Email access via the Web – a listing of software - and some info on installing IMP, Postfix, Courier IMAP, Maildrop, SqWebMail, Postman and various additions and mods to these

Robin Whittle  rw@firstpr.com.au   Page established 19 June 2000   Last update 15 July 2003

This page has a list of web-mail systems - programs which run on a web server and enable people to do email via any web-browser.


I have established a discussion list regarding Web-Mail programs and running email services for large groups of people, such as in schools, universities and businesses who for reasons of mobility, lack of technical expertise and/or lack of a normal ISP account want to access email via a web browser.  (Note that at least one of the programs below works with WAP too.)   Chat systems are beyond the scope of this list. This is not a forum for discussing Yahoo mail, Hotmail etc. - it is for system operators who are running their own, usually open-source, Web-mail systems 

The list is at Yahoo Groups, because it is a convenient way for me to run it.  The archives are open to the public.  Please join and contribute to discussion of these topics.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Web-Mail
Email is of immense social value - and web access to email makes it so much easier for most people to use.


This page also leads to a number of directories with the following material:
Please also see a separate directory:

Back to the main First Principles site for a variety of useful and/or enjoyable things such as my 21 metreSliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinky, some old photos and a collection of corsetry advertisments.

The list of web-mail systems


This is a listing of programs which provide access to email (with an IMAP server in most cases) via a web browser – both those which run at the server and those which run in the browser.  It is not authoritative, but it seems to be the only substantial list around, and it is a popular page - with people sending me updates, so I will try to keep it up-to-date.  But see below for three more places to look.  There are so many Web-mail programs that I don't expect that my list will ever comprehensively cover the field.

Since Email and other forms of messaging, file transfer, scheduling and interaction are so important (AKA "groupware") and since people are mobile and can't set up client software on every computer they wish to use, a fully web-accessible, secure, method of doing email and many other things is something of a "holy grail".

I created this list in June 2000, as part of choosing a web mail system to install myself.  I chose IMP and installed it.  A year later, I chose to use Postman instead.

There are several other places which Web-mail programs can be found:

 

My problem space

For my own use, I am interested in having access to my email account(s) on my permanently connected home/office server via a standard Web browser.  This would enable me to access my email from almost anywhere, without setting up specific software.  Currently I use Netscape Communicator 4.7 on Windows accessing my account on the server here via my LAN, using IMAP and keeping all my email in IMAP folders/directories/mailboxes on the server.  (POP3 only allows retrieval of email.  IMAP enables multiple mailboxes to be maintained on the server, with searching, copying and moving all done on the server, without sending the body of the emails back and forth to the client.)  See one of the pages listed above for my August 2001 setup of Red Hat 7.1, Postfix, Courier Maildrop for mail filtering on the server, Courier IMAP and Postaman.

Since I am on dozens of mailing lists, I depend on Netscape to filter these.   The result is that whenever I ask Communicator to check my mail, it gets it (or really gets the headers) via IMAP and sorts most of them into various mailboxes.  Those sorted emails remain in the In mailbox (actually in my /var/spool/mail/xxxxx mail-spool file - before the August 2001 upgrade to Maildirs and Courier IMAP) but Communicator tags them in some way (in its files on the Windows machine, I suspect - but the IMAP server also tags the messages at the server) and shows them as "deleted".  When I "Compact" (= IMAP Expunge) this In mailbox, they are physically deleted on the server.  This suits me fine, since I can look at what is happening in various mailing lists without having to open their mailboxes.  However the current system has a number of limitations:

1 - The mail filtering is done by Netscape Communicator, and the rules live in the computer it runs on.  (I could get around this with roaming access downloading and uploading of filters.)

2 - Either of the above approaches ties my sorting of incoming mail to a properly installed Netscape Communicator.  If I open the account in any other way, those emails will not be sorted where they belong, even with a later attempt using Communicator.

3 - I have found Communicator to be flaky in combination with the IMAP server  http://www.washington.edu/imap/ I am currently using: 4.5-4.  (Latest version at RedHat is 4.7-5but I haven't figured out the library dependencies to see whether it will run on my RH6.1 system.)  There are erroneous listings of emails and it refuses to compact the In mailbox.  Fixes include deleting all but the rules.dat files and directories in C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\xx\ImapMail\server-name\ and deleting the dummy email at the start of the var/spool/mail/xxx file.

