Technical Note #2000

Frequently Asked Questions: Eudora E-mail

Application affected:Eudora LightDate Created:09/06/96
Version Number:1.54Last Modified:09/06/96
File Date(s):AllCreated By:Qualcomm
Type of Note:FAQAdditional Info:Qualcomm's Web Site

Keywords: eudora qualcomm 1.54 e-mail email faq frequently asked questions question

Summary: Many of the most common questions are presented here, along with the answers to provide a concise and convienent way answering your questions.

 

Table of Contents

Windows Specific

General Contents:

 

Q: I know I need a password in order to get my mail from my mail server, but Eudora doesn't protect the mail I have already downloaded onto my PC. Is there any way to protect my mail from other users?

A: The simple truth is that you don't need Eudora to see the messages on the computer, any program that can view text files can display your messages. If we were to add password protection to Eudora, it would only give an illusion of protection. What is truly needed is a tool to protect the contents of the hard disk.

You can try Windows Task-Lock, which lets you protect specified applications with a password, no matter how the application is executed. Download Windows Task-Lock. (This application is not supported by Qualcomm, Inc.)

 

Q: What do these error messages mean (for Windows)?

 

Q: I'm having troubles upgrading from 16-bit Eudora Light/Pro to 32-bit Eudora Pro. Eudora will no longer send or check my mail.

A: The problem is probably with the versions of the winsock.dll file that you have on your system. Most winsocks used with Windows 3.1.x are 16-bit winsocks, meaning they come only with WINSOCK.DLL and not with it's 32-bit counterpart, WSOCK32.DLL. This second winsock can only be used by 32-bit operating systems like Windows NT or Windows 95. However both of these Operating Systems already come with their own 32-bit winsocks. If you are upgrading from Windows 3.1.x to Windows 95 or NT you probably still have a 16-bit winsock(s) on your system, and this is not what you want to use with Eudora 2.2 or other 32-bit applications.

To get started, you must call your service provider, and ask them for all the information and instructions necessary to install and configure the Windows 95 or NT winsock. If you have any problems with the Windows 95 or NT winsock installation process, you may want to call Microsoft. If you have problems with the winsock configuration, you should call your service provider. After you have the proper winsock installed, you should also make sure you don't have any old 16-bit winsocks lying around. If you do, rename them. You'll want to choose a name that indicates what it is, but doesn't make it usable, like 'WINSOCK.OLD'. Now that you have the right winsock installed and configured properly you can install Eudora Pro. Follow the instructions that came in the Eudora Pro package. All of your winsock programs, 16-bit and 32-bit versions, should work just fine.

 

Q: How can two or more people use Eudora Pro on the same Windows PC? Can each user have their own settings and preferences?

A: To allow multiple users to use Eudora on the same PC, make a separate mail directory and create a separate program manager icon for each user. The directories can be named whatever you like and placed anywhere, including floppies or network volumes. Place a copy of the Eudora.ini in each user's directory.

To tell Eudora which directory to use, specify that directory on the command line of the Program Item properties dialog box as shown in the examples below: 

c:\eudora\eudora.exe c:\user1 
c:\eudora\eudora.exe c:\user2

Then in the working directory field, set the path to that user's directory 

c:\user1\ 
c:\user2\

Then each user will have his or her own location for mailboxes and user settings.

 

Q: I am moving from a Mac to a windows PC. Can I move my mailboxes from one to the other?

A: Both versions of Eudora keep their mailboxes in the same format (UNIX mbox). However, Macs, Windows, and UNIX handle text differently, so line feed conversion must be done. The fastest and easiest way to do this is by way of the FTP protocol. On the Macintosh, open the Eudora folder, the mailboxes are named you see in the mailboxes menu (In, Out, Trash, etc.). Rename the mailboxes in the standard 8.3 DOS format, using the .MBX file extension. Then FTP the .MBX files to the mailhost in ASCII (text) mode, and download them to the target PC. Do not copy the .TOC files, as they are platform specific.

 

Q: Eudora displays the following error when I try to send mail

"TimeZone entry or TZ environment used to compute 
your timezone is missing or has the wrong format."

What Do I do to fix this?

A: Add a timezone entry to the [Settings] of the Eudora.ini. This should contain the timezone in which you are located, in the following format. 

