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Configuring Pocomail & Barca

About PocoMail - Current Version - Configuring
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About PocoMail and Barca

Built From The Ground Up to Be Safe

Pocomail and Barca are easy to use, yet are designed for security and functionality in mind. Both novice and expert will find what they're looking for.

Current Version

Be sure you're running the most recent version:

• PocoMail 4.8 Update::Purchase::Upgrade
• Barca 2.8 Update::Purchase

From the Help menu, select About to see what version you're running.

Among the updates, the current updates improves performance and stability, usability and fix many e-mail issues and a few calendar issues in Barca.

Powerful Without Sacrificing Security

Tremendously powerful, Pocomail and Barca, don't sacrifice your security to achieve their usability. They were built from the ground up to provide the customization and features you want, yet remain secure.

Pocomail and Barca avoid a serious problem faced by many e-mail programs: the integration of Internet Explorer components.

While the tight integration between Windows, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express (or Outlook) and Microsoft Office is convenient, that convenience costs you a great deal in terms of your privacy and security.

Barca and Pocomail

This page primarily makes reference to Pocomail, but the content is equally applicable to Barca even where it is not specifically referenced.

Barca Adds Features to Pocomail

Barca takes the excellent e-mail features included in Pocomail and adds a calendar, scheduler, diary and other features to make it a fully functioning Personal Information Manager (PIM). Barca Professional adds the ability to share calendars with others on your network to efficiently schedule meetings and more.

If you like the convenience of Outlook's extended features, Barca provides these in a secure environment.

Worthwhile Investment

PocoMail has so many extra features that it is a worthwhile investment.

Easy To Use

• It is very easy to use, but as you go deeper you notice that it is incredibly customizable.
• These custom features don't get in the way of the ease of use. Most people will find the standard settings work just fine for them (other than their mail settings, which you can copy from your existing program or ask your ISP for).

Powerful Filtering

• Powerful scripting and junkmail filtering capabilities help you to deal with spam and the sorting of legitimate mail.
• Pocomail's powerful scripting and Bayesian filters "learn" how to deal with your junkmail with a 98% accuracy.

Secure

Pocomail and Barca are not vulnerable to the security problems of other similar programs. Unlike many other e-mail programs, they don't use Internet Explorer components to view HTML (enhanced) messages.

Pocomail and Barca use built-in viewers so they are not vulnerable to e-mail viruses and by allowing you to restrict the retrieval of targeted external images they provide protection against spammers and advertisers that track your downloading of messages.

• Some spammers include links to very small images with complex names on their servers which are tied to your e-mail address. When you view the message, these images are downloaded thereby confirming (and compromising) your e-mail address. By disabling the automatic downloading of these images, you short-circuit this vulnerability.
• PocoMail 4 and Barca 2 enable downloading of images only for the particular message you select, avoiding the "accidental" exposure when clicking on another message after viewing the downloaded images in a legitimate message. This feature is therefore more intuitive than the similar feature in PocoMail 3.

Customizable

• Powerful scripting and filtering capabilities help you sort your mail. Multiple filters can do a series of tasks on each message, if necessary.
• Pocomail and Barca have multiple skins and it is easy to setup multiple e-mail accounts very quickly.
• There are downloadable scripts available with your license.
• Several third-party applications add in functionality.
• For example, I use a series of filters to move messages from 17 accounts into dozens of specific folders under various account headings, but you could use it simply to move mail from your Aunt Martha to a folder for this purpose.

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Configuring Pocomail & Barca

If you configure Pocomail correctly, many of the regular maintenance tasks will be taken care of for you.

The Basics

• Pocomail installs to C:\Program Files\PocoMailX or C:\Program Files\BarcaX (where X is the major version number) by default. Most of the settings are contained within the poco.ini or barca.ini file rather than in Windows registry. This makes your setting transferable across multiple installations, if necessary. You can import between Pocomail or Barca, although only Barca contains the calendar (PIM) settings.
• The main setup tools are under the Tools menu (Accounts Setup, Customize, Options).
• When you first install Pocomail it will prompt you for your name and e-mail address. The other option, if you have a prior Pocomail install, you can import settings from that previous installation (using the poco.ini or barca.ini).
• A new window asks for the incoming server, username, password, incoming server type and outgoing server. The default settings are often correct, but just in case, the next section deals with these account settings.

