Automatic Initial Configuration with ACAP

Getting Eudora to Auto-Configure

To enable your users to be auto-configured, you must ensure that Eudora is instructed to retrieve settings from an Auto-Configuration server when Eudora is installed on their systems.

The READMEs for Eudora 3.0.5 for Windows and Eudora 3.1.3 for Macintosh contain information on how to configure Eudora to use Auto-Configuration.

Also, when the WorldMail 2.0 CD-ROM is available, it will have two versions of Eudora Light, one of which will be preconfigured to retrieve settings from an Auto-Configuration server.

Information for the Site Mail Administrator

This text explains for the administrator how the Auto-Configuration feature works, and how to use it with and without WorldMail.

Auto-Configuration

Eudora Pro and Light for Windows version 3.0.5 and later, and Eudora Pro and Light for Macintosh version 3.1.3 and later, can retrieve basic configuration settings from an Applications Configuration Access Protocol (ACAP) server, or from the Auto-Configuration Service which is now part of the Eudora WorldMail Server.

As an administrator, you can now significantly reduce the work needed to get a new Eudora user up and running. If you have the Eudora WorldMail 2.0 server, simply by creating an email account in WorldMail, you enable a Eudora client to fetch the basic settings specific to that account. You don't have to do anything else.

If you do not have the Eudora WorldMail 2.0 server, you can use any ACAP server, but you must create an entry in it for each account (see the documentation for your ACAP server for instructions on how to do this). For each user, there must exist a dataset in the ACAP server.

The name of the dataset must be /vendor.Eudora/users/<userid>/. This dataset must contain an entry called settings. Inside this entry you can store any of the settings which Eudora will retrieve (see above for the setting names and values).

For example, assume you have a user with an ID of "lem", whose name is "L. Eva Message". On the ACAP server, the settings would look like (only a few settings are shown in this example):

/vendor.eudora/users/lem/settings/
      entry                           =  "settings"
      vendor.eudora.RealName          =  "L. Eva Message"
      vendor.eudora.ReturnAddress     =  "lem@mail.foo.bar"
      vendor.eudora.LeaveMailOnServer =  "1"

The example shows a dataset called

/vendor.eudora/users/lem/, which contains an entry called settings, which contains four attributes: entry, vendor.eudora.RealName, vendor.eudora.ReturnAddress, and vendor.eudora.LeaveMailOnServer.

In order for Eudora clients to be able to find the Auto-Configuration or ACAP server, you need to create an Address ("A Record") or Alias ("CNAME Record") entry in your DNS server. If you run your own DNS server, this only needs to exist in your local DNS server; if you also have an ISP, your ISP does not need to add this record to its DNS server (unless you want to be able to auto-configure users that are not connected to your local network). If your ISP or VAR maintains your DNS server, contact them to add the record.

The name of the new DNS record needs to be acap.domain.

For example,

if your domain name is eudora.com, and your individual workstations have DNS names such as msmith.eudora.com and ajones.eudora.com, then

the new DNS record must be for acap.eudora.com.

An Address record is

best, but an Alias record will also work. (You might need to use an Alias record if your DNS server won't allow you to have multiple Address records for the same host). The record must point to the system on which you have installed the Auto-Configuration or ACAP server. For example, if you installed the server on a machine named mail.eudora.com with an IP address of 192.169.17.10, you would create

an Address record for acap.eudora.com also with an IP address of 192.169.17.10, or you would create a CNAME record for acap.eudora.com which points to mail.eudora.com.

