PromaSoft AutoResponder Help
  Initial Configuration
 

 

Introduction

As in any other email application you also need to configure PSAR using your email settings like userid, password, POP server etc.. The first time you run the PSAR it will not work because it's absolutely necessary that you configure it first. This chapter explains how to setup PSAR using your personal email settings.

To setup PSAR go to [File][Settings] and select the [Server Settings] tab.

If you run the program for the first time the setup window will popup automatically and will keep doing so until you have entered all details.

What are your email settings?

If you are not sure what certain settings should be set to, look into the settings of your normal email program. You should be able to find them there. Click here to read the instructions.

Server Settings

POP Server

The POP Server is the server which holds all your incoming email messages. It's obvious that you need to tell the program what the name of your POP server is before it can retrieve your email.

PSAR will never remove any email from your POP server unless you tell it to do so in your filter definitions.

You can use a different POP server than the POP server of your service provider as long as it's the account that holds the messages where you want to auto reply to.

You can define as many POP accounts as you like. Simply click the new button for every account you wich to enter.

7POP Server Name

Enter the name of your POP server here (e.g. pop.bigfoot.com)

7POP Port

Enter the port number of your POP server here (usually this is 110)

7POP Username

Before PS Autoresponder is able to retrieve mail from your POP Server it needs to logon to it using your username (e.g. johndoe). 

7POP Password

Every username comes with a password (e.g. mypwd001)

Duplicate Replies Problem

Some POP servers have the habit to send non unique message identifiers to PSAR. If you are experiencing duplicate replies in PSAR please check the option that says Check this if you are experiencing duplicate replies 

SMTP Server

For PS Autoresponder to be able to send out email it needs to know the details of your SMTP Server. 

7SMTP Server name:

Enter the name of your SMTP server here (e.g. smtp.bigfoot.com)

7SMTP Port:

Enter the port number of your SMTP server here (usually this is 25)

7SMTP Email account:

This is the email ID that will be used in the <return-path> section of the email. If you do not want to get Spam mail enter an email id here that does not exist or is pointing to an account which you don't use for the AutoResponder. The only requirement for this filed is that it contains a syntactically correct email id.

7SMTP Username:

About 95% of the ISP's does not require an SMTP username. If your ISP does require that please enter your SMTP username in this field.

7SMTP Password:

About 95% of the ISP's does not require an SMTP password. If your ISP does require that please enter your SMTP password in this field.

Proxy Settings

These settings need to be correct because the program has to be able to connect to the internet. As long as these are not correct you won't be able to send out mail with PSAR. Most users can leave these fields blank because their ISP does not require the use of an internet proxy server. You can find these settings back in the settings of your internet browser.

7Proxy Hostname:

Enter the name of you proxy server here if you are obliged to use a proxy from your internet service provider. Most users don't have to use proxy's. (e.g. proxy.host.com)

7Proxy username:

Enter the username for your proxy server if that is obliged by your ISP.

7Proxy password:

Enter the password for your proxy server if that is obliged by your ISP.

7Proxy port:

Enter the port number of your proxy server (usually this is 8080 but can also be 80 or another port)

Act as email Server or Direct SMTP

7It's not really needed that you use this option but you can if you want. This option will force PSAR to send email directly to the recipients SMTP server bypassing your own SMTP server. The benefit of this is that you leave your own ISP alone. To use this option mark the check box and enter the address of your DNS server.

Timeout SMTP/POP server

7This is the time PSAR will wait for the POP or SMTP server to return with an answer. If this delay (in seconds) has passed, PSAR will abort the operation. If you have a fast cable connection you can keep this settings low (e.g. 5 seconds). If you have a very slow network connection you can best set this to a higher value (e.g. 60 seconds).

Program Settings

To alter the PSAR program settings go to [File][Settings] and select the [Program Settings] tab. These settings alter the global operation of PS Autoresponder.

7Download Frequency:

This settings applies when PSAR is running in automatic mode. After this time interval has expired the program will start another cycle session. Depending on the amount of traffic you expect you can set this value higher or lower. With cycle session we mean that the program will retrieve new mail from the server, apply the defined filters and send out responses.

7Repetition Delay:

The program will only respond once to the same email id in this period of time. If you set it to 0, people will receive a response to every mail they send to you (provided that one of your filters has matched the email). If you set it to 12, people will only receive a response if they send you another message more than 12 hours later. This option is to prevent spamming from your part.

7Max Messages out/hour:

A rule that several ISP's are applying is that they only allow you to send a maximum number of message per hour. They do this to prevent you from sending a huge amounts of emails. In the event that you are sending too much mail they will block your account for an hour or so. If your ISP is using that restriction you can instruct PSAR not to send more than a certain number of message per hour. A good value for most ISP's is 150 messages per hour. You can experiment with this setting. A good way to bypass this ISP restriction is to use the option that will send email directly to the recipients SMTP server.

more and more ISP's are preventing people to access other SMTP servers than their own SMTP server.

7Max Messages read/cycle:

If you want to make sure that PSAR's cycles are not taking too long you can set this to a lower value. E.g. settings this to 5 will instruct PSAR to download 5 messages even if there are 100 on the POP server, apply the filters to them, send out the replies and then wait for the next cycle. It all depends on how much traffic you are expecting. Setting this value to 0 will have as effect that PSAR will never download any mail from your POP server and of course also never send out replies. This might be useful if you will use PSAR only to perform group mailings. 

7Cutoff Parameter:

This parameter indicates how many characters of the original email message will be used for the $body$ keyword in your replies. If you set this parameter to 0, the whole original message will be used. 

7Max Messages out/hour:

To protect yourself from Spam accusations you need to provide the people that you are sending replies and group mail to, a way to have themselves removed from your auto responder. Anyone that sends mail to you with the words from the Remove Phrase setting will be marked as blacklisted immediately. PSAR will never send replies to them ever again unless you instruct PSAR to do otherwise or you remove that person from the blacklist. Example: if you enter 'REMOVE ME' in this field you can say in your replies and group mailings something like 'To be removed please reply to me with REMOVE ME as subject'

7Cycle Parameters:

Here you can instruct PSAR to which type of outgoing mail it needs to give priority to. You might for instance give more priority to replies. Doing that will make sure that group mailings are held back until all replies have gone out. You can of course also do the opposite.

7Logging:

If you want to be able to track exactly which email is coming in and out of PSAR you can specify a log file here. Click the button with the disk and choose an existing log file or enter a new one. Leaving this field blank will make sure that PSAR is not logging to disk. If you don't want to log details (both on screen and on disk) select the option below the log to file field. Note that these log files can get big so it's wise to regularly check the size and delete them if needed.

To show more debugging information select the option 'Show debugging information'. This is usefull if something is not working as expected.

7Activate on Startup:

Selecting this option will make sure that PSAR is started in automatic mode when launched. You can add a shortcut to PSAR in your programs/startup folder.

7Hide when minimized:

When checked the program will be hidden and will not appear in the taskbar. It will only be visible in the system tray. To make the program window visible again left click on the icon in the system tray. 

7Password:

You can protect program execution by entering a password in this field. Please do not forget this password. In case you do please contact promasoft support to recover your database.

RAS or dial-up support

Not everyone has a permanent internet connection. To allow people with normal dial-up connections (modem) to use PSAR in an unattended and automatic mode they have to setup RAS support in PSAR.

To enable PSAR RAS support do following

7go to [File][Settings] and select the [RAS] tab.

7Check Enable Remote access dialup connection

7Then choose which dial-up connection PSAR has to use

7With the edit, add and delete buttons you can manage your windows dialup connections.