(c) 1996-2006 Dr. Scott M. Baker (smbaker@sb-software.com)
What does it do?
SBPop sits on the Windows taskbar and periodically checks your mail server for incoming mail. When new mail is detected, you are signaled by an audio alert and/or a flashing indicator on the taskbar.
What special features does SBPop have?
There are presently a lot of similar utilities out there; Most all support similar features and capabilities -- there's just so much you can do with such a utility. Here is an outline of the key features which I find most useful:
How do I install it?
SBPop uses an automatic self-extracting installer program. Everything else should be self explanatory from there.
Configuration:
When you first load up, you will need to set up a server and account. The server is the address where you need to connect to receive mail (for example, my ISP uses pop.primenet.com). It will probably start with "pop", indicating it is a server for the Post-Office-Protocol. You will also need to enter your user name and password. This is all done by pressing the <Add> button next to the account list.
Once your data has been entered, everything should be automatic. You can press the <Run Now> button to immediately check for mail, or you can wait until the automatic delay occurs.
Sound Configuration:
SBPop allows you to configure different sounds (.Wav Files) to be played when certain messages arrive. This is done by pressing the <Sounds> button. For any sound entry, you need to specify a pattern to trigger the sound and a filename of the wave audio file to play. A pattern is just a text string which will trigger the sound. For example, "John Doe" would catch all messages which were sent from "John Doe". Similarly, "Trains" would catch all messages with the word "Trains" in the subject field.
The filename is the name of any wave audio file. You can easily record these using the Microsoft Sound Recorder bundled with Win95, or you can find them from another source.
In addition to the pattern-based sounds, you can configure a generic sound that will be played when a message arrives which does not contain any special patterns.
Registration:
I'm including SBPop in a sort of "package registration" with my other small utilities (SBNews, SBJV, etc). One registration for $26.95 gets you all of these programs!
Contacting the author:
You can reach me at smbaker@sb-software.com