General Settings
  • Incoming Mail Settings
  • Outgoing Mail Settings
  • Retrieve Settings
  • Messages Settings
  • Cleanup Settings
  • News Settings
  • PGP Settings

    This notebook is accessed via the toolbar button by the same name, the General submenu option of the Options option on the program's main window's Tools menu, or the OK-Goto General button in the Advanced Settings notebook. These two settings notebooks hold most of the program's settings, but many others are found instead in the location where you use them. For example, the main window's Message menu remembers things such as your Word wrap, Decode attachments, Headers, and font settings; the compose window remembers your word wrap and font settings; etc.

    The Mail Servers Page

    The first option lets you specify whether your mail server is a POP3 server or an IMAP4 server. If you select IMAP4, two extra settings, Mail Folder and Mailbox Name, will appear; see Preview IMAP4 Mail for their explanations as well as information about the other ways in which the program will act differently based on whether an account is configured for POP3 or IMAP4.

    If you leave blank any of the next three fields here, the program will prompt you for all of this information each time you try to retrieve mail from the server. This can be useful if you don't want your password to be stored on your hard drive (even though the program does encrypt it before storing it) or if you often like to retrieve mail from other mail accounts into one Polarbar Mailer account. (However, you probably don't want to leave the User Name field blank, because unless you have the Personal Post Office feature enabled, the program will open the General Settings notebook automatically each time you start it if there's no User Name filled in here.)

    Server
    The address of the POP3 or IMAP4 server from which this account gets its mail.
    User Name
    The userid by which your POP3 or IMAP4 server knows this account. Very often, the piece of information that goes here is the part of your email address before the @ sign.
    Password
    The password used to make your POP3 or IMAP4 server provide access to this account's mail.
    Connection Timeout
    How many seconds the program should wait for a connection. It will stop waiting sooner than this if TCP/IP returns an error or if the connection is made.
    Port
    Usually 110, the port number to which the POP3 server will respond. For an IMAP4 server, this setting is normally 143.
    The Outgoing Mail Page
    Server List
    Mail sent using this account is sent via one or more outgoing mail servers that are configured on this page. The order in which the server connections are attempted is from top to bottom. Polarbar does not memorize which server it used previously and always starts with the first listed server. You can configure each server to only be used if your computer's IP address is in one (or more) specific IP address range(s).
    Add Button
    Use the Add button to add a new outgoing mail server entry. Polarbar pops up a "New Server" dialog that lets you choose which type of server to configure:
    1. SMTP
      A standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol server.
    2. Auth SMTP
      An SMTP server that supports the AUTH LOGIN authentication protocol that requires you to log in with your user ID and password. If you are not sure if your ISP uses a plain SMTP server or supports AUTH LOGIN, choosing this server type is a safe option, because if it turns out that the server doesn't support AUTH LOGIN, Polarbar will fall back to the simple SMTP usage.
    3. POP3 (out)
      A standard Post Office Protocol 3 server that requires you to log in with your user ID and password.
    4. PPO
      A type of server that requires you to deposit your mail into a specific directory that it scans periodically for new outgoing mail.
    The new server entry is added to the bottom of the list and is listed as "undefined".
    Change Button
    Use the Change button to edit the settings for the highlighted server entry. You can also double-click on a server entry to enter edit mode.
    Delete Button
    Use the Delete button to delete the highlighted entry.
    Up Button
    Use the Up button to move the highlighted entry up one slot in the list.
    Down Button
    Use the Down button to move the highlighted entry down one slot in the list.

