Mail Poppers for Windows, Linux, and Mac

For Windows

7Way E-mail Checker









Check an unlimited number of POP accounts and create different types of filters

Weighing just 419 kB, the 7Way E-mail Checker is one of the smallest poppers available. Just run the executable to install the package, which is free to use for 30 days. When you run it for the first time it will ask for your username, password, and mail-server address. You can also specify the number of lines you want to see for a mail. Press OK and you’re ready to go. The application shows up in your system tray and runs in the background. The main interface looks similar to most e-mail clients and is divided into three parts showing the current account you are working on, the list of messages in that account, and the first few lines of a specific mail if you had set it earlier. To check additional POP accounts, go to the Accounts menu, choose New and provide the relevant information. A unique feature of this checker is that it allows you to create mail filters for Spam. To create a filter, go to the tools menu and select filter.

The utility is pretty fast, and it took around 47 seconds on our company’s Net connect to display all 10 e-mail. The application also comes with a very useful help file. After the trial period you can register the software online, which costs $12 for up to four users.

InboxSpecialist

Check multiple POP accounts using dial up or LAN connections, and even reply to your mail with the help of your existing e-mail client 

This is another shareware e-mail checker, which you can use for a period of 30 days. After installation it sits on your system tray and runs in the background. It lets you create multiple POP accounts, which you can check simultaneously. If you have any mail account configured on your machine, then it can import those settings, so you don’t have to do it manually. One of its unique features is that you can set a size limit for your e-mail. If you set it to 5kB, then only the first 5kB will be downloaded. You can also adjust the time after which it will automatically check for new mail. On receiving mail you can set it to play a sound and flash an icon in your system tray. For home users or people using modems, you can configure or select an ISP account to use with the application. It can also automatically disconnect after receiving mail, thus saving on

bills.

The application shows you the senders’ names, date, time, subject of all e-mail, but if you want to view some part or all of the e-mail then you need to have an e-mail client, such as Outlook Express installed. You can also reply to your mail using your default e-mail client.

Its performance is also pretty good. It took us just under 20 seconds to download the first mail, and about 5 seconds each for the remaining ones.

For Linux

Kshowmail (Graphical)

Retrieve mail headers in a POP account and delete unwanted e-mail

To install Kshowmail on PCQLinux 7.1, log in as root. Mount this month’s CD and copy kshowmail-2.0.tar.gz from

cdrom/ linux/poppers to /root directory. Decompress and untar the file. The corresponding commands that can be keyed in a X Terminal window or Linux command line are:

This will create a directory named ‘kshowmail-2.0’ under /root directory. Change to this directory and issue the following commands in order:

If you are not in X window, issue ‘startx’ command. Now in a terminal Window issue the command ‘kshowmail’. This will bring up the Kshowmail application. Configuring it is pretty simple, as you just have to choose ‘Add’ from the Action>Options menu. Other configurable options include play a sound or launch an external application like

kmail, when new headers are retrieved. The default is to display a pop-up window for notification.

To check your mail headers, click on Action>Refresh Messages, press ctrl+r or click on the menu icon. One problem with this popper is that although it retrieves the headers one by one, it shows them all together once they have all been downloaded. It is also a little slower than the rest, taking more than 2 minutes to download 12 headers. However, user experience will depend on their net connect. After retrieving all mail headers, right-click on any header to see the header details, complete mail corresponding to the header, delete the mail, or send a complain message to the sender. The last feature is useful if you want to send a spam complain to the sender of spam mail.

p3c (Command line)

See mail headers of your POP account and delete unwanted mail interactively

Log in as root. Mount this month’s PCQ CD and copy the file p3c-0.1.6b.tar.gz found in

cdrom/linux/poppers to /root directory. Decompress and untar the file. The corresponding commands that can be keyed in an X Terminal window or Linux command line

are:

This will create a directory named “p3c-0.1.6b” under /root directory. Change to this directory and issue the following commands in order:

p3c can be run from a terminal window in X window or the Linux command line as:

where is the name or IP address of your POP mail server and is usually 110 (default for POP servers). For example, for using the Yahoo POP account:

After connecting to the server, you will be shown the mail headers one by one and then asked whether to delete them or not. The first mail took nearly a minute to show up, but subsequent mail took only 10 seconds.

For Mac

FastEmailCheck Pro 1.1.1

Check up to 10 e-mail account simultaneously






This is an easy-to-use e-mail checker for Mac, which allows you to simultaneously check up to 10 different POP and hotmail e-mail accounts. To install the program simply unstuff the FECPro.sit file with Stuffit Expander. This will create a folder that contains the application itself, a readme file, a help file, and a utility to register the software.

The Window option allows you to configure the position and size of the application window. The Account option is where you can configure your different POP accounts and even your hotmail mail account. The Check option lets you define the interval after which it will automatically check for new messages. This is disabled in the unregistered version. You can use your PPP connection or your network connection to check for mail. Finally, Notify lets you choose what will happen once a new mail arrives. You can pop up a window or play a specific sound

(AIFF format) to alert you.

Once this is done you are ready to retrieve your e-mail, by clicking on Check. After checking it shows the subject line for your e-mail for all the accounts that you have defined. You can click on each and retrieve more information for that message by clicking the Info button. This will show you the senders’ name, date and time of when that mail was sent. You can then decide whether to fetch that mail, delete from server, or leave it as is. However, at the time of testing the software we could not retrieve the mail headers from a hotmail account. The application comes with a utility, which allows you to register the software online using your credit card, or by check/money order. A single user license is $10.

Sachin Makhija and Shekhar Govindrajan