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NetBox User's Guide Version 2.0Table of Contents
There are many ways to manage electronic mail with a NetBox. Although few people will use all possible options, you should become familiar with the basic NetBox features. Your NetBox is designed to be easily controlled either from the Customer's Home Page on the NetBox web site or directly from a telnet session. Online instructions and prompted scripts make changing a NetBox configuration easy. Your NetBox can be configured to forward inbound messages to one, two, or three other e-mail addresses. All messages arriving at a NetBox are immediately forwarded to all registered addresses. A "registered" address is a valid electronic mail address that is recorded in a NetBox configuration. Registered addresses may be added and deleted at any time. Message forwarding can be turned and on and off by putting the NetBox on hold, either from the web or directly from a telnet session. See the section "Configuring your NetBox" for details. Your NetBox is a private, secure electronic mail account that can be accessed directly through a telnet session to read, reply, forward, save, compose and generally manage electronic correspondence. See the section "Stand-alone NetBox — Telnet with Pine". One of the most powerful and unique features of a NetBox, outbound message forwarding allows e-mail to be composed and sent from a registered address and rerouted through the NetBox to the intended recipient. All traces of the message headers from the originating address are removed and the received message looks like it was composed at the NetBox account. Please see the Sections "Configuring your NetBox" and "Using Real-To:". POP or POP3 (Post Office Protocol — 3) is a popular electronic mail protocol used by most web browsers and many e-mail programs such as Eudora™ and Pegasus™. Your NetBox must have the POP option Enabled to be able to use POP mail. Once enabled, the POP option can be turned ON and OFF from the "Customer's Home Page" on the NetBox web site or by telnetting directly into the NetBox. See the section "NetBox POP Mail" for additional details. Disseminating your NetBox Address An e-mail address is only useful if your correspondents know about it and use it. People sending you mail have to know about and use your NetBox. There are several ways to inform correspondents of your NetBox address. Most simply, you can send out an e-mail to everyone telling them to use your NetBox account for all future correspondence. Your correspondents are then responsible for addressing mail to you. A different approach is to use the From: and/or Reply-To: features of your mailing program(s) to gradually convert your correspondents to the new address. With this approach, each time you send a message to a correspondent you are informing them of your new address and, by implication, requesting responses be directed to that address. See the section "Using your mail program's Reply_To:". An e-mail address is often included as part of the signature (or signature file) that is used on each message being sent out and can be used to specifically request the recipient to reply to a particular address. Stand-alone NetBox — Telnet with Pine Telnet is a standard Internet communication protocol used to log on to servers and computers connected to the Internet. Contact your Internet Service Provider or whoever you get Internet access from for specific instructions on how to initiate a telnet session on your local computer — there are many variations and local conditions determine how you start a telnet session. The communication software used to telnet to NetBox should be set to emulate either a DEC vt100 or DEC vt102 terminal. TERMINAL EMULATION = vt100 or vt102. The telnet address for the NetBox server is simply "netbox.com". Once you are connected with the NetBox server you will be prompted for your login id and password and will then be logged on to your NetBox account and at the main menu. (FYI — NetBox IP address is 206.24.108.20) Typing the word "mail" at the NetBox main menu will start Pine, a full-featured electronic mail program. Basic instructions, help and prompts are available from inside Pine. To see a complete and detailed manual for Pine type "help pine" at the main menu prompt. From the NetBox main menu you may also configure your account [adding and deleting registered forwarding addresses, for example, or putting the NetBox on hold], turn the POP option ON and OFF, or use the calendar, vacation and usage features. Type the name of the function you want to use and you will be prompted for your choices. The key to understanding the powerful NetBox redirection function is the concept of a "registered" address. A NetBox can have one, two or three registered addresses. All messages sent to the NetBox will be automatically forwarded to each registered address when the account is in the Inbound Message Forwarding mode. Each registered address can also be used to send outbound messages through your NetBox and make them appear to have originated at your NetBox . Note that outbound