic or content in order to display it to you, the sender of the message will know that you’ve read the message. If you display the message multiple times, causing multiple downloads of the data, they’ll know that too.

These items are called “Web bugs,” and the Security page of the Options dialog box discussed in the section “Security Page Options,” later in this article gives you a way to deal with them.

Secure Receipts Area

The Secure Receipts area of the Receipts page contains only the Secure Receipts button. If you want to receive secure receipts for digitally signed messages you send, or send secure read receipts in response to digitally signed messages you receive, click the Secure Receipts button. Windows Mail displays the Secure Receipt Options dialog box , which contains similar options to the Returning Read Receipts area, except for secure receipts. Choose the options you want and click the OK button.