Microsoft provides the Internet Mail program along with Internet Explorer to handle your Internet e-mail needs. However, you're not locked into using Internet Mail. You can use another e-mail program if you prefer—and there are several reasons
that
you might prefer to use another e-mail program. For example, if you use Windows Messaging for other e-mail, you can use it to handle your Internet e-mail as well. Internet Explorer will link to Windows Messaging Inbox in much the same way it integrates
with Internet Mail. If you use a different e-mail program, you might have to give up a bit of convenience that comes from the integration between Internet Explorer and Internet Mail or Windows Messaging. However, the special features available in some
other e-mail programs might be well worth that small sacrifice.
Internet Mail, as its name suggests, is designed to handle Internet e-mail. If, however, you use e-mail via other channels (such as a local area network) in addition to Internet e-mail, you might want to use Windows Messaging Inbox to consolidate all
of
your e-mail activities into one program. Instead of using one program for Internet e-mail, another program for e-mail on your local area network, and yet another program to handle e-mail on your CompuServe account, you can do it all with one e-mail
client:
Windows Messaging.
Windows Messaging, formerly known as Microsoft Exchange Inbox (see Figure 12.1) is one of the free supplemental programs supplied with Windows 95. It's been renamed Windows Messaging to distinguish it from Microsoft Exchange Client, a souped-up version
that is designed to take advantage of the capabilities of Exchange Server in a client-server environment. (This section describes the operation of Windows Messaging Inbox. However, Exchange Client also offers similar e-mail capabilities—and more.)
Figure 12.1. Windows Messaging Inbox is a free e-mail applet included with Windows 95.
Note
The name change from Microsoft Exchange to Windows Messaging is part of a free upgrade that you can download from www.microsoft.com. The Exchange upgrade includes some performance enhancements in addition to the name change. The operation of both Exchange Inbox and Windows Messaging remain essentially the same (although some details and defaults are slightly different).
Because Windows Messaging Inbox is included with Windows 95 and can handle Internet e-mail and more, you might wonder why Microsoft offers the separate Internet Mail program with Internet Explorer. Both programs have their place. Internet Mail is
simple
to set up and use. Exchange, on the other hand, rewards your investment of setup time and computer resources with greater flexibility and convenience in dealing with more than one e-mail source.
NOTE
Windows Messaging offers many more options and capabilities than are covered in this brief section. This chapter covers only the program's basic e-mail functions that serve as an alternative to Internet Mail. The examples are confined to the most common configuration, making a dial-up connection to an Internet service provider for simple e-mail handling. If you have a direct Internet connection through a local network, or some other configuration, your system administrator should be able to show you how to use Windows Messaging with your system.
If you need to use Windows Messaging rather than Internet Mail, you probably already have the program installed and configured to work with another e-mail source such as a local area network. If you have not yet installed Windows Messaging, you can do
so by clicking on the Start button, pointing to Settings, choosing Control Panel, and double-clicking on the Add/Remove Programs icon. When the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box appears, click on the Windows Setup tab, check the Windows Messaging
option (the option might still appear as Microsoft Exchange) in the Components list, click on the OK button, and follow the instructions to install Windows Messaging or Exchange on your system. (If you have an older version labeled Exchange, you can
install the Exchange Upgrade to update your system to Windows Messaging after installing the original version of Exchange.)
After you've installed Windows Messaging, you'll need to configure the program to support Internet mail as one of its messaging services. The easiest way to tackle this task is with the Internet Setup Wizard that is part of the Windows 95 Plus package.
(The Internet Setup Wizard is also available for download from the Microsoft Web site.) The wizard can add the Internet mail service to Exchange at the same time you are configuring Dial-Up Networking and other Internet access details.
If you'd prefer to add the Internet mail messaging service to Windows Messaging manually, start by opening Windows Messaging Inbox (double-click on the Inbox shortcut on the desktop), and choose Services from the Tools menu to open the Services dialog
box shown in Figure 12.2. Next, click on the Add button, select Internet Mail from the list in the Add Service to Profile dialog box, and click on the OK button.
Figure 12.2. Adding Internet Mail to the list of services available in Windows Messaging Inbox.
This will open the Internet Mail dialog box shown in Figure 12.3. You'll need to fill in the various fields of the dialog box with the appropriate information for your Internet e-mail account. (Your ISP or system administrator should be able to supply
all the needed information.) Don't forget to check the options on the Connections tab and the Message Format and Advanced Options buttons as well. (You can click on the Help button for an explanation of the fields and options in the dialog box.) After you
supply all the necessary information, click OK to close the dialog box and add Internet Mail to the list in the Services dialog box. Click OK again to close the Services dialog box and return to the main Windows Messaging window.
Figure 12.3. Setting the properties of your Internet Mail connection.