4 - I think Communicator assumes it is the only client accessing the account.  Having two sessions of communicator accessing the one account, even at different times (e.g. sometimes from a laptop mobile and in sometimes from the desktop machine at home), causes difficulties.
 

(See one of the pages listed above for how I got filtering going on the server with Maildrop and therefore could use any client at all - though in August 2001, I am using Netscape, since I still find the email section of Mozilla 0.9.3 - Netscape 6.1 is quite unusable.)

Generally I like Communicator as an email program.  I am waiting for Mozilla to become stable enough to use and expect to move to it from Communicator some time in late . . . .  Sheesh . . . I have given up predicting when it will be usable.  I am annoyed at the poor handling of plain text and word-wrapping in all currently available email programs I am aware of, and if Mozilla is not what I like, then I will doctor it.  (August 2001, actually, the plain text edting of Mozilla looks very good to me.)

What I think I need is:

1 - A mail filtering system which does not depend on the email client.   See a page above for how I did this.

2 - Several ways of accessing email:

a - Communicator/Mozilla from a Windows or Linux machine on the home/office LAN.  Fastest and most convenient.

b - Communicator/Mozilla on my laptop via modem, or GSM 9.6 kbps.

c - Some web gateway program, running on the server, so I can access email (probably without all the functionality of Communicator/Mozilla) from any web browser at all.  (Theoretically I could do this on my laptop, but since I can install Mozilla on that, and since its direct IMAP communications would be faster than pages of HTML, I would only use the web gateway approach when I was away from home and could not easily use my own computer.)

d - OpenSSH to the server and running an IMAP compatible text-mode email client such as mutt - but in August 2001, my initial invesigation made me think that mutt had a way to go before it was really convenient to use for my IMAP setup.


By the way, I am using Postfix as my mail server, rather than Sendmail.  I have had no problems whatsoever with it and am relieved not to have to worry about the frighteningly thick Sendmail book I purchased with trepidation!  I am on the Postfix mailing list.  The Postfix home is:  http://www.postfix.org.
 

Web-Email software Links

Update!!!!

Thanks to the people who are telling me about Web-mail systems I have not yet listed!   I don't have time to list them properly at present, but please check the following URLs for programs which I intend to list properly in the future:

Open source software (GNU Public Licence, usually)

acemail    http://www.astray.com/acmemail/
A Perl-based POP3 to Web gateway.

In November 1998, according to www.cru.fr/http-mail, in part:
          Mailbox access (for display only) via POP3, .
          Both Username (single-user) and Password are hard-coded in the cgi.
 

aeromail http://www.cushman.net/projects/aeromail/index.php

PHP based. No mention of licence, but I guess it is GPL.  Windows and Unix versions available.  " I wrote AeroMail because I didn't like the way any other web-based e-mail packages looked or worked, and also because I wanted to get used to writing with PHP. AeroMail is not entirely complete or foolproof, but I think that I've got a good start on it.  AeroMail must run on the Apache web server installed with the PHP module. The PHP module also has to have the IMAP functions compiled into it."

AtDot http://www.atdot.org
 

POP3 only.  This site provides software and also a service for accessing any POP3 account.

ENIP http://ungerware.dhs.org/enip/      

ENIP is a Java "1.2" email client which can run as an applet or as an application. It supports POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Berkeley MBOX (local and remote),  and the Pine addressbook (local and remote).   (I think Java "1.2" is also known as Java "2" . . . )  Current versions of Netscape Communicator (4.5 - 4.7) are not up to running this .jar file.  Instead, it is necessary to download a Java Development kit, or perhaps ot can be run as an applet on existing browsers.

This looks intriguing!  There seems to be no sorting, searching or filtering capabilities, and some tricks are needed to get it to run with current Web browsers.  It won a Java prize in 1999 . 

IMHO http://www.lysator.liu.se/~stewa/IMHO/

"A free webmail module for the free Roxen webserver. It connects to your IMAP server and lets you use web based e-mail on your own terms."

