> Thank you for the update.   I'm not sure where the timeout setting is listed.  Did you mean the Polling Control in Tools/internet
> Options for any identity?   Mine is set at "0".    As I said it took about 25 min to download the name/subject data listing then it
> locked up!

The setting is in Tools | Internet options | (Receiving)POP3 when editing the POP3 setup.

Timeout:  The length of time Pegasus Mail should wait on a reply from the host before concluding that there is a communication problem and giving up. If you enter zero (0) in this field, Pegasus Mail will use the default timeout that appears on the General Internet mail settings  page of the Internet Options dialog.  

> I have cleared the standby Win 98SE machine after going into Safe Mode and rebooting.   Setting the messages to 50 and downloading,
> via "File/Check Host for new mail", it did as expected and just down loaded the 50 complete messages; it appears to start at the oldest
> but that is not a problem.

Ok.

>
> I would concur with the human being better in general at recognising the unwanted messages in a long list - that is why I hoped that
> setting the "Number of Messages " to 50 or 100 would have worked under Selective Mail Download; unfortunately it doesn't seem to do
> so, only if the whole message is retrieved, which defeats the object of quickly listing just name, subject and date.    

Selective mail download is only downloading the headers, not the entire message but this can take a long time to download the list of the messages in the mailbox when you have thousands of messages.  Turn on session logging for an example of what happens with a selective mail download.  I'd recommend that you do this for an account with fewer messages since the mailbox with thousands of messages can take a long time.  It took nearly 1 minute to list 290 messages in my example below; downloading the headers took another 3 minutes.

Here's a snippet from a selective mail download:

08:56:47.609 << 0008 UIDL 1\0D\0A
08:56:47.734 >> 0031 +OK 1 GmailId126d2ecd7a0e57aa\0D\0A
08:56:47.734 << 0009 TOP 1 1\0D\0A
08:56:48.203 >> 0021 +OK message follows\0D\0A
08:56:48.203 >> 0019 MIME-Version: 1.0\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0074 Received: by 10.90.70.4 with HTTP; Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:38:41 -0800 (PST)\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0060 In-Reply-To: <891313.63848.qm@web81808.mail.mud.yahoo.com>\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0058 References: <JI201002132127136.4074062@pa2.so-net.ne.jp>\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0049 \09 <891313.63848.qm@web81808.mail.mud.yahoo.com>\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0039 Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:38:41 -0500\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0031 Delivered-To: none@example.edu\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0075 Message-ID: <ba6c37f81002151038i633087d9w2f860850a2005801@mail.gmail.com>\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0029 Subject: Re: [PedTalk] test\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0032 From: dianna <none@example.edu>\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0041 To: Mary Lewis <none@example.net>\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0076 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=00163616449527426f047fa7edb7\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0002 \0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0032 --00163616449527426f047fa7edb7\0D\0A
08:56:48.234 >> 0003 .\0D\0A

 > Perhaps I will add a brief request to the Pegasus Mail Suggestions that

the message number should apply to both full and selective download.

I'll pass this one along to the testers and David Harris.

I need to clear, using "selective mail download", messages from a friend's email account, which has not been looked at for nearly a year.   There are some 3800 messages at the last count a few days ago.   Most I will mark to be "Deleted" , I expect only a few to kept for download, but I won't know until the Sender name and Subject line can be read
Will Pegasus be able to deal with this number?   Is there a limit in the software that could cause a problem?
My PC runs Win XP pro and the broad band line rate is ca 14 Mbps, whereas my friend's line is only 0.7 Mbps.
Thanks for any advice.

Rodney Fry
Crowthorne
Berks
England

I found in looking at  Tools/Internet Options, then clicking on Receiving POP3 tab, selecting Edit and then the Download Controls tab that there is a "Message download controls" dialogue with a small window for the number of messages to be downloaded during any connection.

I tried setting this to 100, but it did not stop Pegasus downloading, so I cancelled the process.  Presumably this only applies to full messages and not just header data?   Since I last tried this there are now 4077 messages sitting on the server. I decided to try on my standby Win 98 SE machine, which runs PMail v4.51 as does my main Win XP Pro PC.    I set the WIn98 machine to download the header data with "Selective mail download" - it took some 25min even with my reasonably fast BB line.

Unfortunately when it reached the last header PMail produced an error message window with an error in "winpm-32.exe" .   The machine locked and I couldn't access the details.    I tried re-setting the PC but it has produced an error somewhere and I will try Safe Mode and see if I can clear the problem.

Having generated the error window I am reluctant to try the account clearing on my Win XP machine.  However, I still would like to find a way  to check the messages - most will just need to be marked only for deletion leaving a small number that can be handled in a normal fashion.

Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks

Rodney Fry

> Having generated the error window I am reluctant to try the account clearing on my Win XP machine.  However, I still would like to find
> a way  to check the messages - most will just need to be marked only for deletion leaving a small number that can be handled in a normal
> fashion.
>
> Does anyone have a solution?

The selected mail does just download headers but it must scan the mailbox as well.  I'd simply try and keep the under say 50 messages and only do a delete until you get done.  

That said, you can use the POP3 filtering and set it it download mail newer that about 30 days ago and delete all over 30 days.

> The selected mail does just download headers, but it must scan the

mailbox as well.  I'd simply try and keep the under say 50 messages and

> only do a delete until you get done.

 Thanks for the response Thomas.   I think a word was missing, but did you mean if I set the POP3 "Message Down Load Control" to say 50 or 100 PMail will actually make a full down load of the complete message in each case, the system taking only the latest 50 or 100 messages?

I have had a brief look at the Mail Filtering Rules, but  it's not immediately clear to me how to write a rule as there are no obvious examples (and obviously I've never written them before!).   I assume plain English is inadequate and it must have some logical structure.   In other words it is no good me putting the simple text "download all messages later than 1 January 2011"?   I will have to experiment on the Win98 machine and see if I can generate text that will be understood without causing the PMail to lock up again!

 Rodney Fry

> Thanks for the response Thomas.   I think a word was missing, but did you mean if I set the POP3 "Message Down Load Control" to say 50
> or 100 PMail will actually make a full down load of the complete message in each case, the system taking only the latest 50 or 100
> messages?

That would work as well, but I was talking about selecting the files after the listing is shown.    Make sure though that you set the timeout in the POP3 setup to something like 300 seconds so the server does not timeout getting the listing of the messages.

However, If you are not set to download only unread mail is should just do a couple of queries at the start asking how many messages are available for download and then start downloading the 50 or 100 messages.  


> I have had a brief look at the Mail Filtering Rules, but  it's not immediately clear to me how to write a rule as there are no obvious
> examples (and obviously I've never written them before!).   I assume plain English is inadequate and it must have some logical structure.
> In other words it is no good me putting the simple text "download all messages later than 1 January 2011"?   I will have to experiment
> on the Win98 machine and see if I can generate text that will be understood without causing the PMail to lock up again!

Here's a example of a POP3 filter that is set to download any mail less than 15 days old and to delete all over 14 days old.

Age
If age older than 14 DeleteOnServer ""
If not age older than 15 Download ""

This is saved as AGE.PNP in the home mail directory.

Thank you for the update.   I'm not sure where the timeout setting is listed.  Did you mean the Polling Control in Tools/internet Options for any identity?   Mine is set at "0".    As I said it took about 25 min to download the name/subject data listing then it locked up!

I have cleared the standby Win 98SE machine after going into Safe Mode and rebooting.   Setting the messages to 50 and downloading,  via "File/Check Host for new mail", it did as expected and just down loaded the 50 complete messages; it appears to start at the oldest but that is not a problem.

Thanks for the example - as I suspected, I would not have arrived at that expression!    Doing a Google search using "pop3 mail filtering expressions" gives a whole load of web pages, mostly they are to do with spam filtering [my IPS do a good job and I see virtually no spam nowadays] and the structure can be complicated but logical.   The following two pages were helpful, with the last one referencing a Pegasus Forum thread back in April 2008 from Philip E J Jones on the very topic that I had raised.

"expression filter tips"
http://www.astaro.org/astaro-gateway-products/mail-security-smtp-pop3-antispam-antivirus/16251-expression-filter-tips.html

This page gave two references on "Regular expression"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_Expression
The German version seems to have more description for those who can follow the technical German
"Regulärer Ausdruck"
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_Expression

The earlier Forum page is
"server side filtering on selective POP3 download"
http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/8173.aspx
Philip indicates he finds the human user is quicker and better in spotting unwanted messages (his DIY filter!) in the "Selective Mail Download" list.  One of the respondents Erik has added (26 April 2008) some associated aspects to the Pegasus Mail Suggestions.

I would concur with the human being better in general at recognising the unwanted messages in a long list - that is why I hoped that setting the "Number of Messages " to 50 or 100 would have worked under Selective Mail Download; unfortunately it doesn't seem to do so, only if the whole message is retrieved, which defeats the object of quickly listing just name, subject and date.    Perhaps I will add a brief request to the Pegasus Mail Suggestions that the message number should apply to both full and selective download.  

Rodney Fry

[Using In Win 98SE or Win XP Pro SP2, PMail v4.51]