message rerouting will work ONLY from a registered address. See the section "Using Real-To: " for specific instructions and examples. Registered addresses can be added or deleted at any time. When you move, change jobs, switch Internet Service Providers, graduate or otherwise change how you obtain access to the Internet, you will probably want to change your registered address(es). A NetBox can also be configured to HOLD messages. When configured to hold messages all new inbound message are put in a special hold file and the forwarding feature is turned off. If your account name was "tiger" the hold file would be called "tigerhold". The file "tigerhold" can be accessed from Pine in a telnet session and messages can be read, forwarded, replied to, saved or deleted. To change the registered address from the World Wide Web go to the NetBox web site and enter the "Customer Home Page". After being prompted for the login name and password, follow the dialog for changing your NetBox configuration. You will be notified by e-mail when the change becomes effective — usually within 15 minutes. To change the registered address(es) immediately, telnet into the NetBox and choose the configure option on the main menu. Changes made in a telnet session are instantly effective. CAUTION AND WARNING! PLEASE NOTE: It is important to be accurate when changing the registered addresses in your NetBox configuration. Incorrect or inaccurate addresses may result in error messages, "infinite mail loops" and other nasty results. DO NOT use your NetBox address as a registered address in it's own configuration, pointing your NetBox to itself for message forwarding will always result in an error and infinite mail loop. NetBox Inc. reserves the right to take corrective action in the event of configuration addressing errors. If your NetBox suddenly does not seem to work the way it used to it may have been administratively reset to hold messages. In such cases a message describing the problem is sent to your NetBox and you must telnet into the account to read messages, correct the error and reconfigure. Using Real-To: (and Real-Cc: , Real-Bcc: ) to forward outbound mail The Real-To: feature is a unique and powerful tool for managing electronic mail. Real-To: is the technique for rerouting outbound messages through your NetBox. It works like this: Every message that arrives at the NetBox is checked to see if it originated at an address registered for that account. If the message did originate from a registered address it is checked for the existence of the Real-To: (and then Real-Cc: and Real-Bc). If the field is found the message is redirected to the address(es) in the field(s) after having all identifying headers rebuilt. This process effectively masks the identity of the registered address, making messages look as though they originated at a NetBox account, and presenting a coherent and integrated electronic identity to your correspondents, regardless of what actual account or address was used to originate the message. Outbound message rerouting will work ONLY when the message originates from one of the forwarding addresses in the NetBox account configuration. This is to prevent someone from rerouting messages through another's NetBox and forging fradulent mail. It is easy to use the Real-To: feature. In the first line of the body of your message type:
Real-To: name@abc.comfollowed by a blank line where name@abc.com is the address (or addresses, separated by commas) you want the message delivered to. Send the message to your NetBox and it will be processed and rerouted to the destination address(es) in the Real-To: field. A few rules about using the Real-To method [also please see examples below]:
1. The "Real-To: " MUST
appear on the first line of the body of the message
and MUST begin in the first column of the first line. Suppose your primary access account is at CompuServe with the address 77632.832@compuserve.com, and you want to send a message to somebody@aol.com with the return address of your NetBox account, you@NetBox.com. The headers and format in your original message would look like this: To: you@NetBox.comYour NetBox receives this, recognizes your CompuServe address as a registered address, and rebuilds the message headers so that somebody@aol.com would actually get this message: To: somebody@aol.comWhen "somebody" hits the reply button to respond, "you@NetBox.com" will automatically be inserted in the "To:" address. Their message will then be sent to your NetBox with the "From:" header containing the address of your correspondent. NetBox adds a "Real-To:" to all your redirected mail so that you can use it for replying through NetBox [with most mailers you can forward the message to your NetBox account and the Real-To: will already be available]. Examples of Real-To:
NetBox saying "No Real-To Field Found: ". Using your mail program's REPLY-TO Most, though not all, communication and mailing programs and web browsers allow the user to establish a "Reply-To: " or "Return Address" field which is used to inform correspondents of the correct e- mail address that should be used when responding to a message. Depending upon the capabilities of the mailing programs used by your correspondents, they can then reply to your messages without having to manually enter your address. In general, the "Reply-To:" field can be changed in the mail programs configuration settings. In Eudora for Windows™, for example, selecting "Configuration" from the "Special" menu opens the appropriate dialog box. Changing the Return Address to "me@netbox.com" will automatically fill in the Reply-To: field with the NetBox address. If the option is available, you should set your mailer's "Reply-To:" or "Return Address" field to reflect your NetBox address. This will work with many, but not all, of the mail programs your correspondents may use. Failure to set this field correctly may result in some message replies from your correspondents going not through NetBox but instead to the account you used to send them the original message. Replying to mail received through NetBox When you receive a message at any of the registered accounts you use to access the Internet, you will notice that NetBox automatically places a "Real-To:" with the senders From: address in the first line of the message. To reply to these messages, use the "Forward" function of your mailing program to send the reply to your NetBox for processing and rerouting to the intended recipient. FORWARD the reply message to yourself at your NetBox. When replying to electronic mail from a registered address the Seven Rules of "Real-To:" apply as normal. If your NetBox account has the POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) or "POP" option enabled you may turn the option ON and OFF from the "Customer's Home Page" on the NetBox website. Alternately, POP may be turned ON and OFF by entering the word "POP" on the main menu and following the prompted instructions in a telnet session. Invoking the POP option will override any NetBox settings (forward, hold) that have been previously configured. Turning the POP option OFF will restore previously configured NetBox settings. When the POP option is turned ON all mail is held for direct access and inbound messages are NOT forwarded to any registered address(es). When the POP option is ON you may also telnet into your NetBox and read, compose, and reply to your mail with Pine. See Stand-alone NetBox — Telnet with Pine. When the POP option is turned OFF the NetBox will revert to the previous configuration, either holding mail for telnet access or forwarding messages to all registered addresses. Configuring Client Software for POP access to NetBox The client software you are using (Eudora™, Netscape™, Pegasus™, SpryMail™ and many others) should be adjusted as follows:
Finally, instruct your client software to delete messages from the server once they have been read to avoid messages building up and resulting in eventual extra storage charges. NetBox
Fax Services E-mail to Fax services are only available to NetBox customers who have established a deposit account for at least $25.00 US. Each time a fax is transmitted, the cost of that transmittal is debited from the deposit account for that NetBox. You will receive an e-mail message that tells you either 1) your fax transmittal was successful, the price of transmittal for that particular fax and the amount remaining in your deposit account, OR, 2) the message failed. Your deposit account will not be debited for failed transmittals. See Please Note, below.
It is easy to send fax messages from your NetBox
account, telnet/pine users and POP users simply send
their formatted message as shown in the following
example: POP Users and Telnet/Pine Users Self-Addressed Sample/Test 3 — E-mail to Fax To: nbfax@NetBox.com [—The NetBox Fax service]Users of the NetBox Real-To: function who prefer to use a registered ISP account to prepare and manage their electronic correspondence would format and send their message for fax delivery as follows: On the first column of the first line of the body of the message put the words "Real-Fax: " followed by the fax number of the intended recipient. The fax number can be in essentially any format, since all non-numeric characters will be stripped out. The recipient's fax number must be accurate, complete, and inclusive. In other words, the number must include any Domestic Area Codes or International Area Codes that may be required. The price of a fax message is dependent upon the location of the receiver and the length and density of the message. The typical cost for delivery of a one-page fax to a US location is $0.15 (fifteen cents) or less. The per minute costs are as follows (minimum 30 seconds billing):
To make arrangements for establishing a deposit
account that can be used to send fax messages please
send a message to sales@netbox.com. The minimum deposit account
is $25.00. The deposit account is not refundable but
any funds remaining in the account may be applied to
payment for other NetBox services. Funds may be added
to the deposit account either with a credit card or
by sending a check to NetBox Inc. |
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