Copyright: Selom Ofori
Citation: ReconMail 98 Help


Introduction

ReconMail 98 automates your mailbox with it's powerful filtering abilities. It enables you to filter out junk or unwanted email, filter out mail to autorespond to, or mail to forward to other accounts. ReconMail supports the creation of multiple email account profiles, each with it's own unique settings and filters.

While Mail Forward Filters and AutoResponder Filters are specific to a particular email account, Spam Shield Filters can be either global( apply to all accounts ) or specifc to a particular account. Creating filters is as easy as clicking and selecting what you need and using logical statements such as "AND" and "OR". For all your filtering and automation needs this application is the perfect tool for such a job.

System Requirements

•	Either one of Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT(workstation or server) 4.0+

•	Internet Explorer 3.0+ (optional but recommended)

•	Remote Access Services (RAS) must be installed on your system

Features

License

Getting Started

Setting up ReconMail

ReconMail Settings

Author:

ReconMail 98 (c) Selom Ofori 1998

URL:

http://www.spaceports.com/~rcmail

email: reconmail@yahoo.com

Operating System:

Windows 95/98 & NT4

Information:

Price: US $20

On-Line Ordering https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=1211-2

Installation:

Unzip the archive and run Setup.exe


Features

- Supports Email Folders

- Supports Multiple Email Accounts

- Powerful Filtering system that uses logical operators such as "AND" and "OR"

- Spam Shields, AutoResponders and Mail Forward technology for all your automation needs

- All outgoing mail is sent in mime format, and you can attach multiple files to mail replies

- Supports Dialup networking and manual RAS, auto-detects whether you are connected to the internet.

- View mail in either plaintext or html format with your own html created pages.

- Fully multithreaded and visually appealing interface.

- Detailed session information with POP3 servers available in the status windows.

- Includes wizards for creating email accounts, auto-responders and mail-forward


License Agreement

ReconMail v3.0

Copyright (c) 1998 Selom Ofori

All rights reserved.

Governing Law

This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario

License Agreement

This program is copyrighted by the author. You may USE and distribute ReconMail as long as it is in accordance with CANADIAN LAW and the distribution archive remains intact, without any changes or modifications.  The distribution archive is in ZIP format; however, you may convert the archive to any format you choose, so long as the above requirements are met.

ReconMail is Shareware which means that you can use it legally for 30 days free of charge to evaluate it. If during, or at the end of, that period you decide that you would like to continue using it, please register your copy. Your single-user registration will license you to use your copy of ReconMail, will support work on future versions, new features, and bug fixes, and will provide you with technical support via email.

Please visit the internet address "http://www.spaceports.com/~rcmail" (without the quotes) for information about how to register

All commercial use interests in ReconMail eg. site licensing, should be directed to reconmail@yahoo.com

One registered copy of ReconMail may either be used by a single person who uses the software personally on one or more computers, or installed on a single workstation used non-simultaneously by multiple people, but not both.

You may access the registered version of ReconMail through a network, provided that you have obtained individual licenses for the software covering all workstations that will access the software through the network.  For instance, if 8 different workstations will access ReconMail on the network, each workstation must have its own ReconMail license, regardless of whether they use ReconMail at different times or concurrently.

Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.


Getting Started

Setting up ReconMail is very simple, provided you know the settings of your internet mail account. The least you should know is the incoming mail server's internet address, your username for that server and your password for that server.

ReconMail supports multiple email accounts and manages them through the use of Profiles. Each Profile represents an email account and has various setting only applicable to that particular account. For example you can choose to filter mail on your user@corporate.com but not filter on your personal@home.com.

To get Started, Open the ACTION menu and select PROFILE WIZARD

This will load up the ReconMail Profile Wizard which will easily guide you the through the process.

Profile Wizard - Page 1

ReconMail supports multiple accounts and allows you to differentiate each of them by creating profiles for each account. To identify these accounts you must enter a unique name for it

Press Next to Proceed...

Profile Wizard - Page 2

Here, you enter information about the email account you'ld like to create. You will need to enter correct information before you can receive incoming mail on this email account. Please contact your ISP or Network Administrator if you do not have this information

Enter your account name that identifies you on the incoming server in the UserName editbox

Enter your account password for the account name in the Password editbox

The Incoming mail server name must be an internet address that identifies the server on the net. It can be in either Host Name (mail.corporate.com) or IP(127.0.3.0) format.

Press Next to Proceed...