IMHO is a module for the GPL "Roxen" web server.  I hadn't heard of Roxen before, and am not sure I want another web-server in my life.  (I found a Roxen FTP server which squid and cable modem company proxy could not access properly . . . )

http://www.cru.fr/http-mail/ gives it the 4 letterbox commendation, the same level as IMP.  See this page for extensive comments.
 

IMP  http://horde.org/imp/*

See above for how I installed IMP on my Red Hat 6.1 system with UW IMAP and Postfix.

PHP based system for both POP3 and IMAP accounts.  Development version (19 June 2000) does searching of multiple IMAP mailboxes! Browser needs Javascript and tables.  Sorts emails on various criteria.  Has a spellchecker.  Already internationalised for many languages.
The following is highly recommended for using IMP: An SSL web server and a browser capable of the same (this would only require minor code modification to get by without, but still...), and PHP compiled into the server as a module."

There are lots of screenshots at:  http://www.horde.org/imp/screenshots/

Jason Belich's "Scalable webmail HOW-TO" – http://www.horde.org/papers/Scalable_webmail_HOWTO.php – tells how IMP was set up using Postfix (like qmail, a simpler replacement for Sendmail).  The main focus of this "HOW-TO" is how IMP, Postfix, Cyrus IMAP and an LDAP server were used to make a fully scalable very large web email system, with any number of web/email servers and any number of servers to store the users' IMAP mailboxes.  All this is achieved with open-source software.

I used IMP from June 2000 to July 2001.

I got some feedback on IMP when I mentioned this page on the Link mailing list:  Howard Lowndes <lannet@deletethis!.lannet.com.au> wrote:

I use IMP by horde.org where clients want this facility.  The key reason
is that it does its damnedest to prevent the emails, or the header
summaries, from being cached on the browser; I consider this to be a major
security hole in most other web based email browsers.

JAWMail  http://jawmail.sourceforge.net/ *

JAWMail is a promising-looking PHP-based  web mail program  which is supposedly easy to install.   Its listed features include:

The WAP client is a rather amazing feature - but I can live without the graphic emoticons.

There is a live demo system, which connects to your own IMAP server!  Based on a brief test of this, I would add:

jwma - Java WebMail   http://jwma.sourceforge.net/

jwma is a WebMail implementation in Java, depending on an IMAP server as post office, and an SMTP server for mail transport.

This is an impressive-looking project, which I found in August 2001.  From what I can tell, the Java runs on the web server, rather than being Java running in the browser.  I can imagine that Java running in the browser would be a great way of making a user interface, but it would take a while to download, and I don't know much about Java.  Maybe it is a minefield getting complex things to run in a variety of browsers.


MUMail  http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~marktop/MUMail/

GPL postcard-ware Java applet runs in the browser and accesses POP3 accounts which are on the same host as the web server.  (There is a workaround for this.)  IMAP support was planned in mid 2000, but not happening in 2001.  Runs as an applet in a box on the browser screen.


NeoMail and oMail  http://neomail.sourceforge.net http://webmail.omnis.ch/omail.pl?action=about

oMail is a development of NeoMail.  Both are Perl programs which must run on the computer which is both the mail and web server. In the case of oMail, the mail server must be qmail or optionally  vmailmgr.  Neither program has much doco on the Web, but there is an impressive opperational oMail demo.  I think that neither program deals with IMAP or POP3 – so they can't be used for accounts on other machines and they cannot, I assume, work with IMAP mailboxes.  This rules these programs out for me, but for those wanting a straightforward web-based email system, with sorting of the mailboxes on various things like sender, date, subject and size, and where the mail server is also the web server, then these programs could be useful.  In August 2001, both projects seem to be quite active.  The NeoMail page includes some impressive writing on why HTML email is evil and poses many security difficulties.

PHPGroupWare  http://www.phpgroupware.org/index.php*

(Added 16 August 2001) This is an impressive open-source project which does POP/IMAP email, Usenet, calender, addressbook and many more functions.  There are live demo site for the stable and development versions.  A most impressive project with some colourful grahics and lots of features.  Email composition is in fixed width font, but the email display is in proportional width fonts.  I guess this could be changed by hook or by crook.  I sent a message from the demo of the stable version - and it wrapped text to about 84 columns, which is too wide. 72 or so is the usual value, and there were no obvious user settings to control the wrap length.

phpop  http://renaghan.com/pcr/phpop.html

A simple PHP-based program to access multiple POP accounts. It can: "Read mail from POP server, Reply to mail, Forward mail, Delete mail and Send new messages."