Account Settings

Accounts are set up through Tools Accounts. If you don't know the settings to configure your account, look in your old e-mail account or contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

While your ISP may not be aware of how to set up Pocomail, most e-mail accounts are POP3 servers and use incoming, outgoing server settings and depend upon your user name (usually the beginning of your e-mail address before the @ symbol) and password. For example:

• Shaw uses incoming & outgoing: shawmail (shawmail.gv.shawcable.net if you are behind a router).
• Telus uses POP3; incoming: pop.telus.net; outgoing: smtp.telus.net.
• IslandNet.com uses POP3; incoming & outgoing: mail.islandnet.com.

You can check these settings and modify them from the Tools Accounts Setup menu. Click on the account name and edit to modify settings. Be careful with the Virtual and Privacy settings as they can have unexpected results if you set them up incorrectly.

If you have multiple e-mail accounts (e.g. a personal account and a business account) you might want the messages to come into separate inboxes. This can be selected in the Mailboxes section of the Accounts Setup. You will need to create the necessary mailboxes first (unless they were imported in the process below) by right-clicking on a mailbox where you want to place the new mailbox or sub-mailbox. Pocomail is very flexible and can handle extremely complex nested mailboxes.

Importing Mail

When you start Pocomail after entering the server settings, the program asks for a program to import information from. The choice includes:

• Microsoft Outlook (using POImport)
• Microsoft Outlook Express
• Eudora
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Netscape Mail

You are then prompted to import mail and address books. Pocomail or Barca should import everything correctly, although you might have to let it know how to deal with the contact information. The import utility assumes you have these programs installed on your system at the time you run the utility and may not work correctly if you have uninstalled the program. It is also recommended that you compress the mailboxes in the old e-mail program prior to import to help avoid problems.

Messages imported from a newer version of Pocomail (4 or newer) or Barca2 use a different method of indexing messages. If you revert to Pocomail 3 after trying a newer version out (or Barca), you will need to compress all the mailboxes in the newer version before importing the settings and mail. After the import, restart Pocomail 3, then compress the mailboxes, then restart it again to see your messages.

Filtering Mail

One of the strongest features of PocoMail is its filtering capabilities. At the very least you should enable basic filtering.

Filtering Junk (Spam)

Enable Basic Filtering

• Click on the Tools Junk Mail Filtering menu. Select Enable automatic Junk Mail filtering to add the basic features, then click OK.
• As your messages come in they will either be sorted into your In mailbox or sent to the Junk Mail mailbox if Pocomail's Bayesian filters determine that it is junk.

Training the Bayesian Filters

• Mail incorrectly placed into the Junk Mail mailbox should first be marked as good (click the green check mark on the menu at the top of the message view). Then right-click the message and move it to the folder where you wish to store it.
• Junk that is not caught by Pocomail's filters should be marked bad (click the red X on the menu at the top of the message view). This will automatically move the message to the Junk Mail folder.
• Once you've dealt with everything in the Junk Mail folder, click on the Mailbox Empty Junk Mailbox to empty the folder. This will not move messages to your Trash, so you will want to be sure to deal with all messages in the folder before doing this, but it also means that you won't have to get rid of this junk twice.
• Over time, Pocomail's filters will "learn" how to deal with your mail with a 98% accuracy so that you will have to spend less time weeding out the junk.

Using Filters to Organize Your Mail

The other aspect of Pocomail's filtering is that you can use it to move messages automatically into selected folders by dozens of criteria including e-mail address, sender, subject, etc.

Sending Messages to Specific Folders

• If you right-click on a message in the messages listing you can add a quick filter for that message. The process is context-sensitive, so if you click on the subject, Pocomail will set up a filter based on the subject of the message. If you click on the e-mail address it will base the filter on that.
• How you set up the filter will depend upon how frequently the message subject or address changes. Often, frequent messages have a consistent feature like square brackets: [mailing list name] or a similar item you can use to filter the messages in spite of an otherwise changing subject. You can also use wildcards: *@aol.com.

You can use an unlimited number of filters and Pocomail allows you to set up Incoming, Outgoing, Pre-Download and Post-Send categories of filters as well as four user-defined filtering categories. Most people only use the Incoming filters, but the others are there if you need them.

