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E-Mail Management FAQ

The version of Pine installed on the Free-Net server provides many e-mail management capabilities. You can read the Pine Users Guide for a description of many of the features of Pine. While you are using Pine, you can get help on any particular field that you are required to fill in by highlighting the field and then pressing "Ctrl G". We have also included answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about managing e-mail on the Free-Net.

If you have MS Windows or a Macintosh system, you may also be able to use the Free-Net dialup modem to manage e-mail offline. To download and install this software, see Eudora Light 3.0 Dialup (Windows only).

If you have MS DOS, you may also be able to use the Free-Net dialup modem with the freeware program NUPop to manage e-mail offline. To download and install this software, see NUPop Dialup.

How do I manage E-Mail files?

* What is a mail subdirectory?
* How do I download e-mail from my mail subdirectory?
* How do I send e-mail attachments?
* How do I receive e-mail attachments?
* Saving Attachments in Pine
* How do I write e-mail messages "off-line"?
* What if Pine tells me my quota is exceeded? 

How can my e-mail address be used?

* Can America Online users send mail to my address?
* Can I use my old address on Free-Net?
* Windows-Based E-Mail
* I always get an error using Eudora to retrieve e-mail 

Managing E-Mail Files
What is a Mail Directory?
The Free-Net system automatically places all incoming mail messages addressed to you in a folder named "inbox" located in the "mail" subdirectory of your work directory. All e-mail messages remain here until you physically delete them. It is your responsibility to make sure this subdirectory does not become too full. You will be warned after your Free-Net login if you are approaching your space limitations.

How How Do I Download my E-Mail?

1. Navigate to your "mail" subdirectory.
2. Highlight the folder you wish to download. Typically, this would be the "inbox" folder, though you can create additional folders to hold e-mail.
3. Press 'd'.
4. Select the download protocol you'd like to use. (See your modem software or terminal emulator's documentation).
5. Enter a filename or simply press RETURN to accept the default name.
6. The file is downloaded to your computer.
7. When done, the download protocol options are displayed again.
8. To return to the Main Menu, press 'm' then 'y' to confirm.
9. To delete the messages from the server, go into the Pine e-mail program and use the delete function.

Note: Verify that any important messages were downloaded correctly before deleting them from the Free-Net system. 

How Do I Send E-Mail Attachments?
Pine, the mail system used by Free-Net, can handle attachments. An attachment is an additional file that can be attached to an e-mail message. For instance, you may wish to e-mail someone a word processing file or a spreadsheet. First you have to upload the file to your work directory, then use the Insert function of Pine to attach the file.

How Do I Receive E-Mail Attachments?

Pine handles attachments like any other e-mail message. When you press 'v' to view a message, Pine lists attachments below the "Subject:" line:

From: The King <elvis@grace.land>
To: Bradley Carlson <carlson@tcfreenet.org>
Subject: my latest tune
Parts/attachments:
1 Shown 1 lines Text 
2 405 KB File "amy.au", "my new song" 
----------------------------------------
Howdy, Bradley! Check out these new lyrics I wrote. I got the words to 
rhyme, and everything!

-Elvis

[Part 2, "my new song" Attached file "amy.au" 405KB]
[Can not display this part. Use the "V" command to save in a file]


In the example, under "Parts/attachments:" the message indicates two parts: the body of the e-mail (shown) and an attachment (not visible right now).

Follow these steps to access the attachment:

1. Press 'v'.
2. A list shows the different parts of the e-mail message along with a part number, size, type, and the sender's comments (if any).
3. Use the arrow keys to highlight the attachment you want. (Part 2 in the example.)
4. If the type of the attachment is "text" or "ISO-Latin", you can probably view it from this screen by pressing 'v'. Otherwise, save it as a separate file by pressing 's'.
5. At the prompt, enter a file name, or accept the default. Press 'RETURN'.
6. A copy of the attachment is saved in your "mail" subdirectory.

Note: If an attachment is too large, you may get an error. See Tips, Tricks, and Plain Old Bugs for possible ways to retrieve the attachment.

7. To return to your inbox, press 'e', then 'i'.
8. To delete the e-mail message and all its attachments, press 'd'. You cannot delete a single part or attachment within a message. 

