Table of Contents

1. Introduction to SquirrelMail
   SquirrelMail provides a way of checking your E-Mail over the World Wide Web.
    
2. Message Index
   The name may sound complex, but this is just the list of email messages that are in a particular folder.
    
3. Reading an Email Message
   The ability to read an email message is one of the most basic features of any email client. However, SquirrelMail has quite a few features for while you are reading messages. This explains what they all do.
    
4. Compose
   With this feature, you can send messages to different people from within SquirrelMail.
    
5. Addresses
   Address books can save a lot of time and typing. You can put the addresses of people you write most often in them, and reuse them over and over.
    
6. Folders
   You can store messages in different folders. This is especially useful if you have a lot of email and want to keep it organized. The folders option allows manipulation of your folders.
    
7. Options
   You can customize the way that SquirrelMail looks and responds to you by setting different options in this section.
    
8. Search
   Searches through a folder for given criteria.
    
9. Frequently Asked Questions
   Often people have the same questions that have been asked many times before. This is a list of commonly asked questions and answers.

So what exactly is SquirrelMail? It's a web interface to email that's written in PHP4. It was designed to allow email access through your server from anywhere in the world via the Web. More information about exactly how it does this and the IMAP protocol can be found here.

1.1 - The Basics

If you just have a quick question, you might want to look at the FAQ.

SquirrelMail is laid out in two main sections called frames. The left frame lists the currently subscribed folders. More information about the left frame may be found under the "Folders" section of this help documentation.

On the right is where most of the action will take place. At the top of the page is a menu bar. Sign out will safely log you out of the program when you are finished. The Current Folder displays which of the folders listed in the left frame you are currently in. Right after you log in, by default your INBOX will be shown.

Under the top bar is a row of menu choices:

• Compose - Make and send an email which may include attachments.
• Addresses - Holds a list of addresses that are contained in your personal address book.
• Folders - All folder manipulation takes place under this. You can delete, create, rename, subscribe, and unsubscribe folders.
• Options - Change settings of how SquirrelMail responds and looks.
• Search - With this tool, you can search through a mailbox for given criteria.
• Help - You are already here!

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The name may sound complex, but this is just the list of email messages that are in a particular folder.

2.1 - The Message Index

After you click on a folder, you will be taken (in the right frame) to the message index. This lists messages in the selected folder. Below the menu choice is a line which informs you which mails you are viewing numerically and how many total you have.

For example: Viewing messages 20 to 30 (45 total).

Notice that the total message count might be different from the unread mail count which is to the right of the main mail folder.

A bar containing four buttons is next. On the left side is a drop down list box. This box lists your currently subscribed folders. Any selected message will be moved to the selected folder when the move button is pushed. Multiple messages may be moved at once. On the far right side of this bar is a button used to delete selected messages. Just select the junk mail and press the button. To the left of the Delete button are two buttons which allow you to mark selected messages either as Read or as Unread.

A bar containing three fields (From, Date, and Subject) is next. These headings separate the message table into logical parts. From tells you who sent you the message, or at least what email address it came from. Date shows the day which the email was sent. Subject displays what the sender entered as the subject. Note: Between the Date and Subject columns is a small column that is unlabeled. There could be a "+", "!" or an "A" in there. If you see the "+", that means that the message has attachments; if you see the "A", that means that you have answered the message, and if you see the "!", then the message was marked as urgent!

What remains is the actual message table. You will notice that unread messages are bold while viewed messages are in normal text. Four fields form this table. On the far left is a select box. When selected, the message on the same line is subject to the actions previously discussed (moving, marking (un)read and deletion). The Toggle All link at the top of the list allows you to check all select boxes at once.

Under the From header is listed whom the message is from. Surprising, we know. But hey, you don't have to read this. The date is listed next, and finally the subject.

If your mailbox contains many messages, the list will by default be split into multiple pages and the first page will be displayed. To view other pages, use the Previous and Next links at the top and bottom of the message list. You can also jump to a specific page directly by clicking one of the numbers (each represents a page). If you click Show All you will disable the so-called paginating and all messages will be displayed on one big page.

