This software is provided "as is" and without any warranties as to performance, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. The entire risk as to the results and performance of the software is assumed by you. The author shall not have any liability to you or any other person or entity for any damages whatsoever, including, but not limited to, loss of revenue or profit, lost or damaged data or other. The author is also not responsible for claims by a third party.
LICENSE:The free trial version of JBMail may be used indefinitely for educational and non-commercial use. Commercial/business users may also use the free trial version for a limited period, but are asked to purchase JBMail Plus if they plan to continue using the software.
CONDITIONS:You may distribute the free trial version of JBMail in its original, unmodified form only. You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and from distributing the software and/or documentation with other products (commercial or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author.
You may not modify the software or documentation in any way. You may not translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the software.
Use of the software indicates that you have read and agree with these terms and conditions.
Back to Table of ContentsJBMail is an Internet e-mail client that supports the POP3 and SMTP protocols for receiving and sending mail, respectively. Unlike other e-mail clients, JBMail is compact and designed specifically to give quick access to multiple mailboxes with minimal setup. All mail is manipulated directly on the mail server and no mail is stored on disk, resulting in extremely fast access with minimal configuration.
Because of its unique design, JBMail allows mail to be previewed or deleted without ever being downloaded. It's great for cleaning up mailboxes (if you get lots of junk mail or spam), quickly skimming through multiple accounts "unobtrusively", and accessing mail while traveling. It has all of the capabilities you would expect from a large mail client, including powerful junk mail filtering, attachment support, and address books. Take a look at the features to see why JBMail is attracting so much attention from businesses and computer experts.
System requirements:JBMail runs on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. It has also been tested under Virtual PC on MacOS.
The free trial version of JBMail never expires or nags for registration. The limitation is that it can only save one profile to disk. In all other respects it is identicial to the full version.
The full version (JBMail Plus) can save multiple profiles to disk, without limit. JBMail Plus costs $35 US and can be ordered online from PC-Tools.Net. You can order from any country, and pay by credit card using the secure online form. Software is delivered by e-mail and the entire registration process is fast and easy. Please visit:
http://www.pc-tools.net/order/Registered users not only receive a superior version of the program, but also enjoy free technical support by e-mail as well as free upgrades for 3 years. If you use the software often, please consider purchasing a copy of JBMail Plus. A lot of development time has gone into JBMail and I can not continue to develop the program without your support.
Small, light-weight e-mail client. The program consists of a single executable file that easily fits on a floppy disk. We "keep things simple" and avoid the headaches and security risks posed by multimedia, HTML mail and scripting.
Fast! E-mail is accessed directly on the server. Mail headers and the preview function let you see essential information without having to download entire messages. Instead of downloading to folders on disk, mail is downloaded as needed to memory only. Mail can be deleted in an instant, without any downloading. This makes mail access very fast while eliminating mail folder synchronization problems and privacy concerns with local mail storage.
Portable: fast, unobtrusive setup. You only need to enter three pieces of information to read any mailbox. Nothing is stored in the system registry, and no mail is downloaded to disk unless you explicitly save or archive messages.
Supports MIME messages; attachments (both base64 and UUencoded); HTML filtering; junk mail/spam filtering; SMTP for sending mail; SMTP AUTH for authentication; APOP for secure logins; raw/low-level mailbox access; mail purge mode (wipes out mailbox)
All the functions you would expect in a "full" e-mail client (attachments, address books, etc.) in a small, extremely fast program that is easy to set up and transport.
If you obtained JBMail in a ZIP file, use an archiving program that supports ZIP files (e.g. Winzip) and extract the contents of the archive to a directory on your hard disk.
If you obtained JBMail as a self-extracting file (EXE file), simply run the file to start the installer. During installation, you can choose whether you want Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts. You can also specify whether you want any data saved to the registry. JBMail does not need to write installation info to the registry, but doing so makes un-installation automatic.
Additional technical info:A full installation consists of four files that all reside in the same directory: jbmail.exe (the program itself), jbmail.ini (profiles and global settings), jbmail.dat (recently used addresses and address books), and jbm-help.htm (the help file). If you want to take the program with you somewhere, simply copy these files to a disk. JBMail searches for these files in the same directory.
You can really take just jbmail.exe with you, or also copy jbmail.ini if you want your profiles. JBMail will not write data to any other place; so no data will be saved to the system registry or to other directories. No special DLL file is needed. This is why I call the software portable!
Version 3.0 is a major release, incorporating more new features than in any previous release. Listed below are some of the major changes, but see the version history for a complete list. Many thanks to Charlie Kroeger, Walter Morisset, Julio Guri and others who have helped beta test the new features!