Profile Wizard - Page 3

The information entered on this page is needed to allow you to send outgoing email. Please contact your ISP or Network Administrator if you do not have this information

Enter for Full Name, email address and the internet address of the outgoing email server

Press Finish to complete the account setup. To modify the settings select the Mail->Mail Properties from the menu and choose the appropriate account from the MailBox ComboBox

Setting up ReconMail


Setting up ReconMail

The ReconMail Properties allow you to configure it to your preferences. Here you will find Property Sheets for various options like..

MailBoxes Account Setup and Management

Email Templates that allow you to view mail in html mail

Internet Settings which manage how, when and action to take when retrieving mail

Environment Options to specify how ReconMail behaves locally on your system

Working With Filters


Working With Filters

Friends and Spammer Lists

Creating a Spam Shield Filter

Creating an AutoResponder Filter

Creating a Mail Forward Filter


Friends And Spammer Lists

Friend List

All email addresses entered into this list will not be filtered or deleted. This will allow you to have implement some safety measure if you decide to let one particular Spam Shield Filter delete mail. ReconMail will also not mark email from any address in the friend list even if it matches one of the spam filters. ReconMail only checks the "FROM" tag in the header to check for friends. Filtering is not case sensitive.

Spam List

Spam Lists allow you to use external list of spammers. Any incoming email message from a person found in this list is automatically marked as Spam.. regardless of whether it matches any of the spam filters. Filtering is performed by a case insenstive match on the "FROM" tag in the header. The Load From File button makes it easier to load external lists. Each email address must be entered on a separate line in

the external file.

Note: A very big list will take some time to filter so use with caution.


Creating a Spam Filter

Filters in General

Mail Forward and AutoResponder filters will only be triggered once for each unique message. Every email message you get has a unique id that differentiates it from other messages. ReconMail uses saves this ID to prevent forwarding or autoresponding to a particular message multiple times.

Filter Name

A Filter name allows you to easily identify particular filter. If you happen to create other filters, you will be able to locate and differentiate them by their filter names.

Header Tag

Every email message has a header containing information about it's origin, destination and content. You can create filters by identifying something specific to that particular email, like the "Sender", "From" or "Subject". ReconMail will also search the header for any non-standard tags you enter. To view the full contents of the message header right click on the email message in the main view and select "Message Statistics"

Filter Mask

This specifies the type of filtering you want ReconMail to perform on the header.

"contains"

Scans the value of the header tag to see if it contains the text to search for

"contains numbers"

Scans the value of the header tag to check if it contains numbers

"does not contain"

Scans the value of the header tag to check if it does not contain the matching text

"is"

Checks if the value of the header tag is an exact match of the text to search for

"isn't"

Checks if the value of the header tag is not an exact match of the text to search for

"exists"

Searches the header of the message for search string. Only works if the header tag is "HEADER"

"does not exist"

Searches the header of the message for search string. Only works if the header tag is "HEADER"

Matching Text

the text to scan for in the header tag value. You can include logical statement such as "AND" and "OR" but not both at the same time.

eg. reconmail@yahoo.com AND reconmail@netcenter.net

eg. bulk mail OR spam mail

note: watch out for double negatives. it's better to use "is" than "isn't"

Action to Take

Choose the action to take if this filter is triggered.

"Mark"

Message is tagged as Spam in the main view

"Complain"

A complaint is sent to the spammers webmaster, postmaster or abuse

"Accept"

Does not mark the message as Spam

"Delete"

The message is deleted from the server. CAUTION! ReconMail does not save messages locally. You will not be able to retrieve the message after deleting it

Modifying the Response Text

Depending on who you want to send an abuse response to, you can edit the appropriate message sent. Some tags are scanned for and expanded before the response is sent.

%SPAM_HEADER% - Header of the spam message.

%SPAM_BODY% - Body of the spam message

Complain To

A list of people you can complain to. ReconMail can send an abuse report back to the senders postmaster, webmaster or abuse report address. ReconMail can also try to verify if the senders reply address is a registered one. It is possible that some valid address will fail due to various reasons

Enabling the Filter

Enable and disable the filter at your discretion.

Time Activation

Filters can be set to activate during some specified time period. The interval has to be at least Full Day.


Creating an AutoResponder Filter

Filters in General

Mail Forward and AutoResponder filters will only be triggered once for each unique message. Every email message you get has a unique id that differentiates it from other messages. ReconMail uses saves this ID to prevent forwarding or autoresponding to a particular message multiple times.

Filter Name

A Filter name allows you to easily identify particular filter. If you happen to create other filters, you will be able to locate and differentiate them by their filter names.