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Click on the subject of a particular mail and that message is displayed. One thing you will notice is that email and web addresses are live links so you can click on them and send an email or open a page. Another really nifty feature is that mail threads are color coded. The standard for a reply is to quote the previous message with ">" before every line. SquirrelMail sees this and color codes them. A replied message will have a different color on the reply than the new text. This works two layers deep. Another menu bar is now presented below the main menu choices. This bar is in three sections. On the left side you may delete or return to the summary. In the middle direct navigation between messages is made possible. On the right, various mailing functions are presented.

3.1 - Message List

Click this link to return to the folder from which you came.

3.2 - Delete

Click this link to delete the message being currently viewed. All attachments of deleted mail are deleted as well. You can prevent the loss of attachments by Downloading them first (explained further in this chapter).
In this context, deleting means that the message will be moved to the folder called Trash. If you wish to keep the message afterall, view the Trash folder and move the message out.

3.3 - Navigation

In the middle of the bar are navigation buttons. Previous will be an active link if it can be utilized and plain text otherwise. Clicking this link will display the previous message without the need to go back to the summary display of messages. The same goes for the Next link which will advance you to the mail immediately following the one currently being viewed.

3.4 - Forward

On the right, the forward link, when pressed, opens the Compose page with the previously viewed email in the text box below a tag of "--Original Message--". "Fwd:" is appended to the original subject line and placed in the correct field. The various fields for sending to an address await your completion. You may position the cursor in the text box in order to add comments to the already existing text. You may also use the attachment feature.

3.5 - Reply

Click this link to return a new message to the originator of the previously viewed message. "Re:" is appended to the original subject line and placed in the subject field. Again, the text of the original message is quoted in the text box. This time the ">" symbol is placed in front of the original text. You may note that some of the original text doesn't have the ">" symbol. This is due to line wrapping and may be unavoidable. Try setting the value of Wrap incoming text in the Options page to a larger number, this may help. Comments can be made anywhere in the text box in addition to the quoted message. You may also use the attachment feature.

3.6 - Reply All

Same story here as "reply" with the exception that all addresses listed in the header will receive the mail.

3.7 - View all headers

This will display the entire header for the email message. This includes the route that the message took to get here, and a lot more detailed information about the message itself.

3.8 - View Printable Version

If you want to print a message, you might want to click this link. It presents you with a new window containing the message but with all unneccessary information and menus removed, ready to print. Clicking the Print button in this window will do so. Press Close to return to your message.

3.9 - Download this as a file

At the bottom just above the bottom bar you will find this link. Clicking this link allows you to save this email to your local hard drive as a plain text message. A simple header will be attached to the top of the message as well.

3.10 - Attachments

Any attachments sent with a received email will be displayed at the bottom of the message inside a colored box. The file is presented as a link with a description of the file type to it's right. Clicking on the file name will either display the attachment or present a download dialog depending on the file type. If you wish to download the file (rather than possibly viewing it), click on the "download" link on the right side.
If your webbrowser supports viewing the attachment file type, another link, "view" will be displayed which displays the file in your browser.

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The Compose menu choice will take you to a new Compose page. Here you will find several fields and a couple of buttons. Depending on how you got to the compose view, some of these fields may already be filled in.

4.1 - From

The From: field will only be displayed if you have enabled multiple identities (through the Options, Personal Preferences menu). If you've done so you can choose which identity you want to use, i.e. which name and email address appear as the From-line of your message.

4.2 - To

Next is the To: field. In this field you should enter the email address of the person or persons you are sending a message to. You may enter as many addresses as you like, separating them with a comma. One may also press the "Addresses" button to fill in the field. Don't worry if the entire address is not displayed. The field is a fixed length, but everything you put in it will be used, even though it might scroll to the right or left.

4.3 - Cc

Next is the CC: field. CC is an abbreviation for Carbon Copy. If you wish to send someone else a copy of the message here is where you would do that. Think of this in the same way a memo is laid out. You can have as many people as you like in the To:, CC:, and BCC: fields. Only the people to whom the message has direct impact would be in the To: field while recipients to whom this is possibly only informative would be in the CC: and BCC: fields.

4.4 - Bcc

BCC is an abbreviation for Blind Carbon Copy. Use this to send someone a copy of the email without the recipients in the To: or CC: fields knowing about it.

