FAQ`s ( 22 Articles )
This area includes answers to frequently asked questions about ChoiceMail.
You can export your ChoiceMail whitelist to a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file easily.
For users of ChoiceMail v5.x and above - there is built in export function on your ChoiceMail Admin Control Panel. Open the ChoiceMail Admin Control Panel up, click on "User Management" button and seelct your username. Click on the export whitelist button and save the list to a file.
For users priort to v5.x of ChoiceMAil - please visit our downloads page for a tool that will let you export your whitelist.
You can always import this exported file into any version of ChoiceMail using Actions->Import Address book (CSV file).
ChoiceMail Free has been discontinued and the last keys will work only until 2011. After that you will have to remove it from your system. We apologize for any inconvenience
Symptom:
You are getting the message "ChoiceMail Free has expired - You can renew your free license or convert to the retail version by visiting our website"
Comment:
As indicated on our website ChoiceMail Free expires one year after it has been installed and run for the first time. This was done so that we could make sure that customers would not continue running OLD versions of ChoiceMail when we release significant upgrades. Please understand that this expiration is NOT intended to FORCE you to purchase a retail copy of ChoiceMail.
Solution:
Below is the new key that will extend ChoiceMail Free 3.x by another year. To get the maximum amount of time, we encourage you to NOT use this key until your current version of ChoiceMail has almost expired.
Username: CMFree_2010_311
Key: C6DC-0A73-D600-19E3-B37B-E991-ADD6-7DC0-06AE-42AB-DC6B-140E-CC6D-ACB4-13D3
Make sure that you enter BOTH fields above, and not just the regcode.
Please also understand that while we will always make ChoiceMail Free available for free, we cannot create new keys on the fly for users whose key has expired prematurely. A new key will be released approximately once every 6-9 months. Requests for individual keys cannot be honored.
If you cannot bring up the "Enter key" dialog - please run your ChoiceMail Free with the register parameter. To do this please open your command prompt and navigate to the folder where ChoiceMail is installed. Then type in the following
choicemail.exe register
This should bring up the key input dialog which can be used to enter the key from above. Make sure that your ChoiceMail is NOT running while you are performing this operation.
Please note that we cannot provide technical support for our free product for obvious reasons.
This document contains key information and suggestions to help you to get up and running. This file is called keyinfo.rtf and is accessible from the DigiPortal Software program group if you wish to read it again or print it.
Read the user guide
* The ChoiceMail One Users guide contains full information on configuring and using ChoiceMail One. It requires that you have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your system. If you do not already have this program, you can download it free from http://www.adobe.com
Access violations due to spyware
* We have discovered that some spyware programs, including products installed by Comcast, Sony and HP for their own customer support programs can cause ChoiceMail One to fail.
ChoiceMail One and other anti-spam products
* If you have Norton Anti-Spam installed, your email program may not be able to connect to ChoiceMail One. You need to uninstall Norton Anti-Spam. Simply switching it off will not solve the problem. We have not heard of any conflicts with other anti-spam products at this time.
McAfee and stuck emails
* There is a known bug in McAfee�s AntiVirus product that can cause mail to get stuck. This problem is not an explicit conflict with ChoiceMail and occurs with other email clients as well. A technote on this topic is available on our website.
If you are converting to the retail version
* As of version 2.0, ChoiceMail One now uses a single executable for both the trial version and the retail version. If you have purchased ChoiceMail One, you will receive a registration key by email which you will need to enter to convert ChoiceMail One into a licensed version.
* To register your copy of ChoiceMail One, copy the user code and key (one at a time) from your email receipt into the usercode and key fields of the registration dialog. To paste the contents of the clipboard into these fields, click in the field and then press CTRL-V.
* If ChoiceMail One does not appear to work or generates access violations, the most likely reason is that you have a software firewall that has not properly detected ChoiceMail One and your firewall is preventing it from running. Such crashes are actually the fault of the firewall but since they happen in the context of ChoiceMail One, it appears that ChoiceMail One has crashed. Some firewall products are more susceptible to this problem than others. Please check your firewall settings carefully to make sure that ChoiceMail One has client and server rights. For more information on this issue, please see the section below on software firewalls and also review http://www.digiportal.com/support/choicemail/troubleshooting.html
ChoiceMail One and Anti-Virus programs
* Although many programs ask that anti-virus programs be disabled while installing or configuring a new application, you should always leave your anti-virus product running while configuring ChoiceMail One.
* ChoiceMail One has been tested with a number of anti-virus products and no incompatibilities have been found. However, ChoiceMail One sometimes cannot detect the presence of Norton Anti-Virus 2001 in which case you will have to make some minor changes manually.
If you have enabled system restore capabilities
* If you are using the system backup/restore capability in your OS, make sure that you create a checkpoint (backup) after you have installed ChoiceMail and configured it and your email application. If you don�t do this, and you subsequently perform a system restore, your email application will lose the settings that were modified by ChoiceMail.
