POP Mail

POP (Post Office Protocol) mail client programs (e.g., Eudora, Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Outlook) allow you to retrieve your e-mail from the central server to your local computer.  When someone sends you an e-mail message, the message is received, processed and stored in your mail file on the central mail server (for most this is slate).

You can access your e-mail: 1) locally by logging onto the mail server and using a mail client program (e.g., "pine" or "elm"); or 2) remotely by using a POP/IMAP client program. With a POP client your e-mail is copied/retrieved from the mail server to a local computer. With an IMAP client your e-mail is accessible remotely, but is stored and managed on the server. (A subset of POP e-mail client programs also function as IMAP clients. The advantages and disadvantages of POP vs IMAP are discussed in the "Electronic Mail Quick Reference" guide. IMAP configuration is discussed in the "IMAP Quick Reference" guide.)

To configure your POP mail client to retrieve your e-mail from the CSM central e-mail server, you will need to set the following:

Managing your e-mail file on the server:

• Large e-mail files on the server are unwieldy.  They take longer to be loaded or processed by your POP client or mail program and use valuable disk space on the server.
• Most POP mail client programs have a setting related to leaving messages on the server after retrieval (e.g. a check box labeled "Delete messages from server after retrieval"). Some POP mail client programs have an option like "Delete mail from server after X days". For information on retaining e-mail on the host server, see the information at the end of this guide.
• If you POP your e-mail from the server to only one computer, we recommend you set your POP client to delete your messages after retrieving.
• If you access your e-mail from more than one computer you will want to develop a strategy for managing your e-mail file on the server.
• For example, if you POP your e-mail from the server to your home computer and also to various workroom computers on campus (e.g., the Computing Center NT computers), and your primary location for retrieving your e-mail is your home computer, then you could configure your POP client at home to delete messages from the server and configure the POP clients on the campus workroom computers to leave messages on the server. This way you would always be able to retrieve your messages to your home machine.
• A second example: You mainly access your e-mail using pine via a login session to slate from various campus computers, but you also want to POP your e-mail to your home computer. One strategy for doing this is to configure your POP client at home to leave messages on the server and delete messages manually in pine only after you've POPed them to your home computer.
• A note if you have a Mines e-mail account AND a non-Mines ISP (Internet Service Provider) e-mail account:
  Some POP client programs have a "profile" feature that will allow you to POP e-mail from multiple accounts without having to change settings each time you retrieve e-mail.
• Some types of e-mail attachments/files that tend to be large and can quickly enlarge your e-mail file on the server to an unmanageable size are:

Whatever your strategy for managing your e-mail file on the server, AT SOME POINT YOU WILL NEED TO DELETE YOUR OLD MESSAGES FROM THE SERVER. In addition to conserving valuable space on the server, an advantage of good e-mail file management is that POP sessions (and pine and other mail programs) are quicker and more efficient when your e-mail file is small.  (Note:  Poor management of your e-mail file and your slate disk usage can cause erratic POP client behavior.) 

POP frequency:
If you are POPing your e-mail via a campus ethernet connection, we recommended a POP frequency of no more than once per 15 minutes. If you are POPing your e-mail via a dial-in connection, we recommend you manually retrieve e-mail when you connect. POP intervals of less than 5 minutes are discouraged since it puts an added burden on the server and can cause problems if you receive a lot of messages, large e-mail messages or messages with large attachments. For example, if your POP client is configured to retrieve your e-mail too frequently, your POP client program may try to start a new retrieval session while a previous session has not completed.

Time out setting:
Most POP mail clients have a "time out" setting. This is how long the program will wait to disconnect a POP session when a connection is slow or not responsive. The default is usually set very small (e.g. 30 seconds) and is probably not adequate.  A minimal time out setting of 2 minutes should be adequate. NOTE: Do NOT set your POP frequency lower than your time out setting.

Important Note for POPing E-mail via Non-CSM Connections:
Our mail server on slate disallows relaying of mail from non-mines.edu hosts to non-mines.edu hosts through slate. If you connect to the campus network through an ISP (Internet Service Provider), this will affect you. If you connect through a machine attached either to the Mines network or through the CSM modems, this will not affect you unless the IP address you're using is not registered. This arrangement prevents spamming (bulk unsolicited e-mail) from external sites through slate. (The Computing Center has had an increasing number of complaints from sites that have received SPAM mail through our systems.) If you are connecting through an ISP but still wish to receive your mail at your Mines account, you will need to configure your mail application to retrieve mail from pop.mines.edu, but to send mail through your ISP.  Your "reply-to" address can still be your Mines e-mail address.  To do this, change your SMTP (outgoing) server to your ISP's server. (Contact your ISP if you don't know the name of your ISP's outgoing e-mail server.)
      SMTP (or outgoing e-mail) server:  Your ISP's server

• If you are sending mail from a campus machine and the server is refusing to relay your mail, it is likely that your machine does not have a registered IP address. Open a ticket at helpdesk.mines.edu so that the problem can be verified.
• If you are receiving multiple copies of the same POP bulletin, you are "over quota" on your slate account disk usage (you've used more than your allotted disk space) and the POP process cannot write the file to update the message number of your last POP bulletin. To stop getting the same POP bulletin you will need to clean up files in your slate account. For information about checking your disk usage, removing and compressing files, see the UNIX Disk Usage Quick Reference at http://www.mines.edu/academic/computer/learnmore/quick-reference/diskuse.html
• To keep e-mail on the host server click the following settings in the sequence in which they are listed:
  

  OUTLOOK	OUTLOOK EXPRESS	NETSCAPE
  Tools	Tools	Edit
  Options	Accounts	Preferences
  Mail Delivery	Mail	Mail and Newsgroups
  Account	Properties	Mail Servers (Highlight server name if not already highlighted)
  Mail	Advanced	Edit
  Properties	Delivery	POP Tab
  Advanced	Leave a copy of messages on server	Check "Leave message on server"
  Delivery
  Leave a copy of messages on server