Much faster than earlier versions, especially during message downloading and attachment decoding
Ability to send UUencoded attachments (and no temporary files are created)
New address book system which supports multiple address books
Recently used addresses list for quick access to frequently used e-mail addresses
Improved message viewer and composer. Also no longer has message length limits.
Address handling re-written. The message viewer and composer now properly handle multiple recipients.
Better junk mail (spam) detection. There are a number of new junk mail filters under the Filters tab, including a blacklist option.
New command line switches can poll all mailboxes upon startup and minimize the JBMail window.
SMTP module re-written to properly handle ESMTP and authentication. Now also capable of automatic copies to self via BCC.
Although it's a good idea to read the entire manual, the following instructions will get you started:
The Setup window is the first window shown when you start the program. This is where you define (or recall) all settings specific to a mail account. The Setup window is organized into several tabs -- Account, POP3 options, Send settings, Filters, and Global.
You can also compose mail directly from the Setup window if you have SMTP enabled for the current profile. Just select Compose Mail from the File menu. The file menu also gives quick access to the Address books.
JBMail stores all settings relating to a single mail account in a profile. The Profile manager, at the top of the Setup window, allows you to create, delete, and switch between profiles. Only one profile is active at any time, but there is no limit to how many total profiles you can create -- in other words, you can very easily switch between a large number of mail account and associated settings, such as your name/address used in replies.
Click the down arrow left of Save to see a list of the profiles you can switch between. The free trial version only saves one profile to disk when you exit, while the full version retains all profiles.
Use the New button to create a new profile. All fields in the Setup window except those under the Global tab will be cleared. Enter any new account information, then change the name of the profile from (Untitled) to a descriptive name. Click the Save button to store the profile. Use the Delete button to remove a profile. You must Save changes to a profile to make them permanent.
The Account tab stores information needed to access a POP3 mailbox:
The options under this tab give you additional control over your POP3 mail connection:
JBMail includes full SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and ESMTP (Extended) support for sending emails, but these options are disabled by default because you need to define your mail server and return address.
After SMTP is enabled in the program, you can compose messages in a number of ways: use the Compose menu option in the Setup and Inbox windows, or use the Reply and Forward functions in the message viewer.
JBMail's junk mail (spam) filtering is very simple to configure but still quite effective for most users. Filtering is done in three stages, and you can use none, some, or all of the stages. The two fields which accept custom text can each hold up to 5120 characters (5 KB each), stored in jbmail.ini
The first stage is the blacklist. You can define text strings which, if present in any of the headers Subject/From/To/CC, will mark the message as junk. Separate multiple text strings with commas only, with no additional spaces on either side. For example, the following blacklist will catch any messages that contain the given four strings in the Subject/From/To/CC fields:
$$,money,mortgage,abuser@domainThe second stage is the antispam exceptions, which is probably the most effective. All mail that does not contain the given substring(s) in its Subject/From/To/CC field is marked as junk. The idea behind this is that all legitimate mail you receive should be addressed to you (e.g. you@domain), or originate from a known source (e.g. maillist). For example, the following antispam exceptions will catch any messages that were NOT sent to you@domain or from maillist, or with other legitimate text in Subject/From/To/CC:
you@domain,maillist,all-employees@yourcompanyThe third stage involves a number of custom written filters designed to catch any junk mail which might have leaked through both the blacklist and the antispam exceptions. The following filters have been defined for you, should you wish to enable them:
| From: empty () or <> | From field contains brackets with no address inside (bad formatting) |
| Subject: multiple spaces | Subject field contains multiple spaces (perhaps staggered), used to evade filters |
| To/CC: similar usernames | TO or CC fields contain too many similar usernames |
| From: missing @ | From field is missing the @ character |
| To: missing address or @ | TO field is missing an address, or the @ character |
| To/CC: similar domains | TO or CC fields contain too many similar domains without text names ("Jon Doe") |
Any mail that is marked as junk mail after these stages of filtering is highlighted in the Inbox window immediately upon entering the mailbox. This means that you can simply press Delete to get rid of the e-mails. If you don't want to get rid of all of them, you can use CTRL+Click to unmark certain e-mails.
Anti-spam strategiesUnlike the other tabs, the settings under this tab are global and are not specific to a a particular profile. Most of the settings concern the Mailman, which is the name given to the process that checks all mailboxes for new mail (automatic poll all) at a fixed time interval.
You have to click the Apply button before any of your changes can take effect!
The Inbox window shows a listing of all mail that is currently in your mailbox (NOT stored on disk -- there are no mail folders on disk). Because JBMail is designed for direct access to the mail server, you will be connected to your mail server via the Internet as long as the Inbox is open.
