E-mail from prodigy.net
WINGRA to be Retired August 15
New Web-based Mail Program to Replace Mailspinner
Configuring Eudora for Optimal Performance
A lot of people have been receiving mail from Prodigy in the past few days. This mail has the subject line "Warning: could not send message for past 4 hours". The message starts out with:
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem
To: @ssc.wisc.edu
Subject: Warning: could not send message for 4 hrs
**********************************************
** THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY **
** YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE **
**********************************************
...rest of message not included here...
This is not an indication that you have a virus, or are trying to spread a virus. The mail is from prodigy.net, and is informing you that someone in Mexico is trying to send you a virus. SSCC's server has blocked the message and the virus from being mailed. Because we have blocked mail, SSCC's mail server is sending a message to the account at prodigy.net that the message was blocked. Prodigy is then refusing the message, which is where your undeliverable-mail message comes from. Most likely, recipients of this message are on somebody's spam list, and you can ignore the message. If you know the sender, you may want to make contact in some other way, in case there is a legitimate message for you as well.
The UNIX computer, WINGRA, will be retired August 15. WINGRA was purchased by the Institute for Research on Poverty in 1994. With the introduction of much more powerful machines in recent years, it is no longer economical to keep WINGRA up and running.
Nascent Technologies Inc. recently announced that it is discontinuing MailSpinner. After much investigation and testing, SSCC is happy to announce the availability of a new web-based email client that we think you will like even better than MailSpinner.
The new web email client, SquirrelMail, is freeware and has many features that MailSpinner doesn't. This new program can capture email addresses and store them in an address book. It allows you to set up filters to perform some actions automatically. SquirrelMail also handles multiple folders and creating new folders quite effectively, and allows you to customize your interface.
Like MailSpinner, SquirrelMail will allow you to log in and read your mail from anywhere in the world, on the web. It uses the IMAP protocol, so all of your IMAP mailboxes will be available to you. You can get to this mail program at https://webmail.ssc.wisc.edu (or by clicking on the link in the previous paragraph).
Since SquirrelMail is an IMAP client, it will automatically recognize the folders you normally use with your Eudora, Pine, Netscape, Outlook, or Outlook Express IMAP client programs. If you still access a POP server, either ours or DoIT's, your folders are on your private PCs and are not accessible to SquirrelMail. SquirrelMail has an online help system but don't hesitate to contact Consultant if you need assistance. We will also schedule a class about SquirrelMail for the fall semester.
MailSpinner will be removed from SSCC computers on October 1.
This summer SSCC staff have been converting a lot of users' email programs to use the IMAP protocol rather than POP. The IMAP protocol saves mail on the UNIX network rather than your PC, where it is accessible from any computer, protected from intruders, and backed up regularly. From the user's point of view, it makes very little difference whether your email program is using POP or IMAP in the background. If you are still using POP, we strongly encourage you to contact the consultant to set up an appointment for one of our staff to assist you in converting to IMAP. If you use Eudora and would rather make the switch yourself, you'll find instructions in SSCC Publication #5-23, Configuring Eudora to Read SSCC Email. This publication also gives some suggestions for keeping your inbox under the 10 MB limit.
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