NotifyMail 2.3.0
                       ©1994 by Scott Gruby
                      (Scott_Gruby@hmc.edu)

Introduction

NotifyMail is a system extension that will almost immediately notify you when new electronic mail arrives.

System Requirements

System 7.0.0 or higher
MacTCP 1.1 or higher
Eudora 1.4 or higher (optional)
POP account on a UNIX or VMS machine
          or
POP account on a Macintosh running MailShare

Installation

Put the NotifyMail extension in your Extensions folder and place an alias to Eudora or your Eudora settings file in the Startup Items folder. Run the Configure NotifyMail program and setup your preferences. (See Customization later in this documentation.) Restart your machine.

If you are using a VMS machine as a POP server, skip to VMS installation.

If you are using a UNIX machine as a POP server, follow UNIX installation and then skip VMS installation.

UNIX Installation

Create a file called .forward on your UNIX machine in your home directory. The contents of the file are as follows:

\username,
"| finger nm_notifyuser@machinename"

Where you will replace username with your login name on your UNIX machine, for example, mine is sgruby and you will replace machinename with the name associated with your Mac's IP address (DNS name) or you can simply put in your IP address in place of machinename.

Alternate UNIX Installation

If the above method doesn't work, your UNIX system may be running a more secure sendmail program. If this is the case, you can try this alternate method:

Your .forward file should be:

\sgruby,
"| /home/osiris/hmc_1995/sgruby/phftp"

(Replace sgruby with your username and /home/osiris/hmc_1995/sgruby with the full path of your directory.)

Then create a file called phftp that has the following in it:

finger nm_notifyuser@gorilla.st.hmc.edu

(Replace gorilla.st.hmc.edu with your machine name or IP address.)

Next, type:
chmod 755 phftp

If this still doesn't work, contact the author at the email address that is later in this document, and I will do my best to assist you. It may happen that you will have to talk to your system administrator about getting this to work.

VMS Installation

PMDF Deliver must be running on your VMS machine for this to work. If the following installation doesn’t work, verify that PMDF deliver is installed.

First off, create a file called mail.delivery in your home directory. The contents should be as follows:

*  *  *  A  E "finger nm_notifyuser@gorilla.st.hmc.edu"
*  *  *  A  D

replace gorilla.st.hmc.edu with the name (DNS name) or IP address of the Mac you want to use this on.

Then go into mail and type:

set forward "in%""~sgruby"""

Replacing sgruby with your username.
(This tells PMDF deliver to use the mail.delivery file that you created.)

Dynamic IP addressing

If your IP address changes on each connection such as dialup lines, follow these instructions:
Instead of creating the .forward, phftp, or mail.delivery file as described above on your UNIX or VMS machine, create the appropriately named file on your Macintosh. Replace the keyword nm_notifyuser with nm_username where you enter your username here. Also, don’t enter a machinename, instead enter a %. This will allow NotifyMail to insert your IP address each time you connect your machine to the network. For example, I would use:

\sgruby,
"| finger nm_sgruby@%"

After creating the file, run Configure NotifyMail and choose Startup Options. Click on dynamic IP addressing, enter your host name (IP address or name), your username, and password. Also select the file you just created by clicking on select file. NotifyMail will FTP the file to your host each time it starts providing the correct IP address. Note: the password is not secure and a hacker could look into the preferences file and find out your password.

More Installation Info

In the Eudora configuration, set the Check Mailing every X minutes to either 0 to have it never check mail, or a number such as 999,999 (the maximum is about 2^29 [536,870,912] minutes, so that it checks mail at startup.

If your Macintosh is not on, the finger command will timeout and your mail will simply stay in your mailbox on your VMS or UNIX machine.

Note for SLIP and PPP users

If your connection does not load at startup (i.e. before the Finder starts), then you will have to use ResEdit to change the file type of NotifyMail from ‘appe’ to ‘APPL’. After your connection has started, you will then have to launch NotifyMail by double clicking its icon.

