FAQ: Mail, News: Answers List

Q: I am confused about where I set up mail; and once I set it up, how do I check it?

A: There are a few ways that you can set up mail in Cyberdog:

If you have already set up your preferences in Internet Config for your mail, then go right into Cyberdog and select "Show Mail Trays" under the Mail/News menu. Cyberdog will see your settings in Internet Config and set things up for you.
You can set things up yourself by using the Mail & News Setup dialog. In the first panel, Mail, put in your default email address. This is the email address that will be your default from. You can also enter an option choice for your SMTP host if it is different from your POP server. Contact your server administrator for more information on you SMTP host. In the Trays panel, click the Add button for the In Trays. Enter your account name, your account name, POP server and your password (if you want it to be saved). Set your other preferences for how often to check your account, whether or not to leave mail on server and then click OK. Your mail tray is now setup. Lastly, in the Messages panel, fill in your name. This is the second half of your default email address. Then, click OK to close the Mail & News Setup dialog. Now, Show Mail Trays from the Mail/News menu and you will see your In Tray has been created for you. If you have more than one mail account you would like to use with Cyberdog, repeat the above steps as often as necessary.

Q: How do I get my mail to save my password?

A: This and other preferences are set in the "Mail Trays" selection under "Mail & News Setup". You have to either "Add" or "Modify" a mail account to access the "Save Password" option, or the "Leave Mail on Server" option, as well as the option to schedule mail checks every x minutes. (Thanks, Tom Keyes.)

Q: Can Cyberdog handle multiple e-mail accounts?

A: It certainly can. In fact, some people have created ways of using Cyberdog for multiple people!

But, if you just want one person to be able to use different accounts (as I do) then here's how to do it:

Create another account. Wasn't that simple!

Seriously, all you need to do is exactly what you did for your first account in Cyberdog. If you go into the "Mail & News Setup..." dialog, then it will allow you to add extra accounts in a very painless manner. Then all your accounts will be listed in the "Mail Trays" window (Cmd-/) much like folders are in the Finder's List view.

Q: Can Cybie access my AOL mail?

A: Whoa!!! Stop right there! Not a chance.

AOL uses a proprietary e-mail service and no program I know (except AOL's own, and Em@iler who licensed it) can access it. Not Eudora, not Mailsmith, and not Cyberdog.

Of course, why would you even want to use AO(hel)L anyway?! There are much better services out there that don't try to rip you off!

Q: I want to have a separate SMTP mail host from my POP mail host, how do I do this?

A: In the Mail & News Setup dialog, in the Mail panel, there is a field for your SMTP host. Put your SMTP host information in that field.

Q: I can read my mail, but I'm having trouble sending mail with Cyberdog. Why?

A: One thing to check is that you have an SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server specified in your Internet/Cyberdog preferences. Open the Cyberdog preferences dialog, and look for a field labeled SMTP (it says optional by it). Most ISP's will tell your computer what their local SMTP server is, but some don't do this well or at all. If you are having trouble, you should try entering it manually just to be safe.

Your ISP can tell you (via their support number) what the SMTP address is. But, if you can't get it from them for some reason (like they only give e-mail support, and that is your whole problem: sending mail), then you can use mail.cyberdog.org for a temporary fix. (We'd prefer that you then switch to your ISP's when you can, but we allow you to use it as long as you need.)

A: Another possibility is that your ISP (Internet Service Provider, those people your modem dials up to connect to the Internet) is using qmail for its servers. There is a known problem with earlier versions of qmail. You need to suggest to your ISP that they upgrade to version 1.0.3 or later.

You may say, "Well they won't upgrade just for me, will they?" ... And you'd probably be right. But, not only do the earlier versions of qmail have a problem with Cyberdog, but with Windows CE as well. So, if they are unresponsive to your request, be sure to inform them of that problem as well. You might just get more of a reaction when you mention the palmtop OS than you do from saying you use Cyberdog. (Sneaky, but true. And, it has worked for several people when dealing with unresponsive ISP's already.)

Okay... I told them about WinCE's problem with qmail too. They're still not willing to bother with fixing it.