Polarbar Mailer  http://www.polarbar.org

"100% pure Java email application that runs on many platforms. This software is free for all users and supports all standard email technologies used today. Proven platforms include Linux, NT, Windows 95/98, Mac OS and OS/2 Warp 4."

The freshmeat.net blurb says: "Polarbar Mailer is a Java-based email client, built upon the original JStreet Mailer code from Innoval and using the same three pane, folder-based interface. Polarbar supports both IMAP4 and POP3 protocols and offers features such as multiple accounts, message filtering, message bouncing, and integreted browser (HotICE, HotJava, or text based)."

Polarbar is a 1.5 megabyte zip file which is used for all platforms.  It requires Java 1.1.  "If you need to run the latest Java environment, officially referred to as Java 2 and sometimes known as Java 1.2/1.3, Polarbar Mailer currently only works if you use the oldjava startup command. Documentation for using Java 2 in this manner is documented on the Javasoft site. We intend to fully support Java 2 in an upcoming release and using oldjava is only a temporary solution."

(In July 2000, I wrote this, but did not check it in August 2001: As with  ENIP, it is necessary to install a special Java program to run Polarbar – current Web browsers (Netscape 4.7) are apparently not up to it.  If it requires some fancy stuff in the browser, then this makes it impractical for most applications where you want to be able to walk up to any bog standard browser in a library and access the web-mail service.)


Postman  http://www.uv.es/postman/postman.html*

See my page here Postman/ for how I installed Postman on Red Hat 7.1, fixed a number of bugs and improved its date display. 

Postman  is a C++ Web Mail client, written in 2000, by Jose Agustin Lopez Bueno of the University of Valencia on Spain's Mediterranean coast.  

Features include:
GPL license
IMAP support
Multiple folders support
MIME support (send and receive)
Programmed in C++
Addressbook
Optional cookies
No Java, no JavaScript  (but cookies and Javascript are typically used)
Search mails  
Setting of user preferences possible
No reconnections. The connection maintains open.
To these I would add:

Comments in Spanish but doco in English.

Any mailbox can be used for Sent mail, since if the From address is the same as the user's address, then the "To:" address will be displayed in the From column of the mailbox index, preceded by "To: ".  This is an excellent feature and overcomes the typically limited (usually only one) number of mailboxes in other mail clients which can properly display the destination of sent messages.

The mailbox index page can display any number of messages.  The user controls the number, and typically 10 to 15 is fine for most uses - but Postman can list an entire 9,000 message mailbox (for instance) on a single easily scrollable page.

Since I did my work on Postman,  Agustin has released another version which incorporates some improvements I suggested.  He has also establishing a mailing list.   In August 2002, Postman includes the capacity to sort by thread, and be used for Usenet as well.

OCSemail http://demo.obsidian.co.za/ocs/

Email is one of the functions of this OCS system.  I can't easily see what it is about, but check the site of Linux developer:  http://www.obsidian.co.za

Spmail http://smallpig.net/spmail/spmail.shtml

"Spmail is a Web-based email client that allows users to send, receive, and filter email from a POP3 mail server while they read and compose messages. Its features include message filtering, multiple e-mail accounts, address book support etc. Spmail is based on MySQL and can run under Mod_Perl."
Does filtering and searching.

Squirrel Mail   http://www.squirrelmail.org/*

"SquirrelMail is a standards-based webmail package written in PHP4. It includes built-in pure PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP protocols, and all pages render in pure HTML 4.0 (with no Javascript) for maximum compatibility across browsers. It has very few requirements and is very easy to configure and install. SquirrelMail has a all the functionality you would want from an email client, including strong MIME support, address books, and folder manipulation."

