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TICKET ARCHIVE -> How to Efficiently Use Mail Via Dial-up
billyboy - Jun 23, 2005 - 3:34 pm
As a brand new OSX user I am still trying to get used to all the options in Mail.
(1) After about 10-15 minutes of inactivity while reading mail online (via earthlink dial-up) I get a message asking me whether I want to remain connected. If I don't respond it disconnects me. How can I avoid that annoyance? Is the notice triggered by an OSX preference or by my ISP, earthlink?
(2) I'd like to learn a little more about how the Junk mail filter works. After messages have marked as junk either by me or by the computer are they blocked at the server from taking future download time, or do the downloads continue anyway, and just get marked locally? Does it help or hinder the blocking process if I delete the messages before or after reading them?
Thanks......billyboy
(1) After about 10-15 minutes of inactivity while reading mail online (via earthlink dial-up) I get a message asking me whether I want to remain connected. If I don't respond it disconnects me. How can I avoid that annoyance? Is the notice triggered by an OSX preference or by my ISP, earthlink?
(2) I'd like to learn a little more about how the Junk mail filter works. After messages have marked as junk either by me or by the computer are they blocked at the server from taking future download time, or do the downloads continue anyway, and just get marked locally? Does it help or hinder the blocking process if I delete the messages before or after reading them?
Thanks......billyboy
Cheryl - Jun 23, 2005 - 4:07 pm
William,
My name is Cheryl and I will be assisting you, but I need more information. What version OS X are you running?
To double check, go to the Apple Menu and select About this Mac. The window that opens will give you the processor speed of your computer, how much memory is installed and exactly what OS version you are running.
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Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
My name is Cheryl and I will be assisting you, but I need more information. What version OS X are you running?
To double check, go to the Apple Menu and select About this Mac. The window that opens will give you the processor speed of your computer, how much memory is installed and exactly what OS version you are running.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
billyboy - Jun 23, 2005 - 4:14 pm
Hello Cheryl,
Thanks for your prompt response.
I am running OS 10.4 in a new Mac Mini (G4 processor)
billyboy...
Thanks for your prompt response.
I am running OS 10.4 in a new Mac Mini (G4 processor)
billyboy...
Cheryl - Jun 23, 2005 - 4:41 pm
William,
Go to System Preferences (light switch in the Dock) and select Network.
When that opens, at the Show pull down menu, select Internal modem.
When it opens, you should be at the PPP window (PPP button is a dark gray). At the bottom is PPP options. Click on that.
A new window will pull down. Here is where you can set the option of disconnect or not.
The third line - Disconnect if idle - can be unchecked or set to more than 15 minutes which is the default setting. If you are just checking and reading email, you may want to set it to 45 or 60 minutes. If you want to stay on line until you decide to disconnect, uncheck the box.
Depending on your length and amount of emails, you may want to disconnect after you get your emails, read them, then connect to send answers.
Mail filters work very smoothly and is one of the best filters to trash the spam that many of us get. Mail downloads all the mail, filters them as they are downloaded and moves them to the correct mail box.
Setting up the filters is easy if you set Mail to train first. Go to the Mail Menu and select Preferences.
Now click on the Junk Mail icon. You want to check mark enable junk mail filtering. Then under When Junk Mail arrives - select the first option which is training.
Now for the next two week, when you get your email, click once on a junk email - then click on the Junk icon. Mail is in training and will remember your preferences.
You now can delete the emails. You will not block the process if you delete them before reading. In fact, you can tell by the subject line that it is a junk mail. You do not need to read it. Some junk mail is also coming in without a sender or subject. These should be set to junk and deleted without reading.
After two weeks, you can go to the Mail Preferences>Junk Mail and set the When junk mail arrives to the second option. Now you do not need to worry about deleting the mail, as it is done for you.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
Go to System Preferences (light switch in the Dock) and select Network.
When that opens, at the Show pull down menu, select Internal modem.
When it opens, you should be at the PPP window (PPP button is a dark gray). At the bottom is PPP options. Click on that.
A new window will pull down. Here is where you can set the option of disconnect or not.
The third line - Disconnect if idle - can be unchecked or set to more than 15 minutes which is the default setting. If you are just checking and reading email, you may want to set it to 45 or 60 minutes. If you want to stay on line until you decide to disconnect, uncheck the box.
