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E-mail client

andie_fairlie
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎05-07-2007

E-mail client

From an appearance point of view SquirrelMail is pretty ugly. Have you considered trying the open-source AJAX base RoundCube?
Screenshot of RoundCube
[Moderator's note by Jonathan (chillypenguin): Image converted to a hyper link as it was distorting the forum layout.]
20 REPLIES 20
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

Hi Andie,
Our Squirrelmail solution is only a temporary one.  We are looking at alternate solution and potentially designing one in house.  Nothing has been decided as of yyet though.  We'll be sure to keep everyone posted once a decision has been made though!  Not to mention the fact that we will take on feedback from the people that count - you guys Smiley  No point in going with a client that everyone hates!
Colin
Grafter
Posts: 1,264
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

I was part of the team that made the initial decision on which Webmail client to use, and we did consider RoundCube (and a few other applications) but because it was still in Beta and we couldn't see how well they reacted to Security Vulnerabilities, we decided we would go with SquirrelMail.
Colin
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

RoundCube does look very nice though Smiley
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

Hi Andie,
Some users have welcomed the somewhat sparse appearance of SquirrelMail because they mainly use it through dial-up when travelling.  The lack of bells and whistles speeds up access.  The ideal would be a client that can be user-configured to provide a basic and extended experience.  Are you aware of anything fitting that requirement?
Rest assured, PlusNet do listen and the user community make sure they "hear" too.  The community also do their best to provide help should the need arise.
David
David
Not applicable

Re: E-mail client

I keep mentioning this whenever I get the chance in the hope that it will be considered: Please can we have the facility to personally blacklist or block spam as well as the current spamfilter?
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

Hmmm, the problem with blacklisting on a per user level like that is that it's not really going to achieve much. Spam is more often than not sent from zombie machines that have been compromised by a BOT. Blacklisting by address would be useless as the sending address is almost always going to be different. Similar constraints apply if blacklisting by IP too. Chances are the mail's going to be coming from the IP addresses of residential DSL users and will not remain constant.
I personally think greylisting would be a great benefit to us. I use it for my email and it prevents a *lot* of unneeded junk.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

Not applicable

Re: E-mail client

Thank you for the reply and explanation.  Yes, come to think of it, you are absolutely right, the blacklist in my Ukonline account grows ever longer.  Incidently, I didn't get any spam on this address until the security breach - I know that it was probably my signup address in 2004 but I don't know how the hackers got it. 
pdavidson
Grafter
Posts: 147
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: E-mail client

Blacklisting/Whitelisting on a per customer basis (through your own interface) is something that's being discussed at the moment but it needs to be carefully thought out if it's going to be of any use. We'll keep you updated Smiley
Greylisting is great but it has one big potential problem. That problem is delays, all of which are out of our control and could be anything between seconds and hours! The quote below is from Bob's Wikipedia link.
"Typically, a server that uses greylisting will record the following three pieces of information (known as a "triplet") for each incoming mail message:
    * The IP address of the connecting host
    * The envelope sender address
    * The envelope recipient address
This is checked against the mail server's internal database. If this triplet has not been seen before (within some configurable period), the e-mail is greylisted for a short time (also configurable), and it is refused with a temporary rejection. The assumption is that since temporary failures are built into the RFC specifications for e-mail delivery, a legitimate server will attempt to connect again later on to deliver the e-mail."
I imagine it's something that will speed up over time after the initial implementation (as the internal database 'recognises' more servers) but, again, it needs some serious thought before we potentially inflict mail delays on customers.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

Couldn't you run it for a few weeks in learning mode to build tables of good IPs? Then when you turned on the temporary refusal most of the valid IPs would already be in there.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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Liam
Grafter
Posts: 2,083
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

Would that not defeat the object though?  One of the benefits of greylisting is that, supposedly, only legitimate mail servers will retry after being initially rejected.  If we're not doing the initial rejection, we won't be able to see who is retrying (and therefore legitimate)?
Unless I'm understanding it wrongly?
metman
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

spraxyt got it right as far as I am concerned. This bare bone sq is dead right for dial up. My daughter is dial up and I find sq minutes quicker than the previous PN webmail.
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

Quote
Couldn't you run it for a few weeks in learning mode to build tables of good IPs?

Quote
Would that not defeat the object though?  One of the benefits of grey-listing is that, supposedly, only legitimate mail servers will retry after being initially rejected.

I think that is correct so not practical.
The initial delays are obviously of concern, but if the system is dynamic enough wouldn't it learn pretty quickly so that delays for the majority of users were just a temporary blip and worth the pain?
One of the things I find irritating is that mail from Open Relays can be classed as innocent.  I know of no senders that I want to hear from who use Open Relays.  Perhaps this view isn't shared by 100% of the community but (assuming personal white-lists can be introduced) how about treating such messages as spam unless the individual users white-list the sender for their accounts?
David
pdavidson
Grafter
Posts: 147
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: E-mail client

Our biggest issue with Spam and Webmail in general is in finding a solution that will suit as many people as possible.
It's even been mentioned on here (by a customer in the community I forget which one - sorry) that we shouldn't even bother to spend money on Webmail because nobody uses ISP email  Undecided
I'm sure this is absolutely true for a lot of customers but we also know that a lot of you  use your mail to varying degrees and some of you absolutely rely on it.
What it boils down to is finding out what you want from webmail and trying to accomodate as many people as possible. When it comes to Spam, no solution is 100% but as a company we're being very careful with what we implement because whatever we do it has to have the least chance possible of losing any legitimate mail.
I think on that front (as a PN mail user myself) we're doing very well. I have yet to find a legitimate mail in my Spam folder which, despite this meaning that a few actual Spam emails slip into my Inbox, is ideal for me. We can't guarantee that every Spam email will be stopped because we don't want to use very aggressive systems that would, without doubt, lose legitimate email.
out of interest, have any of you found that our filters are labelling legitimate mail as Spam? We'd really like to know about it if so as this is something that we're taking very seriously every step of the way.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: E-mail client

Quote from: Liam
Would that not defeat the object though?  One of the benefits of greylisting is that, supposedly, only legitimate mail servers will retry after being initially rejected.  If we're not doing the initial rejection, we won't be able to see who is retrying (and therefore legitimate)?
Unless I'm understanding it wrongly?

The way I was looking at it was that most zombies will only send a single item to each user. If they are repeatedly sending to the same user the probability is that they will end up on black lists anyway.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)