Then put the fear of hackers into them by informing them that there are also "security holes" in the earlier versions. If that little fact doesn't make them blink (and fix it), then you have a bad ISP and you should deal with someone else anyway. Any ISP should be more than happy to fix security holes. If they aren't, they're not worth the money you pay them.

You can also tell them that if they would like more details, that they are at liberty to contact the sysop at riverland.net.au psid@riverland.net.au who worked through this process with Cyberdog, and with the other issues that required the upgrade be made.

Q: Is there an easy way I can read my messages after I download them without having to close and open them over and over again?

A: Yes! Open up the first message, then to page down the message if it is a long one, just hit the space bar. Presto, you are scrolled down one page that you can view. If you are at the end of the message, it will close that one and open the next one! If you are in a real hurry, you can hit the enter key to always go to the next message instead of scrolling down in a long one.

Q: What if I also wanted to DELETE them as well?

A: Hold down the Option key when you use either the space bar or enter key to go to the next message. This will delete your current message and open the next one for you.

Q: Why is it that when I open a message I can do "next message" with the space bar, but if I open a new message and then go back to the first one, I can no longer do "next message" with the space bar? A: This happens because Cyberdog mail has two possible views for each mail tray, and the connection between arrow keys and positions in a list can be lost when switching between different trays and different views.

Q: I just created a very lengthy e-mail message and clicked the Send Later button. Of course, right after I did that, I realized I spelled my name wrong.

A: [cont. of question] Is there anyway I can go back into that message and edit it so the whole world does not know I don't know my own name?

A: Sure can! Messages in the out tray are now editable. You can save messages to the Out Tray without sending them and re-edit them later. You can Queue messages to be sent later and still edit them before you send them. Already sent letters can also be edited and sent again!

Q: I saved some e-mail addresses into my notebook and gave them nicknames. When I went to send a letter, I just typed in the nickname and sent it, but it didn't work. How come?

A: Unlike Eudora, the header fields (To, CC and BCC) are not linked to the address book. So, if you save e-mail addresses into the Notebook and then type out those nicknames in the To, CC or BCC fields of a message, Cyberdog will not know who you are trying to send it to! However, you can easily drag those icons of the e-mail address you want to send to into the appropriate address box, or use the Address button to bring up a dialog with all of the e-mail and news addresses that your Default Notebook knows about.

Q: Can I paste into the Address Dialog or into the Find dialog?

A: Yes, we fixed this bug for 1.1!

Q: No matter what I set my e-mail address to in Internet Config, when I open a new message to send something, I see that address for a second and then an older one replaces it. What's up?

A: When you created the letterhead that you are now using, you must have added the old address set in your Preferences either due to the Cyberdog preference bug or because it was not set up yet. Cyberdog letterheads save the header information (From, To, Subject, CC, BCC) as well as anything in the body of the message (pictures, text, cyber icons and enclosures). (When making a letterhead, make sure you set the insertion point to where you want it when it opens before you save it!).

A: The way to fix the problem of incorrect e-mail address appearing in your "From" field is to do the following:

Open a New Message and choose the letterhead you want to fix.
Edit the "From" field to have the correct e-mail address.
Use the Letterhead menu item in the Message menu and add the current document (if you choose the same name, Cyberdog will simply replace the old one with the new one).

Q: Every time I open a letter, I always get this opened envelope crowding my whole screen. Is there a way I can set it up so that when messages are opened, they open with the envelope collapsed?

A: There sure is. Just go to the Mail & News Setup in the Mail/News menu. Click on the icon for "Message" and the Message's Preference panel will display.

A: There are several check boxes that allow you to configure how the envelope is set when new and old messages are opened. Choose the ones appropriate to the desired behavior and then click OK.

Q: I noticed that imported Eudora Out Trays are dated Jan. 1, 1904; are we just stuck with this, or is there a workaround?

A: Yes, we are stuck with it for now. Eudora Out Tray's do not have a traditional date setting so we make it up. In a future version we would like to put something more sensible.

Q: Is there a way to import Claris Em@iler Mailboxes?

A: Yes, there is! You will need to use the MailConverter 2.2 utility (or other similar program) to convert your Em@iler mailboxes into Eudora mailboxes. Then Cyberdog (1.1 and above) can import those mailboxes itself.

