dlevens

I will start things off. As of this post my current email solution is gmail. For those of you not familiar this is google's email solution which is currently in beta. http://gmail.com where you get 1000mb free and some new novel ways to view email in conversation threads, and no more folders or sorting. I used to do my email here at TCH where I had my own installation of squirrelmail but have recently switched over to gmail. Currently all my email comes in still to my domain as I use somename@**** as my primary email address. When someone emails me it first goes to TCH, then using a filter it is then forwarded to my gmail account. This allows me to still keep my email address that everyone already knows, also allows me to filter all email through Spam Assassin, and then end up in my gmail account where I get 1000mb free. Gmail also has spam filter so my email is filtered twice for spam and gmail has virus protection (something we do not have here). In my testing I have discovered a few tips that might help many of you here at TCH. You have filters and forwarders in your cpanel. Filters ALWAYS are read before a forwarder. Below is a screen shot of 7 email tests I did to see what is required to have Spam Assassin still filter my email but then forward my email to gmail. Now you will see there are only 3 of the 7 ways where my email is filtered by Spam Assassin but still gets forwarded to an external account (gmail). Of those 3 options only one option leaves a copy in my mailbox here at TCH and also puts a copy in my gmail. The other two are identical in that they do not leave a copy behind in my email box at tch but still filter in Spam Assassin and still forward to gmail. Keep in mind that tests 3 and 4 have the same outcome because as mentioned earlier filters always read before forwarders and if you have a filter the forward is then NOT read or used. The same goes for tests 5 & 6. For me the perfect solution was setting things up like test 4 because I did not want or need a second copy of my email at TCH as it would fill up my space, and this gave me Spam Assassin filtering at TCH and then spam filter again and virus scan at gmail. To better understand the screen shot see the below info: TCH Mailbox = Did I create a mailbox at tch for the test account TCH Forwarder = Did I create a forwarder for test account in cpanel TCH Filter = Did I create a filter for test account in cpanel TCH Inbox = Did the test email make it to my test accont inbox at TCH Gmail Inbox = Did the test email make it to my test account inbox at gmail For the last two colums the YES means the email made it there but Spam Assassin did not filter it. YES - SA means the email made it there and Spam Assassin DID filter it. Hope this all makes sense, and make sure and share your own experience and suggestions. Dennis Levens

I am curious how things have changes since my last poll, especially with some new solutions out there like gmail. Also in a post please add any tips and tricks you have come up with to best handle email organization, virus defence and spam blocking. After you vote please at least post how you voted and why you currently use that solution. Dennis

Thanks Raul, Dennis

Does anyone know of a good program or php script that can parse email headers and format them in a way that is easy to read and see the hops? As an example of what I am looking for check out this script http://www.theinquirer.net/email_tracker.htm Only problem is I need one that I can run offline or on my own website. Dennis

Bruce, I gave your suggestion a try but spam still gets put in my spam folder as unread. Any other suggestions? Dennis

Thunderbird is what I currently still use, but it still feels buggy. Many little picky issues, like updating the unread email count correctly on folders besides inbox, forwarding html email is broken unless you forward as attachment, addressbook is not that great compared to outlook, and a few other things I cannot think of right now but discover as I use the program. Just seems not ready for prime time yet, and as more updates are released more bugs are fixed but many new bugs replace the old type of thing. Still hunting for that perfect super light, clean, fast and super reliable replacement. I am stuck on IMAP so my choices are limted. I cannot go back to pop now that I am used to imap. It is so convienent to have my folder list follow me from webmail to thundermail from my home computer to any computer with intenet access. Everything I need follows me and my sorting follows as well. Dennis

Syenna, After many hours of painful trial and error the only password changing plugin that works for us at TCH is the CPanel Password Changer located here http://squirrelmail.org/plugin_download.php?id=204&rev=911 to save you some pain follow the instructions for installing it then make sure your config.php file looks like mine and make sure and find and change the UPDATE THIS with your cpanel username and password. It is listed 3 times in my sample below, everything else I already updated to match our info here at TCH. config.php ><?php //What are your CPanel "login" values? //They are needed for authentication when calling CPanel files directly. //Don't worry, nothing will be displayed to the user! $cpanel_un = "UPDATE THIS"; // Your Cpanel username. $cpanel_pw = "UPDATE THIS"; // Your CPanel password. //Where is the CPanel pop password change file located? //This will be different for every CPanel theme. You can find the file //location by going into the CPanel POP Email Accounts area and then //right-clicking on the "Change Password" link. Choose the //"Copy shortcut" option and then cut/paste it here. //NOTE: Do NOT include the domain/port info or anything after the filename. $cpanel_file_location = "/frontend/bluelagoon/mail/dopasswdpop.html"; //This is the text string that will be used to determine if the password //change was successful or not. Since this string may be different for //every theme, you should perform a password change using CPanel and then //find some text that is *displayed* (visable) ONLY when the change was //successful. In other words, if this string is found in the CPanel results //then the//pw change is considered successful. If this string is NOT found //then the pw change is considered NOT successful. $cpanel_success_string = "was successfully modified"; //If you want see the raw output of the CPanel command, set this to true. //The default is true. (You should set this to false before allowing //general users to use this plugin.) $show_cpanel_output = false; //Should the user be automatically logged out from SM after password change? //If set to true, then the $show_cpanel_response setting is ignored. //The default is false. $disconnect = false; //Do you want to change the password of a "web protected" (htaccess) file, too? //This is useful if the SAME username/password combination is beingused to //protect a folder. It will keep things in synch for you. //NOTE: The folder must already be protected using the CPanel "web protect" //tool using the same username used for the email account. //The default is false. $do_htaccess_change = true; //If you have set $do_htaccess_change to true, then you MUST also set the //following values: $protect_file_path = "/home/UPDATETHIS/public_html/cgi-bin"; // Full path to protected folder $cpanel_protect_file_location = "/frontend/bluelagoon/htaccess/newuser.html"; // Location of CPanel file. $cpanel_protect_success_string = "now has the password"; //Text to look for to determine success. //Include the languages file of your preference. They are listed //inside of the language folder. If you make a new file in your //language, please send it to the plugin developers to it can be //included in this package. //The default is the English language file. $language_file = 'english.php'; ?> Let me know if you have problems. Dennis