Keep your eye on the status indicator text at the bottom of the Inbox window (beside the Abort button) for status messages and progress indicators.
The message list is shown in a standard Windows list control, so you can resize the columns and sort by different columns in ascending or descending order by clicking the column headers one or more times. Select multiple messages by dragging the mouse over multiple subjects, or use the SHIFT key plus the arrow keys. You can also use the CTRL key plus the mouse button to select individual messages. The ENTER key will view or preview messages depending on the setting under the Options menu. The DELETE key will remove messages from your mail server.
The Date/Time column shows the time that the e-mail was sent, adjusted to your current time zone. The Size column shows the size of the entire e-mail in kilobytes. Additionally, a To column is included so that you can see who the intended recipient of this e-mail was (if there are multiple recipients, the first is shown).
JBMail reads the headers from e-mails in order to display the information in the Inbox (you can disable "Parse headers" in the POP3 options in the Setup window). Because only a very small part of each e-mail is downloaded, JBMail can only make a guess as to whether the e-mail has an attachment. A paper clip beside a message indicates that there is likely an attachment. When you view a message, you will enter the Message viewer and can then save attachments.
There are also many keyboard and mouse shortcuts for these operations. Please see Shortcuts under the Inbox's Help menu.
Buttons:Messages are viewed and previewed in the Message viewer window. Messages can be shown both in raw mode (how they actually appear on the mail server), and also in formatted mode. Formatted mode is generally the more useful of the two, as useful information is extracted from message headers and most codes are hidden. Remember that you can also turn on the HTML filter to remove HTML codes from the Message viewer.
When downloading large e-mails, the status indicator (located in the Inbox window) tells you how much of the message has been downloaded. Although you can view part of a message while it downloads, the download must complete before the message is fully formatted.
Remember that you can use the Preview button from the Inbox in order to download and view only a portion of a large e-mail!
This dialog box is shown when you use the Reply function from the Message viewer. Customize your reply using the checkboxes shown, then click OK.
JBMail offers you a great deal of flexibility in addressing your replies. A full list of addresses associated with this message are shown (excluding the CC list, see above). You can then check off the addresses you want to send this reply to (click an address or use the space bar to select it). You can also use the Select all button to mark all addresses.
Back to Table of ContentsThe Composer allows you to write and send e-mails to other people. It requires that SMTP is enabled and properly configured in this profile's send settings. Your message will be sent with your current identity (name, return address) and using the identity's SMTP server. JBMail reminds you of the current settings by displaying your return address / mail server in the Composer window title.
The editor is purely plain text, which means that special formatting (HTML, etc.) is not used when you send messages. This guarantees the widest compatibility with other e-mail clients across the Internet.
The fields shown at the top of the editor window allow you to set the standard message headers: To (the main recipients), Subject (the subject of the message), CC (carbon copy, more recipients), BCC (blind carbon copy recipients, not seen by other recipients).
JBMail supports multiple recipients. On the Windows 9x stream, the number of recipients is limited by the capacity of the address boxes (32 KB of text in each box), easily allowing several hundred recipients. On Windows NT and later (Windows 2000, Windows XP) the number of recipients is only limited by what your mail server allows and not by edit box capacity. There are several ways to define recipients. You can type addresses in manually, separating each one by a comma. Alternatively you can use the [?] buttons which give you access to the recently used addresses (keeps 100 most recent). Finally, you can paste addresses from address books ("Address" button, or simply ALT+R) by marking an address book and selecting Use.
The long dropdown box just above the message body editor lists the current attachments. You can add multiple attachments to messages (see below).
JBMail supports multiple address books (e.g. work, friends) that can be accessed from anywhere in the program. The Address books menu item under the File menus opens up the Address book manager, from where you can edit or use your address books.
The address book manager lets you edit and use your address books. The options under the File menu let you create a new address book, rename an existing one, and delete an address book. JBMail also lets you print the contents of an address book, or export its contents. You can export either as regular text (the output is formatted, like the printout) or you can export as Tab delimited text. The tab delimited version does not look as nice when loaded into a text editor, but fields are separated in a standard way so you can open it directly with any spreadsheet program. Similarly, you can use the Import tab delimited function to fill an address book with entries from a tab delimited text file created by other programs.
The Use button is active only when you open the address book manager from the Composer. Click Use, or double click an address book, or press ENTER to open a dialog box showing all entries in the address book. Mark the addresses to use by clicking the names or pressing the space bar. If you click Paste or press ENTER, the selected addresses will then be pasted into an address field of the Composer.
The Use function is separated from the Edit function for safety. The Edit button will launch the built in Address book editor (see below).