For many DNS servers, including Unix-based DNS servers such as BIND, one typically edits a data file to add records, for example, assuming there already exists an A record for the server:

     mail.eudora.com    IN A       192.169.17.10

you would add an additional A record with the same address:

         
     acap.eudora.com    IN A       192.169.17.10

Or, if your DNS server won't let you have more than one A record with the same address, you could add a CNAME record instead:

           
     mail.eudora.com    IN A       192.169.17.10
     acap.eudora.com    IN CNAME   mail.eudora.com

For the Microsoft DNS Server that comes with Windows NT 4.0, you can either edit text files as above, or use the DNS Manager to add the record. To run the DNS Manager, click Start, click Programs, click Administrative Tools (Common), then click DNS Manager. Inside DNS Manager, under the DNS menu, click New Record. In the form that appears, select A Record from the Record Type list on the left, and fill in the Host Name and IP Address in the text boxes on the right.

Uncheck the box that says "Create Associated PTR Record". Then click OK to add the record.

Note: if you don't have DNS entries for your individual workstations, you must either create them, or pre-configure the Eudora Installer, or instruct your users to enter the name of the server in the Auto-Configuration dialog when they first run Eudora.

WorldMail Settings that relate to ACAP

For WorldMail version 2.0 and Eudora for Windows version 3.0.5 or Eudora for Macintosh version 3.1.3, or later, there are 42 settings which can be auto-configured (note that later versions of WorldMail and Eudora may support additional settings, or additional values for settings):

ACAPPort

This is the TCP/IP port used for auto-configuration. The default value is 674.

ACAPServer

This is the host name of the auto-configuration service. The default value is the name of WorldMail server.

ACAPUserID

This is the account name (user ID) for this user in the auto-configuration service. The default value is the WorldMail message store account name.

AccessMethod

Specifies the access protocol to be used by the client to access the user's mail. Values are POP or IMAP. The default value is POP. (Versions of Eudora prior to 4.0 do not support IMAP).

Avoid Sendmail Delays

This Macintosh-only boolean setting specifies if percent-hacks should be used when sending mail. It should normally remain in the default state of off.

BadPasswordString

If the POP server returns an error on sending the PASS command, the password will only be erased when the error response includes this text. This setting is only used on Windows. There is no default value.

BigMessageThreshold

When Skip Messages Over is selected on the client, messages which exceed this number of bytes are not downloaded . There is no default value.

CheckForMailEvery

Specifies the interval, in minutes, at which the client should check for new mail. There is no default value.

DeleteMailFromServer

Determines if the client should delete messages from the server after downloading them. Default value is on.

DNSLoadBalancing

This Macintosh-only setting instructs the client to randomly select a host if a DNS query returns multiple hosts. The default value is off.

DomainQualifier

Specifies the domain name which the client should add to unqualified addresses on outbound mail, that is, addresses which do not contain an "@" and a domain. The default value is the WorldMail default local domain.

DSDefault

Specifies if Finger, LDAP, or Ph should be the default name service. The default value is Ph. (Note that versions of Eudora prior to 4.0 do not support LDAP).

ExtraNicknamesDir

This Windows-only setting is a list of directories which the client should search for additional nickname files. Multiple directories can be entered, separated by semicolons (;). These can be Windows UNC names, so for example, you can maintain a set of department address book files on a server.

FingerPort

Specifies the TCP/IP port to be used for Finger services. The default value is 79.

Finger Server

Specifies the name of the host which provides Finger services. There is no default value.

FirstUnread

Instructs the client how to determine which is the first unread message. The possible values are: Normal, Last, and STATUS. The default value is Normal.

IMAPPort

Specifies the TCP/IP port to be used for IMAP access to the user's messages. The default value is 143. (Note that versions of Eudora prior to 4.0 do not support IMAP).

IncludeResource

This Macintosh-only setting determines if the Macintosh resource fork of a file should be included when files are attached to email messages. Normally, Windows clients can ignore Macintosh resource forks. The default value is on.

KerberosSetUserName

Uses the KClient SetUserName() function to set the user name in the Kerberos system. Turning this switch on may cause Kerberos tickets to be invalidated. The default value is off.

LDAPPort

Specifies the TCP/IP port to be used for LDAP directory services. The default value is 389. (Note that versions of Eudora prior to 4.0 do not support LDAP).