4.5 - Subject

Type in a relevant heading here. Remember, email can be a great time saver and an accurate subject line is one big reason.

4.6 - Addresses Button

This button will open the address book after a search box is presented. Something must be entered in the search box to retrieve a result. If all addresses in the address book are required, press the List All button. The address book has enough functionality that it deserves it's own section. More detailed information is available in the "Addresses" chapter.

4.7 - Save Draft button

If you've been composing a message but for some reason aren't ready to send it yet, you can use this button to save the message in the Drafts folder. If later you want to finish the message and send it out, go to the Drafts folder, open the message and you will return to the compose page with your message filled in.

4.8 - Priority

If enabled by your system administrator, at the right of the buttons a drop down list "Priority" is available. Here you can select, surprisingly, the priority of this message. A high-priority message might be presented in a different way by the recepient's mail program. Note that excessive use of this function will devalue it's effect.

4.9 - Message Body

The large empty box is for whatever you want to put there. If a signature file has been saved it will appear here as well. This is where you type the body of your message.

4.10 - Attach

Located at the bottom of the Compose page, this feature allows you to include a file with your email. The file must be located on your local machine or network to be attached. A browse button is present so you may search through your directory structure and click on the file to include. Alternatively you may type directly into the attach field if you know the full path and exact file name. Simply press the Add button to list the selected file as an attachment and it will appear below.

Once at least one file is presented for attachment another button is revealed. Deletion of one or more attached files is accomplished by selecting the offending file or files and pressing the delete selected attachments button.

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Address books are a great time saving feature. Frequently used addresses may be stored here. LDAP servers (Often used in companies and universities to make organization-wide addresses easily available) are supported as well.

If your Browser supports Javascript then you might want to enable the JavaScript based address book under the Options menu item. It is a really nifty little pop-up thing. Pure HTML address lists are supported so even browsers without Javascript support can use SquirrelMail without any loss of function.

5.1 - Nick Name

Put a familiar name here. Something to help jog your memory. Anything that will give you an accurate idea to whom this email address belongs.

5.2 - Email Address

This must be the persons' fully qualified email address. Guessing here just won't cut it. There are three parts to an email address. First is the recipients identifier, such as "johnq". Next is the domain name section, which could take the form "tayloru". Last comes the top level domain, which could be one of a ton of things like au, cc, us, com, org, net or might look like edu. So if we put all those together it must be in the form of johnq@tayloru.edu. If this is not correct you are likely to get your mail back in the form of a bounced message.

5.3 - Info

This is another field where you can put something to remind you about who this person is. This is made to be longer than the "Nick Name". For instance, if you meet a business contact, you could put "Met at the Tomatoe Symposium".

5.4 - Edit or Delete

These two buttons allow you to select a single address and then change any of the above fields, or delete the entry entirely. You are only allowed to select one entry at a time for the edit button.

5.5 - Add to Personal address book

Fill in the fields as they are listed. The first three (Nickname, E-mail address, and First name) must be filled in. Both Last name and Additional info are optional.

5.6 - LDAP

LDAP is a protocol for central unified storage and remote access of information. For example; a university might use LDAP as the single place where all students, staff, and faculty email addresses are stored and made available. If configured to use the universities LDAP server, SquirrelMail would then be able to list all campus email address (along with the other address book fields if available). SquirrelMail's LDAP use is truly powerful in that it combines your local address book and the LDAP address server information to present all of the information as if it was a single address book.

The LDAP setting may be configured to use any LDAP server, or disabled as a feature altogether. You will need to talk to you system administrator about this feature if you have specific questions.

LDAP settings affect the entire SquirrelMail system; as a result they must be set up or altered by someone with administrative authority.

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You can store messages in different folders. This is especially useful if you have a lot of email and want to keep it organized. The folders option allows manipulation of your folders.

6.1 - Subscribed Folders and the Left Frame

Currently subscribed folders are listed in the colored area to the left. This frame may be set to automatically refresh in the Options page. At the top of the left frame is large and bolded heading. If changes have been made to the subscribed folders using the folders menu item, this list can be refreshed with the link below the title. Oddly enough, this link is titled "refresh folder list".

