CommuniGate Pro WebMail Guide

WebUser Interface Pages
WebUser Interface Login
WebUser Interface Auto-Signup
WebUser Interface Settings
Password Modification
Public Info Editor
Automated Rules
RPOP Accounts
Trash Management
Secure Mail (S/MIME)

The CommuniGate Pro Server provides Web (HTTP/HTML) access to user accounts. The WebUser component works via the HTTP module and allows users to read and compose messages and to perform account and mailbox management tasks using any Web browser.

Even if you prefer a regular POP or IMAP mail client, the WebUser Interface can be used to access the features unavailable in some mailers. For example, the WebUser Interface can be used to specify Subscriptions and Access Control Lists for account mailboxes - the features many IMAP clients do not support yet.

If the WebCal Service is enabled for your Account, you can use the WebUser Interface to create Events (Meetings and Appointments) and ToDo items (Tasks), to accept and cancel them, to view your Calendar and ToDo lists.

The WebUser Interface is completely customizable. The CommuniGate Pro package includes several "stock" Skins - an unnamed one (it uses a minimal set of graphic elements and it does not use any scripting) and several named Skins. Named Skins usually provide more graphic-intense interfaces. Each CommuniGate Pro installation can use an unlimited number of custom Skins.

All pages shown in this section are displayed using the simple unnamed stock Skin. The same pages may look differently when displayed with other Skins.

WebUser Interface Pages

The WebUser Interface consists of several types of HTML pages that you can access using the controls - links and buttons. When you access the server using a WAP (wireless phone) browser, WML pages with the same functionality are generated and sent to your wireless device.

Hello page: This page is displayed when you log into the system. It allows you to switch to other WebUser Interface pages, as well as to other portions of your site.
Mailboxes page: This page lists all mailboxes in your account and allows you to create, rename, and remove mailboxes, and to open mailboxes so you can browse the messages stored in your mailboxes. See the Mailboxes section for more details.
Mailbox page: This page lists all messages stored in the selected mailbox. You can copy, move, redirect, forward and delete listed messages. You can open and read messages listed on the Mailbox page. See the Mailboxes section for more details.
Message page: This page presents the content of the selected message. You can read the message, copy, move, delete, redirect, and forward the open message, and you can reply to it. See the Messages section for more details.
Compose page: This page allows you to compose a new message, and send it. It can alos be used to create and modify the notes, and calendaring (Event and ToDo) items. See the Composing section for more details.
Settings pages: These pages allow you to customize your WebUser Interface.
WebSite page: This page allows you to manage files in your Personal Web Site.
Contacts pages: These pages allow you to browse your Contact-type (AddressBook-type) mailboxes ("folders"), and to edit your Contact and Contact Group items. See the Contacts section for more details.
Notes page: This page allows you to manage your Notes. See the Notes section for more details.
Calendar and Tasks pages: These pages allow you to browse your Calendar-type and ToDo-type mailboxes ("folders"). See the Calendar and Tasks sections for more details.

WebUser Interface Login

The Login page allows you to log into the WebUser Interface by presenting your user name and password:

Welcome to CommuniGate Pro,
the domain1.dom Messaging Server!

Registered Users

Login Name Password

Disable Network Address check

Disable Cookie check

Check that the Domain Name (domain1.dom in this example) correctly specifies the Domain your Account belongs to. If you cannot open the Login page of the proper Domain, you still can log in, but then you would need to enter your full Account name (in the accountName@domainName form).

Your Account WebUser Preferences (Settings) may enable some security mechanisms, such as the Fixed IP Address mechanism and/or the Cookies mechanism.
When you connect using a network with multi-home proxies (such as the AOL network), your requests come to the CommuniGate Pro server from different network addresses, even when you continue to use the same browser on the same network. If you have to connect to the Server from such a network, you may want to disable the Network Address feature for this session, otherwise you will get disconnected very quickly.
Some browsers do not support "cookies". If you have to connect to the Server from such a browser, you may want to disable the Cookie check for this session.
If you always connect from a proxied network or always use a browser that does not support cookies, you may want to disable this security options in your Account WebUser settings, so you won't have to disable them manually every time you try to log in.

WebUser Interface Auto-Signup

The Administrator of your Server or your Domain can enable an auto-signup feature. If this feature is enabled, you can open the Signup page (using a link on the Login page), enter your Account name ("username"), password and some other parameters, and create a new Account in this Domain. The system then logs you in that Account:

Welcome to CommuniGate Pro,
the domain1.dom Messaging Server!

The passwords entered in both passwords fields should match.

You may want to enter the Forgotten Password Retrieval Email - the system will send your password there if you forget it. Please note that:

This E-mail address should not be the address of the Account you are creating, because when you forget your password, you cannot open that Account and read the message with your recovered password. This E-mail should be the E-mail Address of an account you have with some different ISP.
The Server will be able to send your password via E-mail, only if your password is stored in the clear-text form or it can be decoded by the Server. If the password stored as one-way encoded "hash", the Server will not be able to decode it, and the Server will not be able to send you the decoded password string.

WebUser Interface Settings

You can tune the WebUser Interface by modifying settings on the Settings pages.

The Settings pages contain options that customize Accesses to Mailboxes, Mailbox Browsing, Message Browsing, and Message Composing. Besides, it contains some generic settings:

The Interface ("Skin") to use.
The security options used to protect your WebUser sessions.
The character set options.

The WebUser Interface Settings page contains a link to the Account Mailbox Subscription and Mailbox Aliases page.