Assuming that you have all the other details of your Internet connection set up properly, you should be ready to access your Internet e-mail account with Windows Messaging. To configure Internet Explorer to use Windows Messaging for handling mail
messages, simply opt not to install Internet Mail. If you've already installed Internet Mail, you can deactivate it as the default e-mail client for Internet Explorer by opening Internet Mail, choosing Options from the Message menu, clicking on the Send
tab, clicking on the Set As Default button, and then clicking the OK button.
After you've set up the Internet Mail messaging service in Windows Messaging, getting your mail is easy. It's a two-step process that involves first checking to see what messages are waiting on the mail server, and then downloading selected messages.
It
might seem a bit more cumbersome than the download-everything-automatically approach of Internet Mail, but it allows you considerably more flexibility and control. For example, you can identify and download urgent messages first so you can deal with them
promptly and leave messages with attached files (which will take longer to download) waiting on the e-mail server to be downloaded at a more convenient time.
To check your Internet e-mail with Windows Messaging, open the Windows Messaging Inbox program window, and then pull down the Tools menu, point to Remote Mail, and choose Internet Mail to open the Remote Mail window shown in Figure 12.4. In the Remote
Mail window, choose Tools | Connect. Exchange will establish a connection to your ISP using the Dial-Up Networking connection you specified when you set up the Internet Mail messaging service.
Then, Windows Messaging will automatically log into your ISP's e-mail server, send any outgoing messages waiting in your Outbox, download a list of incoming messages waiting on the mail server, log off and close the dial-up connection. Windows
Messaging displays the list of messages in the Remote Mail window as shown in Figure 12.4. (At this point, you have a list of the messages waiting on the e-mail server, but you have not downloaded any of the messages themselves.) Now you can go down the
list and select which messages you want to download. Double-clicking on a message header in the list marks that message to be downloaded. Alternatively, you can select a message header, pull down the Edit menu, and choose the Mark to Retrieve, Mark to
Retrieve a Copy, or Mark to Delete commands.
Figure 12.4. Collecting your mail with the Remote Mail utility.
After you have marked message headers for handling options, choose Tools | Connect again to begin downloading the messages. The downloaded messages will appear in the main Exchange Inbox window in the Inbox folder. When the program finishes downloading
messages, it will close your dial-up connection automatically, but you'll need to click Close to close the Remote Mail window.
The main Windows Messaging Inbox window is divided into two panes very similar to Windows Explorer (see Figure 12.1). The left pane displays a hierarchical list of your e-mail folders. The right pane lists the messages in the open folder. New messages
will be in the Inbox folder. Unread messages appear in bold type.
To read a message, simply double-click the message header in the list. Exchange will open the message in its own viewing window, as shown in Figure 12.5. Windows Messaging offers a full complement of menu commands and toolbar buttons to let you print,
delete, reply to, or forward the message and view the next or previous message.
Figure 12.5. Windows Messaging displays your messages in a simple, clean window.
You can set up your own system of folders for storing e-mail messages in Windows Messaging. To create a new folder, first open the folder in which you want to create the new folder. Then, choose File | New Folder, type the folder name in the New Folder
dialog box, and click OK. Windows Messaging creates the folder as specified.
Moving messages into a different folder is a very simple task. Simply select a message header in the right pane of the Windows Messaging window, drag it into the left pane, and drop it onto the selected folder icon.
Creating an e-mail message is another fairly simple task. You can begin by clicking the New Message button in the toolbar or by choosing New Message from the Compose menu. Windows Messaging opens a new message window like the one shown in Figure 12.6.
You simply type in the intended recipient's e-mail address, the subject, and the text of your message. If you enter an e-mail address in the standard SMTP format (username@domain), Windows Messaging will send the message as Internet mail.
Choose Send from the File menu or click on the Send button in the toolbar to complete the message. Windows Messaging places your message in the Outbox folder until the next time you connect to your Internet e-mail server and transfer mail. (If you prefer,
you can configure Windows Messaging to establish a dial-up connection and send your messages immediately.)
Windows Messaging seems particularly adept at handling attached files in e-mail messages. To attach a file to a message, all you need to do is drag the file's icon from a Windows Explorer window and drop it onto the New Message window while you are
creating a message. The file appears as an icon in your message text, as shown in Figure 12.7. Windows Messaging takes care of handling the file as a MIME attachment without any further instructions for adjustments.
When you receive a message containing a file attachment, you simply reverse the process. The attached file appears as an icon in the message window. You can drag the icon from the message window and drop it on your Windows desktop or Explorer window.
If
the file is a registered file type, you can open it by double-clicking on the icon in the message window. If you'd like a bit more control or other file handling options, right-click on the file icon in the message window to open a pop-up menu of commands
including Print and Save As.
Windows Messaging includes an easy-to-use address book that can store e-mail addresses in many different formats. Each address book entry has room for postal address information and multiple phone numbers in addition to the e-mail address. Choosing
Tools | Address Book (or clicking the Address Book button in the toolbar) opens the Address Book window shown in Figure 12.8. This is where you can view and maintain your list of e-mail addresses.
Figure 12.8. The Windows Messaging Address book.