The built in address book editor can be opened using the Edit button in the address book manager. You can make changes to your address book, then Save the changes and return to the manager.
The Mailman is a small window that shows you a summary of multiple POP3 accounts and how much mail each contains. You can reach the Mailman window by using the Poll all button in the Account tab in setup. Alternatively, if you have enabled Mailman in the system tray from global settings, simply right-click the system tray icon to see Mailman. You can also left-click the system tray icon to restore the JBMail setup window.
If the Mailman in tray is active (see global settings) then JBMail will automatically check your mailboxes at a fixed time interval. If any mailboxes have changed (likely indicating new mail), the tray icon becomes a yellow envelope and your new mail sound (if any) is played.
You can open the Mailman (right-click) to see which accounts have new mail. Accounts with modified mailboxes will have a red marker beside them. Double clicking an account opens up the setup window and selects the desired account. All you have to do is click Connect to enter the mailbox, as usual. The Mailman also has a Poll all button which forces an immediate check of all mailboxes (same as Poll all button in the Account tab).
Back to Table of ContentsIncluded below for reference are the supported command line switches, as well as a complete version history.
Command line parameters are optional. Syntax is:
jbmail.exe [profile name] [/min] [/poll]
If you specify a profile name on the command line, the setup window will jump to this profile. Do not use quotes around the starting profile.
/min will cause JBMail to start minimized. If the Mailman in tray is enabled in global settings, JBMail will minimize to the tray.
/poll instructs the Mailman to check (poll) all mailboxes upon startup. This is only useful if the Mailman in tray is enabled.
You can combine the two switches. For example, typically one would put the following in the Startup folder to have JBMail start minimized and poll all profiles: jbmail /min /poll
Version 3.0 (February 2002)
- Now warns on attachments with suspect file types (exe, vbs, etc.)
- Inbox options: you can now set custom number of lines to preview
- Added feature to include a signature from file when Composing
- Can now send email attachment(s), UUencoded
- Added support for multiple address books, with built in editor
- Coded workaround for limitations of win9x winsock
- Added Blacklist feature in Filters
- Message viewer is now resizable (sticky setting)
- Added "Fixed width font" option to message viewer (sticky setting)
- Added "Hide messages from self" option to manage copies to self
- You can now force a Poll All from the Mailman as well
- Added Insert text file option under Composer's Edit menu
- Added recently used addresses popup in the Composer
- Switched to HTML format for help, by popular demand
- Improved attachment support, overhauled MIME parser
- Added several new junk mail/spam filters
- Inbox window can now be resized, and remembers its state
- Added Forward option (under viewer's Message menu)
- Free version now also writes INI file and one profile!
- Attachment decoding is now much faster!
- Message composer can now save and open (re-open) messages
- The viewer now cleans most MIME header codes from the display
- Composer shows in title bar your return address & SMTP server
- The viewer now supports Quoted Printable encoded characters
- You can now save or print the inbox listing
- Viewer: save, print, reply can all be restricted to a selection
- New option in message viewer to reformat e-mail to standard width
- Message composer now has print capability
- Message viewer now has more standard print capabilities
- Sizes in inbox are now right aligned and listed as "xyz K"
- Added the standard Edit menu to message composer
- Added "Copies to (BCC)" feature; i.e. copy sent messages to self
- Composer rewritten for robustness, and handles more addresses
- Added much more powerful reply options (multiple addresses, etc.)