TimeZone=xxxnnnzzz

XXX is the Standard Time Zone
NNN is the hours west of GMT
YYY is the Daylight Savings Time zone

for example 

TimeZone=PST8PDT
TimeZone=MET-1

 

Q: I thought there was a way to have multiple Nickname files with Eudora, but I don't see a way to do it. Is it possible?

A: Yes, if you have multiple nickname files (for example, your system administrator supplies you with additional nickname files containing internal mailing lists), create a sub-directory within the Eudora directory called NICKNAME. The standard Eudora nicknames file (NNDBASE.TXT) must remain in the Eudora root directory; copy the extra nickname files into the newly created Nickname directory.

In Eudora's Nickname window, all nicknames in all files within the Nickname folder will appear along with your standard nicknames. If the selected nickname is in a nickname file that is not your main nicknames file, the name of the nickname will appear in the upper right corner of the Nicknames window.

 

Q: Does Eudora Light support MAPI?

A: No. Only Eudora Pro Version 2.2 or later supports MAPI.

 

Q: How do I send a MAPI message with Eudora?

A: Eudora's MAPI support allows users to quickly attach documents to outgoing e-mail messages directly from the application that created the document. Without MAPI, users must first save the document, remember what folder the document is in, switch to Eudora, and then remember to manually attach the document to the outgoing message.

MAPI streamlines this process dramatically. In order to e-mail the current, open document from your mail-enabled application, you simply run the File:Send command. This automatically activates Eudora and attaches a snapshot of the open document to a new Eudora composition message.

Different applications have slightly different ways to define or send MAPI messages. For example, Netscape provides a File:Mail Document command and MeetingMaker provides an External button which appears when defining a guest list.

 

Q: How do I setup MAPI in Eudora?

A: In order to intercept MAPI messages, Eudora requires its own versions of the MAPI libraries to be installed in the Windows SYSTEM directory. When the Microsoft MAPI DLLs are installed, then Eudora cannot intercept any MAPI messages since these DLLs are hardwired to Microsoft Mail/Exchange. When the Eudora DLLs are installed, then Microsoft Mail/Exchange is effectively disabled since these DLLs are hardwired to Eudora.

To setup Eudora's handling of MAPI messages, you must choose the proper "Use Eudora MAPI Server" setting in Eudora's Tools:Options:MAPI dialog box. There are three possible setting values:

As necessary, Eudora automatically performs the install and uninstall of the Eudora MAPI DLLs on-the-fly.

 

Q: Why do I get the error, Could not (un)install Eudora MAPI System?

A: This requires a long explanation: DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries) are loaded into memory upon use, just like EXE files. When loaded into memory, Windows places a "lock" on the DLL file, so that the file cannot be removed or changed while the file contents are still in RAM. In most cases, MAPI client applications (such as MS Word) load the MAPI DLLs into memory "on demand" (e.g., when the user issues a MAPI- related command such as File:Send). Once it loads a DLL, a MAPI client application normally keeps the DLL loaded in memory until the client application quits.

Eudora automatically detects that the MAPI DLLs in the Windows SYSTEM directory are "locked" (i.e., they are "in use"). The locked MAPI DLL can be either the Microsoft DLL or the Eudora DLL. If Eudora detects that a MAPI DLL is in use, then it aborts the swap or unswap operation and displays the error message "Could not (un)install Eudora MAPI System" In other words, Eudora cannot swap the MAPI DLLs while one or more MAPI client applications are using the MAPI DLLs.

If you see the "Could not install Eudora MAPI System" error message, then the Windows MAPI subsystem will be in the wrong state. That is, the Microsoft DLLs could be installed when you need to send messages via Eudora, or the Eudora DLLs could be installed when you need to send messages via Microsoft Mail/Exchange. In this case, the "wrong" application will intercept your MAPI message.