In July 2000, I wrote the following:

PHP based IMAP, MIME and LDAP compatible email for nuts.
The screenshots at this site indicate that the message list can be sorted ascending and descending on sender, subject, date etc.
"Here is just a conglomeration of some of our features. They are in no particular order, but they should give you a good idea of some of the stuff we have been working on. This list isn't complete, you should download SquirrelMail and see if it has all the features you desire.
  • Default mail folder. ex: ~/mail
  • i18n: Russian, German, Nowegian, and English
  • Saving sent messages
  • Full address book support (LDAP and Personal)
  • Subscribe/Unsubscribe to folders
  • Date translation to local time
  • Message composing (with to, cc, and bcc)
  • Message sorting by Date, Name, or Subject
  • Folder manipulation (deleting, creating, moving, and renaming)
  • IMAP support that's RFC 2060 compliant (should work on all IMAP servers)
  • Good MIME support, including attachments.
  • Color customization and themable support
  • Reply and Forward
  • Sending of attachments

    • Many more..."
    In August 2000, I received the following email:
     
    Hello!

    I am the project manager for SquirrelMail, and I have noticed that quite a
    few people are coming from your site to ours with regard to the review you
    did about different webmail packages.

    Thanks for the nice words!  Just a quick question.  If you are still
    maintaining that page, would you mind updating the SquirrelMail section?  A
    lot has been happening with it in the last few months, and development is
    really exploding.  Here is a basic list of some of the most important
    features currently (the old one was terribly out of date):

      - MIME support (passes Mark Crispen's torture test)
      - Addressbooks (personal and LDAP)
      - Searching
      - Message highlighting (like Pine 4.2x)
      - Online context-sensative help
      - NO Javascript, 100% HTML
      - Multilingual support (10 languages currently)
      - Color theming
      - Built-in PHP IMAP and SMTP support
      - Sorting messages by Date, From and Subject
      - Plugins (*)

    (*) Our plugin support is new to the 0.5 release, and it is really taking
    off and becoming very popular with our users.  Here are some of the plugins
    that people have written (more can be found at
    http://www.squirrelmail.org/index.php3?page=15)

      - Filters
      - NewMail alert
      - Addressbook import/export
      - Focus changing on forms
      - Many others...

    If you don't get around to this, don't worry about it.  I thank you for the
    kind words you said about SquirrelMail, and especially for all the web
    traffic you've directed our way (you're currently number 6, below Freshmeat
    and SourceForge).  :)

    Thanks again!
    Luke

        _
       . .   Luke Ehresman - "Codito, ergo sum"
     /  v  \  lehresma@css.tayloru.edu
    /(     )\  http://www.css.tayloru.edu/~lehresma
      ^^ ^^

    This is clearly a very active project, so check it out.  

    SqWebMail http://www.inter7.com/sqwebmail/                                    

    See my page on installing SqWebMail:  SqWebMail/.  

    SqWebMail is written in C and works directly with Maildir mailboxes.  It does not use IMAP or POP.  If the mailboxes are to be accessed by IMAP, then the server must be the companion Courier IMAP.  SqWebMail is fast and straightforward.  It enables the user to change their password.  

    ThorMail http://sourceforge.net/projects/thormail/

    "Thormail is a web based interface to existing IMAP mailboxes. It strives to provide features similar to those found in many free email services, but with access to your own mailboxes.  Thormail is only here because dtype needs a test project.."  No action since 1999.

    TWIG http://twig.screwdriver.net*
    PHP-based multi-function program including IMAP email access.  Previously know as "Muppet".
    "TWIG is rapidly becoming a very useful intranet/groupware tool and application framework. It is written and implemented completely with the PHP programming language. Our intention is that it become a simple, cross-platform, fast, and browser-independant way to access or share almost any kind of information, without the complexity or costs of other intranet/groupware packages.

    FEATURES
    Because of the modular design of TWIG, it is fairly simple to add new features very rapidly. Here are the main features that TWIG currently supports:
        E-Mail (via IMAP)
        Contact Manager
        Scheduling
        Usenet Newsgroups
        Todo Lists
        Bookmarks

    Many more features are planned, and future features should be simple to add due to TWIG's fairly modular construction.

    HISTORY
       TWIG used to be Muppet, a web-based IMAP mail client."

    On the Postfix mailing list, on 1 June 2000, Jason Costomiris <jcostom@clearlogic.com> replied to Jeremy Lunn <jeremyl@vicnet.net.au>:

    >  I've heard that IMP is good, but I haven't tried it.