Using and Configuring ChoiceMail One
* You should normally leave ChoiceMail One running all the time. Your email application connects to ChoiceMail One and will display an error message if ChoiceMail One is not running.
* If you are using a dial-up connection, you may wish to disable ChoiceMail One�s automatic retrieval and have it manually check for new mail from time to time. You may also wish to disable ChoiceMail�s automatic update checking feature. Both of these options can be changed through the Options | Preferences dialog.
AOL Users
* If you have a version of ChoiceMail One that can retrieve mail from your AOL account, the mail is retrieved from the internet through a special gateway included with ChoiceMail. It is not done through your AOL application. This means that you now use a standard email application such as Outlook Express rather than the proprietary AOL system. Although this may seem more complicated at first, you will find that you have much more control over your email�it�s worth the effort.
* If you connect to the Internet using AOL dialup, you will still make that connection but once you are connected, you can just minimize the AOL application.
* If you have a broadband connection, there is no need for you to run your AOL client. ChoiceMail One will connect directly to your AOL email system.
* Updated information specifically for AOL users is available in the support section of our website.
Software firewalls
* Software firewalls block external programs from accessing your computer and they also detect applications on your computer that are trying to access the internet. If you are not already running a software firewall, we highly encourage you to get one to protect yourself from malicious hackers. Although we do not recommend any particular products, programs to check include Zone Alarm, BlackIce Defender and Norton Firewall.
* You will need to give permission to ChoiceMail One to connect to the internet. The first time you run ChoiceMail One, you may see several prompts from your firewall application as ChoiceMail One initializes itself. You must grant permanent client and server permissions to the programs ChoiceMail, IzyMail-WebMail Gateway Server (if you have the IzyMail gateway option), and TrueUpdate Client (cmupdater).
* As indicated earlier, when you switch from the trial version to the retail version, or indeed when you upgrade to a newer version, your firewall may not correctly detect this and may blindly block ChoiceMail and/or generate access violations. Please review your firewall settings carefully.
Technical Support
* ChoiceMail One comes with a users guide in Adobe Acrobat format as well as context-sensitive help (typically press the F1 function key from within ChoiceMail One to get help with a feature). DigiPortal Software maintains a comprehensive and growing collection of tips, technotes and other useful information. Please visit us at http://www.digiportal.com
Symptom: Everytime you start ChoiceMail (and then every few hours while it's running), you get a popup telling you that a new version is available.
1) Clicking "More information" opens your web browser with information about the update or upgrade. That information also includes instructions for how to turn off the notification!
2) If you have no interest in more notifications of this particular upgrade, then click YES to get the information ONCE - that will cause a special file to be stored in your ChoiceMail folder that will prevent you from being notified about the particular update in question but it will not disable notifications for future updates.
3) If you just never want to be notified again, go to Options | Preferences and disable the \"Check for Updates\" box.
ChoiceMail is a permission-based spam blocking system that works by requiring unknown senders to fill in a form to get your permission to send you email.
There have been cases where someone tries to fill out the choicemail registration request but Gmail blocks the links and gives the following tag to the message.
To fix this problem from the choicemail end plese do the following:
If you have more then one email account set up with choicemail and you have choicemail set up to use only one SMTP server then this problem might appear. To fix this problem permanently from your end you can do the following.
Go into choicemail go to the options tab then the configuration, in there under general you will see the line called "Sender email address" here type in the email address that corresponds with the SMTP host you have set up this will ensure that all outgoing mail that goes through choicemail will be sent using the right email address. Since in choicemail version 4.2 and higher you do not have to route your outgoing mail through choicemail this will only affect the choicemail registration request messages.
If you are a person who received a choicemail registration request message in your Gmail account and have the links blocked you can do the following.
Solution:
To get rid of the tag and enable the links in the message just do the following:
"click the down arrow next to Reply at the top-right of the message pane, and select Report Not Phishing"
This will open up a new window here just click Report Not Phishing Message and your message will be unlocked.
DigiPortal offers an Extended Download Service (EDS) as an added convenience for our customers. Extended Download Service provides the ChoiceMail One user with a link for a period of two years that allows them to download ChoiceMail One in the event that it must be reinstalled due to problems with their computer. This service is an option. We suggest that customers make a copy of the download and store it on a CD Rom or other media.
ChoiceMail may contact our servers from time to time to confirm that you are a valid user but no information is saved - we do not monitor your usage of the product. Our servers are also used briefly as part of the registration process but again that information is not saved for any other purpose. ChoiceMail does not transmit and we do not collect any personal information. In particular, your email does NOT go through our servers. ChoiceMail itself does not send cookies or referral headers to our servers.
If you are receiving email messages that appear to be coming from your one of your own email addresses but that were not actually sent by you and you want to have them deleted automatically, you need to make sure that ChoiceMail knows that that email address belongs to you so that it can automatically recognize spoofed messages. Note that those messages aren't necessarily getting through to your email application but ChoiceMail ends up sending registration messages back to you.
