If E-mail Is Coming at You from All Directions, Save Yourself Some Time and Aggravation by Directing as Much as You Can to One Mailbox.
Shelly Brisbin
It began simply enough. You got an e-mail box when you started your current job. Then you decided to get an account on CompuServe or another online service. Later, the office got an Internet connection. Before you knew it, you had more electronic-mail boxes than you could shake a mouse at and you were spending all your time retrieving your messages.
What to do? Consolidate.
The Basics
E-mail accounts can be divided into three types: LAN (local-area network), such as QuickMail and Lotus Notes; Internet; and commercial online, such as CompuServe and America Online. They aren't created equal in terms of software usability or cost, and each has a different way of exchanging messages with the outside world. Your first task is to figure out which account you'll use for your primary mailbox or whether to go with a fourth option -- software, such as Claris Emailer, that collects mail from several different mailboxes. Here are the pros and cons for each system, to help you figure out which one can serve you best.
LAN-Locked
If your office already uses LAN mail, a LAN mailbox is probably the most convenient one available, since you're continually connected to the flow of mail. Although it's easy enough to get mail from coworkers on your network, getting mail from people on the Internet or online services is another matter. To exchange mail with the outside world you need gateways -- software that lets e-mail jump the boundary between a LAN mail system and the Internet or commercial online services. A gateway is usually installed on the office mail server and managed by your network administrator. If you're not sure what gateways are available to you or how to use them, ask your administrator.
You don't have to rely on your administrator for gateways if you use Apple's PowerTalk. Gateway companies such as StarNine Technologies (800-525-2580 or 510-649-4949) make personal gateways -- gateways you can install yourself on your own Mac. StarNine's gateways let you exchange or forward mail from the Internet, Microsoft Mail, and QuickMail. Each gateway costs about $50. Be aware, however, that the selection of mail-handling software for use with PowerTalk is limited. At press time, the only mail-reading software for PowerTalk was AppleMail, which comes with System 7.5. STF Technologies, however, announced plans to produce a more sophisticated PowerTalk mail reader in early 1996.
Net Mail
You don't need gateways to use an Internet account as your primary mailbox. With an Internet connection and the right addresses, you can reach people who use all sorts of mail systems.
One of the most compelling reasons to centralize your mail in your Internet account is the variety of software options you have for managing mail. By using an Internet account, you can get sophisticated features that commercial online and LAN mail software don't have, such as advanced mail filtering. Most Internet mail readers also make sending enclosed files a snap (see the "Enclosed Please Find . . ." sidebar).
If you've purchased an Internet account for personal use, you can forward mail to the office or vice versa. (Of course, you'll want to check company policy before you start consolidating mail this way.)
Getting mail from commercial online services is simple too -- just ask those you correspond with to send your mail to your Internet address. To send mail out to online services from your Internet mailbox, all you need to do is modify the recipient address by adding a service's domain name to the recipient's user name. For example, you could use your Internet account to send a message to British royalty on eWorld by sending it to PrincessDi@eworld.com. (We can't guarantee she'll answer.)
Getting mail into your Internet mailbox from your LAN mailbox is also possible, but it may not be worth the hassle. Some LAN mail software, such as QuickMail (version 3.0 and later) and Lotus Notes, allows you to do it. Notes requires you to redefine rules -- not a slight undertaking. QuickMail is friendlier about setting up a forwarding process, leading you through a series of windows. But even after you've done this setup, replying to mail forwarded from a LAN mailbox requires a couple of extra steps. It may be easier to maintain two mailboxes than to forward every bit of your mail to your Internet mailbox.
E-mail Online
An online account is the right universal mailbox only if you don't have Internet access or a LAN mail system at work. One reason that this is our last choice is because using a commercial online service for mail is usually more expensive than the other choices. CompuServe and Prodigy, for instance, charge you for every message you send or receive via the Internet.
Another reason commercial online services are our last choice is that your choice of mail-handling software is so limited. Although CompuServe Information Manager does give you some advanced features, such as the ability to search for addresses in your address book, you'll have a harder time finding the features you need in commerical online software than in Internet and LAN software.