Layout:
Language:
Require Fixed Network Address:
Use Cookies:
Time Zone:

Layout:: Use this setting to specify the Layout ("Skin") of the WebUser Interface. Select the *** option to use the default ("unnamed") Skin. When you change the Layout setting, you need to Logout and Login again to use the newly selected Skin.
Language:: Use this setting to specify the Language to use on the selected Skin. The menu shows all Languages available for the selected Skin.
Require Fixed Network Address: Select this option to enable the Network Address security check. When this option is enabled, the Server remembers the Network Address you logged in from, and then all HTTP requests to the established WebUser Interface session must come from the same Network Address, otherwise requests are rejected.
Note: Do NOT select this option if you plan to connect from the AOL network or other networks that use outgoing HTTP proxies.
Note: You can disable the Network Address security check when you login.
Use Cookies: Select this option to enable HTTP "cookie"-based security check. When this option is enabled, some "cookie" information is sent to your browser when you login, and the browser resends that information back to the CommuniGate Pro server every time you access a WebUser Interface session page. Other browsers cannot access your WebUser Interface session even if they connect from the same Network Address, as they do not posses the proper "cookie" information.
Note: Do NOT select this option if you plan to use browsers that do not support "cookies".
Note: You can disable the "cookie" security check when you login.
Time Zone: Use this setting to select the time zone you are working in. The WebUser Interface will use the select time zone to show the date and time values. Select the *** value to use the Server OS time zone.

Text Encoding

Preferred Character Set:
Use Unicode (UTF-8) for:

Preferred Character Set:: Use this setting to select the character set you use most. New messages you compose will be encoded using the selected Preferred Charset. If a message does not have the charset specified, it is displayed using the Preferred Charset.
Use Unicode (UTF-8) for: Use this setting to specify how your browser can utilize the Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. Select the Reading and Composing option if you use a modern browser.

Password Modification

The WebUser Interface Settings page contains a link that opens the Password Editor page:

To update your password, enter your current password, then enter your new password twice, and click the Modify button.
Note: The New Password fields may be absent. This means that the Administrator did not allow you to modify your Account password.

You can specify the Password Recovery E-mail address. It should be an address of some other account, most likely - on some other system. If you ever forget your CommuniGate Pro Account password, you will be able to ask the Server to send your password to that E-mail address. To set the Password Recovery E-mail address, enter your current password and the Password Recovery E-mail address into their fields and click the Modify button.

Public Info Editor

The Public Info Editor page can be used to modify your Account data stored in the Directory. Other users can retrieve this information from the Directory using any LDAP client, or using WebUser Interface to the CommuniGate Pro Directory.

The System Administrator defines the set of Account Settings used as user's Public Info. If the Public Info Editor page contains no fields, the System Administrator has not speicifed any Public Info settings.

You can update the Public Info Account Settings by modifying the data in the value fields. Please note that the CommuniGate Pro Server can 'rename' Account Settings when storing them in the Directory. The City setting may be stored as the standard l directory attribute, while the Work Phone setting can be stored as the telephoneNumber attribute in your Directory record. The Server Administrator specifies the Account Settings <-> Directory Attribute renaming rules.

Automated Rules

The WebUser Interface provides access to the account Automated Mail Processing Rules. If the Can Modify Account Rules account option is not enabled, then you can view the account Rules, but you cannot modify them.

You can turn the Auto-Reply option on and you can modify the Auto-Reply message text even if the Can Modify Account Rules option is not enabled for your account.

See the Automated Mail Processing Rules section to learn how to specify the Rules.

RPOP Accounts

The WebUser Interface provides access to the list of the Remote POP Accounts that the system polls on your behalf.

If the Can Modify RPOP Accounts account option is not enabled, then you can view the list of RPOP Accounts, but you cannot modify them.

See the RPOP Module section to learn how to specify the Remote POP Accounts to poll.

Trash Management

The WebUSer Interface Settings allow you to specify how the delete operatons are handled:

Trash Management

Message Delete Method:
Trash Mailbox:
Keep Message Received Time:
On Logout Remove from Trash if Older than:

Message Delete Method: Set this option to Immediately if you want to permanently remove a message when you click the Delete link or button.
Set this option to Move To Trash if you want to move deleted messages to the special Trash mailbox, so they can be recovered from there.
Set this option to Mark if you the Delete operation to mark messages as "deleted", without actually removing them. Then you can use the Purge Deleted operation to remove all mailbox messages marked as Deleted.
The remaining options can be used when the Move To Trash method is selected.
Trash Mailbox: This setting allows you to specify the mailbox to be used as Trash. If you access your account with some other mailer that uses a Trash mailbox, too, you may want to configure the WebUser Interface to use the same mailbox as Trash. For example, the Microsoft Outlook client uses the Deleted Items mailbox as a Trash mailbox.
Keep Message Received Time: If this option is enabled, then messages moved to Trash keep the Received ("Internal") time attribute, it shows the time when the message was received. If this option is disabled, the Received time attribute for messages moved to Trash is changed to the time when they were moved. This option has an effect on the next option.
On Logout Remove from Trash if Older than: When you logout of the WebUser Interface, the system checks the Received date of the messages in the Trash mailbox, and removes all messages older that the specified period of time. Depending on the Keep Message Received Time option value, it allows you to keep only recent messages in the Trash, or to keep only recently deleted messages in the Trash.

Secure Mail (S/MIME)

The WebUser Interface allows you to send and receive digitally signed and encrypted messages. It can decrypt encrypted messages, verify digital signatures, and perform other Secure Mail operations.

The Secure Mail functionality is available only if your Account and Domain have the SMIME Service enabled.

See the WebUser Interface SMIME section to learn how to use Secure Mail functions.