Saving Attachments in Pine
When saving attachments from inside Pine, it's easy to run out of space in your Free-Net account. Even if you delete the e-mail message immediately after you save its attachment, you still need enough free storage space in your account to hold the attachment twice. This is because even after you've saved the attachment to a separate file, it is still stored with your e-mail until you delete the message.

You can try to work around this limitation by skipping an intermediary step: instead of saving the attachment to a file, then downloading the file, you can simply download your "inbox" mail folder. However, if the attachment is not plain text (e.g., a binary sound file, image, program, or data file from a program), the file you download will include a version of the attachment that has been encoded as text.

In order to use the file, you first need to find a program that can decode the file (the Pine program normally takes care of decoding when it saves the attachment to a file). You could ask the sender to encode the file using "binhex" before attaching it; in this case, you could use a decoder which can un-binhex the file to extract it from your (downloaded) inbox mail folder.
How Do I write E-Mail Messages Off-Line?

This is an excellent way to reduce actual time on-line. Compose your e-mail messages before logging on.

1. Write your message with your favorite text editor. Do not format it and leave a blank line between each paragraph. Save each message as a separate text file.

Note: If your message is formatted beyond simple paragraphs, save the message as "Text with Line Breaks" (sometimes called "DOS Text").

2. Upload the file.
3. Next, use Pine to compose a new message - address, subject, etc.
4. Press 'TAB' or the down-arrow to place the cursor below the line marked "-Message Text-", and press 'Control-R'.
5. At the "Insert file from work directory:" prompt, press 'Control-T'.
6. A list of files and subdirectories in your work directory is displayed. This list is formatted differently from the list you may have viewed while uploading your file, but it lists the same information. Use the arrow keys to highlight the name of the file you wish to include and press 'RETURN'.
7. Edit the message, if desired.
8. Press 'Control-X' to send the message, then press 'y' to confirm.

Note: The file you uploaded is still stored in your work directory and can now be deleted. 

How can my e-mail address be used?
Can America Online users send mail to my address?
All email addresses on the Twin Cities Free-Net take the form:

loginname@tcfreenet.org


... where the text before the "@" sign is your account name. For example, if your name is Zed Smith and your account name is "smithz", your email address is "smithz@tcfreenet.org

This address can be used from other Internet sites as well as commercial online services, such as CompuServe, America Online, GEnie, and Delphi. Look in the Help Center (found in the Main Menu) for more information about how to send email to other Internet addresses.
Can I use my old address on Free-Net?
Unfortunately, it is not possible to use only one e-mail address if you have two different e-mail accounts. But, you *can* forward mail. If you have another e-mail account and you would like all your TCFN mail to be forwarded to that account, then look at the e-mail page. You can specify the forwarding address there.
What if Pine warns me my quota is exceeded?
If Pine warns you that your quota is exceeded, then you should delete some email items, delete some files in your file directory, or both, to reduce your file usage. Usually, you will have some time to do this if you check your mail often enough. However, please read what happens if you exceed your quota.

Use Pine to delete e-mail messages. Manipulation of "inbox" by other procedures (such as editing it with a text editor), can cause trouble for you.
Windows-Based E-Mail
If you are using Windows-based communication software through an Internet Service Provider, you may be able to use a Windows-based e-mail program, such as Eudora or Pegasus to retrieve your e-mail from the Free-Net. Free-Net supports the POP and POP3 mail retrieval protocols used by these PC Windows based programs. A variety of shareware programs are available for downloading from the following site: http://www.tucows.com.

After you have installed the software, you will need to configure it correctly for our mail system. Each program is different - look for a menu called something like Configuration, Tools, or Setup. When asked for your POP account name, type in (substitut e your username for the blank line):

_____________@tcfreenet.org

I always get an error using Eudora to retrieve e-mail
Question: I am trying to use Eudora to check my e-mail but I keep geeting an error that says

"ERR Unable to process from lines (envelopes), change recognition
tables."

I've been working with Eudora for quite a while and have never encountered this error. I also tried to check mail from NetScapes mailer and encountered the same problem. Through telnet I used Pine and everything was fine but I'd rather set up a graphic interface.

Answer: It is possible that there is mail waiting in your Free-Net "inbox" that has an attachment incompatible with Eudora's handling. This has been reported by several users. To check this, just login to TCFN and look at the mail with Pine. You should delete the existing mail, after downloading it or reading it and disposing of it on Free-Net.