Q: How do I send pictures to Windows users? Enclosures seem to get screwed up...

A: Yup, they sure do. It's a known problem I'm afraid. Basically, Cyberdog encoding and Netscape decoding of these attachments don't play nice with each other.

The secret is not to send pictures as enclosures. Cut & Paste the image by opening it in a graphics editor (including ColourEdit, mentioned above), using Select All from the Edit menu, and then Paste-ing it into the body of a rich-text email message. Windows users should be able to open the email in Netscape Whatever-ator, and see the image inline.

A: Another method, requiring more effort on both ends, is to first uuencode the message on your Mac, and then cut and paste all the uuencoded stuff into a plain text message. The person on the other end then opens the email in a text editor, removes the headers and any other extraneous information, saves that file, then uudecodes it.

Q: I've noticed that some e-mail and news messages I read have dates and times that just don't seem right, they're either way to late, or way to early. Do I have something configured incorrectly?

A: Since e-mail comes from all over the world, your Macintosh has to know where it (and you!) are in order to give you the accurate date and time of when it was sent. You can do this by going to your Date & Time control panel and setting the time zone/place where you currently are.

Q: The Mail and News Handler window confuses me a bit, is there a trick to it?

A: Here are a few tips that might help make using Handlers a little easier:

The three When fields use logical AND when trying to match a condition. That is, a match will be found only when all three conditions are matched.
The Apply To fields tell Cyberdog what source of messages (mail trays, newsgroups) you want these handlers to work on. For mail, the handlers may apply to all of the Outgoing messages and/or Incoming messages (either All In Trays or to a Single In Tray). For newsgroups, the handlers may apply to a single newsgroup or to all the newsgroups. This list is generated from newsgroups saved in your Default Notebook.
Mail messages can only be handled once per application of the handlers (because once a message is moved to a different tray, it is no longer available for handling). Therefore, order of your handlers is important.
To change the order of handlers, simply click on a handler name in the list and drag it up or down to the position you want it to have in the list. Handlers are applied according to their order in the list, top handler first.

Q: Why can't I send special characters (like umlauts and accented vowels), even though I can see them?

A: Most likely, if you can see them okay, the problem is that you have a version of the TEC that is too new. Cyberdog works best with Text Encoding Converter version 1.3.

However, you don't have to replace your newer version. If you simply drop the Text Encoding Extension version 1.3 into the same folder as the Cyberdog application, Cybie will use it rather than the one in the Extensions folder. So, you can happily leave the newer version in the System Folder for other applications to use. Isn't that great!

Q: How many news articles can I download?

A: In the Mail & News Setup dialog, the News preference has a field where you can set the number of articles to download.

Q: Is there some visual way to distinguish between an unwanted article and a read article?

A: No, not at present. There is a visual way to distinguish between read and unread (the check marks), but unwanted messages simply do not get displayed as default, and you can toggle between that view with the menu item, "Display Unwanted Items".

Q: When I save a message from a news server to a personal mail tray, I see a "Writing to Out Tray" message appear. What is up with that?

A: When moving a news article to a tray you may see a "writing to Out Tray" message even though you didn't select the Out Tray to move to. This message is incorrect and your message will actually be moved to the tray you select You may have to double click the tray to see the message since dinking it does not refresh properly.

Q: I read my articles from a newsgroup, but when I return to that newsgroup, the articles I just read are not marked as read! Why?

A: This behavior has been changed! Now, in Cyberdog 1.1, we save the article read-state for the groups you read globally. This means, that no matter where you open the newsgroup item from, a web page, your notebook, or even the the articles that you have previously read will remain read!

Q: I cannot access the cyberdog.general(*) newsgroup...

A: It seems if you have the number of articles to download set to 255 (the default) in your Mail and News setup, you get an error. I set mine to 256, and it worked just fine. You might have to play around with the number a little, but eventually you should be able to get everything working. This seems to be a transitory TCP problem with the news server. If you have trouble making access at any time, try changing the number of articles to download from whatever value you have to something different. Larger or smaller does not seem to matter, so you can change in either direction.

* cyberdog.general

Last updated: 2000.2.5; 18:20:57 by James A. Baker.
Direct your comments to <spider@cyberdog.org>.