Header Tag

Every email message has a header containing information about it's origin, destination and content. You can create filters by identifying something specific to that particular email, like the "Sender", "From" or "Subject". ReconMail will also search the header for any non-standard tags you enter. To view the full contents of the message header right click on the email message in the main view and select "Message Statistics"

Filter Mask

This specifies the type of filtering you want ReconMail to perform on the header.

"contains"

Scans the value of the header tag to see if it contains the text to search for

"contains numbers"

Scans the value of the header tag to check if it contains numbers

"does not contain"

Scans the value of the header tag to check if it does not contain the matching text

"is"

Checks if the value of the header tag is an exact match of the text to search for

"isn't"

Checks if the value of the header tag is not an exact match of the text to search for

"exists"

Searches the header of the message for search string. Only works if the header tag is "HEADER"

"does not exist"

Searches the header of the message for search string. Only works if the header tag is "HEADER"

Matching Text

the text to scan for in the header tag value. You can include logical statement such as "AND" and "OR" but not both at the same time.

eg. reconmail@yahoo.com AND reconmail@netcenter.net

eg. bulk mail OR spam mail

note: watch out for double negatives. it's better to use "is" than "isn't"

Use Default Subject

By Default the subject like for an auto-response is "AUTO-RESPONSE: <subject goes here>". To Create your own custom Subject uncheck the option and enter the subject in the EditBox. There are some tags you can use..

•	%SUBJECT% 	will be replaced by the actual subject

•	%FROM% 	will be replaced by the Email Address of the sender

•	%DATE%	well be replaced by the Date the message was sent( usually it's in date-time format)

•	%MY_ADDRESS% 	will be replaced by your email address

Text Filename

The text file containing the auto-response. There are some tags you can use that will be expanded before the message is sent

•	%SUBJECT%	will be replaced with the Message Subject

•	%FROM%	will be replaced with the Email Address of the Sender

•	%DATE%	will be replaced with the Date the message was sent

•	%RECIEPIENT%	will be replaced with the recipient of the message

•	%REPLY_TO%	will be replaced with the return address of the Sender (usually doesn't exist)

•	%ORGANIZATION%	will be replaced with the organization name of the Sender (usually empty)

•	%MY_ADDRESS%	will be replaced with your email address( email address for the mailbox )

•	%ORIGINAL_MESSAGE%	will be replace with the original message

Attach File

A File you'ld like to attach to the auto-response. This can be either a post card or something

Ignore Duplicate Recipients

Check this if you want the AutoResponder to keep auto-responding to a particular email address. Turn this off if you don't want to spam mail boxes with the same auto-response when they email you.

Reset Duplicate List

The interval at which to clear the duplicate list

Enable Filter

Activate or Deactive this particular filter with this option. When disabled ReconMail will ignore all messages matching this filter

Time Activation

Filters can be set to activate during some specified time period. The interval has to be at least Full Day.


Creating a Mail Forward Filter

Filters in General

Mail Forward and AutoResponder filters will only be triggered once for each unique message. Every email message you get has a unique id that differentiates it from other messages. ReconMail uses saves this ID to prevent forwarding or autoresponding to a particular message multiple times.

Filter Name

A Filter name allows you to easily identify particular filter. If you happen to create other filters, you will be able to locate and differentiate them by their filter names.

Header Tag

Every email message has a header containing information about it's origin, destination and content. You can create filters by identifying something specific to that particular email, like the "Sender", "From" or "Subject". ReconMail will also search the header for any non-standard tags you enter. To view the full contents of the message header right click on the email message in the main view and select "Message Statistics"

Filter Mask

This specifies the type of filtering you want ReconMail to perform on the header.

"contains"

Scans the value of the header tag to see if it contains the text to search for

"contains numbers"

Scans the value of the header tag to check if it contains numbers

"does not contain"

Scans the value of the header tag to check if it does not contain the matching text

"is"

Checks if the value of the header tag is an exact match of the text to search for

"isn't"

Checks if the value of the header tag is not an exact match of the text to search for

"exists"

Searches the header of the message for search string. Only works if the header tag is "HEADER"

"does not exist"

Searches the header of the message for search string. Only works if the header tag is "HEADER"

Matching Text

The text to scan for in the header tag value. You can include logical statement such as "AND" and "OR" but not both at the same time.

eg. reconmail@yahoo.com AND reconmail@netcenter.net

eg. bulk mail OR spam mail

note: watch out for double negatives. it's better to use "is" than "isn't"

Use Default Subject

By Default the subject for a Mail Forward is "FWD: <subject goes here>". To Create your own custom Subject uncheck the option and enter the subject in the EditBox. There are some tags you can use..

