MailCheck Version 1.1 Automated E-Mail checking with Miami and YAM by Robert Wilson -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer ---------- I wrote MailCheck originally for my own personal use. I have been using it now for several months and have never experienced any problems with it. I will not take responsibility in any way if my scripts fail to disconnect your modem from your Internet Provider. If you end up with a massive telephone bill, don't come to me - I'm not interested. USE THESE SCRIPTS AT YOUR OWN RISK! Introduction ------------ When I first started using e-mail, I thought it was wonderful. Then as time went by it became such a drag having to remember to dial up and check my mail. What I needed was my Amiga to do this for me. So I set about writing an AmigaDOS/ARexx script to do this for me, and here you have the results of my work. For some time I still launched the script manually, but then I came across 'EZCron' and at long last the operation was 100% automatic. Requirements ------------ Amiga (2.04+) - Funny that! Only tested with 3.1 - should work. CheckModem 1.1 - Modem status tester by Nils Görs. rexxtricks.library - ARexx function library by Jürgen Kohrmeyer. YAM - Amiga mailer by Marcel Beck. Miami - TCP/IP stack by Holger Kruse. All the programs required are available on the Aminet. Features -------- It's free... MailCheck is FreeWare. Pass it on to your friends as much as you like. Do not sell it or try to take credit for my work. If you use it regularly, then mail me to say hello - address below. Intelligent checking... Script will quit if modem is not ready. Will not disconnect after checking, if you're on line. Log file... All operations are recorded to log file (S:MailCheck.log). It's on an Amiga... Try doing this with Win95, 4 years on and still the OS kicks ass! Isn't ARexx wonderful? Installation ------------ This is easy... 1) If you haven't done this already, install 'rexxtricks' and 'CheckModem' now! 'CheckModem' must be in your path somewhere - I would suggest C:. 2) Copy 'MailCheck' into S: - ensure the 's' bit is still set. 3) Copy 'MailCheck.rexx' into Rexx:. 4) Edit the serial device name in MailCheck (the one in S:). It is currently set to 'squirrelserial.device'. Change this to 'serial.device', 'artser.device' etc as required. See 'CheckModem' docs for more info. 5) Make assigns (if you haven't already) to both YAM: and Miami:. 6) Mail me and tell me what you think? Usage ----- Either from the Shell or with a scheduling program like 'EZCron', launch 'MailCheck'. Miami will now dial your Internet Provider and YAM will check for new mail. If there is any, it will be downloaded and then Miami will disconnect (if you were not connected prior to the script being launched). My Suggestions -------------- I've set (in the MUI settings) so that both Miami and YAM start iconified. This prevents them from suddenly popping up when your working on something else. I like to keep the mail checking as transparent as possible. Your Suggestions ---------------- I always looking for ideas and ways to improve my work. If you have any comments, be them good or bad - let me know! The Future ---------- There are a few things which I may do this script... 1) Option to automatically encrypt and forward incoming mail to another address. 2) Option to automatically reply to incoming mail (kind of like an answerphone) - thought this may be useful if you go away? 3) Play samples on receipt of new mail etc... 4) Pop-up requesters - in addition to the logfile. The only problem I see with this is that the requesters would really need to time-out after a period of time, otherwise you could end up with loads of them on the screen. Probably best to let MCP take care of this? History ------- Version 1.0 - Not released, my use only. Version 1.1 - This version. Scripts cleaned up (a bit) and quick docs written. Distribution with EZCron. Bugs ---- None known at the moment. I have only tested this on my Amiga. Software and Hardware as below... Miami 2.0e - Current version at time of writing YAM 1.3.4 - Current version at time of writing Workbench 3.1 (40.42) A1200 (Commodore) Kickstart 3.1 (40.63) Blizzard A1230 IV 16 MB Fast Ram SurfSquirrel 33,600 'no name' DVF modem Other Things? ------------- So far this is only the second public release that I've made. The other one being 'DOpusDoubleClick', available on Aminet biz/opus. Like 'MailCheck' it is an AmigaDOS/ARexx pair of scripts. It allows you to 'DoubleClick' on files from the shell...? Check it out! Contact ------- Any suggestions for scripts or anything Amiga... robert.wilson@bigfoot.com