    For all server types other than PPO, the "Edit connection settings" dialog uses the same basic dialog with minor differences between the types, as described below:

    Mail Server
    The address for the mail server (e.g., mail@myisp.com).
    Port
    Usually 25 for an SMTP or Auth SMTP server or 110 for a POP3 (out) server.
    Test Connection Button
    When you activate this button, Polarbar tests the connection to this server and reports the results by changing the button text. If the connection attempt fails, you can adjust the server settings and test the connection again.
    Connection Timeout
    How many seconds the program should wait for a connection. It will stop waiting sooner than this if TCP/IP returns an error or if the connection is made.
    Attempts
    How many attempts Polarbar should make to connect to this server before moving on to the next server in the list.
    IP Address Range
    A optional list of IP address ranges, separated by semicolon, that your computer's IP address must be within in order for Polarbar to use this server. For example, if the ISP that owns this server always gives your computer an IP address that starts with 39.12 or 39.13 when you are connected to the ISP's network, then you could enter 39.12;39.13 into this field. Then if you were dialed into some other network, this server would not be used to send your mail.
    Userid
    For Auth SMTP and POP3 (out) servers only. Your user ID for this mail server.
    Password
    For Auth SMTP and POP3 (out) servers only. Your password for this mail server. This field is optional. If it is blank, then Polarbar will prompt you for your password every time that it attempts to send mail using this server.
    The Retrieving Page
    Retrieve new mail only
    This setting applies only when mail is being retrieved from a POP3 or IMAP4 server, not from the Personal Post Office directory. When this checkbox is turned on, the program will only retrieve messages that it thinks you haven't already read. You might use this setting if you like to leave your mail on the server for safekeeping or for future reference. The way in which the program will decide which messages you have and have not read depends upon the state of the Mail server supports the UIDL command setting, below.  The only reason for the existence of the high message counter method is for those few POP3 servers which don't support UIDL.
    If that setting is turned off, so that the UIDL identifiers can't be used, then the program will only retrieve messages whose message number is higher than that specified in the Last message number setting and it will update that setting each time it retrieves a message. (This applies to normal mail retrieval, not anything done by the Preview Mail feature.) Do not use this setting if you use another program or the Preview Mail feature to retrieve mail from the same server on the same account, unless you manually adjust the Last message number setting accordingly.
    If the Mail server supports the UIDL command setting is turned on, then the Last message number setting will be ignored and the program will instead determine whether or not to retrieve a message based on whether or not the server's Unique IDentification Listing for that message is already stored in the account's UIDL.IDS file or not.
    Last message number
    When the Retrieve new mail only setting is in use but the Mail server supports the UIDL command setting is not, this number is what tells the program which messages to retrieve from the server. For example, when this setting says 6, the program will retrieve message 7 and anything thereafter. If the program finds that there are only 6 messages in the account on the mail server, it will think there are no new messages to retrieve. If it finds that there are 5 or fewer messages on the server (for example, if you have used Preview Mail or another program to delete some), then it will retrieve all of the mail since it obviously can't rely on a high message counter that's higher than the last message in the server. However, if you use Preview Mail or another program to delete some mail but some other new mail arrives too, so that the number of messages in the server is still as high or higher than this high message counter, the program will not retrieve all of your new mail. For example, if the setting says 6, you've deleted 2, and 3 new ones have arrived so the server now contains 7, then messages 5 through 7 are new, but the program will only download message number 7 since that's the only one that's higher than the high message counter. If you remembered to reset this setting to 4 after you deleted the two messages from the server, though, then everything would be fine and the program would download all of the right messages.
    Mail server supports the UIDL command
    The program will automatically turn this checkbox off, if your server returns an error code in response to the program's attempt at using the UIDL command (see Retrieve new mail only, above). If your Internet Service Provider installs new server software that does support UIDL, or you change to an ISP whose server does, turn this checkbox back on. You can also turn this checkbox off even if your server does support the UIDL command, if you think you will not be wanting to use the UIDL feature any time soon and you don't want the program to waste time retrieving the UIDL identifiers if you're not going to be using them. If this checkbox is on, the program will retrieve the UIDLs even when Retrieve new mail only is turned off, so that once you do turn it on, the program will already know which of the messages on your server you've read up to that point. The program keeps the UIDL records of all the messages that are currently in your POP3/IMAP4 server account each time you retrieve mail, in the UIDL.IDS file in your account subdirectory.
    Download POP3 mail in reverse order
    With this checkbox turned on, the program will download messages from the POP3 server in the reverse order from that in which they are listed. This option is intended to be used with POP3 servers that list messages from newest to oldest, instead of the traditional oldest to newest.
    Delete retrieved messages from server
    With this checkbox turned on, the program will delete messages from the server after successfully retrieving them.
    Retrieve mail automatically every [ ] minutes
    With this checkbox turned on and a number of minutes specified, the program will automatically retrieve new mail whenever the account is open after each time the specified number of minutes elapses. To temporarily turn it off, or to make automatic mail retrieval occur on all accounts, see Popper.
    Provide a warning for messages larger than [ ] kilobytes
