- Re: The Digest V1 # 811: GPS questions/ Mac/Netbook repairs

- Re: The Digest V1 # 811: GPS questions/ Mac/Netbook repairs

- email settings

- eMail: SMTP, POP and Security

- subject of upgrades, Psion to Mac,

- Re: E mail with broadband

Date: 1 Oct 2005 13:32:09 +0000
From: George Cooke <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 811: GPS questions/ Mac/Netbook repairs

[Itamar asked:
do you have to plan your route on the PC and than transfer it to the Garmin or do you do that on the Garmin itself ?  And does it go all over Europe up to srteetlevel in all cities or is that only in the UK ?]

I hope this isn;t straying too off topic - but it's valuable info for anyone using Psion as a GPS unit.
You can plan a route (from...to...with vias and avoidances) with the Mapsource software (CitySelect) and also on the Quest unit itself. Due to lack of full keyboard, it IS easier with the PC.
My weapon of choice is a Mac Powerbook  but I have a small Panasonic Toughbook CFR1 running Win XPPro because I have to be compatible with clients AND because my GPS needs it. Garmin software is only Window$ compatible I'm afraid.
It does cover most of Europe to street level. Indeed, you can try the software simulation online at: http://www.garmin.com/cartography/ and selct the MapSource Map Viewer:CitySelectEuropev7.
Incidentally, as I was looking for this, I notice Garmin have released a Points of Interest (POI) loader, which I think seems to be the closest they're going to get with customiseable overlays.
I still miss the Psion-based approach though!

Kim Smith:
I use Macs and Psions happily together. Like Timothy, I found JavaPsionLink excellent. In use my Netbook over WiFi to FTP to the Mac (which have built-in FTP servers!) to transfer files for printing.

I also use Fastbackup with my 5MX and Netbook and multiple CF cards for backup as they're so cheap (48-64MB ones anyway).

Personally I wish the 5MX was wifi capable. The PsiXpda project seems not to have made that improvement.


Finally, I recently has to send my Netbook away to be fixed (loose power connector). I had it back within 2 days. POS don't do netbooks as a
rule, so I opted for a guy called Costas in the south of England, whose email I got from the Psion Digest. I thoroughly recommend him - he knows his stuff. Here's alink to the post that I found his details on (look at the bottom):
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53161&highlight=costas

Date: 1 Oct 2005 13:32:49 +0000
From: Plutopants <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 811: GPS questions/ Mac/Netbook repairs

[Itamar asked:
do you have to plan your route on the PC and than transfer it to the Garmin or do you do that on the Garmin itself ?  And does it go all over Europe up to srteetlevel in all cities or is that only in the UK ?]

I hope this isn;t straying too off topic - but it's valuable info for anyone using Psion as a GPS unit.
You can plan a route (from...to...with vias and avoidances) with the Mapsource software (CitySelect) and also on the Quest unit itself. Due to lack of full keyboard, it IS easier with the PC.
My weapon of choice is a Mac Powerbook  but I have a small Panasonic Toughbook CFR1 running Win XPPro because I have to be compatible with clients AND because my GPS needs it. Garmin software is only Window$ compatible I'm afraid.
It does cover most of Europe to street level. Indeed, you can try the software simulation online at: http://www.garmin.com/cartography/ and selct the MapSource Map Viewer:CitySelectEuropev7.
Incidentally, as I was looking for this, I notice Garmin have released a Points of Interest (POI) loader, which I think seems to be the closest they're going to get with customiseable overlays.
I still miss the Psion-based approach though!

Kim Smith:
I use Macs and Psions happily together. Like Timothy, I found JavaPsionLink excellent. In use my Netbook over WiFi to FTP to the Mac (which have built-in FTP servers!) to transfer files for printing.

I also use Fastbackup with my 5MX and Netbook and multiple CF cards for backup as they're so cheap (48-64MB ones anyway).

Personally I wish the 5MX was wifi capable. The PsiXpda project seems not to have made that improvement.


Finally, I recently has to send my Netbook away to be fixed (loose power connector). I had it back within 2 days. POS don't do netbooks as a rule, so I opted for a guy called Costas in the south of England, whose email I got from the Psion Digest. I thoroughly recommend him - he knows his stuff. Here's alink to the post that I found his details on (look at the bottom):
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53161&highlight=costas

Date: 1 Oct 2005 14:22:47 +0000
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: email settings

Rolf and others,
>>Scheme No. 1 : You can use Psion's standard Email application but may  need to change SMTP server settings when you connect to the Internet  via a different ISP.<<

An alternative to constanly/frequently/infrequently changing the settings is to create multiple accounts. It is possible to create mail accounts called "Ian (ISP1)" and "Ian (ISP2)" which have identical settings for sending address, POP server etc., but simply use different SMTP servers. When connected via ISP1, you use "Ian (ISP1)" to send email, when connected via ISP2, you use "Ian (ISP2)"; the recipient won't notice anything different, as the email address that they see (ie.<address truncated> or whatever) is the same for both accounts. When checking for mail, you can open either mailbox, as both use the same POP server. This approach avoids having to change mailbox settings and/or the need to actually remember the details of various ISPs (ie. is the SMTP server called smtp.isp.com or mail.isp.com etc.)

