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FreePOPs F.A.Q.

How do I configure FreePOPs?

In normal use conditions you don't need to configure FreePOPs, you just have to change your mail client settings as described in the tutorial. For other use cases we provided specific tutorials. Remember to set the POP3 server address to localhost (if you've installed FreePOPs on the same computer where you read your mail, otherwise use the IP address of the computer where FreePOPs is installed), the server port to 2000 (or whatever you chose if you ran FreePOPs with the -p option) and to set the username to your full email address (in the form username@webmail.domain).

If you continue having problems after reading the manual and the tutorial you can post on the forum (in Italian and English).

How much does it cost?

FreePOPs is Free Software, Free as in Freedom and Free as in "Free Beer". You can download, use it, and modify it freely, but if you care about the four friends who made it you may send them a beer asking for their address via email, or a small donation (through the project website on SourceForge).

I’ve installed FreePOPs and properly configured my mail client, but I’m unable to send mail...?

FreePOPs helps you only in receiving messages. To send mail you have to use the SMTP server from your network provider. If you don't know what SMTP to use, try reading the STMP list page on this website (provided by regular users) for a possible answer or check out your ISP website and their tech support.

This software is in beta stage... will I lose my mail?

Nobody guarantees the software they write, even if you pay a lot for it. FreePOPs seems to be safe enough to us, but we can't guarantee anything (no software is really safe and secure). Besides no one guarantees your mail client works well, so if you're using that...

How can I help the project?

Use the source Luke... Sources are freely available, feel free to send us patches and bug reports.

If you want, you can donate to the project via Sourceforge and Paypal.

When you want to report a bug, check that you are using the latest version (we advise you uninstall an old version before installing a new one) and don't forget to include:

• The version number of your copy of FreePOPs
• The operating system you are running
• Your mail client name and version
• Most importantly the log of FreePOPs, generated with the -w option (read further if you don't know how to add command line parameters). Make sure that the log doesn't contain any sensitive info you wouldn't like to disclose (to the authors). But don't worry, your password is never recorded in the log, it's substituted by a sequence of nine (9) asterisks, no matter what is its real length.

Where is the log?

It depends on the system you are using. On a GNU/Linux system it is probably in /var/log/freepops or wherever you specified with the -l option. On a Windows system the file log.txt is in the same folder of the FreePOPs executable or wherever you specified with the -l option.

Before sending the log make sure that it was generated with the -vv or -w option (see below). These parameters generate a "verbose log" that makes it much easier for us to discover problems. We suggest you erase the log file, start FreePOPs with the switch and recreate the problem. Also make sure that it doesn't contain sensitive info you wouldn't like to disclose.

How do I change FreePOPs' command line switches?

On a Unix system you should know how to do this, just add the switches to the command you use to run FreePOPs (maybe from a script).

On a Windows system you have two options: you may open the properties of the FreePOPs link in the Start -> Programs -> FreePOPs menu (right click on the link then select "Properties...") and add the switches in the command line in the "Target" box there (after the double quotes around X:\Something\freepopsd.exe); or, run FreePOPs manually from a DOS window with the options you like (again, after the name of the executable).

The command line parameters you need depend on your specific needs. Read the appropriate section of the manual to know what all available parameters are, or run freepopsd -h (also man freepopsd on Unix).

• Unix example: /usr/bin/freepopsd -P proxy:port -A user:pass -w -l logfile.txt
• Windows example: C:\Programs\FreePOPs\freepopsd.exe -w

My "Antivirus" says FreePOPs is a virus!

Stop using that crazy antivirus :-) Seriously, FreePOPs does not contain viruses, trojan horses, worms, arcane formulae for deamonic rites, secret plans for taking over the world or anything like all that. If you don't believe us, the source code is available to everyone (the program is released under the GNU GPL license) and thinking you could hide malicious code in plain sunlight would be crazy. Therefore any antivirus software that detects this kind of problems has accuracy problems of its own, to say the least.

It sure is true that downloading a pre-compiled binary from an unknown source is like asking for trouble. Pre-compiled binary packages you find on the official website come from the source code that everyone can get. What you find on free (as in "free beer") software websites or you download through peer-to-peer file sharing systems can't obviously guarantee any kind of safety. So use some common sense.