Setting up POPstar

This guide is no longer supported, and is quite probably very out of date.

POPstar

Setting up POPstar

POPstar is a mail transport program - it will fetch and send your emails for you.

Ignore the InstTrans application for now - we'll come to it when setting up NewsBase (there's one with NewsHound as well). First, copy the Choices and Users text files from inside !POPstar to !Boot.Choices.POPstar (create this directory if it doesn't exist).

Open the Choices file (the one in !Boot). The comments are pretty self-explanatory and can mostly be left alone (e.g. List:) or set up as you like (e.g. how often to fetch); but there are a few which need explanation.

  • SMTP: should be set to your SMTP server if you only have one ISP. If you subscribe to multiple ISPs, then set this option to <SMTP$Server>. This is a system variable, which will be set by the Online file run by Socketeer (more on that here, under Connection Management).
  • Variable: This should be set to <PPP$Connected>. This system variable will only be set when you are online, so it prevents POPstar trying to fetch and send at other times.
  • AutoFetch: Y.
  • AutoSend: Y.
  • AutoQuit: Up to you.
  • ANT: This depends on which version of the Resolver module you have. Double-click on the module in !System.Modules.Network and then type "*Help Resolver" at the command line (press F12). If this shows that the Resolver module is version 0.49, set the command to N. If it is 0.55, set it to Y.
  • MaxSize: If you are an Argonet user, this must be 0, as Argonet's server can't cope with this command.

Right, now save that file and open the Users file. This file should contain one line for every POP mailbox you fetch mail from, of the form (<tab> means the tab button) :

local user<tab>username<tab>password<tab>POP server<tab>Y

It's probably best to set the 'local user' to 'root' (without quotes), and then let NewsBase filter the mail into the correct mailboxes.

As an example, here's my Users file (with passwords removed) :

root<tab>cd31<tab>PASSWORD<tab>pop.argonet.co.uk<tab>Y
root<tab>ywu67A@ukgateway.net<tab>PASSWORD<tab>pop.ukgateway.net<tab>Y
root<tab>sumsville.freeserve.co.uk<tab>PASSWORD<tab>pop.freeserve.net<tab>Y

As you can see, some ISPs just want part of your username (Argonet) while others want the whole email address (Gateway).

On to Setting up NewsHound

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