If you do opt for an online mailbox as your primary one and have several online-service accounts, choose the one with the best mail interface and the most reasonable price.
E-mail Nirvana?
Using a universal mailbox usually means telling everyone you correspond with to send mail to you at a single address. That may not always be practical. For instance, people may respond to a message you've posted on an online service or from an Internet account that isn't your universal mailbox. You may also want to use secondary accounts to deflect some mail from your main mailbox. Trouble is, you still need to log into all of your accounts from different applications -- or do you?
This is where Claris Emailer, another type of mailbox, comes in. It's the only Mac software (at least as of this writing) that retrieves your mail from any online service or the Internet and puts it into one mailbox.
Emailer would be the ultimate universal mailbox but for one problem -- it can't retrieve mail from LAN mailboxes (this may change in the future). If you have a LAN mail system, you'll still have to monitor two mailboxes, for now.
The Ultimate Decision
If you're still not sure which type of mailbox is the optimal one to make central, one final way to narrow the choices is to determine what type of user you are and then find the software and service that best suit that type of user.
A LAN mailbox is practical for those who get most of their mail from coworkers on an office network. If you have access to gateways to the mail services you use, you can get all your mail into just one location.
An Internet mailbox is best for those who don't have a LAN mailbox and for power users who want a choice of mail-handling software. If you get a large amount of mail regularly, you may find yourself in one of those camps. Internet mail software offers powerful filtering features for sorting your steady stream of messages.
Emailer is a good choice for those who get e-mail from multiple services. If you've had no success getting all the people you correspond with to use a specific address or you prefer using more than one address, Emailer can simplify things, since it retrieves mail from almost any mailbox.
Shelly Brisbin is a MacUser associate editor who is thinking of having an e-mail intravenous drip installed in her arm.
Before you decide which of your mailboxes is the one you want to have handle the bulk of your mail, one factor to consider is whether or not you need to send attached files often. If you do, stick with the Internet -- it makes it easy to send and receive attachments.
Although it's trickier to send attachments over other services, it's quite possible if you know these rules:
1. Encode the easy way. Whenever you send an attachment over the
Internet, you must convert it into a text file to send it
(BinHex is the standard text format for Mac files; uuencode is
the cross-platform standard). If you're on the receiving end,
you'll need to decode the BinHex file to turn it back into a Mac
file. Conversion is simplest if you use MIME (multipurpose
Internet mail extensions)-compliant mail software, such as
Qualcomm's Eudora, because it does the conversion for you
transparently.
If you aren't fortunate enough to have MIME-compliant
software, you'll have to do the conversions yourself. (If you
receive mail in your commercial online mailbox, you can count on
having to convert it, because commercial online services do not
use MIME-compliant software.) To convert a received file, first
save it to disk and then open it and erase the header
information. Finally, decode it by using a program such as
StuffIt Expander (shareware; available online). It's not hard to
identify a file that needs to be decoded, because messages in
BinHex format are unintelligible (see figure at right). To
encode a file to send over the Internet, use a program, such as
BinHex4 or DropStuff (also shareware), that can convert files to
BinHex.
2. Reunite split files. Unfortunately, eWorld and America Online
split mail messages and attached files that are larger than
around 32K. (CompuServe does not split files.) To read a split
message, you have to reassemble it, by cutting and pasting all
the BinHex information to merge it into a single file, and then
decode it.
3. Take a shortcut. Claris Emailer offers some help by doing
file conversion for you. When it retrieves a file from a
commercial online service, it decodes the file by the time you
see it. About the only thing it can't convert is a split file.
If you receive a file that looks like this, it means you need to decode it with a program such as StuffIt Expander.
Internet/online combo mailbox
Emailer software retrieves your mail for you from almost any type of mailbox.
LAN Mailbox
Often this is the most convenient central mailbox, as long as you have connections to other services.
Internet mailbox
Eudora, Internet mail software, specializes in handling loads of mail. It lets you filter mail into separate folders.