The easiest way to add entries to the address book is to copy the address information from an incoming message. When you are viewing the message, you can right-click on the sender's name in the header area of the message window and choose Add to
Personal Address Book from the pop-up menu.
Back in the Address Book window, you can double-click on an entry to open and edit its Properties dialog box. Figure 12.9 shows a typical Internet e-mail address. The other tabs in the dialog box enable you to add company, title, postal address, and
similar information plus space for up to eight phone numbers.
Figure 12.9. Address book entries can store more than just an e-mail address.
To send a message to someone in your address book, simply open the Address Book window, select the appropriate entry, and choose New Message from the File menu. Windows Messaging will open the New Message window with the correct address inserted in the
To: field.
If Windows Messaging or Internet Mail don't quite meet your needs, you can use another program to handle your Internet e-mail. Although other programs may not offer the ability to link to Internet Explorer automatically, that deficiency rarely amounts
to more than a very minor inconvenience. About the only thing you give up is one-button access to your preferred e-mail program from Internet Explorer and the ability to use your chosen e-mail program to compose messages when you click on a mailto field
on
a Web page.
Just because you use Internet Explorer for browsing Web pages doesn't mean you must choose between Internet Mail and Windows Messaging for e-mail. You might want to use another e-mail client if you need advanced features such as filtering (or routing),
which lets you automatically file incoming messages in different folders based on who sent the message or on keywords that appear in the subject line or text. Perhaps you need more control over the handling of file attachments or built-in support for
message encryption. Maybe you need to use a different e-mail program in order to conform to a corporate standard. With that in mind, here's a brief look at some of the other e-mail client programs you might want to use.
Eudora from Qualcomm, Inc. (800-238-3672), is one of the most popular Internet e-mail programs around. It's available in two versions. Eudora Lite provides all the basic e-mail functions in an easy-to-use package that is available free of charge for
individual users. Eudora Pro, the full-featured upgrade for serious e-mail users, sells for $89.
Many Internet service providers (ISP) furnish the free version of Eudora as part of their starter kit of software for new subscribers. For many users, Eudora Lite will fulfill all their e-mail needs, and the program has the added advantage of being
supported by the staff of the local ISP. Besides, the price is right.
If you're looking for more advanced features, you'll want to consider Eudora Pro. Despite its simple user interface, Eudora Pro includes the ability to filter incoming messages and route them to predetermined mailboxes and to sort messages using
several
different criteria. The program also includes a spell checker and supports message encryption.
Pegasus is another very popular e-mail client program. It offers a lot of power for a very attractive price (free to individual users). Pegasus's user interface (shown in Figure 12.10) isn't as slick as Eudora's, but it packs a lot of features into a
free package. The program features nesting folders for organizing messages, fairly sophisticated filtering and routing for incoming message handling, good file attachment support, and the requisite spell checker and address books. One interesting feature
of Pegasus is that the program is designed to handle e-mail on NetWare local area networks as well as Internet e-mail. In fact, the software author (David Harris, support@pmail.gen.nz) makes money from the product by selling the drivers and other
components that enable his free e-mail program to work with various NetWare versions.
Their low cost make Eudora and Pegasus two of the most popular e-mail programs available. However, they aren't your only options for an e-mail client program. The following paragraphs give you a brief description of a few of the other top contenders.
Some reviewers give Z-Mail for Windows from Network Computing Software Corp. (415-898-8649) high marks for its customizability and power-user features. The program features strong message filtering capabilities plus powerful sorting and search tools
and
a full-featured address book. The downside is its high price ($165) and steep learning curve.
Internet Chameleon from NetManage, Inc. (408-973-7171), is an Internet toolkit, or suite of programs, that includes a very competent e-mail client. Its reasonable price (about $75) makes it feasible to buy the package just for its e-mail component. The
program features multiple address books and supports both UUencoding and MIME for file attachments. There's also a spell checker and a template feature you can use to save frequently used message formats.
Internet in a Box from Spry, Inc. (800-557-9614; $149) is another Internet toolkit that includes a respectable e-mail client. Although the program lacks message filtering to automatically route messages to predetermined folders, it offers basic sorting
capabilities and a highly graphical interface with lots of drag-and-drop operations. Choose this e-mail program for its well-designed interface rather than for its advanced features.
Like Microsoft Exchange, E-Mail Connection from ConnectSoft (800-234-9497; $99.95) strives to be a universal inbox by supporting several different e-mail formats and connections in addition to Internet e-mail. The program can display all your messages
in a unified inbox regardless of their source and automatically handles the details of getting replies and outgoing messages to the proper mail service. On top of good message sorting and routing capabilities and a spell checker, E-Mail Connection
supports
multiple users with separate accounts and passwords.
In this chapter, you've learned about Windows Messaging and some of the other alternatives for handling Internet e-mail in conjunction with Internet Explorer 3.0. In the rest of this section, you'll explore applications for working with newsgroups and
conferencing on the Net.