Depending on your length and amount of emails, you may want to disconnect after you get your emails, read them, then connect to send answers.
Mail filters work very smoothly and is one of the best filters to trash the spam that many of us get. Mail downloads all the mail, filters them as they are downloaded and moves them to the correct mail box.
Setting up the filters is easy if you set Mail to train first. Go to the Mail Menu and select Preferences.
Now click on the Junk Mail icon. You want to check mark enable junk mail filtering. Then under When Junk Mail arrives - select the first option which is training.
Now for the next two week, when you get your email, click once on a junk email - then click on the Junk icon. Mail is in training and will remember your preferences.
You now can delete the emails. You will not block the process if you delete them before reading. In fact, you can tell by the subject line that it is a junk mail. You do not need to read it. Some junk mail is also coming in without a sender or subject. These should be set to junk and deleted without reading.
After two weeks, you can go to the Mail Preferences>Junk Mail and set the When junk mail arrives to the second option. Now you do not need to worry about deleting the mail, as it is done for you.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
billyboy - Jun 23, 2005 - 5:22 pm
Thanks very much Cheryl.
Your response appears to address all of my concerns about junk mail, and I will study it and act accordingly.
Now that I have your atention I wonder if you can help me with another mail problem only slightly related to tis thread.
My first introduction to macosx.com resulted from a Goole search seeking aid on accessing my old Classic Compuserve email account via its POP mail server to Mail in my new Mac Mini. Google dredged up a response to Cheryl dated April 24, 2005 3:01 PM from Rupert. I am hoping that you are the same Cheryl. Rupert apparently had been having the same problem getting help from Compuserve that I had been having, and apparently had managed to make a fortuitious contact and press on to a successful solution. I have not been so lucky. After many hours on the phone with many incompetent Compuserve techs I finally got through to a guy at Corporate Headquarters who said that there is no way that Classic Compuserve can send email to OS 10.4 Mail. A thread that I had started on macosx.com under a different username (Uncle_Bill) fizzled out with a suggestion that I switch to the internet-based Compuserve 2000. But that really is no solution. If I am going to loose my old, simple Compuserve email address and my wife's familiarity with the old service, I might as well cuck Compuserve entirely and switch to Mac mail--saving $25/month in the process.
Before giving up completely, is there any way that I can reopen Rupert's thread and perhaps contact him to see if he has any more secrets about how to pry help from Compuserve?
billyboy.......
Your response appears to address all of my concerns about junk mail, and I will study it and act accordingly.
Now that I have your atention I wonder if you can help me with another mail problem only slightly related to tis thread.
My first introduction to macosx.com resulted from a Goole search seeking aid on accessing my old Classic Compuserve email account via its POP mail server to Mail in my new Mac Mini. Google dredged up a response to Cheryl dated April 24, 2005 3:01 PM from Rupert. I am hoping that you are the same Cheryl. Rupert apparently had been having the same problem getting help from Compuserve that I had been having, and apparently had managed to make a fortuitious contact and press on to a successful solution. I have not been so lucky. After many hours on the phone with many incompetent Compuserve techs I finally got through to a guy at Corporate Headquarters who said that there is no way that Classic Compuserve can send email to OS 10.4 Mail. A thread that I had started on macosx.com under a different username (Uncle_Bill) fizzled out with a suggestion that I switch to the internet-based Compuserve 2000. But that really is no solution. If I am going to loose my old, simple Compuserve email address and my wife's familiarity with the old service, I might as well cuck Compuserve entirely and switch to Mac mail--saving $25/month in the process.
Before giving up completely, is there any way that I can reopen Rupert's thread and perhaps contact him to see if he has any more secrets about how to pry help from Compuserve?
billyboy.......
Cheryl - Jun 23, 2005 - 8:10 pm
William,
Yes, I am that same Cheryl. I am sorry, but I can not give out Rupert's email, but I can connect him and ask him your questions.
Since I don't have a CompuServe account, I may ask some stupid questions.
Do you no longer have a computer that can run Classic CompuServe? I found this: To active your POP3 Mailbox on your Classic account, GO POPMAIL online.