•	%SUBJECT% 	will be replaced by the actual subject

•	%FROM% 	will be replaced by the Email Address of the sender

•	%DATE%	well be replaced by the Date the message was sent( usually it's in date-time format)

•	%MY_ADDRESS% 	will be replaced by your email address

Reformat Message Body

By Default ReconMail will send the body of a message without changing any part of it. You can use Inplace Tags to reformat the body of the forwarded message. To modify this behaviour, create a text file by clicking on "Edit Format File" and place tags where you would like the actual values in the message to appear. A list of valid tags are..

•	%SUBJECT%	will be replaced with the Message Subject

•	%FROM%	will be replaced with the Email Address of the Sender

•	%DATE%	will be replaced with the Date the message was sent

•	%RECIEPIENT%	will be replaced with the recipient of the message

•	%REPLY_TO%	will be replaced with the return address of the Sender (usually doesn't exist)

•	%ORGANIZATION%	will be replaced with the organization name of the Sender (usually empty)

•	%MY_ADDRESS%	will be replaced with your email address( email address for the mailbox )

•	%ORIGINAL_MESSAGE%	original body of the email message

Destination Address

A list of email addresses you would like this mail to be forwarded to

Enable Filter

Activate or Deactive this particular filter with this option. When disabled ReconMail will ignore all messages matching this filter

Time Activation

Filters can be set to activate during some specified time period. The interval has to be at least Full Day.


MailBox Settings

Manage, Create or Remove Email Account Profiles on this Page

The first thing  you need to do to use ReconMail98 is to setup an email account.

Outgoing mail server(SMTP)

The internet address of your outgoing email server. This information is needed before you can send mail. If you do not know the information requested, please contact your System Administrator or Internet Service Provider. Notes: Communication with the server is through the SMTP Protocol on port 25

Incoming mail server(POP3)

The Internet Address of your incoming email server. This information is needed before you can receive mail. If you do not know the information requested, please contact your System Administrator or Internet Service Provider. Notes: Communication with the server is done through the POP3 protocol on port 110

Email Address

Enter your email address for this email account. It would be used for filtering and sending messages. This information is needed before you can receive mail. If you do not know the information requested, please contact your System Administrator or Internet Service Provider

User Name

Enter your usename for the incoming and outgoing mail servers. This information is needed before you can receive mail. If you do not know the information requested, please contact your System Administrator or Internet Service Provider

Password

Enter your password for the incoming and outgoing mail servers. This information is needed before you can receive mail. If you do not know the information requested, please contact your System Administrator or Internet Service Provider

Profile Name

Enter a name here to identify this email account. If you create several profiles you will be able to tell them apart by their names


Email Templates

Email templates allow you to design your own webpage that will view incoming mail in html. Creating email templates are just like creating any other webpage, save a few "tags" that would be replaced by actual text from the incoming mail and reformatted to view as a webpage. Below is the list of tags and what they mean

Tags

%TITLE%

The Title of the incoming message. This is usually the subject of the message plus the name of the sender

%FROM%

The name and address of who sent the email message

%TO%

The name and address of the person the mail was sent out to. This is usually your email addres

%SUBJECT%

Subject of the message

%DATE%

Date of the message

%REPLY-TO%

Return address to which to send this message

%MESSAGE_ID%

A unique indentifier to locate the email message on your incoming server

%ORGANIZATION%

Organization of the sender

%STATUS%

Status of this message

%MIME_VERSION%

%CONTENT_TYPE%

%SIZE%

%MESSAGE%


Internet Settings

Dialup Settings

Enabling dialup connection will allow ReconMail to log on to automatically connect to the internet and check for mail. It uses information from your existing dialup connection so you do not have to type anything else. You can optionally remain connected and not hangup after every connection.

Check Mail Interval

Enable this option to check for new mail at the specified interval. If Dialup settings is enabled and you are not connected when its time to check for new mail, ReconMail will autologon to the the net.

Check Mail At Startup

Forces a scan for new mail when the application starts rather than waiting for the interval

Check Mail only when Online

On systems like NT and even win95/98 an internal attempt to open a socket causes the dialup window to popup. You can prevent this by making ReconMail only attempt to open a socket when it detects a connection to the internet

Notification

Select the sound file to play when new mail arrives


Environment Settings

View Mail

This specifies the default double click action on an email message in the main view. To view a message as a web page however you must have Internet Explorer 3.0+ installed on your system

Logging

Enabling this options instructs the application to log all it's transactions with the mail serves and all it's filtering, auto responders and forward mail to a file

Other

Save Headers Locally - This instructs the application to keep a list of downloaded headers. Note however that ReconMail doesn't NOT save the message bodies. All messages are left on the mail server so that other email clients can retrieve it.