The first folder listed contains received mail. To the right of the first folder is a number in parenthesis "( )" reflecting the count of unread emails. This number is likely to vary from the total number of emails displayed in the right frame. Under the main folder are likely to be other folders or subfolders. Colors for these folders will change with theme choices made in the options page.

6.2 - Delete

You may delete any folder displayed in the drop down list box to the left of the Delete button. Notice that this list may not include all the folders displayed. The special folders such as your sent or your trash folder cannot be deleted, and of course, you cannot delete INBOX.

6.3 - Create

Folders may be created by simply typing the desired name into the text box and pressing the Create button. If you wish that this folder be a subfolder of another one, you can choose that in the drop-down box with the list of folders.

On some mail servers, there are two types of folders. One that contains messages, and one that contains folders. You may see an option called "Let this folder contain subfolders." If you do and you check that, the folder you create will only be able to contain folders and not any messages. Otherwise, you will only be able to store messages in it and not folders.

6.4 - Rename

You may rename any folder displayed in the drop down list box to the left of the Rename button. Notice that this list may not include all the folders displayed in the left frame. For obvious reasons, you cannot rename the sent, trash, or INBOX folders.

6.5 - Unsubscribe and Subscribe

Definitions:
Subscribe: To register a folder with the mail server, allowing you to view it in the folder listings.
Unsubscribe: The opposite of subscribing. This unregisters a folder with the mail server.

You may choose as many folders as you wish from either the subscribe or the unsubscribe box, then click the button under the box to make the action take effect. You will notice that the folders move to the other box. You can then re-subscribe to them, or unsubscribe again as you wish.

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One of the great things about SquirrelMail is the degree to which it may be customized. Depending on the configuration, you may have several choices of themes, languages, folders, and other preferences. All of these may be changed without affecting any other users on the system. There are at least five main parts to the Options: Personal, Display, Message Highlighting, Folders and Index Order. More parts may be available depending on your SquirrelMail installation.

7.1 - Personal Information

Full Name
You should put your entire name here. For example, "John Doe". This is what is shown to people that you send the message to. They will see that it is from "John Doe". If you don't fill this in, they will see it is from your email address, "jdoe@mydomain.org".

E-Mail Address
Optional - If your email address is different than what is automatically assigned, you can change it here.

Reply To
Optional - This is the email address that people will reply to when they reply to your message. If this is different than the email address you are sending from, you can enter it here. This is useful if you want people to reply to your Yahoo account rather than your office address.

Multiple Identities
Click this link to edit multiple identities. This is useful if you want to choose between different From-lines for different messages (for example containing your work or your home email address. On the page that appears, you can add as many identities as you like. You will be offered a choice of these when composing a message.

Reply Citation
If you press Reply on a message, you will be presented with the Compose form with the original message quoted. Before this quoted message, a text like John Doe wrote: might be prepended (if the message you're replying to originated from John Doe). This is called the citation line. Here you can choose how this line looks.

• No Citation
  Prepends no citation line whatsoever.
• Author Said
  This produces the line: John Doe Said: where John Doe will be replaced by whoever the message you're replying to was from.
• Quote Who XML
  This produces the line: <quote who="John Doe">.
• User-Defined
  Enables you to define your own citation line. In the two text boxes below, you can type in the citation start and end. Between these the author name will be inserted.

Signature
Optional - Signatures are attached at the bottom of all messages you send out. If you want a signature, you must make sure that the checkbox beside "use a signature" is checked, and then fill in what you want your signature to be in the box below it.

7.2 - Display Preferences

Theme
SquirrelMail offers different color themes for your viewing pleasure. You can choose between the many listed there if you so desire.

Custom Style sheet
Changing a theme only changes the colors, a style sheet may change more, for example the font size used by SquirrelMail.

Language
If English isn't your native tongue, you can easily change the language that most things display in. If your desired language is in the list, you can choose it and all future SquirrelMail related messages will be in that language. Note that this doesn't translate incoming email messages or folder names.

Use Javascript
One of our main goals in creating SquirrelMail was to have no Javascript in any of our pages. However, some of our developers made a very good address book searching utility that uses Javascript. Some other Javascript functions were added aswell. Rather than remove it, we now give you the option of using pure HTML or allow Javascript as well. If you don't know what this means, you are safest to choose Autodetect.

