Campus-Wide Election: Selecting a New WebMail

About the Election

The Two Test WebMail Servers: http://mail.uic.edu

The Election: Click Here to Vote for the Next WebMail

The election closes March 21, 2005.

Note: One vote per person; but you can change your vote before close of election

The ACCC is going to replace WebMail with completely new software, faster, easier, and better than sliced bread. We only have the resources to support one program, but we found two different Web email programs that we liked pretty much equally, Squirrel and Horde IMP. They both do most everything a good Web email client should do, but each does some things better than the other.

You'll be using the new WebMail, so you get to choose. We've set up working copies of each of these Web email systems for you to try out and we have an online election for you to vote for the one you like better. But since you can only vote once, be sure to examine them well before voting.

If you want to send comments about either WebMail, send them to webmail-opinion@uic.edu. But our intention is to respect the vote to pick the program that we run in production.

The URL of the new WebMail will be http://webmail.uic.edu, just like the old one. The mail URL is temporary; for the vote.

Online Documentation

Aside from the notes in Some Differences below (which should be useful), we haven't written any documentation on either Horde/IMP or Squirrel Mail yet. But here are their official Web pages:

Horde/IMP:: There isn't much info online about how to use IMP; the only official page is the Horde User's FAQ
Tufts University has a PDF User's Guide on its IMP E-mail page. (1Mb)
Squirrel:: Squirrel is much better documented: The Squirrel Document Page, which includes a User Manual, a User FAQ, and a Wish list. Go to the Squirrel home page and click on the Documentation link.
London South Bank University has a PDF User's Guide on Squirrel Webmail. (2.2Mb)

Features to Check Out

Notes on how you do some of these things are given below in Some Differences.

Which program works faster for your type of email use.
How the programs' spelling checker works.
Both programs automatically display HTML-formatted messages as text messages. Check into how you tell the programs to display the message in HTML format.
How the programs handle images in HTML messages. (You should be able to tell them not to display the images.)
How the programs handle attachments. In particular, try it out on an .exe file or some other type of file that will be MimeDefanged.
How you use the Address book. Can you automatically add an address from an email message to your Address book?
How the programs handle email folders.
How the programs handle attachments.
How the programs handle deleted email messages. Can you choose when to empty trash? Can you automate deleting trash?
How the programs handle sent email messages. Can you save them? Can you automate deleting old sent mail?
How you print messages and how they look when you print them.
How you compose email in other character sets, such as Chinese or Korean.
How the programs work in a smaller browser window.
How the programs' Search feature works.
How you view a message's full headers.
How it looks and works on your favorite Internet-enabled handheld device.
Are there delivery receipts for sent messages?

Some Differences

The following are a few of the ways that we found in which Horde IMP and Squirrel differ.

Feature	IMP	Squirrel
Spelling Checker.	Works oddly. Select the correct spelling from the suggestions, click the Change radio button for each one, then click Next then Done.	Works like a standard spelling checker. One Web page I saw says it doesn't work in Internet Explorer 5.0, but you shouldn't be using IE anyway.
How you cancel a message you're composing.	Click Cancel Message	Click the browser Back button or go anywhere else in Squirrel.
Composing and displaying email in other character sets is something that is quite different in the two programs. Please send email to webmail-opinion@uic.edu and let us how this works for you; we have had limited opportunities for testing for this.	After you open the message you're composing, use your browser's View-> Character Encoding and select the appropriate character set (or however you do it on your browser). Repeat for each message you send. (If you're lucky, your selection might last as you move from page to page, but it didn't consistently for us.)	Select Options -> Display Preferences; choose the Language you want from the drop-down list and click Submit. You only need to do this once. This is a lot easier.
Searching is almost the same, but IMP is easier.	Lots of search options and easy-to-use form.	Lots of search options; not so easy-to-use form.
Delete a message. Your options on what to do with deleted messages differ in the two programs.	Use Options -> Maintenance Options to select options on how often to purge your Trash folder and how long to keep messages in it.	By default, deleted messages are moved to your deleted folder and are left there until you delete them a second time or click (purge) in the Folders frame.
By default, both programs display HTML messages as text. What you do to view them as HTML is another difference.	The HTML version of the message is in the message as attachment. Open the message, click on the 3.5" floppy disk attachment icon, then open the attachment in your browser.	Click on the View as HTML link when viewing the message.
Viewing images in HTML messages.	If you view a message as HTML, you view its images.	By default, images in HTML messages are not displayed unless you allow them to be. Use Options -> Unsafe Image Rules to make a list of addresses that you will allow images from. A nice security feature.
The programs differ on how they handle email folders.	To display the index of any folder, select the folder's name from the Open Folder dropdown list in the upper right of the index list. Or use the Folder Navigator screen: select Folder from the main menu, then double-click the folder name to open the index of a folder. Once you're on the Folder Navigator screen, you have a lot of options, including Download Folder(s).	To display the index of any folder, double-click on the folder's name in the Folders frame, which is on the left side of your browser at all times. A very nice feature for people with a lot of folders.
When displaying the list of messages in a folder, which columns can you sort the listing by?	Click on the Column heading to sort by that column.	Click on the Column heading to sort by that column.
By date received/sent	Yes; default sort is by date; default display is the screen with most recent messages at the bottom.	Yes; default sort is by inverse date; default display is with newest messages at top.
By sender	Yes	Yes
By subject	Yes	Yes
By size	Yes. This is a very nice feature.	No, but the ACCC Email Quota tool lists the 10 largest messages in each folder.
Is saving sent mail user-configurable?	Yes; if you want, it moves sent mail to monthly folders; deletes sent-mail folders over a year old. Use Options -> Maintenance Options.	Only in a Yes or No way. Options -> Folder Options; select a folder for your sent email or select Do not use Sent. Click Submit when finished.
Check out the Options; are there any/enough that interest you?	Click Options in the main menu; in most cases click Save Options to submit your changes.	Click Options in the main menu; in most cases click Submit to submit your changes.

Observations/Comments

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	ACADEMIC COMPUTING and COMMUNICATIONS CENTER