"POP" is the "Post Office Protocol", which is a way to read mail remotely from a mail "server" using a "client" program such as Eudora. Alcor can be used as such a mail server (or POP server); if you have an Alcor account, and a networked machine running POP client software, you can read your mail remotely. (By "networked machine" we mean one that's permanently connected to the Concordia network, one that's running SLIP or PPP over one of Concordia's Dial-up facilities, or one that's connected to the Internet via an Internet Service Provider.)

The settings: The POP server should be alcor.concordia.ca. The SMTP server should be smtp.concordia.ca if you will be connecting from within the Concordia network. However, if you will be connecting from an ISP, then you must use your ISP's SMTP server to submit mail.

Your POP user ID is your Alcor user name.

If your password contains whitespace, that will make the POP authentication fail; in that case, just change your password to something without whitespace.

If you are using a POP client, make sure that you configure it to read and delete mail messages from the mail (POP) server. In Eudora, choose the "Settings" entry in the "Special" menu, select the "Checking Mail" icon, and make certain that the box labeled "leave on server" is not checked. Once this is done, click on the "Ok" button to save the settings change. Other POP clients have a similar configuration setting.

A number of POP clients, including Microsoft Outlook and some versions of Eudora, have the capability to perform their connection to the POP server over a secure, encrypted connection (SSL). If the software you're using has this capability, it's very strongly recommended that you make use of it, to help protect your password as it travels over various networks.

Finally, there are newsgroups dedicated to the discussion of Eudora, where you might find some helpful information.

Frequently Asked Questions about POP mail and Eudora:

• Why do I get a Maildrop lock busy! message, and what can I do about it?
• Why does my POP mail client see only some of my mail?
• Eudora reports that there is no new mail, but this is not true. How do I fix this?
• When I try to submit mail, I get "relaying denied". Now what?

That sometimes happens when you exit Eudora incorrectly (the modem hangs up or some such) and a process called "popper" is left running. You must log into Alcor and kill the "popper" process still running on your behalf. First, log into Alcor. At the prompt, type fixpop. This is a little program that will kill your hanging "popper" program.

Back to the question list

Eudora (well, the POP server on Alcor) sees only what is in your file in the mail spool directory; this corresponds to the INBOX folder in Pine. Mail in other folders in Pine is not seen by the POP server.

Back to the question list

The problem may be with your disk quotas.

Back to the question list

Our SMTP server will not accept mail submitted from a remote site and destined for a remote site. If you are connected to the Internet via an ISP (Internet Service Provider) and not via Concordia's network or dial-in lines, then you must set your SMTP server to your ISP's server; ask your ISP for more information.

Back to the question list

---

Copyright, © 2005, Concordia University, (IITS). Author: Dana Echtner Credits: Anne Bennett Maintained by: webdoc@alcor.concordia.ca Last update: 2004/03/10 -- Sylvain Robitaille