Have you tried going to Webmail?
http://login.compuserve.com/login/lo...mode=skipcheck
I found a PDF to download about POP mail.
http://community.compuserve.com/n/pf...id=40266&tsn=1
I will let you know what Rupert says.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
Yes, I am that same Cheryl. I am sorry, but I can not give out Rupert's email, but I can connect him and ask him your questions.
Since I don't have a CompuServe account, I may ask some stupid questions.
Do you no longer have a computer that can run Classic CompuServe? I found this: To active your POP3 Mailbox on your Classic account, GO POPMAIL online.
Have you tried going to Webmail?
http://login.compuserve.com/login/lo...mode=skipcheck
I found a PDF to download about POP mail.
http://community.compuserve.com/n/pf...id=40266&tsn=1
I will let you know what Rupert says.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
billyboy - Jun 23, 2005 - 11:34 pm
Just when I thought I was getting the hang of macosx.com I get another curveball. Was that you, Cheryl, that sent the cryptic note beginning with "Darn" and asking me to register. I thought I was registered--in fact registered so many times that the system appears totally confused and won't accept anything more from me.
I started an account approximately May 27, 2005 with a user name of Uncle_Bill and an email address at Compuserve. The question then was about how to get my Compuserve mail routed to my new OSX system. That communication route kept getting more and more convoluted. I attempted to get macosx to change my email address on that account to my new address at mac.com and I thought I had a confirmation that it had been done (per Jason, Site Support Team, June 16, 2005) but responses still kept comming to me at Compuserve. Since the responses always contained long hyperlinks to macosx.com and since Classic Compuserve can't handle such links I was forced to hand copy the links from my old computer to the new one--an annoying process. Even so, I conducted a very helpful series of exchanges with Karma regarding converting OS9 comments to OSX.
Meanhile, I tried setting up an entirely new account; user name "billyboy" with a mac.com email address, and that is the one I used to initiate the thread with you about Mail. To my knowledge it is a perfectly valid "registered" account. In fact if I try to re-register it keeps telling me that that username, address, password, etc. are already taken! I dread to think what would happen if I tried to set up still a third account.
Can we somehow fet off dead center?
Uncle_Bill/billyboy
I started an account approximately May 27, 2005 with a user name of Uncle_Bill and an email address at Compuserve. The question then was about how to get my Compuserve mail routed to my new OSX system. That communication route kept getting more and more convoluted. I attempted to get macosx to change my email address on that account to my new address at mac.com and I thought I had a confirmation that it had been done (per Jason, Site Support Team, June 16, 2005) but responses still kept comming to me at Compuserve. Since the responses always contained long hyperlinks to macosx.com and since Classic Compuserve can't handle such links I was forced to hand copy the links from my old computer to the new one--an annoying process. Even so, I conducted a very helpful series of exchanges with Karma regarding converting OS9 comments to OSX.
Meanhile, I tried setting up an entirely new account; user name "billyboy" with a mac.com email address, and that is the one I used to initiate the thread with you about Mail. To my knowledge it is a perfectly valid "registered" account. In fact if I try to re-register it keeps telling me that that username, address, password, etc. are already taken! I dread to think what would happen if I tried to set up still a third account.
Can we somehow fet off dead center?
Uncle_Bill/billyboy
billyboy - Jun 24, 2005 - 12:23 am
Hello Cheryl,
I have no idea whether this reply will get trough--given the diversion that prompted my reply of a few minutes ago but here are some answers to your questions re Rupert.
Yes, I sill have an old Mac Quadra running OS 7.1 that my wife uses daily for email using a dial-up Classic Compuserve account that we have had for nearly twenty years. It has a very simple email address that everyone knows, it is simple and fast to use, my wife is comfortable enough with it that we have continued to pay the $25/month premium long after Compuserve stopped the forums that made them so useful before the internet era. Yes, I have all the old Compuserve POP3 literature and in fact still successfully use it to access our Compuserve mail via the internet from my earthlink ISP using my Mac iBook running OS9.2.
But it just won't talk to OS 10. The techs have led me through many, many combinations of POP, POP3 addresses, usernames, and passwords but nothing seems to work. I am now beyond making any more experiments, downloads, or upgrades and I hesitate to waste any of your time on the problem. If there is still anyone left at Compuserve who is ready and able to effect a fix, then I am willing to work with them to salvage the account-and keep my wife happy. To that last desperate end I thought it might be worth contacting Rupert to see if he is still successfully accessing Classic Compuserve email via OS 10.
thanks......Uncle_Bill/billyboy
I have no idea whether this reply will get trough--given the diversion that prompted my reply of a few minutes ago but here are some answers to your questions re Rupert.
