We actully decided a while back to use Windows server directory permissions to force all internal mail to be sent to the users extenal address (delivered by Mercury) so that when people here were corresponding with people outside any reply all done by people outside worked to all the addresses here because they were not shoprt internal addresses but full internet ones.  To do this each users mailbox needs setting such that only they and the account Mercury runs on can access their mailbox.

 Having said that we do have some departments where all users can access each other's mail because they need to work that way.

 It is a bit time consuming but quite easy to do. 

This may be a daft question, but can i install pmail program files on a network server so that all the users run the same executable. At the moment, pmail is installed locally on each pc with the mailboxes located on a windows server - this really is a nightmare to admin. I did attempt this network installation once, but everything locked up when a second user ran the pmail executable.

If this is not possible, i assume i would have to install pmail in a seperate folder on the network for each user. Is that right..?

Thanks in advance.

> This may be a daft question, but can i install pmail program
> files on a network server so that all the users run the same
> executable. At the moment, pmail is installed locally on each pc
> with the mailboxes located on a windows server - this really is a
> nightmare to admin. I did attempt this network installation once,
> but everything locked up when a second user ran the pmail
> executable.
>

Sure can, it actually pretty simple.  I've also thrown Mercury/32 into the bundle but you can ignore all after step 3 if the users want to run as standalone POP3/IMAP4 mail clients.

1.  Install WinPmail in the multiuser mode on the "server".  Use c:\pmail
    for the program; c:\pmail\mail for the mail directories.

2.  Run PCONFIG.exe from the WinPMail program directory and change the HOME and
    NEW mail directory specification to the \\server\vol\pmail\mail\~8
    format.

3.  Go to the remote workstations and install a shortcut to the common
    program.

Ok, now you have the basic mail system setup.  You can send mail to each other using Pegasus Mail.  

4.  Install Mercury/32 on this same server pointing to the Pegasus Mail
    directory structure.  Use MercuryD, MercuryS, MercuryC at least. Use
    \\server\vol\mercury\queue for the mail spool directory.

5.  Point MercuryD at all of your POP3 mailboxes to download the mail to
    your Pegasus Mail user directories.

You now can send and receive Internet mail via Pegasus Mail.  The mail is delivered to the Pegasus Mail directories automatically.  You send mail simply but putting the output files into the Mercury/32 mail spool directory.  This is accomplished automatically with a Pegasus Mail User Defined Gateway.  

6.  If you want to maintain other POP3/IMAP4 clients, point the client at
    the at your Mercury/32 host as a POP3 and SMTP host using the Pegasus
    Mail username and password to pickup the mail.

You can do a complete inbound and outbound mail archive with this setup using a simple Mercury/32 "Always" filter that put a copy in a users mail directory.

Thank you Thomas... Easy when you know how.!

You can also set the user's environment variable %pmuser% to %username% so that your users won't have to enter their Pegasus Mail's username any longer, you just need to have the same username for Windows and Pegasus Mail.

One thing to realize is that when you set things up the way Thomas recommends, everyone can read everybody else's mail by browsing to \\SERVER\PMAIL\MAIL\[username] or by selecting "Folders" -> "Add mailbox to list" from within Pegasus Mail.  The way that I set up Pegasus Mail on networks allows for private mailboxes. I set up Pegasus Mail in "Single User" mode on the server.  Then I run PCONFIG and set the mail directory to "U:\PMAIL", make sure every user has their home directory mapped to U:\ as a private folder on the server, create a PMAIL folder in each user's home directory on the server, and copy the default contents of PMAIL to that folder.

One thing to realize is that when you set things up the way Thomas

recommends, everyone can read everybody else's mail by browsing to

\\SERVER\PMAIL\MAIL\[username] or by selecting "Folders" -> "Add

mailbox to list" from within Pegasus Mail.

Assuming that you did not set each users folder so that the other users cannot read it.  This can be done in even XP but it does take a bit of doing to accomplish. 

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]Assuming that you did not set each users folder so that the other users cannot read it.  This can be done in even XP but it does take a bit of doing to accomplish.[/quote]

Note that if you do this then Pegasus Mail cannot deliver mail locally any more, since user X can't write to user Y's mailbox.  This isn't a real problem unless you're paying for bandwidth.

Note that if you do this then Pegasus Mail cannot deliver mail locally

any more, since user X can't write to user Y's mailbox.  This isn't a

real problem unless you're paying for bandwidth.

You can turn off read without turning off write to a directory on XP.  That said, I turned off read/write/scan capability of other mailboxes in almost all of my Pegasus Mail setups and only use Mercury to deliver the mail.  It's just too easy for someone to drop a phony mail message into another users new mail folder.   If you are using Mercury then the user could get a FORWARD file put into their new mail directory as well.  Since I was doing a number of middle and high school setups this was a fairly common occurance so I learned my lesson.  ;-(  I did the Mercury/Mercury/32 and Pegasus Mail, the IT server admin did the user mailbox security in most cases. 

BTW, when you only share the c:\pmail to a single user mailbox what keeps the other users from mapping another users mailbox?