I actually have multiple accounts defined, all with identical SMTP and POP server settings but different sending (email) addresses. For example, I bought a ".name" domain, and use an email address associated with this domain as my main email address, but I also have a planet.nl email address, an alias for this, a FreEPOC alias and an IEE alias; when I send an email, I simply choose the account that I want to use, and that determines the email adress that the recipient sees.

Now if only I could delete those five Fax accounts.......

Cheers, Ian.

Date: 1 Oct 2005 18:18:08 +0000
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: eMail: SMTP, POP and Security

Hi Folks,

The point is actually simple
(and broadband has nothing to do with it : • ).

SMTP authentication (and POP before SMTP) is intended to identify spammers and stop them. That is its *only* purpose. The protocol requires a password so any spam that appears to have come from that server but didn’t *cannot* be attributed to that eAccount - and no, I don’t know how it works (nor do I particularly want to). The security improvement for users is a bonus.

SSL provides the same safeguards and more (it’s a security arrangement really).

My website provider gives me any number of POP accounts. It suggests I use my ISP-provided SMTP server but with my own eAddress. Some spammers spoof their eAddresses the same way. I think SMTP authentication (and POP before SMTP) prevents this spoofing too. It ought to.

The Japanese eMail client is XJMail and you don’t need to use any font not built in to the Psion, you just need a file called (I think) jiksan.gdr available in the *System/Fonts* folder. It can be an empty text file.

Happy days,
Phil.

“A generation which ignores history has no past -
and no future.”

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/index.html

Date: 2 Oct 2005 00:41:44 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: subject of upgrades, Psion to Mac,

Answer to: Cyril Catt

Re.: subject of upgrades - You wrote "Why so many clamshell designs were abandoned in favour of the limited Palm format in a me-too stampede defeats me". Maybe it is because we are in a minority in this world and the vast majority of people want smartphones without keyboards instead of the clamshell design ?

Answer to: Timothy H.D. Williams

Re.: Psion to Mac - You write that you don't use th ePsion for emailing. I find specially when traveling that my mBook is the best tool for emailing. While in the car it is my route/streetplanner with GPs, but whenever I either travel by plane or just stop at a petrol station my mBook instantly becomes my email machine. With my GPRS phone I check the emails in my mailbox and download only those I need to see immediately, I can also read faxes that came ino the office and passed on via email. And tha all with abt. 6 hours of battery life (and a spare battery in my handluggage making that 12 hours !). Which machine beats this ?  Not many !

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 2 Oct 2005 14:00:35 +0000
From: Carl von Einem <address truncated>
Subject: Re: E mail with broadband

Hi Rolf,

From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
>
> << Every email account is identified by a 'user' (or account name) 
> and a 'password', otherwise everyone else would be able to send 
> messages with your identity or read messages addressed to you. That's 
> part of the email account created on a specific SMTP server by some 
> person with admin rights >>
>
> That's not really the case when I look at the configuration 
> parameters on the Psion. There are two tabbed dialogs dealing with 
> the two servers involved. What you enter is the following:
>
>     Tab : Incoming (Mail retrieval)
>        - Name of the POP3 server
>        - Your mailbox user name
>        - Your mailbox password
>     Tab : Outgoing (Mail transmission)
>        - Name of the SMTP server

POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) are not different servers but protocols that deal with the different tasks sending and retrieving your mails. When we speak of a SMTP or a POP or a mail server all three are sort of (tasks running on) the same machine. I see that I always run into definition problems here...
Your mail account (mailbox) indeed has some name (user name) to identify it and a password to restrict access to it. I guess in the case of the Psion settings the above outgoing mail tab use just the user/password settings in the other tab. Normally you don't have to fill in the password in a mail application, in such a case the server will ask you for the password if needed.

Does that put my above statement back into some logical sphere?

> Putting my Mr. Spock ears on, thereby turning myself into a Vulcan, 
> I'd say that this is logical. What you want when you retrieve your
> e- mail from the POP3 server are all messages addressed to Carl von
> Einem. You therefore need to tell the server who you are by means of 
> a user name. The password is there to confirm that you are who you 
> say you are. Situation is different for the SMTP server in that it's 
> the first station an e-mail passes in a relay chain from system to 
> system until it lands in the right mailbox. What the SMTP server 
> effectively does, is to accept the e-mail, read the address of the 
> recipient and to pass it on. It's not important to know who the 
> sender of the e-mail is.

Everything but the last sentence is perfectly explained. The server should evaluate if that sender's mail address is correct. I accept there are several strategies what to accept or not. But it should be important for the first relay to now who the sender is or to evaluate if is
trusted or not.

