Topic: E-mail read receipts

[chorleydave]

Hi everyone.

After trying several alternatives, I continue to use Outlook Express (OE) as my mail/news client.  As many will know, OE allows you to request a "read receipt", to notify you when an e-mail has been opened.   The problem is that the recipient can choose not to send a receipt.

I was looking through the "List of Lists" website and found a program called MSGTAG. http://www.msgtag.com/home

"MSGTAG alerts you the moment an e-mail you've sent is opened. You'll know when the message was sent, when it was viewed, and the elapsed time in between. The beauty of MSGTAG is that you don't have to change anything about the way you write or send your e-mail. It works with almost all desktop e-mail clients including Outlook, Incredimail, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Netscape. One of the best things about MSGTAG is that your friends don't need to do anything different either. There are no annoying pop- up windows asking them to send a notification back to you - all they see is a small MSGTAG footer letting them know that you've been notified that your message got through. When using MSGTAG your privacy is respected. At no stage do we ever have access to the body of your message - your e-mail goes straight from you to the intended recipient, without passing through our servers. MSGTAG is professionally and stylishly designed and has helpful wizards to guide you through installation. For Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/ XP; Uninstaller included."

Has anyone tried this program?  Does it work?  Do you have to have an "always-on" connection for it to work?  I would be grateful for any advice.

Thanks.

[Clive]

That looks a good system Dave.  Thanks for telling us about it.  My guess is that Simon will be the first to test it to destruction.  

[chorleydave]

Hi Clive.

Well, I've tried it.  It's working great with all my pop3 accounts.  I've sent mail from them all to my two web-only accounts, they arrived without problem and as soon as I had opened them, my read confirmations were in the pop3 account I specified when setting it up.

Just one last thing to try, I disabled Firewall while I tested it, so after dinner I'm going to test again with Firewall enabled, although I can't foresee any problems.

[Simon]

Haven't I had enough excitement for one week, Clive?  

I'm still loading programs form the re-install, let alone trying new ones!  

[Adept]

Looks interesting doesn't it?

I quickly read through their website this afternoon and I can't work out how they do it. According to what I've read, your email doesn't pass through their servers, so how do they know it's reached it's destination?

Clever stuff

[Mustapha Phagg]

Well i'm on win98 and it sort of works, mailwasher could not find my pop3 accounts and neither could outlook express. Clive i finally got your reply after removing MSGTAG so not over impressed with it.
My firewall was running and MSGTAG was allowed access, by removeing thee access it seemed to work, but that defeats the object of the exercise.

It sounded so brilliant too, ah well if it sounds to good-blah, blah.

[chorleydave]

MSGTAG could not auto-import my accounts from within Outlook Express.  I had to set each of them up manually in MSGTAG.  After setting up each account and hitting finish, a message gives you a Port number.  You go into Outlook Express > Tools > Accounts > Properties, under the "Server" tab change your smtp setting from whatever is in there (ie smtp.freeserve.co.uk) to "localhost" (without the quotes) and then under the "Advanced" tab change the outgoing mail port from the default 25 to the port number MSGTAG has given you.

I haven't tried Mailwasher yet.  I'll post back when I've tried it.

[chorleydave]

OK.  I've Sent e-mails to each of my pop3 accounts with MSGTAG running and then with it disabled.   I didn't have any problems deleting or "bouncing".  I had to remember to remove the addresses from Mailwasher's blacklist, of course!!!

[chorleydave]

Hi again.

I did some more testing this morning, by sending several messages to my sister, who lives just up the road.  Everything is working fine from my end, but I have discovered a slight catch.  If the recipient  downloads the messages to a client, such as Outlook Express, and then goes offline to read them, the notification is not sent to you unless they re-read the messages while connected.  If the messages are read offline and then deleted, no notification is sent.

Slightly better than Outlook Express' method, but still not foolproof.

[Simon]

As I understand it, it would also mean that the recipients PC would send out a 'read' receipt, which would trigger a notification of outgoing mail from some AV software.  I can only speak of Norton, as I've not used anything else, but that sort of thing can be slightly worrying, as you appear to be sending mail out unexpectedly, which could be the symptom of a virus.  I suppose the MSGTAG footer would explain that, but, to me, it would still be irritating.

[chorleydave]

Hi Simon.

It doesn't seem to trouble AVG anti-virus.  I'll certainly be sticking with it for the time being, will evaluate its usefulness and then decide whether to keep it when I do my half-yearly (November) format and reinstall.

[Simon]

I'm not sure AVG does outgoing mail scans - does it?  You can turn the notifications off in Norton, but I like to see stuff going out.  Anyway, let us know how you get on, Dave.

In a similar vein, I downloaded an add-on for Outlook which was a pop up notification of e-mails (similar to MSN Messenger), but I soon un-installed it as it was taking twice as long to load Outlook and check for e-mails.

[Adept]

I'm not sure AVG does outgoing mail scans - does it?

Yes, it does Simon I think you may have to enable it first though.

Look at the E-mail scanner tab and tick Check Outgoing mail.

[chorleydave]

You can also certify AVG outgoing messages with the footer

"Outgoing mail has been checked with AVG anti-virus and is certified Virus Free."

although I turned certification off, because it also adds several lines of technical stuff such as the program build and the version of update file, not to menion a link to the AVG website.  These things mean nothing to the recipient and just add to the babble at the end of the message.  

[Simon]

You could always add something like that as a signature to your e-mails, without all the tech gabble.  I have done that with my e-mails, and also a link to Pals!