The TCS is responsible for Washington Apple Pi's "wap.org" e-mail services. Details below.
There is one e-mail account per TCS Classic or TCS Explorer subscription. One TCS Classic account comes with Pi membership, and additional accounts are $20/year. TCS Explorer is a $96/year option which includes dial-up Internet access.
You can obtain additional mailboxes for family members by signing up for additional $20/year TCS Classic subscriptions. Multiple TCS subscriptions can be associated with a single Pi membership.
You can access your e-mail in one of two ways: using standard e-mail software, or using a web browser.
Virtually all e-mail software supports the "POP" (Post Office Protocol) for retrieving e-mail and "SMTP" (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for sending it. Some software prefers the "IMAP" (Internet Message Access Protocol), which is also supported. These provide complete flexibility, as you can choose your own favorite e-mail software and use it with our servers. Configure that software as described in the sections below.
You can also send and receive e-mail by visiting <https://mail.wap.org/> with your favorite web browser. This is a particularly convenient option for those times that you find yourself borrowing an unfamiliar machine in an Internet cafe on the other side of the world.
Virtually all Internet e-mail software supports the POP and SMTP protocols, and/or the IMAP protocol, and is thus compatible with the TCS. While we can't provide an exhaustive list, we know of members who are successfully using the following packages: Eudora Light, Eudora Pro, Claris E-Mailer, Outlook Express, Netscape Communicator, CTM PowerMail, Mailsmith, and Mac OS X's built-in Mail application.
Various programs will use slightly different terminology, but all require the same information in some form. The following is the terminology used by the Mac OS X Setup Assistant.
| E-Mail Address: (e.g.) | jane.member@wap.org |
|---|---|
| Incoming Mail Server: | mail.wap.org |
| Account Type: | POP (or IMAP) |
| User Account ID: (e.g.) | jane.member |
| Outgoing Mail Server: | mail.wap.org |
In Eudora's terminology, your "POP Account" would be your account name combined with the domain name of the incoming POP mail server, e.g. "jane.member@mail.wap.org". Your "Return Address" would be the same as your "Email Address", above.
Spam is a colloquial derogatory term that the Hormel Corporation would probably rather we not use. It refers to UCE, explained below.
Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (UCE) is e-mail advertising products or services, sent regardless of the wishes of the recipient. It differs from traditional paper "junk mail" in that the costs of delivery are passed along to the recipient and to intermediary ISP's, rather than being paid by the sender. As such, there are proposed laws restricting its abuse. However, abuse remains a large problem, as most such e-mail contains misleading and illegal content and is sent under fraudulent cover.
The TCS invokes many anti-spam measures, but this does not make us immune to the scourge. Among the steps we take are strict adherance to protocols, participation in the Mail Abuse Prevention Project Real-time Blackhole List (MAPS RBL+), and restricted access to relaying of outgoing e-mail. Each of these measures results in some compromises, including the possibility that non-spam will be rejected by the server due to the delivering ISP or other issues outside of the sender's control. It also means that Pi members sending wap.org mail using certain software and connected to an outside ISP may need to follow additional steps to work around the relay restrictions; see below.
Any error message mentioning the Domain Name Server (DNS) system most often indicates a misconfiguration of the user's software. Double-check the settings as listed above, ask for help on the TCS support boards, or contact a TCS hotline volunteer.
If the error occurs when attempting to retrieve incoming e-mail, double-check the "POP server" field. Frequent mistakes include entering "wap.org" or "tcs.wap.org" instead of the proper "mail.wap.org".
If the error occurs when attempting to send outgoing e-mail, double-check the "SMTP server" field.
If the server rejects a name and password combination, the account may have expired for non-payment. Far more often, however, the user's software is simply misconfigured. Frequent mistakes include entering one's real name as the account name, or otherwise capitalizing either the user name or password. If you have forgotten your account name, check to see if it was included with your Pi membership card, or call the Pi office or a TCS hotline volunteer.
As a required anti-spam measure, our servers must be convinced that you are a valid TCS member before they will deliver your e-mail to the outside world. Those connected to the Internet through the Pi's TCS Explorer service don't have to worry about this, since the servers already know who they are. But those contacting TCS servers from elsewhere on the Internet need to provide some sort of credentials to prove they're part of the family. Such authorization was not anticipated in the original SMTP e-mail delivery standard written decades ago.
Some software such as Claris Emailer or Outlook Express will automatically negotiate your name and password credentials using a recent extension to the SMTP standard, in which case no other effort will be required on your part. Other software will not, in which case you may need to invoke a workaround.
If you get the above error message when sending mail, just check for incoming mail immediately prior to sending any outgoing mail. That way the server learns who you are at the beginning and will agree to relay your messages to the outside world for a while until it thinks you've finished. Next time, just do the same thing: check first, then send.