- Message viewer can both save and now also append text to files
- Message viewer can switch between raw and formatted text
- New 'Archive' feature in viewer: appends full raw mail to file
- Uncluttered message viewer dialog by moving options into menus
- Profiles now support a "reply to" address (optional)
- Nicer line wrapping in replies
- Size limit in composer increased to 5 MB (attachments unlimited)
- Added "HTML filter" option
- Removed message viewer text color option; no longer of any use
- Much improved address/name parser
- Large messages are no longer cut off in the message viewer
- No longer displays the single period at end of e-mails
- Significantly faster when downloading very large e-mails
- Dates/times of emails in inbox are now adjusted to local time zone
- New "Refresh mailbox stat" feature in inbox updates mailbox size
- Can now play a sound when new mail arrives
- New mail icon is now yellow, better visibility
- New /poll switch will poll all profiles upon JBMail start
- New one-time password prompt when password is left out of profile
- New /min switch will start JBMail minimized
- Saves settings if user logs off/shuts down while program is running
- Mailman list contents and new mail icon are better synchronized
- Bugfix: you can now manipulate profiles or send mail during connect
- The New button automatically names profile (Untitled)
- You can now send mail without having to enter POP3 info
- Improved GUI; hopefully easier to use
- Added support for SMTP AUTH (PLAIN and LOGIN methods)
- Improved SMTP module; now supports ESMTP and improved error handling
- Fixed false 'new mail' reports due to minor header size increases
Version 2.3 (July 2, 2001)
- Partial mode now displays most RECENT 'x' messages
- Resized composer window to fit 640x480 screens
- Added master passphrase which can restrict access to all profiles
- Memory and processor usage reduced; uses VERY little resources
- 'Autosort newest to oldest' can also be done from inbox File menu
- Changed 'autosort by date' to 'autosort newest to oldest'
- Added BCC (blind CC) option to composer
- Added minimize button to message viewer and composer
- Added tray icon which notifies you of new mail (used by Mailman)
- Added 'Mailman', which automatically polls mailboxes at intervals
- Added 'enter only if mailbox modified' option
- Added 'poll all' button to Setup window
- Program is now much more efficient with disk access
- Re-wrote profile code; much cleaner and more flexible
- Displays a paper clip beside multipart messages
- Improved error handling in case POP3 server misbehaves
- Added 'autosave profile' option (saves profile when you connect)
- Added support for APOP (secure) logins
- Current profile stays on screen when you use Save / Update
- Now fills in {No subject} for messages in inbox with blank subjects
- Replies work correctly now, if full headers were enabled
- You can now use the Enter key to view messages in the inbox
- Switch between View or Preview for the Enter key in the Options menu
- Fixed a message downloading bug
- Tab key now correctly indents in message composer
- Added 200 line limit for reply quoting (win9x memory issue)
- Improved handling for cases in which attachment has full path
- Other minor changes
Version 2.2 (December 2000)
- Fixed a uudecoding bug
- Fixed an attachment filename extension bug for Win9x systems
- Reply to mail feature added
- "Message" menu removed (redundant)
- For nicer display, message viewer now hides attachment text
- SMTP support added (Use File/Compose e-mail)
- SMTP settings can be found under the "Options" tab
- Main tab is now the "Connect" tab
- Settings tab is now the "Options" tab
- Allows an IP address to be used for the server name, bypassing DNS
- Fixed some potential buffer overflows
- Now displays a status message while decoding and saving attachments
- Improved attachment-finding algorithm
Version 2.1 (August 2000)
- You can now poll a mailbox (quickly check the amount of mail waiting)
- New option to turn off header parsing for truly raw access
- Redesign of initial setup screen
- "Shortened headers" now look much nicer
- Long message headers are scanned much more quickly
- Fixed bug that caused hangs when loading poorly formatted headers
- More efficient memory usage when loading very large messages
- Fixed bug that occurred when changing selections during a delete
- Now always exits to Connection screen
- No more maximum message limit! Can load as many as memory allows
- Improved date fixing (for mailers that are not Y2K compatible)
- Added "Autosort by date" as a profile option
- Many other minor changes made
Version 2.0 (April 2000)
- Attachment finding algorithm improved
- Completely new help file and context sensitive help
- Can save settings between sessions (use Save under Options menu)
- Column titles reflect to show sort state (+ascending or -descending)
- New Advanced settings tab in opening screen
- Now disconnects from POP3 server before displaying "No mail" message
- Optional partial mailbox access: list only x messages
- Purge mailbox option: quickly clear all messages
- Free and registered version both access INI file in local directory
- Capable of flexible "guilty until proven innocent" spam filtering
- Made INI file parsing routine much more robust
- Returns to Setup screen if there is no mail
- Instructions can be accessed from Setup screen
- Better handling of login errors
- Attachments can be saved temporarily, (deleted after viewing)
- Other minor changes made
Version 1.2 (November 1999)
- You can use Delete key on keyboard to delete e-mails
- Much more help available within the program
- Cosmetic changes
- Rebuilt with updated libraries (even more stable)
- You can now exit to "Setup" screen from under the File menu
- "Keep-alive" is now turned on by default
- Text background is white by default; much easier to read
- When saving e-mails to text files, no default extension is added
- Many other minor changes made
Version 1.1 (August 1999)
- Click columns to sort (ascending or descending)
e.g. upon entering, click Date/Time to sort newest to oldest
- Improved date parsing
- Converts dates such as 'Dec 99' and 'Jan 00' to 4-digit years
- No longer crashes when encountering "dangerously-long" header lines
- Can now deal with a read-only INI file (e.g. shared over a network)
- View window won't get 'stuck' if server disconnects
- Maximum messages increased from 1,000 to 10,000
Version 1.0 (July 1999)
- Does final refresh of view window after loading message
Back to Table of Contents