    With this checkbox turned on and a number of kilobytes specified, the program will not retrieve a message larger than that size. Instead, it will retrieve only its headers. The message that ends up in your INBOX folder will contain a notice from the program that you need to use the Preview Mail feature to retrieve the entire message. This way, you know the sender and the subject line of the message to decide when to retrieve the message at your own convenience rather than having your system tied up by a large download when you weren't expecting it.
    Send mail in outbox when performing receive
    With this checkbox turned on PBM will try to send any messages in your outbox as soon as a mail retrieval process has been started.
    Popper retreives to another account
    With this checkbox turned on, any messages that are retrieved for this account when the Popper is running are instead redirected to the account that is specified in the drop-down list to the right, unless this account is the active account when the The Messages Page
    Prompt before deleting messages
    With this checkbox turned on, the program will ask you for confirmation each time you delete a message from a folder. Caution: If turn off this setting, it is suggested that you enable the cleanup setting: Copy Discarded Messages to Trash to avoid accidental loss of messages.
    Prompt before permitting addresses without domains
    With this checkbox turned on, the program will ask you whether you're sure you haven't made a mistake each time you try to leave the compose window with an addressee which is not formatted like a legal internet address and is also not found as a nickname in one of your address books. Turn this setting off if you need to be able to address messages to other users on your own network without having to specify the domain name as part of the address.
    Include message headers when forwarding
    If you turn this setting on, then when you forward a message, its header lines will be included instead of only its message body text.
    Scan unread messages across folders
    If you turn this setting on, then when you select Next Unread Message and there are no more unread messages in the current folder, the program will advance to the next folder with unread messages in it, if any, not counting the draft, outbox, and trash folders.
    Remember folder message list sort order
    If you turn this setting on, then when you sort the Message List, the sort order will be retained between visits to to folder and between invocations of the program.
    Switch focus on message selection
    If you turn this setting on, then after a message is selected, the window focus is switched back to the message browser.
    Default word wrapping ON/OFF for all composed messages
    This setting lets you specify whether you want the Word wrap setting on the Edit menu of the compose window to be on or off by default.
    Show attachment messages
    If you turn this setting on, then Polarbar will insert the following messages about attachments into the main body, when appropriate:
    o "|===[ Inline attachment follows ]===|"
    o "|===[ HTML message converted to attachment ]===|"
    o "|===[ Only decoded first attachment ]===|"
    Default MIME/UUENCODE as the method of encoding attached files
    This setting lets you specify whether you want the compose window's Attachments menu setting to default to Mime or UUencode.
    The Cleanup Page
    Maintain the Transaction Log
    With this checkbox turned on, the program will monitor the size of the message transaction log file and remove the oldest entries in order to make it adhere to the Maximum Number of Log Items setting. This action is taken each time you close an account, either by switching to another account or by closing the program.
    Maximum Number of Log Items
    If the Maintain the Transaction Log setting is turned on, the program will remove the oldest entries from the message transaction log file in order to keep only this number of entries in the file.
    Maintain the Trash Folder
    With this checkbox turned on, the program will monitor the size of the TRASH folder and delete the messages that have been in it the longest, in order to make its size adhere to the Maximum Number of Trash Messages setting. This action is taken each time you close an account, either by switching to another account or by closing the program.
    Maximum Number of Trash Messages
    If the Maintain the Trash Folder setting is turned on, the program will delete from the TRASH folder the messages which have been in it the longest in order to keep only this number of messages in the folder.
    Copy Discarded Messages to the Trash Folder
    With this setting turned on, the program will copy deleted messages to the TRASH folder. If this setting is not turned on, messages will be permanently removed from the drive with no backup. Note also that with this setting enabled, sent messages will be saved to trash if no sent folder is selected.
    Persist Java console output to debug file
    Used for diagnostic purposes, this setting sends various messages about internal operations and error messages to a file named DEBUG.OUT in the Polarbar main directory. Normally this setting is off.
    Max log size in kilobytes before archiving
    Enabled only when Persist Java console is checked, this setting determines how large the diagnostic file can grow to. Once this size is reached, it is either truncated if the next setting (number of archives) is 0 or it is archived and then truncated.
    Number of log archives to keep
    Enabled only when Persist Java console is checked, this setting determines how many diagnostic files are kept. An archive file is created only when the diagnostic file reaches the pre-defined max log size setting above. Any number of archived files can be maintained, limited only by disk space.
    Number of status message lines to keep for viewing
    This setting determines how far back you can view status line messages that are ovewritten over time. Status line messages are the ones that show the number of messages downloaded and how many notes were filtered, etc. The default is 100 lines. Entering a larger number for this value may result in increased memory usage and should be adjusted with care.
    Number of Java console lines to keep for viewing
    This setting determines how far back you can view standard Java console messages that are redirected by Polarbar when it starts. Java console messages usually only occur when errors or diagnostic messages are produced by Polarbar error handling routines. The default is 1000 lines. Entering a larger number for this value may result in increased memory usage and should be adjusted with care.
    The News Page

