Vadim Vygonets wrote:
> Use telnet, ssh, whatever, and a nice mailer. That's what I do.
I think that telnetting into your admin network from a Russian cybercafe
would not only be a little stupid, but if your company had anything
worth protecting, it should also be grounds for immediate dismissal.
> For one, I'm not sure that web-based mailers support MIME
> properly. And how can you use them to _send_ MIME attached
> files?
Acmemail does -
http://www.astray.com/acmemail/ does a nice job.
There are lots of reasons why web-based e-mail is better than other
methods, and lots of reasons why other methods are better than web-based
e-mail. The statement 'I don't understand why nobody would want to use
web-based e-mail' shows a small amount of selfish arrogance that makes
me smirk. :-) Some reasons might be:
1. It allows a more secure collection mechanism. A web-based client that
is accessible via SSL and being served off a small web-server on one of
the mail servers is far more secure than a remote client.
2. It's a more secure client. There are lots of holes in bloatware like
outlook and suchlike - the more code, the more bugs. A web-based client
is small, lightweight and an error in it's execution causes problems on
your host, not your customer's which gives them more confidence.
3. It's more configurable. Not only is it easier to make the interface
more comfortable to a user, it is also possible to quickly put things
like swear-word 'bleepers' and suchlike in place - useful in school
environments.
4. It's more comfortable for many users. It's got pretty graphics and a
user-interface that is reasonably intuitive - a web browser. ;-)
So, there are benefits. Different thing for different people is a good
thing. Telnet/ssh is a bad thing for most users, and you don't really
want people to be configuring up mail clients in cybercafes etc...
--
Paul Robinson - Developer/Sys Admin @ Akitanet
http://www.akitanet.co.uk
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