FastCheckDoc
From FastMailWiki
FastCheck allows you to permanently monitor your FastMail mailbox (and all its folders) and notify you when you receive new e-mails.
FastCheck works behind most firewalls and is highly configurable. It can even tell you who sent you the e-mails you've just received!
This is the documentation page. If you want to have a look at the FAQ, it is Here.
Contents |
Features
FastCheck offers the following features:
- Folder list is automatically downloaded from FastMail, so you won't make any typo!
- You can monitor as many folders and accounts as you want!
- If you have a direct connection to the Internet, IMAP is used to connect to FastMail, which means that you will be immediatly notified of any incoming e-mail! If you send yourself an email from the FastMail web interface, you will often notice that you get notified before you return to your inbox!
- If you do not have a direct connection to the Internet (typically, you're at work, behind a firewall), FastCheck still works, and automatically polls for new e-mail every so-often. Proxies requiring authentication are supported.
- FastCheck system tray icon displays the number of unread messages waiting in your mailbox.
- FastCheck configuration can be stored in the Windows registry, or in a .ini file, whose location you specify. This gives you greater flexibility if you do not have administrator privileges on your machine.
- You can 'tweak' it and tell it to ignore certain messages, or tell you who sent you the messages... All this in any scripting language you fancy!
- FastCheck is modest: when minimised, it hides itself in the tray bar and doesn't take any room in the task bar.
- You can tell FastCheck to 'acknowledge' some messages so that it doesn't keep nagging you that you haven't read one message.
- FastCheck fits on a floppy, so you can easily bring it to your favourite internet cafe.
How FastCheck works
FastCheck uses two different ways to connect to FastMail and get new messages:
- FastCheck uses FastServices to poll your mailbox every so often. FastServices has been highly optimised to use little bandwidth and be as fast as possible.
- When a direct IMAP connection is possible (or if FastMail's IMAP proxy can be used), FastCheck also uses a direct IMAP connection to your mailbox. FastCheck will notify you as soon as you receive your emails!
However, IMAP only offers instant notification on one folder (usually your Inbox). FastCheck will still poll every so often to check you other folders.
Security
When possible, FastCheck uses a secure (SSL) connection to FastMail.
Depending on the protocol used, FastCheck uses different ways to secure your connection:
- The FastServices connection uses an MD5 challenge/response algorithm to logon to FastMail. This means that your actual password never crosses the internet. Challenge/response is a form of authentication in which FastMail sends out a random "challenge". FastCheck performs a calculation on the challenge using the password and responds with a result, from which FastMail can ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of FastCheck. This method of authentication is much more secure than a simple password or other unvarying response.
- The FastServices connection can use https to connect to FastMail. Note that, as many firewalls block SSL connections, SSL encryption may not be available to you. This means that, although the password is actually never sent through the internet (thanks to the MD5 challenge/response algorithm), your email headers will be sent to FastCheck non-encrypted. This is usually not much of a concern, as the email headers do not contain much information (sender, recipient addresses, time sent, arrived...). FastCheck does not download the body of your emails.
- When using a direct IMAP connection, you have the option to use SSL to encrypt the communication to FastMail. You can select this option in the Proxy Settings dialog box.
Privacy
We respect your privacy and will never send your passwords, account details, email address... or any other information to anybody else than FastMail.
If you have a personal proxy/firewall installed on your computer, you will notice that FastCheck connects to www.FastCheck.org when it starts up. It's because it connects to http://www.fastcheck.org/latestversion.php to check what the latest version of the software is. You can disable this feature by unchecking 'Check for updates on startup' in the Options dialog box.
If you are in any doubt, please don't hesitate to post a message in our forum. Or, soon, you will be able to download FastCheck sources from SourceForge and compile it yourself!
Main window - Normal mode
FastCheck's main window is divided into two: the tree view, which displays the accounts you have configured, and the log window.