This problem most often occurs when the Eudora MAPI Server setting is set to "When Eudora is running." Therefore, when using the "When Eudora is running" setting, it is a good idea to shut down all MAPI client applications (such as Microsoft Word) before starting or quitting Eudora. If you find that the MAPI DLLs end up in the wrong state, then the idea is to shutdown all MAPI clients (Microsoft Word, Netscape, MeetingMaker, etc.) and all MAPI servers (Microsoft Mail/Exchange, Eudora, etc.). When all MAPI applications are unloaded, this should release all MAPI DLLs from memory and remove the locks on the DLL files (under Windows 95, you might also have to wait for a few seconds to allow the OS to clean up its virtual memory swapfile). Then, start Eudora -- you should not see the "Could not (un)install Eudora MAPI SystemÉ" error message. Then, if you want Eudora to intercept MAPI messages, start the MAPI client applications. Otherwise, if you want Microsoft Mail/Exchange to intercept MAPI messages, then quit Eudora before starting MAPI client applications.

 

Q: Can I use 16-bit MAPI client applications with 32-bit Eudora?

A: Yes. All combinations work. For example, it is possible to send MAPI messages from a 16-bit version of Microsoft Word to a 32-bit version of Eudora, and vice-versa.

 

Q: Why doesn't Sidekick 95 work with Eudora?

A: The Eudora MAPI DLLs implement the standard Simple MAPI functions detailed in the MAPI specification. The MAPI specification also defines Extended MAPI functions -- however, the Eudora MAPI DLLs implement only the Simple MAPI subset. Sidekick 95 probably uses Extended MAPI functions specific to Microsoft Exchange that are not supported by Eudora's Simple MAPI implementation.

 

Q: Which CMC functions does Eudora support?

A: Currently, Eudora does not support CMC (Common Messaging Calls) functions.

 

Q: Why doesn't Microsoft Word 7.0 display the MAPI File:Send command?

A: Under Windows 95, this problem occurs if Microsoft Exchange is not installed or has been uninstalled. Even if the Eudora MAPI system is installed, then Word 7.0 (for Office 95) will not display the "Send" and "Add Routing Slip" menu items on the File menu. If you wish to enable these MAPI-related commands, then you need to add the MAPIX=1 setting to the [Mail] section of the Windows 95 WIN.INI file: 

[Mail] 
MAPI=1 
MAPIX=1

The MAPI=1 setting should already be present since Eudora adds this automatically.

 

Q: Why does Microsoft Word insert my document into my MAPI message?

A: Microsoft Word can send Word documents via MAPI in two different ways. It can either insert the document text into the body of an outbound message, or it can attach the document as a file. If you want to attach the Word document as a file to a Eudora message, then you must check the "Mail as Attachment" option under Tools:Options:General in Microsoft Word.

 

Q: Why doesn't Microsoft Exchange run anymore? Can't I use it for faxing?

A: When the Eudora MAPI DLLs are installed in the Windows SYSTEM directory and you start Microsoft Exchange, you will see the "splash" screen displayed briefly, then Exchange will silently refuse to start. This occurs because the Eudora MAPI DLLs are incompatible with Microsoft Exchange.

In order to run Exchange at all, for faxing or anything else, you must first disable the Eudora MAPI system. There are two ways to do this:

Q: Can I use Eudora Pro to check my mail while using Netscape 2.0, instead of Netscape's e-mail client?

A: The Eudora MAPI DLL's do not support the MAPI calls that Netscape uses. Therefore, you cannot use Eudora Pro as the e-mail client from within Netscape 2.0.

 

Q: Can you explain the different encoding methods available in Eudora? When in the best time to use each one?

A: With Eudora, you can send attachments with either of the following methods:

On the Mac, there are two ways to send MIME attachments, AppleDouble and AppleSingle. If you want to use MIME, it's acceptable to use Apple-Double when sending to Macs or PCs. AppleSingle is also good for Macs but shouldn't be sent to PCs. An Apple-Single attachment may not be understood by a PC because it includes both the data fork and the resource fork of the file. The resource fork is useless to a a PC. Appledouble splits these files up during transport, so a PC can trash this unneeded fork when it receives it and just use the data fork.

 

Q: I use the find feature often, but it is sometimes difficult to determine which mailbox a found message is in, is there an easy way to do this?

A: Double-click on the title bar of the message while holding down the CTRL key (Mac users: do not use the CTRL key, simply double-click). The mailbox the message is in opens in front.

Q: How do I reverse the sort order?