    If your only use of internet newsgroups is by web sites such as http://www.dejanews.com or http://www.hotbot.com, you don't need a news reader application. Those web sites let you read all the newsgroup postings you want and they even let you write a reply, but not easily. The Polarbar Mailer provides an easy way to write newsgroup postings and replies so you can interact with such web sites in both directions without using a full-fledged news reader. To write an original posting, just type NEWS: and the newsgroup name as the addressee, in the compose window. To reply to a posting on a newsgroup web site, see Paste quoted.

    News Server
    The address of your news server.
    Note: If you don't want to use the Polarbar news posting feature, you should leave the New Server field blank in order to avoid occasional Paste Quoted oddities where Polarbar thinks that you are trying to reply to a news message.
    Port Number
    Usually 119, the port number to which the news server will respond.
    Interpret addresses containing a period (.) but no (@) as newsgroups
    If you leave this setting on, then you don't have to type NEWS: before a newsgroup name in the Addresses: field of the compose window. The program will assume that any address that has a period without an @ sign is a newsgroup and will send the message using your news server. (If the message also has other addressees that don't look like newsgroup names, the program will send the message to those addressees using the SMTP or POP3 server; it will only send the message to the news server for those addressees that look like newsgroup names.)
    Note: This setting applies to you even if you never want to use the Polarbar Mailer for newsgroup postings or replies. If you need to be able to send an email message to an address which does not contain an @ sign but does contain a period (for example, another user at your own domain so that you want to leave off the @ sign and the domain name, but his username has a period in it), then you have to turn this setting off or else the program will always try to send that message to your news server (and if you don't have your news server setting filled in, the program is going to prompt you for it at send time). With this setting turned off, the program will never try to send anything to the news server unless you type NEWS: in front of the address in the compose window.
    The PGP Page

    This page lets you configure Polarbar for use with PGP for signing and verification of mail messages.

    PGP Public Keyring
    Enter the path to your PGP public keyring or use the Find button to locate it.
    PGP Secret Keyring
    Enter the path to your PGP secret keyring or use the Find button to locate it.
    PGP ID
    Enter your PGP ID here or locate it using the find button.
    PGP Passphrase
    Only type your PGP passphrase here if you want it to be stored in Polarbar's account settings file, using weak encryption. If you don't type your passphrase here, then each time you start Polarbar, you will be prompted for your passphrase the first time that Polarbar might need it since the time you started Polarbar. If you do enter your passphrase here, you can test it using the Test button.