Pegasus Mail, Frequently-asked question resources Copyright (c) 1995 David Harris, all rights reserved. Setting up Pegasus WinPMail for WinSock Users This document provides step by step instructions for users who wish to use Pegasus Mail together with a Windows Sockets implementation (or WinSock) to retrieve and send mail via an Internet Service Provider. Step 1: Install and configure your WINSOCK.DLL file In order to communicate with your service provider, your computer needs to be equipped with a piece of software called a "Windows Sockets" stack (or "WinSock") which is always supplied as a file called WINSOCK.DLL (although there may be other parts to it as well). There is a wide range of WinSocks available on the market and it is beyond the scope of this document to tell you how to install them. In general, your Service Provider will either supply you with a WinSock as part of your subscription, or will have a particular product he or she recommends. Ask your Service Provider for guidance on choosing and/or installing a WinSock on your system. Step 2: Gather the information you need All mail programs which use a WinSock to communicate with your Service Provider will require a certain amount of information in advance. Before you proceed any further, ring your Service Provider's help desk and ask for the information shown on the following form: fill in the blanks as shown on the form - the information is referenced later in this document. A: What is my full e-mail address? Address: _______________________________________________ B: What is my user name on your POP3 server? User name: ___________ C: What is my password for my POP3 mail account? Password: ________________ D: What is the domain name or address of your POP3 server? POP3 Domain name: ______________________________________ E: What is the domain name or address of your SMTP server? SMTP Domain name: ______________________________________ Notes: * If section 'A' does not contain the symbol '@', then it is probably not correct and you should ask the help desk again. * If section 'B' DOES contain the symbol '@' then it is probably not correct; if you find you have problems with it, try using only the characters before the '@' symbol as a user name. * Sections 'D' and 'E' should not contain '@' signs - if they do, then they are probably incorrect. Step 3: Install Pegasus Mail for Windows In order to install Pegasus Mail for Windows, you must have at least 5 Megabytes of disk space free on your system. When installation is complete, Pegasus Mail for Windows will occupy about 2 Megabytes. You will also need the PKUNZIP compression utility version 2.04 or later; this program is widely available and your Service Provider will certainly be able to provide you with a copy. Create a directory where Pegasus Mail and its associated files are to be installed - we recommend that you use C:\PMAIL for this and will use this as our example throughout this section. Unless you have good reasons for using another location, we strongly recommend that you use C:\PMAIL, because it will simplify the installation and setup process even further. Enter the path to the directory you create here: F: WinPMail directory: ____________________________________ Copy WINPM201.ZIP into this directory, then change into the directory and issue the command PKUNZIP WINPM201 You will see a screen of instructions telling you how to install the program, and will find that there are now four files in the directory - WINPM201.ZIP, WINPMAIL.ZIP, WGUIDE.EXE and INSTALL.TXT. You can now delete WINPM201.ZIP if you wish - it is no longer required. At this point you should run WGUIDE.EXE and read it - WGUIDE.EXE is Pegasus Mail's online guide, presenting you with information about Pegasus Mail in a simple menu-driven format. Once you have read the contents of WGUIDE.EXE, return to the DOS prompt and issue the command: PKUNZIP -d WINPMAIL This command will install the Pegasus Mail software on your system, ready to run. Now, run Windows (or switch back to the Program Manager using if you are running in a DOS shell) and create an Icon for Pegasus Mail; you do this by selecting the group in which you want to create the Icon then choosing "New..." from the "File" menu, then clicking the "Program item" control. Fill out the fields as you want them, and in the "Command line" field, enter the path you wrote down in Step F:. Make sure the path ends with the special character '\', then add 'WINPMAIL.EXE' onto the end. Example: using the default, you would enter C:\PMAIL\WINPMAIL.EXE Click the OK button to save the entry and you should see a new program icon on your desktop with the Pegasus Mail icon. Congratulations! You're ready to go. Step 4: Giving WinPMail the information it needs Double-click the Pegasus Mail icon you created in step 3. This should run Pegasus Mail, which will open a welcome screen asking for some basic