LDAPServer

Specifies the name of the server to be used for LDAP queries. The default value is the name of the WorldMail server. (Note that versions of Eudora prior to 4.0 do not support LDAP).

LeaveMailOnServer

Indicates that the client should not immediately delete mail from the server after downloading it, but should leave it on the server for the number of days specified by Leave On Server Days. Default value is off.

LeaveOnServerDays

When Leave Mail on Server is set, specifies the number of days after downloading that a message should be deleted from the server.

MailName

This is the account name (user ID) for this user's POP or IMAP (message store) account. The default value is the fully-qualified WorldMail message store account name. This setting is used by Eudora 4.0 and later.

MailServer

Indicates the name of the server that provides POP or IMAP access to a message store. The default value is the name of WorldMail server. This setting is used by Eudora 4.0 and later.

OverlapPOP3

This Macintosh-only setting specifies if the client can overlap ("pipeline") POP3 commands for better performance. The default value is off.

PasswordChangePort

Specifies the TCP/IP port used for the Password Change service. The default value is 106.

PhPort

Specifies the TCP/IP port used for the Ph directory service. The default value is 105.

PhReturn

Specifies a string that the client should append to every Ph command before sending to the Ph server. For example, "return all" would return all fields of the records returned by the query, and "type=person" would return all matches to the query with the additional filter that the record is a person. There is no default value. Note that this field should only

be set in unusual circumstances. In most cases it is better to modify the

Ph server configuration to mark the desired fields as 'default'. WorldMail 2.0 includes a Ph-to-LDAP gateway which acts as the Ph

server. See the PhToLDAP.txt file for more information about configuring default fields.

PhServer

Indicates the name of the server that provides Ph services. The default value is the name of WorldMail server.

POPAccount

This string is the account name (user ID) and server name for this user's POP (message store) account. The default value is the WorldMail message store account name, in percent-hacked format, an at sign, and the WorldMail server name. For example, an account name of "sally@eudora.com" located on the server "mail.eudora.com" would have a POPAccount string of "sally%eudora.com@mail.eudora.com". This setting is only used by Eudora 3.x clients.

POPAuthenticate

Instructs the client as to which method of authentication is to be used when connecting to the POP server. The possible values are: Password, APOP, Kerberos, and RPA. Not all values are supported by all versions of Eudora. The default value is APOP.

POPPort

Specifies the TCP/IP port used for POP access to the message store service. The default value is 110.

RealName

Specifies the actual name of this user, as it is to appear in the "From:" header of outbound mail. The default value is the CommonName attribute of the user's WorldMail account. If the account does not have a CommonName attribute, the default value is heuristically computed from the account name.

ReturnAddress

Specifies the SMTP address of this user, as it should appear in the "From:" header of outbound mail. The default value is the user's fully-qualified WorldMail account name.

SendFormat

Indicates the encoding mechanism for attachments. The possible values are: BinHex, AppleSingle (which maps to MIME on Windows, AppleDouble (which also maps to MIME on Windows), and UUEncode. The default value is AppleDouble.

SMTPPort

Specifies the TCP/IP port used for sending outbound mail via SMTP. The default value is 25.

SMTPServer

Specifies the name of the SMTP server, which is used by the client to send outbound mail. The default value is the name of the WorldMail server.

UseACAPServer

Indicates to the client that it should retrieve these settings from the Auto-Configuration Service if it has not already been configured. The default value is on.

UseMX

This Macintosh-only setting indicates if the client should use MX records in preference to A Records to locate the SMTP and POP servers. The default value is off.

UsePOPSend

Indicates if the client should use the XTND XMIT command to send outbound mail, instead of SMTP as usual. The default value is off.

UseQuotedPrintable

Specifies that outbound mail can be encoded using Quoted-Printable when this makes sense. The default value is on.

KEYWORDS: ALLCARDS, EPWIN, EPMAC, WORLDMAIL