 The UK's longest established independent ISP |
| Support - Email Information |
There are several email services provided by Zetnet, the differences between them often confuse new members - especially those who have misread or misunderstood some of the descriptions that have been given in magazines.
The choices that are available to Zetnet members are not particularly complicated. However they are a little difficult to explain accurately to someone who is just learning about the Internet. Please read through this to decide on your requirements before opening your Zetnet account, although you can change your mail delivery method at any time.
There are three specific types of mail delivery that are available from Zetnet:
| ZetMail / FRED |
This is our own unique form of mail delivery. This is the standard mail delivery type with Zetnet if you are using our ZIMACS software. Its biggest advantage is that the mail is compressed by the Zetnet system before you call, and transferred using a file transfer protocol called Zmodem at the start of a call you make using ZIMACS. The compression done by the system is much more efficient than any that your modem could do, and so your mail is downloaded much more quickly. |
| POP3. (Post Office Protocol version 3) |
With this mail delivery type, your mail is held by our "post office" mail server, and you use a POP3 client program (such as Eudora or MS Outlook Express) to fetch the mail off the server during an Internet call. With POP3, you have a mailbox on the POP3 server that requires a password before it will allow access to your mailbox. The advantage to this system is that you can check your mail from anywhere in the world, even if you're not logged on through Zetnet. The disadvantage is that it's relying on the modems to do compression, so the mail will be downloaded less quickly than using ZIMACS. |
| IMail (Webmail and POP3) |
| IMail is
a new system of email avaliable from Zetnet, this service allows
you to view you emails online through a web browser (in a similar
way to the way users of hotmail view their mail). However the main power of IMail lies in its versitility, users are able to not only view their email online but also download it using a POP3 mail program (such as Outlook) It is also possible for customers to administer their mailboxes, creating new users and setting up services such as autoresponders. |
| SMTP. (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) |
This is what mail servers use to talk to each other (and what POP3 clients use to send out mail). To use this you need your own mail server software, such as Mail Beamer or Turnpike. With this delivery type, everything going to anymailboxname@yourdomain.zetnet.co.uk is sent automatically to your mail server during any Internet call you make through Zetnet. If it's not online it gets held until your mail server is online. Setting up the software for this can be fiddly, and not all software for Windows that says it supports SMTP does it properly. We require that if you have SMTP mail delivery, you must have a mailbox called postmaster. This one of the technical requirements of the Internet, and we will stop your account if we find you haven't got such a mailbox. Advantages: unlimited number of email addresses.
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Summary
To use the analogy of a post office, with ZetMail the postmaster hands
you a bundle of letters with a rubber band round them, with POP3 the postmaster
first requires to see some identification then points you at the pigeon
hole with your letters in it, and with SMTP you run your own post office
and a van comes round and drops off a sack of post for you to sort.