Possible Problems

Problem:  Someone sends me mail, but I am not notified.
Solution:

a) On some UNIX machines, you have to give read and execute privileges to all users in order to access the .forward file. Contact your system administrator for help with this.

b) MacTCP was not properly initialized at startup. This may be due to an extension conflict or network problems. I would suggest restarting and that shoul'ºe problem. Make sure that you can use Eudora to manually check mail. If you can, restart your machine and see what happens. NotifyMail will inform you if MacTCP is not properly initialized.

Problem: I am notified of new mail, but when Eudora checks for mail, nothing is there. If I check again a little later, my mail is there.
Soltuion: Your UNIX machine may be a little slow in filing your mail. You can add a “sleep” command in your .forward file as follows:

\username,
"| sleep 10",
"| finger nm_notifyuser@machinename"

The sleep command tells your UNIX machine not to execute the following command for 10 seconds.

Problem: It just doesn’t seem to work.
Solution:
1. Verify that you followed these instructions completely.
2. Contact me (Scott_Gruby@hmc.edu), and I will try to verify your setup.
Note: I will help anyone with setting this up whether they are registered users or not.
Please don’t send in your shareware fee until this is functional.
3. Contact your system administrator for assistance because your mail server may be set up differently.

Problem: If I receive an even number of messages, Eudora’s doesn’t flash the mail icon. If I receive an odd number of messages, it works fine. What’s up?
Solution: This is a known bug in Eudora and NOT in NotifyMail. Versions of Eudora higher than 1.4.1 and 2.0.1 have this fixed.

Problem: My site prohibits the use of finger servers on Macs or I want to use a different finger server.
Solution: You can specify which port you want NotifyMail to listen to by using ResEdit and modifying STR# resource 129, String 1. Simply put in the port number you would like to use. The finger port is 79 and I recommend port 1035 if you don’t use the finger port. Some other ports may be reserved for POP servers, SMTP servers, etc. Be careful when modifying this. If you choose this option, your .forward file should be as follows:

\username,
"| echo quit | ftp machinename 1035"

Customization

NotifyMail is technically an extension, but it is simply a background only application. If you don't want NotifyMail to start up all the time, or you want to start NotifyMail after your machine is started, you can use ResEdit to change the type of NotifyMail from 'appe' to 'APPL'. The program works in exactly the same way.

Run the NotifyMail Configure Application and this will allow you to change several options about how NotifyMail works. Simply select Preferences from the file menu. These changes will take effect immediately after you choose Save.

Full balloon help is available for Configure NotifyMail.

For complete information on the options, consult the full documentation for NotifyMail.

Bonus Features

You can have people “finger” your Mac and receive information. In order to set this up, create a folder called Plans and place it in your Preferences Folder (in the System Folder). Then simply use TeachText or another text editor and place “plans” in that folder. Feel free to name them whatever you would like provided that there are no spaces or other illegal characters. Then someone can “finger plan_name@machinename”. You are not limited to the number of different plans you can have, but each plan must be less than 5K in size (only the first 5K of any plan will be displayed). You can also use aliases here to alias files that are in other locations on your hard drive. You can also create a user, for example sgruby, and then create an alias to that file and rename the alias as Scott. Someone could finger sgruby or finger Scott and receive the same response. You will also want to create a file called plan which will be displayed if someone fingers your machine without a username or if the specified username doesn’t exist.

You can use variables in your plan and NotifyMail will fill in the appropriate values. The following variables are available:

%timesecs%                      current time with seconds
%time%                             current time w/o seconds
%date-short%                   short form of date
%date-long%                     long form of date
%date-abbrev%                 abbreviated form of date
%startup-time%               time computer was last restarted
%startup-timesecs%        time computer was last restarted w/ secs
%startup-short%              date computer was last restarted
%startup-long%                date computer was last restarted
%startup-abbrev%             date computer was last restarted
%idle-timesecs%              time computer has been idle w/ secs
%idle-time%                     time computer has been idle
%time-frmstartup%         how long computer has been on
%timesecs-frmstartup%   how long computer has been on w/ secs
%directory%                       lists all files in your plans directory

Make sure you use the % on both sides of the variable. If you want to actually display a %, simply put %%. The variables can be inserted anywhere in any one of your plan files.

