Deleting messages from webmail = logout?

[bobstro]

OK, a slight problem. I'm using the webmail interface until I work all the kinks out of the POP3 accounts (close now). I notice when I click the radio button next to one or more messages in the Inbox screen, then click DELETE, I'm immediately taken to the login screen. On logging back in, the messages remain. An interface issue, or a bug?

- Bob

[Starr]

I wasn’t able to replicate w/ my test accounts. I am setting up a new account to test now.

[bobstro]

Starr wrote:
> I wasn’t able to replicate w/ my test accounts. I am
> setting up a new account to test now.

Thanks. As a bit of background, I tested from two different systems.

- Bob

[hotrats]

This has happened to me on a few rare occasions. I get back in and duplicate the process and it works fine. Transient cookie issue perhaps.

[bobstro]

hotrats wrote:
> This has happened to me on a few rare occasions. I get
> back in and duplicate the process and it works fine.
> Transient cookie issue perhaps.

Ah, now that you mention it, both systems I tested with ARE running a fresh MSIE6 install. I'll fiddle with that and see if it makes a difference.

- Bob

[b1ff]

Happens here about one in every three times. Down from a high of one in every one times I tried to delete something when the new webmail service was first installed.

[fcsnc]

For an account that was "converted" with the new OPS: logging into http://mail.domain.com with the old nnnnn.username account that was converted over, what I think is the intended behavior (delete comes back with an "expunge" button available) still works right ... every single time. The expunged messages are gone, the ones you didn't delete are still there, and you're still logged in.

For another account (same domain) that was set up with the new OPS and works fine with a client program like Eudora: the "delete" button works exactly as though you had clicked on the "log out" link instead of the delete button. As soon as you log in again, all the mail is still there, there are no check marks or anything, and there is no "expunge" button.

It should not be necessary to "upgrade" to IE6.0 or any other particular version of any modern browser to make the web-based interface work properly. It's obviously a feature of the new OPS-based mail account usernames. The old nnnnn.username accounts still work.

Starr ... this is intended as constructive criticism, and I hope you don't take anything personally. I'm just trying to give you more info so that you can replicate the problem.

[Starr]

Tom, you have pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The new web mail client does treat email differently in-regards of deleting and expunging email from the server. Many users found emails they previously thought deleted, re-appearing in their mail box.

This affected users of web mail and Outlook and Outlook Express only I believe.

[fcsnc]

Thanks for the report! Glad you were able to find the problem.
:)

[SaysMe]

I'm coming in late to this thread, but it's something I experienced just this morning, with two POP3 user accounts I'd set up, so I thought it couldn't hurt to confirm the behavior. I'm using MSIE5x, if that helps. Everything worked as it should have after I closed my browser, then re-opened it. Simply deleting my cache and history files wouldn't do it.

Tom mentioned working within Eudora.... can *anyone* help me set up these POP3 accounts with that particular email client? I don't think I've ever had so much trouble before. I've followed all of the stuff in the FAQ's (added the "extra stuff" file, etc.), I've changed ports from 25 to 24 as suggested, I've tried using both mail.mydomain.net and pop.mydomain.net for the incoming Mail Server and I've tried using mail.mydomain.net and mail.mydialupISP.com for the SMTP server. I've tried all combinations of both servers. It's just not working. I've set up many many email accounts on many different ISPs and can usually figure this stuff out, if by nothing more than pure luck. It's just not happening this time around and my deadline for getting this up and running is fast approaching.

Thanks for any insight you can throw my way!

Nancy

[bobstro]

SaysMe wrote:

> [...] Tom mentioned working within Eudora.... can *anyone*
> help me set up these POP3 accounts with that particular
> email client? I don't think I've ever had so much trouble before.

Is it possible you're falling into the POP3 account versus alias trap? I had some problems early on, but rather than go into those, here's what I did to get POP3 working:

1. I created user accounts via the OPS USER page, indicating POP3 for each. These account names must be unique on the POWWEB system. As an example, I could create a POP3 account in the OPS USER page called "bobstro" with password "password".

2. I created aliases pointing to these accounts via the OPS SMTP page. This is supposed to occur automatically now when you do step 1., but it can't hurt to confirm that they exist. Note that you can create multiple aliases, and they only have to be unique WITHIN YOUR DOMAIN. Each POP3 account can have multiple aliases associated with it, however mail for that alias will only be received at the POP3 account created in step 1. As an example, if I want to be known to the outside world as "bob@mydomain.com", I would create an alias "bob" that pointed to the "bobstro" POP3 account.