A: Hold down the shift key (Mac users: hold down the option key) when selecting the column you wish to sort.

Q: Why is there no setting to have Read Receipt always on by Default?

A: Many administrators and mail system maintainers believe that routing return receipts would unduly burden the mail system. Therefore we do not provide an option for return receipts on all mail.

Q: My corespondents are complaining that the lines in the messages I send are not wrapping correctly ( the lines break in funny places). How can I make Eudora send messages that wrap correctly?

A: The best solution is to turn on the word wrap option (in the Sending Mail dialog) and only press return to start a new paragraph. Eudora will take care of breaking the paragraphs into lines.

Q: I received a message containing columns and they are not lining up correctly. What happened?

A: Either the sender or the receiver is using a proportional font (such as Arial or Times Roman). Changing the display fonts to a monospaced font like New Courier in the settings dialog will keep this from happening.

Q: How can I read the messages in the mailboxes without double clicking on each message in the mailbox summaries?

A: In the Miscellaneous dialog there are options for "Switch messages with." These options let you use the keyboard arrow keys to scroll up and down through the messages in your current (topmost) mailbox. Check the unmodified arrows to scroll up using the left/up arrow keys and down using the right/down arrow keys. The alt-arrows and ctrl-arrows options let you do the same thing, as long as the appropriate key is used with the arrow key.

Q: Sometimes I don't want to reply to every address in a message header even though I have the reply to all option turned on. How can I toggle between reply to all and a reply to sender only?

A: When selecting a reply or reply to from the message menu, hold down the shift key (Mac users: use the option key) to toggle the reply to all option. If reply to all option is on, this will generate a reply message to the sender only; if Reply to All is off, this generates a reply to the message sender and all other addresses in the message header.

Q: How do I toggle the outgoing message Queue/Send function?

A: Hold down the shift key (Mac users: use the option key) while hitting the queue button to send immediately. If the button says Send, holding down the shift key will queue the message until you send other messages.

Q: Eudora displays the following error when I try to check mail:

"-ERR Maildrop Lock Busy. Is another session running?"

What does this mean, and how can I fix it?

A: This happens if you are checking mail and you have crashed out of the session. The best thing to do is to contact the server administrator and let them know you have a disconnected popper process, and to please reset it.

If you are UNIX savvy....

Open a telnet window to the server. Type 'ps x'. (Some systems use 'ps e' instead). You'll see something like this:

% ps x

PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND
15387 ? IW 0:00 popper
15494 qK S 0:01 -csh
15497 qk S 0:01 ps

Now, type 'kill -9 theFirstNumberOnThePopperLine':
(for example)

% kill -9 15387

And your disconnected Popper will be reset, and you will be able to check mail again.

NOTE: If you are a server administrator - qpopper has a time-out feature that will reset the mailbox if the connection is terminated abnormally. qpopper is a free download: ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/unix/servers/popper

 

Q: Eudora displays the following error when I try to check mail:

A: There has been an error transferring your mail. I said PASS <SHHHH> and the POP server said -ERR Password supplied for <USERNAME> is incorrect

What does this mean, and how do I fix it?

First, verify that your POP account is correct in the Getting Started dialog. Make sure the account address is complete paying particular attention to the part of the address before the '@' symbol. Second, verify the you are entering your pop account password correctly, paying attention to upper and lower case letters (make sure the Caps Locks Key is off). Contact the service provider or your company's Eudora support coordinator if the problem persists.

 

Q: Eudora displays the following error when I try to send mail: 

"There has been an error transferring your mail, 
I said: DATA and then the SMTP server said: 
503 Need RCPT (recipient)"

What does this mean and how do I fix the problem?

A: In most cases, the cause of the problem is a blank nickname. If you are using a nickname to address this message, make sure the nickname has a valid Internet address entered in the address field of the Nicknames window.

 

Q: Eudora just displayed the following alert: 

"Mailbox (mailboxname) has a damaged table of contents, 
Shall I build a new one for you?"

What has happened?

A: If a table of contents file for a particular mailbox should be corrupt for one reason or another, Eudora will not be able to open the mailbox until the TOC has been rebuilt. You will not lose any mail, though you will lose the status information for the messages. If this happens to you often, you may want to have your PC checked for possible problems.