Salespeople, traveling consultants, or employees working at home can keep in touch with what is happening at the office or at any other network site by using Snap Mail and AppleTalk Remote Access‚Ñ¢ (ARA) software.
• Setting up ARA and Snap Mail
To make a remote connection to a network, both the remote computer and a computer on the network must be using ARA software. Refer to the instructions that come with ARA for setup and connection procedures.
Before you use Snap Mail with ARA, you must change three preferences:
1) Set the “Network” preferences to tell Snap Mail the slowest speed you will be using to communicate.
2) On the Mac that will be connecting to the remote network, turn on the “Server” preference “Send All Mail Directly To Server.”
3) On the Mac that is acting as the remote server, turn on the “Server” preference “Allow This Computer To Function As A Server.”
• Once the Connection is Made...
When you make a connection using ARA, Snap Mail will automatically query the remote network to see which users are available. If you have the Snap Mail window open, you will see the User List updated after approximately 30 seconds (the exact time depends on the speed of your modem and the size of the network to which you connect).
Once the remote network has been scanned, any outgoing messages you have composed will start being sent, and any mail pending for you on the remote network will start arriving. To the left of the “InBox” and “OutBox” titles, you will see arrows that indicate that messages are in transit. Both arrows may appear at the same time. When no arrows are showing, no mail is being sent or received.
A dot inside an arrow will appear to move in the direction of the arrow when mail is making progress. If the dot in the outgoing arrow is not moving, this means that mail transmission has stalled. This usually occurs when you have disconnected from the phone line before all of your outgoing messages have been sent, or when a large message is arriving, which will temporarily prevent your messages from being sent out.
When you connect to a remote network using ARA, the arrows should appear soon after your list of users is updated. If no incoming arrow appears after approximately 15 to 30 seconds, you can usually assume that there are no messages for you and disconnect from the phone line. However, if the network you are calling is very active—lots of people sending lots of Snap Mail messages—it can take longer for the arrows to appear.