    IMP is definitely feature-packed, but to the point where end-users scream
    in agony.  They just don't understand the interface.  We also had random
    problems with the list of folders being almost hidden due to frame sizing
    problems.  No common thread between instances of it either.  It always
    worked for me, and *I* liked it, but I was out-voted. :)

    We finally would up switching to TWIG - http://twig.screwdriver.net/
    and our users are infinitely more happy.  It's PHP based, and runs very
    well under PHP 4.0.0, using the Zend Optimizer.

    WebMail http://jwebmail.sourceforge.net*

    Actively being developed (0.7.6 January 2001) From the version 0.7 features:

    Who wants to use WebMail?

    WebMail is intended for small to medium ISPs, but it may also be used on a standalone Homecomputer running on a Java capable platform.
    Currently, WebMail also has some features for very high load servers (20000 users or more) and seems to work without much trouble.

    Recent additions include provisions for filtering out Javascript from HTML to improve security.

    WING http://users.ox.ac.uk/~mbeattie/wing/

    "WING is an Open Source Apache/mod_perl based system which allows users to access email held on an IMAP server via any web browser."  WING also does Usenet (NNTP).  It is used for the University of Oxford Herald email service descried here:  http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/email/herald/HeraldFAQ.html and http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/documentation/leaflets/L11.html.
  • The browser does not need to support Java, JavaScript or frames but table and cookie support are preferable.
  • Users can create a hierarchy of multiple mailboxes and browse and move messages between them.
  • Messages with MIME attachments can be displayed nicely.
  • Per user defaults (such as screen size and mail signature) can be set and saved between sessions.
  • Files local to the client browser can be included in composed messages or MIME attached to them.
  • Arbitrary headers can be added to composed messages except that the "From:" header cannot be changed or forged for outgoing messages from WING.
  • WING is scalable up to thousands and tens of thousands of users.
  • Users can import address books by uploading them via their browser (only Pine format address books supported in this version).
  • Users can create their own links (bookmarks), presented in a hierarchical list which can be folded/unfolded.

    • Users can login using a "portal" view which provides a frame down the left hand side of the browser containing site-configurable links along with their personal links. This is the only part of WING which requires frame support from the browser.

    August 2001: Perhaps this has not been actively developed since I looked in July 2000.


    Proprietary software

    This is not in any way a complete list of proprietary web-mail programs.  See the resourceindex.com lists I point to above for more commercial programs.

    @Mail (CalaCode)  http://www.atmail.com

    Free demo, Windows or Unix/Linux, full Perl source code, POP, IMAP, SQL database storage of mail, HTML templates, WAP, PocketPC, SMS, Anti-Virus.  

    Coconut  http://www.coconutsoftware.com

    Big commercial system.

    EmuMail http://www.emumail.com

    Available on a paid or advertising supported basis, it even runs on WebTV clients.

    FocalMail http://www.focalmail.com/home/about.php3
     

    PHP based.  Free to use, but no modification is allowed.  Last updates August 1998.
    Requires:

    MailMan http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman

    Not GPL, but free for non-commercial use.  POP3 only.  Perl based. Customisable with HTML templates.  Handles MIME, although in November 1998, according to www.cru.fr/http-mail, it was not MIME compliant.

    Mailspinner  http://www.mailspinner.com/

    This program may be an ex-program - I can't see obvious mention of it at this site.

    Nascent Mailspinner™ provides web-based access to email accounts with a client-server application written in C, HTML and Javascript.

    How Does it Work?  Mailspinner™ provides all the existing functionality of a client-side email application from a web page. Simply link from a web site to www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/mailspinner.cgi to access the Mailspinner application and functionality, no special hardware is required.  Mailspinner communicates with any open standards mail server over POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP.

    Customizable Providers can easily maintain their unique branding by customizing the Mailspinner user interface. Both small companies and large organizations can quickly launch new service offerings without sacrificing their brand recognition.

    Mintersoft visualmail  http://www.mintersoft.com/visualmail/
     

    POP3 and IMAP. Also works with  Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes Domino mail servers.
     

    NetWin WEBMAIL  http://netwinsite.com/webmail/
    Previously WebIMAP. USD$485 (August 2001) with discounts or zero fees for non-profits.  1 Month free trial.

    finis.