The usual reason this happens is because you have some secondary email addresses that are associated with one of your real POP accounts. If that secondary email address happens to be in your approval list, then emails from that address will come through. The way that secondary email address could get on your approval list is if you had that address in the contact list that you imported into ChoiceMail.
The key to blocking such messages is to ensure that all your secondary email addresses are defined in your email alias list in ChoiceMail.
Note: if your whitelist contains your own email address, ChoiceMail will allow messages through that contain your own address, even if they are not your messages. You should ensure that you do not have your own email address in your whitelist. Two ways that your own email address can get on to your whitelist:
1) It was imported automatically from your contact list
2) You sent a message to yourself
We have determined that (2) above should not cause your email address to be added to your whitelist and this will be changed in a future version.
First of all, ChoiceMail itself is virus-free when it is delivered to you. If your anti-virus program is reporting that a virus has been found in ChoiceMail, what has most likely happened is that your anti-virus program found a virus in an email downloaded by ChoiceMail. This is a good thing and not something to be concerned about.
Details This actually gives your virus scanner an opportunity to scan those messages for viruses before they get delivered to your mailbox. This scanning is one if your anti-virus program is configured to check files when they are created. Therefore it happen even if your email scanning feature is disabled. This is a positive side effect of using ChoiceMail and it actually enhances security on your system. |
If you receive this error when you try to read mail, typically with MS Outlook or Outlook Express, there is a problem with your firewall configuration. This is NOT a problem with ChoiceMail itself and there is nothing we can do to fix it. Rather, your firewall is blocking ChoiceMail One from maintaining connections. You will have to contact your firewall vendor for help with this issue.
Use your favorite search engine to search for the phrase Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection.
If you are reading this note, then you have most likely been contacted by a user of our spam-blocking product ChoiceMail One who is experiencing a mail problem.
ChoiceMail One is running on the user's machine and is essentially configured to behave as a proxy between the user's email application and your POP3 and SMTP servers.
ChoiceMail One has reconfigured the user's email application so that the email application now connects to ChoiceMail One instead of directly to your mail servers. That is why the SMTP and POP3 server settings in the user's email application are set to localhost. Please do not tell the user to change these server values in his or her email client.
It may also be the case that ChoiceMail has changed (or requires to be changed) the port settings in the email program from 110 (POP3) and 25 (SMTP) to new values to avoid conflicts with some other applications that are listening on those ports (typically some older style anti-virus product). Again, DO NOT TELL THE USER TO CHANGE THESE SETTINGS. The actual port settings that ChoiceMail is listening on can be found by clicking on Options | Configuration | Advanced in the ChoiceMail main window.
ChoiceMail One itself contains the settings to receive mail from your POP3 server and to send mail through your SMTP server. It supports all the usual authentication schemes if needed.
The user's POP3 settings are available in ChoiceMail One by clicking on Options | EMail Account Settings
The user's SMTP settings are available in ChoiceMail One by clicking on Options | Configuration.
These are the two places that reference the POP3 and SMTP servers respectively at your ISP or Hosting Company.
There is an option (which should be on by default) that says Delete after 4 (that's the default) days - that means that once a sender has been there more than 4 days, it just quietly goes away. So you really don't need to delete them manually.If you really want to, you can just select all the new senders and delete them in one go by pressing the DELETE key.
ChoiceMail uses several mechanisms to determine whether it should send a registration message out or not. Your whitelist and blacklists are examined, as are your permission rules. Various parts of the message headers are also examined automatically. The icon associated with each sender will indicate whether a registration message was sent automatically.
You can also hold up the registration process temporarily if you wish to examine new messages manually. When you're done, you can decide to allow ChoiceMail to send registration requests for messages that you have not processed.
Sure. DigiPortal provides a fully functional 30 day trial to give you the opportunity to assess ChoiceMail. Just click on the 30 day trial button on any page page (there's a BUY button too).
There are several reasons.
- You have to spend a significant amount of time reviewing your incoming mail to weed out the junk messages
- If you leave your email application running, you will be interrupted quite often by incoming emails that are not relevent.
- You may simply be fed up and/or offended by the content of some junk emails.
A number of companies offer centralized spam filtering service. We don't believe that centralized filtering systems (or indeed client-based filtering systems) are adequate and suggest that you disable that option if it's offered to you. Then depend on ChoiceMail One to manage your spam.
ChoiceMail One will support as many email accounts as you need. You can configure ChoiceMail One to retrieve mail from an arbitrary number of accounts to which you have access, even if different accounts are on different servers or with multiple ISPs. If you acquire more email accounts, you can easily add them into ChoiceMail One.
No - unlike many other systems, ChoiceMail One works with your own email accounts - nor do you have to forward your email to any central service for examination. Your email remains private and on your computer.
This was a deliberate decision on our part. One reason was so that ChoiceMail could work with ANY email client (why lose your investment in ChoiceMail just because you've found a better email client?) but the main reason is because we think that spam shouldn't be allowed anywhere near your email application.