Minimize on Start up - Starts ReconMail minimized by default


Frequently Asked Questions

My Valid Messages are being filtered too. How do I solve that problem

Right click on your message and select "Filter->Add Friendly". This will prevent messages from that person to be filtered for spam. Or you can disable the undesirable filter or just disable all global spam filters for that particular mailbox.

Is there a Restriction on the Unregistered Version?

No, not at this moment

How do I know my Copy is Registered?

Click on the about box and you will find your registration name if the serial number is correct

Do I need Internet Explorer

You can use ReconMail without internet explorer, you will not however be able to view your email as a web page. That is the only restriction

Why can't I use Netscape to view my email as a web page

Because netscape doesn't provide a web browser control as part of it's browser for other developers to easily integrate it into their applications

I can't run ReconMail 98. It complains it's unable to find RASAPI32.DLL

RASAPI32.DLL is a system specific dll that is installed when you choose to install dialup networking or similar remote network access driver. This dll is required by ReconMail to be able to automatically log on to the internet and/or check if an internet session is active. Because of the system specific nature the only way to fix this error would be to install Dialup Networking.

Is there Proxy Support

Not at the moment.

Why do I get the error "The socket has not been bound with Bind" or similar

Please check if you are currently connected to the internet. ReconMail leaves the body of your messages on the email server and can only retrieve them when you are connected to the internet. If you are, then recheck the email server address of your incoming mail server.

The information window says Another Session is open and refuses to allow me to log in

The Post Office Protocol 3 only allows 1 session for a particular account at a time. If you have another mail client checking for email or logging in and not logging out after it's done you will get that particular error. The information window shows the actual response sent by the email server in response to the request

Why does my server say "ERR-Too many arguments for the user command"?

The Post Office Protocol 3 allows servers to enable a secure login. This requires that the client know some "shared secret" like a random or predetermined number. Because of the server specific nature, ReconMail does not implement this POP3 feature.

I want the AutoResponder to keep responding to all messages not just once and stop

The AutoResponder by default saves the addresses of email responded to. This was implemented to multiple respondes to the same user. To disable this option Select "Disable Duplicate Recipients" in the filter properties.

Something happened and I need to reforward mail I thought I forwarded again, but the forward mail just ignores them

Every message has a unique ID that identifies it from all other messages.  Since you might leave messages on your server after forwarding them, ReconMail saves these unique to prevent the mail forward of already forwarded mail. To Reset this, find a file in your ReconMail direct, with the same name as your email filter and delete it.

My filters don't work

Recheck your filter settings and press the RESET button on the filter dialog.


Profile ComboBox
A list of Email Account Profiles that you created


Outgoing Server EditBox
The internet address of your outgoing email server. Communication with the server is through the SMTP Protocol on port 25


Incoming Mail Server Editbox
The Internet Address of your incoming email server. Communication with the server is done through the POP3 protocol on port 110


Email Address Editbox
Enter your email address for this email account. It would be used for filtering and sending messages


User Name Editbox
Enter your usename for the incoming and outgoing mail servers


User Password Editbox
Enter your password for the incoming and outgoing mail servers


Profile Name
Enter a name here to identify this email account. If you create several profiles you will be able to tell them apart by their names


Templates ComboBox
Contains a list of html templates used to view email as html


Template Name Editbox
A unique name that identifies the current template. If you create a list of templates you will be able to identify them by this name


Index File Editbox
The name of the .html file that was formatted to display email as a web page


Default Template Checkbox
Makes the currently selected email template as default.


Explorer WebControl
A preview of how the template will look in ReconMail98


Dialup Settings Groupbox
Enabling dialup connection will allow ReconMail to log on to automatically connect to the internet and check for mail. It uses information from your existing dialup connection so you do not have to type anything else. You can optionally remain connected and not hangup after every connection.


Check Mail Interval Box
Enable this option to check for new mail at the specified interval. If Dialup settings is enabled and you are not connected when its time to check for new mail, ReconMail will autologon to the the net.


Check Mail on Startup Checkbox
Forces a scan for new mail when the application starts rather than waiting for the interval


Online Mail Scan Checkbox
On systems like NT and even win95/98 an internal attempt to open a socket causes the dialup window to popup. You can prevent this by making ReconMail only attempt to open a socket when it detects a connection to the internet


Play Sound on New Mail
Select the sound file to play when new mail arrives