First Impressions & Comments

[iRadiate]

I've only been using the trial version of Pocomail for a couple of days now but I have already have been thoroughly impressed. Although a long time beloved user of Thunderbird, I find that Pocomail has much more useful features and options. I am especially impressed with the Focus Box and Contact Management, both highly useful, well implemented features. In fact overall, I find Pocomail to be very well thought out with a surprising amount of depth hidden behind a very clean, nice looking user interface.

After a very limited amount of use however, I would like to comment on a couple of quirks I've noticed and ask some questions. Please feel free to comment on any or all.

Quirks
1. Standardized Date Format - there doesn't seem to be any sort of date standardization for both sent and received mail. Some dates are even blank for some reason as the image shows:


2. Integration of Anti-Virus - I use Nod32 which is not "integrated" with Pocomail like other clients such as Thunderbird. This is okay as you've provided command line options for which I can run the ecls scanner. Is there any future thoughts to providing seamless integration with Nod32?

3. When composing New Mail, the cursor disappears when you place it on the Subject box.

Question
Licensing - Does purchasing a license entitle the user to future upgrades of Pocomail?

Thanks for listening and feel free to let me know your thoughts.

iRadiate
Windows 7 x64 user

[Tomas]

Hi, welcome to Poco forums.

1. There must be some problem if you see blank dates. Try to backup (through menu File > Backup and Restore > ...), then run compression through menu Folder > Compress All Folders.

To see same date format for all messages, you can use menu Tools > Options, Interface Options, untick "Display date and time in short format" and click OK to save the settings change.


2. Command line options are an obsolete functionality IMHO, nowadays most antiviruses scan the port traffic no matter what client is used. But feel free to use what you prefer, and only switch to the other way if there will be any problems.

3. That's a known bug with current version in Windows 7. While a bit annoyoing, the field is editable.

4. Purchasing a license entitles to future updates for free (eg. if there will be 4.9 version, you'll get it for free), and for discounts on upgrades (ie. on new major versions, Pocomail 5). That's how it was in most cases in the past, though there were if I remember correctly free updates from Pocomail 1 to Pocomail 2, and from Barca Pro 1 to Barca Pro 2, but I don't think free update will be the case with Pocomail 5.

[iRadiate]

Tomas,

Thank you for your feedback, it is most appreciated. Regarding my questions:

1. I will try the Backup -> Compression this evening. I missed the checkbox that uses short format dates. Unchecking the box fixed the date/time display for the way I'd like to see it.

2. I have further researched the Nod32 manual and found: "scanning of POP3 protocol communications is independent of the email client used. POP3 checking is performed automatically with no need for reconfiguration of the email client."
The option to select the A-V Application in Poco made me think that it had to be explicitly set. Obviously, this is not the case. My mistake.

Although, the level of integration I was alluding to was something I was able to use in Thunderbird, and is also referenced in the NOD32 manual:
Integration of ESET NOD32 Antivirus with email clients increases the level of active protection against malicious code in email messages. If your email client is supported, this integration can be enabled in ESET NOD32 Antivirus. If integration is activated, the ESET NOD32 Antivirus toolbar is inserted directly into the email client, allowing for more efficient email protection.
All the major email players are supported in this regard, but I suppose this requires active collaboration between both parties. Given that Poco seems to be more inherently resistant to malicious code by design, this is probably a bit of a moot point anyway.

3. Thanks for pointing out the Win7 bug. This is definitely a very minor thing.

4. Fair and typical licensing. Thanks for the clarification.

iRadiate

[Tomas]

You are most welcome.

The option to select the A-V Application in Poco made me think that it had to be explicitly set.

Some options are easily confusing. Pocomail is quite long on the market and this is one of the features that shows it's age and wasn't removed yet (on the other hand it's still usable and some users still use that).

If integration is activated, the ESET NOD32 Antivirus toolbar is inserted directly into the email client, allowing for more efficient email protection.

I have to admit I don't know full details on NOD32 integration into TB, I'd have to research more first. Generally I think you are close, main reasons might be that it might have been done directly by ESET company as they could justify the development costs for Outlook and Thunderbird by the number of their users using these email clients. Also Pocomail is not as powerfully extendable, in comparison to Outlook and Thunderbird.

[robin]

It might be worth pointing out that the way programs like NOD (and all the other AVs) work is by hooking into the POP3 traffic as it comes over the network - before the mail client sees it. This means that it can effectively support *any* POP3 client, or more than one.

"Integration" often related to other features, such as the ability to mark messages as spam or not spam, and tell the AV program directly from the e-mail client (I know this is AS not AV, but you get the idea).

The feature within Poco is provided for use with AV packages which do not do this.

[ScreamoonW]

Titus wrote:I presume you meant the XK8 / XKR. I note that this foum refers to the current XK/ XKR series as the "Alloy bodied" XKs. Is there a generally accepted, equivalent shorthand for the earlier XK8 / XKR not-alloy-bodied series, please?

[robin]

Spamming the forums with irrelevant posts are we?

Because this is so off base...