Number of Messages to Index
This is the number of messages to show at a time in a folder. If there are more than this number in the folder, you will see a "Previous" and "Next" link above and below the listing which will take you to the previous or next messages.

Enable Page Selector
Setting this to Yes shows page numbers above and below the message list to quickly jump to a specific page of messages. The number Maximum pages to show can limit how many page numbers will be displayed above and below the message list.

Wrap incoming text at
How many characters should we allow before wrapping the text. This prevents messages from scrolling way off the screen. 86 is usually a safe thing to put in here, but you are free to change it to whatever you desire.

Size of editor window
How wide do you want your "Compose" box to be? This is the number of characters per line that you will be able to type before wrapping in the Compose section.

Location of Buttons when Composing
Where are the buttons Addresses, Save Draft and Send located?

Address book Display Format
Choose how you want the address book to be displayed. If you want maximum compatibility with all browsers, use HTML. Select Javascript if you know your browser supports it, it will display a nicer addressbook.

Show HTML Version by Default
If a message you receive is in both text and HTML format, you can choose if you want to see the HTML version (Yes) or the text version (No) by default.

Include Me in CC when I Reply All
Reply All sends your reply to all recipients of the original message, including yourself. To leave your own email address out, set this to No.

Enable Mailer Display
When viewing a message, this displays which email program the sender used.

Display Attached Images with Message
If someone sends you a message with one or more images attached and you've set this to Yes, the images will be displayed right away when you view the message.

Enable Subtle Printer Friendly Link
This determines the way the Printable Version-link will be displayed.

Enable Printer Friendly Clean Display
This will clean out the message so the print looks nicer.

Other Options
Depending on the configuration of your SquirrelMail installation, some more options might be displayed here. They hopefully should be self-explanatory.

7.3 - Message Highlighting

The idea for this came because if you are subscribed to many mailing lists, it is very hard to distinguish which messages came from where while reading through the list of messages. With Message Highlighting, you can have the background color of all messages from one mailing list different than the color of another list.

Just click on [New] to create a new one, or [Edit] to edit an existing one and the options will appear below.

Identifying Name
This is simply the name that you see which describes what it is. For example, if you are highlighting messages from your mother, you might set this to "From Mom".

Color
This is the actual color that the background will be. You can choose between a number of pre-defined colors that we have selected for you, or you can enter the HEX code for the color that you desire (i.e. a6b492). If you choose to enter your own color, you must also select the radio button in front so that it is checked.

Match
Here you can choose the matching phrase. From the drop-down box, you can choose which header field to match against (to, from, subject...) and in the text box, you can enter the phrase to match (mom@yahoo.com).

7.4 - Folder Preferences

Folder Path
On some systems this will not be displayed. If you don't see this option, just ignore this. On other systems, this is quite a necessary feature. Usually the option that is in there is what should be there. This is the folder in your home directory that holds all your email folders. If you don't understand this, just leave it what it is.

Trash Folder
You can choose which folder messages will be sent to when you delete them. If you don't want deleted messages to go to the trash, set this to "Don't use Trash".

Sent Folder
You can choose which folder your sent messages will go to. If you don't want these, just set it to "Don't use Sent".

Draft Folder
You can choose which folder the messages you save as draft will go to. If you don't want to use this, just set it to "Don't use Drafts".

Location of folder list
Determines whether you want the list of folders on the left or right of your window.

Width of folder list
With this option, you can select how wide the list of folders will be. If you have very long folder names or large fonts, it is good to set this pretty high. Otherwise, you should set it low so you don't waste screen space.

Auto refresh folder list
SquirrelMail has the functionality to automatically refresh the folder listing on the left side of your browser window. This will also update the number of unseen messages that are in each folder. This is a good way to check for unseen messages in the INBOX without having to click on it every time.

Enable Unread Message Notification
This option specifies how to display unseen messages in the folder listing on the right side of your browser window. If you set this to No Notification, you will not be notified of unseen messages. If you set it to INBOX, when you have new messages, the INBOX will become bold and a number will appear to the right of it to say how many new messages are in it. If you set it to All Folders, this behavior will happen on all folders. If you notice that loading the folder list is really slow, you can set this to INBOX or None and that should speed it up.