Syenna, I am not familiar with another way to create mailbox accounts without using cpanel. I suggest creating all accounts using the same password and instruct the users to change the password at first login. Cpanel provides away to do this but they would be logging into the cpanel squirrelmail. The ideal way is to install a plugin that gives password changing capability but it is not easy. It took me awhile to figure it out. Dennis

I sent you a personal message with my email. Email me the files when you get a chance and I will see if we can't figure this out. Dennis

Hey guys, I have been trying to figure out if there is a way to have Spam Assassin mark emails it moves to my spam folder as read? I like that it moves my spam email to my spam box, but would be nice if it also marked them as read. Anyone know if this is possible? Dennis

Everytime I visit the forums I just close the browser window and do not log out, yet I just got a notification for your reply. Plus I access this forum from like 5 different machines but on all machines I just close the browser, obviously the session is killed so there is nothing saying I am still logged in, but are you saying there is some trigger than tells the forum that I am still logged in so dont email me a notice? What if someone replied to a post while I was logged in and reading the forums, how would I know they replied if no notify emails are sent while I am logged in? Are you sure it works this way? If so then this is the only forum I visit that does it this way, and it seems like a poor way to run things, as while you are browsing around all replies to your posts are never emailed to you. Dennis

Hello everyone, time to hash this over again. For those IMAP users out there what email client are you using? So far I tried Outlook 2003, Thunderbird, Pegasus, Squirrelmail, and Horde. I have to say I am not impressed. Where is the perfect IMAP client for windows? Outlook as everyone knows sucks at IMAP and cannot handle even moving deleted items to trash over the line through deleted email. Thunderbird is probably the best I tried but sucks at dealing with forwarding html emails and also very buggy these days. Pegasus is clunky and confusing interface and squirrel and horde are too limited and slow to use as an all in one solution. There has to be something better for IMAP users than this right? Dennis

Hey guys, curious why I did not get an email saying some replied to this topic? Seems like this happens to me all the time, even though I am subscribed to the thread. Anyway thats another issue. svl2706, I think you are confused. Hopefully I can clear some things up for you. you wont be able to replace or even change the install of squirrelmail located at http://www.******/sqmail since you do not have access to where those files are located. The most damage you could do is to create a subdomain called sqmail and foul up the redirection that takes place. Just think of the install at sqmail as untouchable. This is running on port 80 and a great backup if you have issues with your own install. Now your own install is located at what ever folder you name it under public_html it is no different than creating another webpage. Think of sqmail as a webpage and you just created another webpage at squirrelmail. I dont recommend using the full path to login in. For you stand alone install you would use http://www.******/squirrelmail It will of course run on port 80 as it is just a webpage. No different than any others you have in your public_html. You can have as many email clients you want running on port 80. Just like you can have as many webpages running on port 80 as you want. You are only accessing the email client that you point to in your browser and only that install will respond. It sounds like you have something wrong in your install. Your issue is most likely a pathing issue. Retrace your steps going through my guide. As far as accessing the mail folders you can access the same data from as many installs of squirrelmail as you like. By default you will always see the same email no matter what squirrelmail you use. I believe the sendmail path determines where your email is stored and I do not believe you can change that. You can however change where your data folder is which holds your preferences and addressbook etc. I have mine setup so that the one at sqmail and my install squirrelmail and my testing install at squirrelmailcvs all point to the same different folders. Your mail folders are always above your public_html folder in mail. Your data and preference folder for the sqmail install is .sqmaildata and if you followed my guide your own install the data and preferences are in .mysqmail/data I see the same email whether I use horde, neomail or sqmail or my own squirrelmail. You can even have them all use the same data folder if you want. Just change the path in your config.php file. Dennis

Here are the plugins that I believe are installed for squirrelmail here at TCH: You dont need to set these up they are just there. To access them you just use squirrelmail. To set the options for them go to squirrelmail and then click on options. Not all plugins will have options. Squirrelmail 1.4.0 >calendar delete_move_next filters message_details newmail squirrelspell sent_subfolders abook_take abook_import_export Dennis

Kevness, Yes, you can customize spam assassin without needing a custom install of squirrelmail. You can use the default TCH install of squirrelmail or even horde to access your spam folder. Just follow all the steps except the install of squirrelmail. As far as accessing the plugins provided by TCH you need to be more specific. I am not sure what you are asking. There are no plugins provided by TCH for squirrelmail. They do have a few plugins installed on the default squirrelmail install but you cannot add or install any plugins to the default install since it is serverwide and controlled by TCH. Any custom plugins you want can only be installed to your own squirrelmail install, which brings us to the reason why I wrote this guide. Dennis