CompuServe e-mail in the H/PC Inbox

CompuServe recently changed its mail server so H/PC users can directly connect to CSi and download their email. Here's how you do it!

By Don Hergert

For almost a year, handheld PC users have been asking CompuServe (CSi) for a way to be able to use their Windows CE Inbox to connect to and get CompuServe email. The problem was that CSi's POP3 email service required a special layer of security called Remote Passphrase Authentication (RPA), which is not supported by Windows CE. Many H/PC users had their CompuServe email forwarded to another Internet Service Provider and picked it up there.

CompuServe has recently solved this problem by changing its POP3 (Post Office Point to Point Protocol) mail client so that the RPA layer is no longer required. This makes it usable by the Windows CE Inbox POP3 mail client (and other palmtop users). CompuServe's new email service is now available to all members; and just in time to support the Windows CE 2.0 Inbox with its attachments capability.

Setting up the H/PC and CompuServe to work together is complicated by the need to do part of the setup using a Web browser on a PC running Windows 95/98/NT. This set of instructions assumes that you already have an Internet Service Provider (CompuServe or another provider) and have already set up your PC and H/PC to work with it. It also assumes you are a CompuServe member.

Create a CompuServe POP3 mailbox from your desktop PC

Use your desktop PC's web browser to go to CompuServe's web page at: www.csi.com/communications. (Windows CE's Pocket Internet Explorer will not do here -- you must use your Windows 95/98/NT desktop PC.) Follow the instructions and prompts for creating a POP3 mailbox. Make sure to create a mailbox password -- create a "clear-text password" that Windows CE can support (see sidebar).

Also note that this site provides you with the option of changing your User ID to something more readable than the traditional numeric CompuServe User ID. Make sure to read through CompuServe's dialogue about other changes which may occur as a result of changing your User ID.

When you're done, CompuServe's web site will display a box with the settings you need for connecting to POP3 email. It will look something like this:

After configuring a CompuServe POP3 mailbox, CompuServe's web site displays a box with information you'll need to configure your H/PC's Inbox.

Print these out or write them down, along with your mailbox password (and your email User ID if you've changed it).

WARNING: If you choose to redirect your CompuServe email to this mailbox, remember that you won't be able to read your email from WinCIM or other CIM products any more (unless you un-redirect it).

Set up your H/PC

Open Inbox on your H/PC, tap Service from the Menu bar and select the Properties option. You are presented with the first of three screens used to set up your Internet Mail Service definition. If you have a Windows CE 1.0 H/PC, the screen will be titled: "Service Definition for: Mail (Step 1 of 3)." If you have CE 2.0, it will be titled: "Internet Mail Service Definition (1/3)."

[NOTE: If the Properties option is grayed out and won't open, you will have to go through the process of installing Internet Mail Service before you can define its properties. To do this, go back to the Menu bar and select Compose. Select Options, then the Services tab and tap on the Add button. From the Services list, tap on Internet Mail and hit OK. Give the service any name and tap OK again. This takes you to the Service Definition screen mentioned above.]

Fill in the Service Definition screen as follows :

	Connection -- Select the desired connection from the pull-down list.
	Mail host (labeled POP3 Host in Windows CE 2.0) -- Enter "pop.site1.csi.com"
	User ID -- Enter your CompuServe user ID, minus the "@csi.com"
	Password -- Enter your mailbox password
	Remember password (labeled Save password in CE 2.0) -- Check this box and you won't have to enter your password each time you get your mail.
	Host for sending messages (Labeled SMTP Host; in CE 2.0) -- Enter "smtp.site1.csi.com"
	Return address -- Enter your CompuServe user ID again, this time with the "@csi.com" at the end

The next two screens let you set General Preferences and Inbox Folder Preferences. You can leave them as they are and tap Finished.

You're all set!

Now you're ready to pick up your CompuServe email on your H/PC

Connect your H/PC to your modem.

Then connect to your Internet Service Provider. You can do this in one of three ways:

	Tap on the Remote Networking connection icon you created when you set up your H/PC for an Internet Service Provider.
	Start Inbox, tap on the Service menu and select the Connect option, which will start up your Remote Networking connection to your ISP automatically.
	Start Pocket Internet Explorer, which will start up your Remote Networking connection to your ISP automatically

If you're not already in Inbox and connected to the CSi POP3 email service, start Inbox and do the Service 3D > Connect now. When Inbox first connects it will check for email. If you wish to repeat that process afterward while running Inbox, do a Service Refresh.

This should do it for you. CompuServe's next big step is to move its Information Service content to a Web browser format. Many of CompuServe's Windows CE users are really looking forward to this because they will be able to use Pocket Internet Explorer to browse around the forums and other CSi services.

CompuServe's New Email Service

Remote Passphrase Authentication (RPA) is a security layer that used to be in place in CSi's POP3/SMTP email service as the one and only security method through which everyone had to pass to get their email. It's a good security system, supported by most Win95/NT4 POP3/SMTP email client programs. However, WinCE's Inbox program does not support it!

In order to make its POP3 /SMTP email service work for Windows CE users, CSi created a new security system which uses a "clear-text password" which is a simple ASCII text word or group of characters designed exclusively for the email service. Windows CE's Inbox program does support this type of security method, and so we can use it to access CSi's POP3/SMTP email service.

Implied by the name "clear-text password" is the fact that this password is not a secure password over the Internet. Anyone on the Internet using sniffing tools on this connection could view this password being sent to CompuServe in "clear text" and could potentially access this user's mailbox maliciously ¡ something they could not do with the RPA system.

For this reason, CSi users should change this special password frequently, and most of all, they should not use their normal CSi password for the CSi POP3/SMTP email service.