information. Home mail path: this is the location where WinPMail will store all your mail files, address books, mailing lists, folders and so on. The usual location for this directory is in a subdirectory of the path you created in step F: with your user name as the name of the directory. Notice that the last two characters in the default path Pegasus Mail offers you look odd - "~8"; this is a special convention Pegasus Mail uses to mean "the first eight characters of your user name". If you have used a path other than C:\PMAIL in step F:, then you should enter the path you wrote down at step F: in this directory, then the special '\' character, then the two letters "~8". Example: say you used D:\INTERNET\MAIL at step F: - you would enter D:\INTERNET\MAIL\~8 in the "Home mail path" field. User name: your user name is just a tag which identifies who you are to Pegasus Mail. Pegasus Mail allows you to have many users installed on the same machine and to select the one you want to use at runtime. The username you enter is not used in outgoing mail, and must follow these rules: * It must contain more than 1 and fewer than 9 characters. * It must consist of only the letters A..Z and the digits 0..9 The principal use of the user name is to form the name of your mailbox automatically, as it is substituted into the special "~8" marker in the "Home mail path" box. We recommend you simply use your first name as a user name. Save your username in WIN.INI for future use: If you are only going to use one mailbox on the machine (i.e, you are always going to run Pegasus Mail with the same username), then check this control. If you check this control, you will not be able to setup other users on your system but WinPMail will also not ask you who you are at startup. When you are satisfied that the three fields are correct, click the OK button and Pegasus Mail will create your mailbox for you and set up your default preferences sheet, creating any directories it needs in the process. Pegasus Mail is now running and setup on your machine - all you need to do now is enter the information from your e-mail information sheet into the blanks Pegasus Mail provides. Step 5: Network configuration If you installed WINSOCK.DLL correctly at step 1, you should now be able to select "Network Configuration" from the Pegasus Mail "File" menu. If this option does not appear, then it means that you probably did not install your WinSock correctly at step 1 - in particular, note that WINSOCK.DLL should appear on the DOS PATH, or in your \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. The "Network Configuration" dialog tells Pegasus Mail how to connect to your Service Provider to retrieve and send mail on your behalf. This is mostly a case of filling in the blanks: In the "WinSock Information/Settings" section - * TCP/IP socket timeout value: set this field to 120 (the default value is for use on fast networks, like Ethernet) In the "Outgoing (SMTP) mail" section - * In the "Relay host", enter what you wrote down in E: * In the "From field", enter what you wrote down in A: * If you are the only WinPMail user on your machine, check the control labelled "Use for all outgoing mail". In the "Incoming (POP3) mail" section - * In the "Host" field, enter what you wrote down in D: * In the "Username" field, enter what you wrote down in B: * In the "Password" field, enter what you wrote down in C: If you wish, you may adjust the values of other controls in this dialog as well - they are described in the online help. In general though, we recommend that you simply enter what we have described here then check that it all works. When you click the OK button, you're done! That's it, you've given Pegasus Mail all the information it needs to be able to get and send your mail. * You can retrieve mail from your Service Provider by choosing "Check host for new mail" from the "File" menu, or by clicking the toolbar button with the globe and the red arrow. * You can send your mail at any time by choosing "Send all queued mail" from the "File" menu or by clicking the toolbar button with the globe and the blue arrow. * You can send and retrieve mail in a single call by choosing "Check and send mail" from the "File" menu, or by clicking the toolbar button with the globe and both arrows. * You can list, re-edit or delete any messages you have sent up until the time you choose "Send all queued mail", by choosing "Review queued mail" from the "File" menu. Once you have verified that everything is working correctly, you will probably want to return to the "Network Configuration" dialog and check the control labelled "Delete retrieved mail on host"; until you do this, Pegasus Mail will download the same messages from the POP3 server every time it connects, which is useful for setup and testing since it precludes the risk of losing mail, but is less useful in normal day-to-day operation.