M A I L L I T A 2.0 beta 1
Known problems
Reactions
Version
ABOUT
Maillita is a FREE application working as a server between a remote
mailgate and a local mailprogram running on Window95 and Windows NT4.0.
It was designed in order to disallow other people to see what x-mailer
you use, protecting your privacy over the Internet and creating a simple
mailgate for a LAN.
It also shows you how many mails you have sent in total and when the last
action has been performed.
I have written this program for own use and don't want to harm anyone / anything with its purpose.
It can replace any entry in the header or body of the mail. For example the X-Mailer and Message-ID:
for example:
Message-id: <3.0b16.32.19960912134123.009275f0@.....>
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; I)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
can be changed to:
Message-id: <19961017.203142.0.9(32)@127.0.0.1>
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Xmail 2.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
It also possible to add extra X-headers in your emails, for example to make it possible to filter on personalities with any mailprogram! Or add an extra X-header to enter your organisationname to the mailheader.
The program acts as a server on a IP-port, so it can be used as an email-gate on small networks, with only one IP-number, not only hiding all other local IP-numbers, but also enabling a LAN to connect by email: Maillita can create a mailgate on a local system (I haven't tested this to often, but it seems to work). All program settings will written to the regdatabase to the Filtermail-Key
The executable is free and does not require any registration. However if you want to send me at least one e-mail as soon as you use it, to let me know that you use the program. By this you can inspire me to create new versions and other free software. The mailadress and homepage can be reached from the executable (by pressing the label with Mailto or URL) at any moment in order to look for new versions or give feedback.
The current beta release is: 2.0 beta 2 from 7 februari 1997
Download this version
I'm willing to program anything you'd like to have added to the source ! If you have any wishes, comments or request, send them to me.
Wishes and questions for future versions (random order)
- Allow to change the order of filters;
- Filtering for parts of lines (f.e. Search for AR in BART and replace by ER -> BERT);
- Multiple SMTP-personalities depending on TO: adress (this is difficult!);
- Source Cleanup;
- Adding TAGS and Lines at TOP of mailbody;
- Developpers information (interface for WEB-developpers);
- Conversion of charactersets (f.e to Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii")
- Automatic encoding / decoding of text and graphic files;
- Make RANDOM taglines "X-QOTD: " for Quote of the day;
- Add hostname (not ip) in Message-Id;
- Secured with password lock;
- Uninstall for Maillita (this will be done last!!);
Version 2.0 beta 2 (dd. 7 februari)
Version 2.0 beta 1 (dd. 26 Januari)
KNOWN PROBLEMS:
- Attachements from News Xpress don't come through. Is difficult to
change due to News Xpresses handling of mail
- Please test / check once in a while your attachements with all clients,
for an error occured and I didn't notice it !
Maillita can file all actions with the program to a logfile on disk. This logfile can be processed with Excel to a worksheet to do additional statistics.The logfile is standard configured with these fields:
Connection, Time, Date, Host-IP, Sender, To - Cc - Bcc adresses
Connection 17:32:58 23-11-96 127.0.0.1 maillita@dds.nl somebody@somewhere.com,somebody.else@somewhere.else.com
If not interested in this logging, simply disable logging to disk.
To install the application, simply start the exe file and fill in the settings according to the fields. I recommend to use a LOCAL SERVER PORT same as defined in the SERVICES file: 25 (standard for SMTP). If you experience ANY problems, change the LOCAL SERVER PORT to any port number higher than 1000.
Changing the SERVICES file
If you choose a port other than 25, don't forget to change your SERVICES-file
in your Windows directory to the port you set in Maillita. After changing
this setting, restart you X-mail program.
For example the smtp-entry in the SERVICES-file can be changed like:
smtp 25 /tcp mail
to:
smtp 2025 /tcp MAILLITA
The filter works very simple by checking an incoming mail- header for a requested string changing it into an other string. To keep high performance and a small and simple executable, there is no checking on WRONG settings for these variables: it is supposed to be simple, small and fast, therefore no extra error-checks. I have worked with it for about 2 months now (and some friends also) and have not had ONE error from it!
How to fill in the variables? Most X-mail programms like Eudora, Netscape Mail provide their header with a field called: X-Mailer and Message-ID. These strings need to be filled in (case sensitive). If the case doesn't match, no replacement shall be done. The ZIP-file also has a REG-file provided with the most common settings (RUN the REG-file to introduce the settings in the REGDATABASE).
In the future versions a new Filter definition is implemented. See below.
As the maillita server is set, you need to setup the mailclient. Adapt the SMTP-host or the SMTP gateway to the setting for LOCALHOST (IP-adress: 127.0.0.1) This way the mailclient works through the maillita server.
Overview and example:
-1- Editting settings in Maillita
To make sure the server is listening on the same port as the mailclient speaks, enter the SERVER Port as you specified in the SERVICES file for SMTP: 25 This way your mailclient and Maillita shall communicate together.
Set up the Search, Replace and Message-ID field in this way:
Search: X-Mailer:
Replace: X-Mailer: Mymail [choose own name after : ]
Message-Id: Message-
-2- Adapting the SMTP-server in the mailclient
If you use Netscape, Netscapes SMTP-server needs to be your localhost-adres, and can be entred as 127.0.0.1 or the IP-adress from your system if you don't have a flexible IP-adress.
For all versions
The LISTEN / LISTEN NOT function won't operate with Win NT. Maillita has been tested with NT4.0, and works fine, just not THAT function. Closing sockets is not done properly with every mailclient; this is being studied and will be improved.
For version 2.0 beta 1
- Filters work in WHOLE message body;
The program is totally free, no payment or what so ever (unless you want that), for questions and remarks you like you can send an e-mail to: maillita@dds.nl If there is a lot of interest and wishes, new functions can be programmed.
Maillita 2.0 beta 2
Freeware executable 32 bits for Win95 (runs also on NT4.0)
Written by: Bart Kerver
Purpose:
- filter mail for unwanted header X-Mailer / Message-ID
- add an extra X-Header
- provide some info over the amount of mails sent
- create simple and free "mailgate" for small LAN's
Thanks for testing:
Erik, Sander, Willem-Jan, Remco, Andre