Note: NotifyMail is incompatible with Fingerd by Peter N. Lewis. Sorry about this, but using both would probably confuse both programs since they serve similar functions. If for some reason you don't want to use this finger method, consult the full documentation for instructions on modifying NotifyMail. The information is located under problems dealing with a finger server.

Registration and Distribution

NotifyMail is distributed as shareware. You are allowed 3 weeks to try NotifyMail and the companion Configure NotifyMail. If you choose to use these programs after that time, you must register NotifyMail. NotifyMail may be distributed by any electronic means as long as this file, the NotifyMail extension, and the Configure NotifyMail program are in the archive. If you would like to place NotifyMail on CD-ROM or sell it on a disk, you must get prior permission from the author. (This isn’t a big deal, I just want to know how my program is being distributed.)

Registration Costs: (all figures are in US funds)
1-8 users       $15.00/user
9-16 users     $13.00/user
17-25 users  $12.00/user

each additional user beyond 25 is $9/user

For site licensing and additional multi-user discounts, please send email to Scott_Gruby@hmc.edu. (I’m open to negotiations for site licensing and multi-user discounts.)

In order to register, send a check or money order (in US funds) payable to Scott Gruby to:
Scott Gruby
Platt Campus Center
Harvey Mudd College
Claremont, CA 91711 USA

From May 10 to August 31, 1994 please send checks to:
Scott Gruby
5383 Chelsea Street #101
La Jolla, CA 92037-7959 USA
(Also note, email to me may be delayed during this period.)

------------------- cut here ---------------------
Registration Form

Name:

Street Address:

City, State, ZIP, Country:

Phone number where you use NotifyMail:

Email address:
 (without this, I can’t send you the registration code)

Type of Macintosh:

What system version you are running (including Tune Up, Hardware update, etc.):

Version of NotifyMail you are using:

Where you obtained NotifyMail (be as specific as possible):
------------------- cut here ---------------------

If you feel that you deserve a registration (at a reduced cost), please contact me, and we can negotiate. I will accept other software or hardware in exchange for registration, if you contact me ahead of time.

After I receive your check, I will send you a registration name and code that you will enter into the Registration Box in Configure NotifyMail. You no longer will receive a periodic message to register. Also, when people finger you, they won’t see that you are using an unregistered copy. Please keep this registration code as you will need it for future upgrades.

About the Author

I am currently a junior at Harvey Mudd College pursuing a BS in engineering. After graduation, I plan to attend graduate school with an emphasis on computer engineering. I have been programming since 1984 when I first learned BASIC on an Apple //e. I have been doing Macintosh programming for the last 4 years mainly in Pascal, but recently started using C and C++. My future programming endeavors will probably be programs that are directly useful to me that other people may find useful.

Besides programming, my hobbies include cycling and first aid. Let’s take the first one: I am on the Claremont Colleges Cycling Team and do about a significant amount of cycling during the season (this is getting expensive, so send in your shareware fees!). My other hobby, first aid. I am not sure if you can really call this a hobby, but I have always wanted to help people and by learning first aid and having become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT 1-A), I feel that I can help people. I am also an American Red Cross instructor for various first aid courses, another way that I can help people.

Sending in your shareware fees will help me support my hobbies and put me through school. I would like to upgrade from my old Mac SE/30 sometime in the near future, but until I get some money, I will stick with this machine. (I hope that I have shamed you into sending in your shareware fee!)

Warranty

There is absolutely NO warranty, guarantee, hint, suggestion or anything else that NotifyMail will work in all situations. NotifyMail has been working fine on my SE/30 running under System 7.1, and has been tested on various other machines. I will do my best to help you get this program running on your machine, but I make no promises. Support for this product is available by email only to Scott_Gruby@hmc.edu.

Fine Print

Scott Gruby hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  Does any one really read this stuff? Scott Gruby will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if Scott Gruby or his agent has been advised of the possibility of such damages.  In no event shall Scott Gruby be liable for any damages, regardless of the form of the claim.  The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software.