Unseen message notification type
When new messages are in a folder, this option tells either to only display the number of new messages or also display the total number of messages in that folder.

Enable Collapsible Folders
Collapsable Folders allow you to 'fold' or collapse a folder which contains subfolders so the subfolders will not be displayed. You can collapse a folder by clicking the "-" next to it and expand it again with the "+" sign. Setting this to No disables collapsing.

Show Clock on Folders Panel
Choose if you want a clock to be displayed above the folder list and how it should look (Y=year, D=day, H=hour, M=minute, S=second). The option Hour Format below gives you the choice of a 12- or 24-hour clock.

Memory Search
If you search a mailbox, the search will be saved for quick access later. This defines how many mailbox searches will be saved.

7.5 - Index Order

This section gives you control over the message list. You can choose how much information you want in the message list and in what order it should be displayed.

Use the Up and Down links to move columns around, Del to remove a column from the display and Add to add one.

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With this useful tool, you can search through a specific folder for given criteria that match against different header fields.

8.1 - General Overview

You simply choose the folder you wish to search, type in the search criteria, and then choose the part of the message to search. When you submit your data, the list of messages will come up below the search form. You can choose the message you wish to view, and read it just like a normal message.

Notice that when you are reading messages and then go into the search section, your currently active folder will be the default to search through. For example, if you were browsing through your "Friends" folder and then click on "Search", "Friends" will already be selected for searching.

8.2 - What to search through

To the left of the input field, you see a drop-down list of places that are possible to search through. This includes: Body, Everywhere, Subject, From, Cc, To.

Body - Searches through the body of the message. This is the main part of the message where the important stuff is located.

Everywhere - This searches everything, including the entire header for the message. Unless you are sure this is what you want, it probably isn't. It can return results that you wouldn't normally expect.

Subject - Searches through the subjects for all the messages.

From - Who the message is from. Note that this might be more than is actually displayed in the folder list. A normal "From" field includes the name AND email address, but SquirrelMail usually only displays the name. If your criteria matches the email address, but it is not displayed, that message will still return as having matched.

To - Who the message was sent to. This can be many addresses, and is not always just one email address.

Cc - Same as "To", except who the message was carbon copied to.

8.3 - Recent Searches

If you've enabled this option, the Search page also displays an overview of up to 9 of your most recent searches for quick access. Click on Search next to the listed search to perform it again. With the Save link you can move a search to the Saved Searches which will be kept until you explicitly press Delete. Click Forget to remove a search from the list of recent searches.

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Often people have the same questions that have been asked many times before. This is a list of commonly asked questions and answers.

9.1 - Can I use multiple names from the address book?

Yes. The address book search will display all matches for the search criteria entered in the search box. If 10 names are displayed any combination may be selected for either the To: or CC: fields. All selected addresses will be inserted into the proper filed when the Use Address button is pressed.

9.2 - Can I add names directly to the address book from a email?

No. At this time you cannot add names directly from a received email to the address book. You can, however, right click on the address and save it to the clipboard and paste this into the address book. Try not to be disappointed. SquirrelMail is under continual development and this might be included in the future in one form or another.

9.3 - Who made SquirrelMail?

A lot of people helped out. To get a list of them, you can visit our web site www.squirrelmail.org.

9.4 - What is webmail?

In SquirrelMail's case it gives you access through the IMAP protocol to your email account. This means that you don't have to figure out how to setup someone else's stuff just to check your mail.

9.5 - Where can I use this webmail?

Any where there is a browser available. Wireless access (WAP/WML) is not on the drawing board at this time though.

9.6 - Why use webmail instead of a regular email client?

It is doubtful that webmail will ever be a complete substitute for a regular email client. But hey, who knows? Anyway, If you ever were at a friends house, on a trip, at home or work and away from your computer and wanted to check your mail you already know why. Because it is a huge hassle to set your mail up on their computer and then delete it again. SquirrelMail is designed to be a supplement to your normal email client.

9.7 - How does this stuff work?

SquirrelMail uses the IMAP protocol, info on it can be found here. The program also uses its own IMAP functions, not those built in to PHP4. This won't matter to anybody except those responsible for installing it, but trust us when we say they appreciate it.

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