Customizing Pocomail

Pocomail is extremely customizable. There are several ways to change the way it looks, but these will get you started:

• The basic look and feel of Pocomail is set up in the Tools Customize menu. You can alter your toolbar, colour scheme, layout and display fonts from this menu.
• The choice to view certain features is also controlled from the View menu by either adding or removing the feature.
• By right-clicking on the Address Book entries, you can select how they will be sorted: first/last, last/first or e-mail address and how many lines the information will be carried on.

Keep PocoMail Running Smoothly

Like any program, Pocomail needs some routine maintenance to keep it running as smoothly as possible. These hints will help you to make this maintenance easy.

Set Up a Maintenance Routine

Keep It Trim

• Cull your messages regularly. You can set up mailboxes to keep messages for later reference rather than making your In mailbox too difficult to work with. Smaller mailboxes work better than larger ones, particularly if you are running an older computer.
• Keep your Trash and Junk Mail folders empty and compress them often. This will help prevent problems from appearing. Compressing mailboxes should also be one of your first steps to try to resolve problems with Pocomail.
• Pocomail (from version 3.4) and Barca will automatically compress certain mailboxes when you open them. If you've not compressed them in a long time, there will likely be a delay. You can press ESC to stop this process if necessary, but don't End Task PocoMail! Letting the process finish will keep your mailboxes small and mailbox index accurately in sync with your mailbox store.

Back It Up

• Your Pocomail should be backed up at least every several days and immediately before any major changes, including an upgrade.
• This can be done manually: Click on the File Backup and Restore, then Backup, but it is easier to have it done automatically.
• Click on Tools Options and make sure that "Backup mailboxes every..." is checked. Every 5 days works quite well for most people.

Check for Updates

You should check to see if there are updates available on a regular basis. Updates fix known problems as well as add new features.

• Click on the Help menu, then select Check for Update.

Note: You will only be eligible for updates that are within the same major version (the first number of the version). You will need to purchase an upgrade if you are not running the current version. Unless you are running an older system and are having no issues with Pocomail, this upgrade is usually an excellent investment.

Avoid Problems

You can avoid many problems by reducing the demands you are placing on Pocomail, particularly if your system is older or lacking the resources to operate as efficiently as it once did.

• Deselect the "Check mail on startup" option in Startup Options (under General Options) to help smooth things when your system is busy.
• If you like to have your messages checked automatically (see Account Settings), don't set the frequency too high or it may interfere with other activities on your system. Most likely, every 10 minutes is often enough for most people, although I do run some at 30 minutes for infrequently-used accounts.
• While it is more convenient to leave received attachments encoded inside messages (General Options Encoding Options), this practice can lead to a significant overhead in the operation of Pocomail, particularly if the attachments are large and numerous in a mailbox. It might be better to let Pocomail handle the attachments inside the Attachments directory (they are still associated with the particular message they came with).

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Troubleshooting Problems with Pocomail

Fixing Problems That Occur

Many, many times just restarting Windows will resolve many issues without resorting to a series of troubleshooting steps.

If you do run into problems (usually appearing as error reports on the Progress Window) give the suggestions below a try. The following is a quick link into specific issues:

E-mails Blank or Garbled - Connection Issues - Socket Errors
Attachment Issues - Windows 7 Issues - Search for Answers

E-mails Blank or Garbled

AVG Issues

There is a potential issue with AVG antivirus when you allow it to certify your incoming and outgoing messages. This can result in messages being appearing to be blank or messages that are not displaying properly. The fix is quite simple: set AVG to not certify messages.

Headers Showing

You can view

1. short headers (just the From, Subject and To information);
2. full headers (adds a tremendous amount of routing and other information that can be confusing to most people); or
3. no headers at all.

Most people prefer the short headers and if there is additional information they have to scroll down the message to view the sender's message.

However, if you are trying to troubleshoot a problem or if your ISP or another service asks for the headers in a message, what they are asking for is the full headers.