Yes, I sill have an old Mac Quadra running OS 7.1 that my wife uses daily for email using a dial-up Classic Compuserve account that we have had for nearly twenty years. It has a very simple email address that everyone knows, it is simple and fast to use, my wife is comfortable enough with it that we have continued to pay the $25/month premium long after Compuserve stopped the forums that made them so useful before the internet era. Yes, I have all the old Compuserve POP3 literature and in fact still successfully use it to access our Compuserve mail via the internet from my earthlink ISP using my Mac iBook running OS9.2.
But it just won't talk to OS 10. The techs have led me through many, many combinations of POP, POP3 addresses, usernames, and passwords but nothing seems to work. I am now beyond making any more experiments, downloads, or upgrades and I hesitate to waste any of your time on the problem. If there is still anyone left at Compuserve who is ready and able to effect a fix, then I am willing to work with them to salvage the account-and keep my wife happy. To that last desperate end I thought it might be worth contacting Rupert to see if he is still successfully accessing Classic Compuserve email via OS 10.
thanks......Uncle_Bill/billyboy
Cheryl - Jun 24, 2005 - 8:57 am
William,
Do you have your account/membership at macosx.com straightened out? If not, let me know. I see you have two accounts. Uncle_Bill is with your compuserve email and billyboy is with your .mac account. Do you want Uncle_Bill deleted or changed to the .mac email address?
Can you log into the CompuServe account and set up POP3 at GO POPMAIL ?
It could very well be that CompuServe wants to get rid of all the classic accounts and have everyone move over to the 2000 account.
I have not heard from Rupert yet. Let's give him a day or two.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
Do you have your account/membership at macosx.com straightened out? If not, let me know. I see you have two accounts. Uncle_Bill is with your compuserve email and billyboy is with your .mac account. Do you want Uncle_Bill deleted or changed to the .mac email address?
Can you log into the CompuServe account and set up POP3 at GO POPMAIL ?
It could very well be that CompuServe wants to get rid of all the classic accounts and have everyone move over to the 2000 account.
I have not heard from Rupert yet. Let's give him a day or two.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
billyboy - Jun 24, 2005 - 6:36 pm
Hi Cheryl,
I'm glad that you can verify that I indeed have two valid accounts. Let's just leave it that way for a while. I don't want to take the chance of loosing my ability to refer to the earlier threads done with the name Uncle_Bill. Also let's hold off on doing anything more about Compuserve until, hopefully, we hear something from Rupert. All of the automated access sites want input from me on user name password, etc, and we've unsuccessflly tried so many combintions that I'm convinced that route is futile and that it will take a concerned human to tell me what settings to use.
One small question while we are waiting: Your last several messages display with extremely long line lengths in my Safari viewer--several normal linelengths before they wrap around. I haven't been able to find any preference to change that. Any suggestion?
Thanks......billyboy
I'm glad that you can verify that I indeed have two valid accounts. Let's just leave it that way for a while. I don't want to take the chance of loosing my ability to refer to the earlier threads done with the name Uncle_Bill. Also let's hold off on doing anything more about Compuserve until, hopefully, we hear something from Rupert. All of the automated access sites want input from me on user name password, etc, and we've unsuccessflly tried so many combintions that I'm convinced that route is futile and that it will take a concerned human to tell me what settings to use.
One small question while we are waiting: Your last several messages display with extremely long line lengths in my Safari viewer--several normal linelengths before they wrap around. I haven't been able to find any preference to change that. Any suggestion?
Thanks......billyboy
Cheryl - Jun 25, 2005 - 8:09 am
William,
For some reason, I am getting the same very long line lengths on my end also.
This is happening on just this question.
I deleted the long url that I had posted here. Did that correct the problem?
I hope Rupert gets back to me.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
For some reason, I am getting the same very long line lengths on my end also.
This is happening on just this question.
I deleted the long url that I had posted here. Did that correct the problem?
