5 Email client configuration

To configure your email client you must change the pop3 server settings. Usually you must use localhost as the pop3 host name, and 2000 as the pop3 port. In case you install FreePOPs in another computer of your LAN, you should use the host's name instead of localhost, while in case you changed the default port with the -p switch you will have to use that same port in your email client. You always have to use a full email address as username, for example something@libero.it instead of only something. This is because FreePOPs chooses the plugin to load by looking at your username. Later we will present all the plugins and their associated domains, and how to create an on-the-fly binding between a mail address and a domain.

5.1 Outlook Express tutorial

Here's a tutorial for configuring Outlook Express in a Windows environment. Other mail clients should be configured similarly.

• From the tools menu choose the Account... item (see figure 1)

Figure 1: main

• Select your account and click on Properties (see figure 2)

Figure 2: settings

• In the Server tab type in Incoming mail the name of the computer where you started FreePOPs, usually localhost. The Account name must be your complete email address, followed by the domain name your email belongs to, for example username@domain.com (see figure 3).

Figure 3: server

• In the Advanced settings tab type in Incoming mail the port number, that is 2000 if you accepted our settings. De-select This server requires a secure connection (SSL) (see figure 4).

Figure 4: advanced

5.2 Proxy tutorial

FreePOPs is able to use HTTP proxy servers. If you don't know what they are or if there's no proxy in your local network then you may skip this page, as the operations described herein will be useless to you.

In order to use a HTTP proxy, FreePOPs supports the -P option, or the equivalent long version -proxy, to specify the address and port of the proxy separated by : (colon), for example -P proxy.localnet.org:8080 or -P 192.168.1.1 are valid choices. If no port number is specified then 8080 will be used as a default value.

If authentication is necessary in order to use a proxy, use also the -A username:password option.

Remember that the values specified with the -P option have precedence over any other value obtained by the operating system in use.

In POSIX environments it's possible to use a proxy also using some environment variables.

The environment variables that will be used are, in order of precedence, HTTP_PROXY, http_proxy, PROXY and proxy.

The current implementation supports some proxy authentication methods, and some of them require the SSL version of FreePOPs.

5.3 Spam/AV tutorial

Several Windows users, in collaboration with the LiberoPOPs team have created a tutorial for antispam and antivurus software. This tutorial is for FreePOPs too.

5.3.1 Norton AntiVirus, version 2002 and up

It is necessary to have FreePOPs listen on port 110 by means of the -p option and then set your email client so that it receives mail on port 110. To change FreePOPs options, read the FAQ ``How do I change FreePOPs's command line switches?'' question.

5.3.2 Avast! AntiVirus

In your email client, change the username like this: email@address#localhost:2000 Inside the email client options, set the POP3 server port number to 110, instead of what explained in the previous tutorials.

5.3.3 AVG Pro 7 AntiVirus

In your email client, modify the POP3 port number to 5300, leave unmodified the username and server (email@address and localhost). In AVG, enter "Properties > Servers > Create a POP3 mail server (server type)", in connection set Fixed host: 127.0.0.1:2000 and Local port: 5300

5.3.4 SpamHilator

Configure your email client with the following parameters: POP3 server (incoming mail): localhost POP3 server port: 110 Username: localhost&email@address&2000

5.3.5 Mailshield Desktop

In Mailshield Desktop, choose "Edit mail account", choosing the account you want to modify. In "Account name" and "Email address" type your complete email address. Then choose "Access", in "type of Email server" use "POP3 mail account", while in "incoming mail server" type 127.0.0.1. It may be useful to select the option "Use relaxed timeouts with this email server".

5.3.6 K9

Set up your email client to use 9999 as POP3 server port. Leave localhost as server name. Then use localhost/2000/email@address as username.

5.3.7 SpamTerminator

Configure your email client with the following parameters: POP3 server (incoming mail): localhost POP3 server port: 8110 Username: email@address#localhost Then start FreePOPs with the option -p 110.

5.3.8 SpamPal

Configure your email client with the following parameters: POP3 server (incoming mail): localhost POP3 server port: 110 Username: email@address@localhost:2000

5.4 LAN tutorial

How to use FreePOPs as a server in a computer network (Windows-oriented tutorial).

A LAN is composed of 2 computers (or more, but from 2 to 100 it is the same). We'll call Sola the server and Cucco the client. FreePOPs will start on Sola with these options:
freepopsd.exe -b 0.0.0.0 -p 110  
that means that FreePOPs will bind on 0.0.0.0 (all network interfaces, offering the service to all) at port 110, the default POP3 port. Now we configure the mail client on Cucco, setting the POP3 server to Sola and the server port to 110. Now, consider Sola has a monitor too and we want to read some mail from here. We have to set the server to localhost and the port to 110.

By default under Windows FreePOPs binds on 127.0.0.1 offering the service only to the local computer, so the -b switch is really important here.