Ram & Reason: PocoMail
by Rob Rice
May 2005
I have been using
PocoMail for about a year now and while it does
not have in it everything that I want, it comes
pretty darn close.
I suspect that my
e-mail saga is not much different from other
folks; I had used Microsoft’s Outlook Express and
got fed up with its limitations. I next went to
Mozilla / Netscape’s built in e-mail, but it would
lose my folders (this was fixed later on). From
there I went to Microsoft Outlook and was quickly
irritated with the whole forced registration
process every time I changed my hardware. So, I
moved on to Pegasus for about two years, a nice,
free program that is rather clunky to use but is
limited in its handling of photos and multimedia.
Secure BAT was terrific except for when I lost the
hardware key, leaving all of my e-mail locked away
with no available access except to buy a new key.
But then a
birthday present arrived in the form of PocoMail
and suddenly I am experiencing a newfound
stability.
Security was one
reason that I dumped Outlook and stuck with
Pegasus for so long. Fortunately, PocoMail does
pretty well in this area. PocoMail has its own
internal HTML viewer and does not use the Internet
Explorer component to preview HTML messages. It
also has a one-click feature that will sanitize an
HTML message or even strip out the tags entirely
leaving the message in plain text. Viruses such as
BubbleBoy have taken advantage of Internet
Explorer’s security holes to launch themselves
even if you have not opened the e-mail. Just
showing up in the preview pane was enough. What is
more, PocoMail does not understand either VBScript
or JavaScript, which are common in e-mail viruses;
however, PocoMail does have its own scripting
language so that it can be customized but this is
turned off by default. So, you must turn it on in
order for PocoScript to run.
PocoMail also
plays nice with Antivirus programs; it can launch
your virus scanner automatically on any received
attachments or specified file types.
A feature that I
have really come to rely on for avoiding viruses
and spam is the ability to review and delete
messages while still on the mail server. This way
they are never downloaded to my computer. PocoMail
has the PocoConsole that allows you to do this.
Junk mail can be handled through traditional
filters and the Bayesian Junk Mail Filter as well.
Another item that
I really appreciate is that PocoMail can prevent
external HTTP requests when reading messages. This
is a common spamming technique. The spammer will
send you a message with a graphic. The e-mail,
when opened, calls for the picture, banner, or
even a 1 pixel size image (A.K.A. a webbug) to be
downloaded from a server, which in turn tells the
spammer that the address is legitimate and that
you are looking at your e-mail. The spammer can
even include a virus if so desired. Pressing the
Image Download toggle button (on top of the
preview pane), or unchecking the Download Message
Images in File menu will stop outgoing connections
with PocoMail.
You can set up an
unlimited number of e-mail accounts and
newsgroups, just drag and drop accounts in the
order you wish to use them. Mailboxes are tabbed
for easy access and can be arranged in a
hierarchal fashion according to one’s needs.
Spell-check and a slew
of little smiley-face emoticons are included in
the package. It also can handle large group
mailings without any seeming difficulty.
PocoMail also uses
common text-based formats for all of its user
files. Mailboxes utilize the RFC822 format and
address books use CSV format. This means it is
easy to move your mail to other e-mail programs
including Outlook, Eudora and Pegasus.
I suppose if I were
king for a day I would improve on PocoMail’s
spellchecking and look to add a good grammar
checking option. The spell check is pretty good
but at times limiting. Moreover, I would add
better picture control such as borders, resizing,
etc.
PocoMail boasts many other features such as:
• Message Markings: messages can be quickly
marked with mouse or keyboard.
• Skinning: change the application appearance,
from colors to graphics.
• Full-page preview pane.
• Barebones (Minimal) display option.
• Templates: setup templates to quickly compose
repetitive messages.
• Selective Index View: quickly turn a mailbox
of 10,000 messages into a view of 10 messages
from the sender you need.
• Message Threading: each mailbox can be set to
threaded view, so that you can easily follow
conversation threads.
• Text Auto-complete: for writing a certain
phrase over and over again so that typing "addr"
expands right away into your full address.
• Flexible Attachments Handling: supported
attachments are previewed right inside the
message, or with quick access tabs.
All in all,
PocoMail has been a pleasure to work with – not
too fussy and it gets the job done. A trial
version is available and really worth your look.
If you need a calendar and planner along with
e-mail, then you might try the newly released
Barca, which includes PocoMail.
Poco Systems,
Inc. is a small, privately held company located in
Victoria, BC, Canada, with an office in
Charlottesville, Virginia. PocoMail & Barca -
http://www.pocosystems.com
Rob Rice is a computer specialist working
in Anchorage, Alaska. Rob can be contacted at articles@isp.com