I hope Rupert gets back to me.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
billyboy - Jun 25, 2005 - 5:48 pm
Hello Cheryl,
In rereading my old notes and particularly the PDF document that you refered me to on June 23 at 4:10 PM I think I may have uncovered a clue as to why I am able to access my Classic Compuserve account via POPMAIL from my Outlook Explorer email software in my OS 9.2 iBook but have not been able to do it from OSX Mail.
The PDF document, written in 2002, contains the following:
"ACCESS METHODS
All POP software needs an Internet connection to reach the mail server. This is provided to all Compuserve Classic members. Just connect to the internet using your Compuserve Dial-up networking connection.
POP servers need to know who you ae independently of how you connect. Compuserve's POP servers support two methods of authetication, plain text passwords (also known as POP3 mail-only passwords, and Virtual Key passwords.
VIRTUAL KEY
Virtual Key (alo known as Remote Password Authentication/RPA or Secure Password Authentication/SPA uses an encrypted token to identify you to the mail server. Your account name and password are nevr sent across the Internet. Use this method if you are concerned about the security of your account."
Since I apparently have been using the plain-text Mail-only password, I am wondering if it might have been a Virtual Key password that the Compuserve tech set up to enable Rupert to access his Classic account from OSX. No one of my many contacts at Compuserve ever mentioned such a possibility but I am convinced now that they are doing everything they can to shut down the Classic service.
I don't find anything about Virtual Key per se in Mac Help or in David Pogue's books (my main reference Bible) but there is quite a bit about Keychains which I gather may be a Mac near-equivalent. Does this approach make any sense to you? I'm not yet clear whether settting up Virtual Key access would kill my current ability to access from my iBook/OS9 but I would probably be willing to sacrifice that as long as it didn't foul up my wife's current ability to use her email by direct dial-in to Compuserve.
Still hopeful.....billyboy
P.S. Yes, deleting the extra-long URL cured the long lines wraparound problem.
In rereading my old notes and particularly the PDF document that you refered me to on June 23 at 4:10 PM I think I may have uncovered a clue as to why I am able to access my Classic Compuserve account via POPMAIL from my Outlook Explorer email software in my OS 9.2 iBook but have not been able to do it from OSX Mail.
The PDF document, written in 2002, contains the following:
"ACCESS METHODS
All POP software needs an Internet connection to reach the mail server. This is provided to all Compuserve Classic members. Just connect to the internet using your Compuserve Dial-up networking connection.
POP servers need to know who you ae independently of how you connect. Compuserve's POP servers support two methods of authetication, plain text passwords (also known as POP3 mail-only passwords, and Virtual Key passwords.
VIRTUAL KEY
Virtual Key (alo known as Remote Password Authentication/RPA or Secure Password Authentication/SPA uses an encrypted token to identify you to the mail server. Your account name and password are nevr sent across the Internet. Use this method if you are concerned about the security of your account."
Since I apparently have been using the plain-text Mail-only password, I am wondering if it might have been a Virtual Key password that the Compuserve tech set up to enable Rupert to access his Classic account from OSX. No one of my many contacts at Compuserve ever mentioned such a possibility but I am convinced now that they are doing everything they can to shut down the Classic service.
I don't find anything about Virtual Key per se in Mac Help or in David Pogue's books (my main reference Bible) but there is quite a bit about Keychains which I gather may be a Mac near-equivalent. Does this approach make any sense to you? I'm not yet clear whether settting up Virtual Key access would kill my current ability to access from my iBook/OS9 but I would probably be willing to sacrifice that as long as it didn't foul up my wife's current ability to use her email by direct dial-in to Compuserve.
Still hopeful.....billyboy
P.S. Yes, deleting the extra-long URL cured the long lines wraparound problem.
Cheryl - Jun 25, 2005 - 6:03 pm
William,
Virtual Key is through CompuServe.
http://www.compuserve.com/rpa/default.asp
I found the download site here:
http://www.compuserve.com/rpa/vk_soft.htm
And in the pull down menu is Macintosh. You also need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to get the software. I can not tell if it runs on OS X.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
Virtual Key is through CompuServe.
http://www.compuserve.com/rpa/default.asp
I found the download site here:
http://www.compuserve.com/rpa/vk_soft.htm
And in the pull down menu is Macintosh. You also need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to get the software. I can not tell if it runs on OS X.
--------
Let me know if you need further assistance and thank you for using MacOSX.com !
Cheryl
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