3. I used the account info from step 1. to configure my e-mail client. Under MS Outlook Express, these settings are found under Tools->Accounts.

On the General tab:
USER INFORMATION
Name: Bob the Admin Guy
E-mail address: bob@mydomain.com

On the Servers tab:
SERVER INFORMATION
Incoming mail (POP3): mail.mydomain.com
Outgoing mail (SMTP): mail.mydomain.com

INCOMING MAIL SERVER
Account name: bobstro
Password: password

OUTGOING MAIL SERVER
Check (enable) the "My server requires authentication", then click the Settings... button and specify "Use same settings as my incoming mail server."

At this point I can poll mail and send mail using mail.mydomain.com.

Note that if you do NOT have an alias set pointing to the POP3 account, things don't work. Also, you must use the account name created in Step 1., which is not necessarily the same as the alias. This caused me some grief until I understood it. You e-mail address that you will be known by to the outside world will correspond to the alias (alias@yourdomain.com), but you will POLL and SEND mail using the POP3 account info.

> [...] It's just not happening this time around and my deadline
> for getting this up and running is fast approaching.

Don't feel bad. I've been playing with various internet e-mail programs for over 14 years (ow! can it be that long? 1987!) and this one still threw me. It sounds like you're close. It's a bit different than you might be used to when dealing with single user accounts, but this approach is actually very elegant in some ways, especially when you're playing with accounts for many users.

I hope this is helpful. If things still don't work, please give some more info on exactly what you entered in what screens (OPS and your e-mail client software), as well as what error messages or conditions you're seeing. I hope I'm not too far off base here.

Good luck!

- Bob

[SaysMe]

Hey Bob, your tutorial was great!

I'd actually figured out some of what you wrote right before I visted this forum this morning, after experiencing everything I've read about you guys going through, trying to get these accounts to work. I kept ending up with all my POP3 users under the main "dumper" account and all email was going there. I think the only reason I was able to figure out that each user needed their own alias AND how to do it was because they had just changed the way it was done. It still wasn't very clear, except I'd had two week's practice at trying to make it work, so was getting better at it everyday. lol...

After reading this post of yours, I found the gumption to tackle my account using Eudora again. Authentication is the default option, so that was already checked. I think there was stuff going on with the port too, so I fiddled with it a bit. At that point I was able to get the outgoing mail to work and it wasn't yelling at me anymore about incoming email. Still wasn't getting any incoming email though. And nothing was coming in via the web interface.

About two hours ago I heard from two of the other people for whom I'd created POP3 accounts for-- their email was working. I knew then that it was me and the way I had things set up somehow.

I think my own email address was one of the very first I'd created when I signed up with PowWeb. Even though everything looked perfect, judging from everything you wrote out for me here, I decided to just delete that account altogether. I waited the requisite amount of time, then recreated it again. Then waited, then sent myself more email from my dialup account.

It's working great!

Thanks so much for the help! You're right, in many ways, this will be very elegant. I just happened to get in on the very first day of it without realizing it! heh......

Nancy

[fcsnc]

Here in EST it is 12/19/01@15:32, and this problem has reared its head again, at least with regard to webmail. Check off a few messages to delete from the inbox, click the delete button, and boom! you're signed off.

Tom

Originally posted by starr
Tom, you have pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The new web mail client does treat email differently in-regards of deleting and expunging email from the server. Many users found emails they previously thought deleted, re-appearing in their mail box.

This affected users of web mail and Outlook and Outlook Express only I believe.

[JLaker]

Originally posted by fcsnc
Here in EST it is 12/19/01@15:32, and this problem has reared its head again, at least with regard to webmail. Check off a few messages to delete from the inbox, click the delete button, and boom! you're signed off.

Tom



Ditto - just saw the same thing here. Quite reproducible. EST 12/21/01@23:00.

- Jerry

[holygoat]

It's to the point where I must delete emails individually. I cannot delete messages from the email list ever without getting kicked out. What an absolute pain in the but...

[fcsnc]

The developers tell me that they are working hard on the remaining transient bugs in webmail and they should all be fixed soon :)