Trying to Decide Which Email Progam to Use?

By Spencer Smith (spencera@oregon.uoregon.edu)

There are many email programs on the market today; some are even available free from the Internet. This article is to help you decide which email program would be best for you, depending on the way you access your email.

If you're satisfied with your current email program, congratulations! You should stick with it. Changing email programs can cause delays, problems, and even result in the loss of your email entirely.

But if you've been having problems doing what you want to do with your email and you're ready for a complete change, then please consider the information presented here. (Changing back and forth between multiple email programs will almost certainly cause you to lose email, so consider carefully.)

Pine and Eudora

The email programs used most widely on campus are Pine and Eudora.

Pine is widely used because of its low overhead; it runs in a text-based environment (without buttons, menus, or other graphical enhancements) on virtually any computer, and it operates the same way from wherever you run it. Just about any computer that can use a modem or connect to the UO network can use Pine.

Eudora is widely used because it is free, has been available (and free) for a long time, and brings a graphical, point-and-click ease of use to email. Eudora also uses the Post Office Protocol (POP) method for handling email, which has long been the standard method for email programs to access email.

POP and IMAP Protocols

While POP has historically been the standard, in the last few years a growing number of email programs have been written using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). Mulberry, Eudora Pro, and Outlook Express are examples of email programs that use IMAP. There are differences in the way the two protocols work that will affect the way you read and use your email.

The main difference between POP and IMAP is where they keep their mail files. POP brings the mail onto the local machine (the machine you're using to read your email), and manipulates that email locally. IMAP keeps all the email on the server (e.g., DARKWING, GLADSTONE, OREGON) and manipulates the email files there.

POP Pros and Cons

Convenience. POP makes one connection to the email server and does all its transferring and negotiation at one time. It can easily filter and redistribute your email, since it has to read it all coming in anyway. And since it makes a local copy, you can save all your mail onto floppies or other storage directly.

Backups. On the down side, keeping all your email on your local machine can cause problems. Most POP email programs are already set up to delete your email off the server once the transfer is completed. That means that your local machine is the only place that your email exists. Unless you back up your email every day, you could lose all your email if something happens to your local machine.

Security. Anyone unscrupulous enough to want to read your email could do so from your local copy, as security of desktop computers is not as bulletproof (generally) as that of the central computers.

Mobility. Mobility suffers somewhat with POP. If you're using your POP email program, and your email program is set to delete email after it's been downloaded, then the computer you use to read your email is the only place that email exists. People who travel, or who use several computers to read their email, may have problems with this aspect of POP.

Disk Quotas. Here on campus, our mail machines have a quota, an upper limit on the amount of disk space that's available to the user. If the POP email program is set to delete all messages from the machine after it reads them, then there is no quota problem. But if the client is set to leave the messages on the email server, email continues to pile up without your knowledge. When you read your email on your local computer and delete it, you may assume it's gone altogether, but actually it's still there on the server, taking up space. After a POP email program deletes a message, it deletes only the local copy. This invisible buildup of mail has stung many people who use POP email programs.

IMAP Pros and Cons

Backups. IMAP-based email programs keep everything on the email server. Since our central computers are backed up on a regular basis, a recent backup of your email is always available.

Convenience. Deletions take place on the machine, and are reflected in your email listing, so you always know exactly what email exists at any given time and can easily remove unwanted messages. Multiple mailboxes can be created to sort and categorize your mail. And since everything takes place on the email server, you can access your email the same way from multiple locations.

There are, however, some disadvantages to IMAP. Because the IMAP email program needs to maintain a connection to the email server, and messages never get downloaded to the local computer, there is no ³off-line² mode.

This could cause problems for people who want to do their reading and composition while they are disconnected from the network‹on a laptop computer on a plane, for example. Since email remains on the email server, if you are used to a POP email program taking your messages off the email server, the buildup of email on the server may take you by surprise.

Good News for Travelers

If you travel a lot and want to be able to access your email anywhere, anytime, browser-based email programs like WebMail offer an attractive alternative to POP- or IMAP-based programs. One such program, WebMail, is now up and running at the UO (see "Welcome to WebMail" on page 3 of this issue).

WebMail handles the display, composition, and sorting of your email through any browser, anywhere on the Internet. This is a cool feature but be warned! If you are using Eudora or any other POP email program now, and you use WebMail to peek at your mail and try it out, all of your messages will be marked unread! So if you have been using Eudora for a long time, deleting messages and believing them gone, using WebMail will make Eudora download all your email again the next time you read your email.

If you use an IMAP email program like Mulberry, or if you use Pine, you can evaluate WebMail without these problems.

Why Switch Programs?

• If you're currently satisfied with your email program, then there is no pressing need to switch. On the other hand, if you're dissatisfied, here are a few pointers to think about:
• If you always read your email from one place, Eudora is a good choice as your POP email program.
• If you want to get your email from several places (home, school, and while travelling), an IMAP email program lik Outlook Express might be a good choice. Or, you might want to try a browser-based program like WebMail.
• If all you want is a quick peek at your mail from wherever you are, with no frills, then Pine may be right for you.

Web Resources

For a discussion on the relative merits of various IMAP email programs, see http://www.unc.edu/dande/eval/current.html

For a general discussion of a variety of email programs, see http://www.ccs.yorku.ca/Compnews/archive/Fall98/mailcompare.htm