> Unless the e-mail can't be delivered and is
> sent back together with a non-delivery note. What the SMTP server 
> therefore needs to know are the e-mail addresses of the sender and 
> the recipient. Which it can get from the e-mail itself. So that the 
> above four parameters are all you need to exchange e-mail.

theoretically yes. We just have that little Spam problem in the real world.

> Well ... the word "need" can now be replaced by "needed" as it 
> reflects a situation in which SMTP servers were open to all comers. 
> Not that this created problems as the vast majority of people would 
> enter the name of the SMTP server of their ISP, company, university, 
> etc. Though you could enter the name of another SMTP server if you 
> wanted. The people who loved this, of course, were the spam 
> merchants. Reason why schemes were introduced to keep undesirables 
> off SMTP servers. Now, what you describe is one of the four schemes I 
> know of.
>
> 1) When you use an ISP's SMTP server it's checked whether you've 
> gained access to the Internet via the ISP's systems. It's an ID check 
> at the point of entry as you need to supply your Internet log-on user 
> name and password before you get Internet access.
>
> 2) When you use an ISP's SMTP server it's checked whether you've used 
> the ISP's POP3 server first (POP Before SMTP). Your ID is your POP3 
> mailbox's user name and password (which tend to be different from 
> your Internet log-on user name and password).

Ah yes, I think Outlook for a long time had troubles dealing with that
ISP setting. AFAIK Outlook always tried to do it just the other way
round: first send, than receive.

> 3) You need to supply a user name and password for the SMTP server in 
> addition to the user name and password for the POP3 server (SMTP 
> Authentication). The user name and password can be the same for both 
> POP3 and SMTP servers but can also be different.

The latter wouldn't than work with Psion's built-in mail app.

> 4) When you use an ISP's SMTP server you need to establish a secure 
> (SSL) link between e-mail client and SMTP server. For which you have 
> to supply an SSL password.
>
> Which is the reason why people have been talking at cross purposes in 
> the "E mail with broadband" message exchange. Armin Podtschaske and 
> yourself have your eyes firmly focussed on scheme no. 3 while Itamar 
> Engelsman has his eyes on scheme no. 1. It's the reason why you 
> didn't understand that Itamar has to change SMTP server settings and 
> why Itamar sees an SMTP server which doesn't use scheme no. 1 as open 
> to each and everybody.

Ok, now I understand it. I think I understand it... :-)

> Coming back to our Psions, these schemes have the following effects:
>
> Scheme No. 1 : You can use Psion's standard Email application but may 
> need to change SMTP server settings when you connect to the Internet 
> via a different ISP.
>
> Scheme No. 2 : You can use Psion's standard Email application but 
> have to switch the "Automatic Send" function off and to retrieve your 
> e-mail (manually) from the remote mailbox before you send the e-mail 
> (manually) that's in your local outbox.
>
> Scheme No. 3 : You need to add Marcus von Cube's SmtpAuth tool to 
> Psion's Email application. The way I understand it is that SmtpAuth 
> intercepts and responds to the request for the SMTP user name and 
> password.
>
> Scheme No. 4 : You have to replace Psion's Email application by a 
> third-party e-mail client (JMail??) written to handle the double-byte 
> encoding of Chinese and Japanese characters. This e-mail client has 
> the required SSL support.
>
> << They do it perhaps but it is not technically neccessary, that's 
> what I wanted to point out >>
>
> I'm very sorry, but you clearly wrote that "... a SMTP server is 
> *always* technically independent from the physical connection of the 
> client to the internet" [My emphasis on the word always : RB]. Given 
> schemes no. 1 and 2 above we can say that an SMTP server is a 
> separate system but not always a truly independent system.

I give up on this, this is something I just cannot describe good enough
in English. I feel misunderstood at this point.

> << They just sell you both when you only need one (the access) >>
>
> I think you're too hard on ISPs as they supply a one-stop solution 
> many people like. A family gets Internet access - mom, dad and the 
> kids get their own e-mail address and mailbox - there's one technical 
> support department to call when something goes wrong - etc. All that 
> for a reasonable price as the competition between ISPs keeps prices 
> low. OK, you may be able to save a few dollars/pounds/euros by 
> keeping e-mail separate. But is it worthwhile to make that saving? It 
> all depends on personal requirements - what do you need and what can 
> you do without? When ISPs satisfy the needs of a sizeable consumer 
> group than three cheers for these ISPs.

Surely different ISPs target very differnet groups of customers, a
company has different needs than a single person. And a single person
may be sometimes better off with a package including the whole communication being it email, phone, tv, cell phone... Some just cannot
get out of existing contracts for say their basic phone connection and don't want to or can't get a cell phone contract with the same company. Same with email etc.

I have a gmx.de email adress but later also registered my own domain (where I can set up my own mail adresses) with a different company. I access Internet over my phone company and have perfect access to both
email addresses, both gmx.de and my own domain's. And I really don't use my phone company's smtp or the mail address they are willing to give me. That way I can change my phone provider and don't loose my email address.

best,
Carl