Most are Connection Issues

Check Your Internet Connection

Most issues have to do with connection to the Internet:

• Ensure that Pocomail or Barca are online. This may appear on the toolbar, but a check mark should appear next to Online Operation in Pocomail.
• If you are running a firewall, like ZoneAlarm (recommended), it needs to be programmed to allow PocoMail, Barca, etc. access to the Internet. Controlling Internet access is the job of a firewall.
• If you have your antivirus program configured to check incoming and outgoing messages for viruses, they will stop a message from being delivered (or retrieved) if they are not working correctly. Most such programs give some indication, such as an animated envelope, near the antivirus or e-mail program near the Windows clock on the taskbar.
• When you see error messages, check your firewall settings and ensure that your anti-virus program is activated when you try to send or receive messages. Problems with these applications can prevent your messages from being transmitted or received as you expect.

Socket Errors

Sometimes you see error messages with codes like Socket Error 11004 (the most common) when checking your mail. These have to do with connection issues with your ISP rather than with Pocomail itself.

• Pocomail Forums: Socket Error #11004 is usually a timing issue if all your settings are correct. Retrying the connection later usually resolves the problem (read the relevant Pocomail Forums topic for more details.
• If your antivirus program is not responding, this can also prevent PocoMail from connecting to your ISP.
• MSDN, the Microsoft developer site, explains socket errors in a more detailed (and technical) fashion.

Attachment Issues

PDFs as .txt

The most common issue is PDFs (Adobe Acrobat files) showing up with a .txt extension instead of a .pdf extension. Since extensions tell Windows what to do with a file, you will be unable to open this file (or it will open with a lot of garbage in the text editor).

In this case you will not be able to view the PDF until you change the extension of the file from FILENAME.txt to FILENAME.pdf. Note that this action will break the ability of PocoMail (or Barca) to open the attachment, but you can then view it.

Why This Happens

If PocoMail cannot determine an extension it adds the .txt extension. This is most common with files sent by someone using a Mac.

There is a discussion of this issue on Pocomail Forums: Extension of attached file shows TXT instead of PDF.

Service Pack 2 Errors

You may have connection issues related to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2. These can be described differently, but are the same issue:

1. You may experience problems connecting to your email; or
2. Programs that connect to IP addresses that are in the loop back address range may not work as you expect.

• For a possible solution to both these issues, try this update for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (KB884020).
• You should not see this issue if Service Pack 3 is installed (recommended).

Windows 7 Issues

If you are upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 you might have difficulty establishing Pocomail or Barca as the default e-mail and newsgroup program:

1. When installing Pocomail or Barca in Windows 7 you'll need to choose the default installation setting, Windows default application folder (supports network roaming).
   • While XP allowed you to keep the settings in your application installation folder, this won't work in Vista or Windows 7.
   • Only use a custom folder if you are an experience user and understand that this may create problems in the future.
2. In order to set Pocomail or Barca as the default e-mail and newsgroups program, you'll need to start them as Administrator before setting them as default. To do this,
   • Locate Pocomail or Barca in the All Programs listing (you'll need to open the folder to see the program file);
   • Right-click on the program name and select Run as administrator from the list that appears;
   • When Pocomail or Barca open, select Tools then Options. Now select General Option and click on Make Default twice to make Pocomail/Barca the default email program as well as default newsgroup reader.
3. If you have problems setting Pocomail or Barca to the default e-mail program when a mailto: command is encountered in another program and you're comfortable with the Registry Editor:
   • Open the Registry Editor (RegEdit) and navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command.
   • Change the contents to "C:\Program Files\PocoMail\Poco.exe" /m "%1" (the quotes are needed).
   • There is more in the Poco Forums.

Search Pocomail Forums

If the tips on this page have not solved your problem, try searching the PocoMail Forums for answers using the error message you are getting or the symptoms. Other users are likely to have had similar issues. Because Pocomail and Barca are so closely related, sometimes the solution for one program applies to the other.

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Other Resources

These are some excellent resources to help you make the most out of these superb e-mail programs:

• Moving To PocoMail describes how to move settings and mail from your current e-mail program to PocoMail.
• Getting Started with PocoMail.
• The PocoMail Forums have multiple discussion lists that offer solutions to the questions people have asked about setting up and using PocoMail.
• Michael's Poco FAQ (archive link). This FAQ relates mostly to Pocomail 3 but the solutions may work for you or help put you on the right track.
  Note: The site hosting Michael's Poco FAQ was shut down and the current link points to an archive of the original site. Work is in process to host the contents at PocoSystems.

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www.RussHarvey.bc.ca/resources/pocomail.html
Updated: September 12, 2009

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