The File menu lets you check for new mails, acknowledge current unread emails, open your FastMail.FM inbox, temporarily suspend checking, or Hide / Exit the application. Choose Hide to minimise the application into the system tray bar, or Exit to completely exit the application. Note that if you double-click on the icon, or click X, the application will be minimised into the tray box, but will not be closed.
The Tool menu lets you modify your account details, select the options you prefer and configure your proxy settings.
The tray icon popup menu (displayed when you right-click on the FastCheck icon in the tray bar) lets you select all these options.
Main window - Tiny mode
You can enter and leave the tiny mode by either selecting Tiny in the File menu or traybar icon popup menu, or by double-clicking on the account tree background (anything white).
The tiny mode hides menu and log, and changes the title bar to a very thin strip. This is ideal to keep FastCheck always in the corner of your screen!
Options
http://www.fastcheck.org/images/options.gif
General Options
FastCheck's Options window lets you configure your favorite options.
If you select 'Start minimised', FastCheck will automatically hide itself into the tray bar when started (otherwise, by default, it will open its main window).
Select 'minimise on close' to have FastCheck minimise itself to the tray bar when you click on the icon.
By Default, FastCheck automatically checks on startup if a new version is available. You can clear the 'Check for update on startup' option if you do not want FastCheck to check for new versions.
You can select the next option if you want acknowledged messages to be kept across sessions. Otherwise, each time you start FastCheck, it will notify you of the new messages.
The Check interval is used for polling FastCheck. Even if you are not behind a firewall and monitoring only one folder, regular polling is required to prevent the server or your router dropping the connection.
If your firewall is a bit flaky and often returns errors, you can increment the number of attempts FastCheck will try to connect to FastMail.FM: select a number of attempts of 2 or more. Also, if you use a PAC-file automatically configured firewall, which resolves into a list of firewalls, you may want to set this to 2 or more to make sure FastCheck tries all your firewalls (in case one becomes unavailable).
You can select which application to open when you select 'FastMail.FM'. By default, it is your default Web browser, but you can change that to any application. Use $U (unsecure http) or $S (secure https - SSL) in the 'parameters' box to specify the URL. This will be replaced at runtime by the proper URL to your FastMail.FM account.
'Track Application' tells FastCheck to track your Web Browser when you first start it. The following times you click on 'FastMail.FM', it will activate your application. This feature may not work with all web browsers/applications, and their different configuration settings.
'Auto Acknowledge messages' tells FastCheck to automatically acknowledge all unread messages when you open your web browser.
Notification Options
Select 'Animate tray icon' if you want the tray icon to blink when you receive new mails.
If you do not want the notification window to appear when you receive new mails, you can de-select the following option.
You can select a WAV file to play when you receive new email. Press '...' to browse for the sound file.
Mouse Options
You can select which action should be taken when you double-click on the FastCheck tray icon, when you don't have any unread emails, and when you do.
Accounts
http://www.fastcheck.org/images/accounts.gif
This window lets you configure new accounts, or modify existing ones.
Select Edit to edit an existing account, Add to add a new account, or Remove to delete an existing account.
http://www.fastcheck.org/images/details.gif
You first need to enter your account name and password. When you have entered your password, press the 'TAB' key on your keyboard. FastCheck will automatically download the list of folders from your FastMail.FM account. You can then check all folders you want to monitor. Usually, you will only want to monitor your Inbox, except if you have setup some specific rules to send messages to specific folders.
You can select to save your password. Your password is saved in the registry of your computer, alongside all other FastCheck configuration. Your password and application password are both encrypted with Blowfish encryption (using different keys) in order to store them securely. If you are using a shared computer, you may not want to save your password.
Note that, if you have selected to save your parameters in an INI file (for example config.ini), your password will be saved in the ini file, and therefore visible by everybody who has access to this file.
Proxy Settings
http://www.fastcheck.org/images/proxy.gif
Depending on your connection to the internet, you will have to setup your proxy settings.
If possible, use the direct connection: this means that you will be immediately notified of incoming emails. If you are behind a firewall, try the automatic proxy detection. If this doesn't work, enter your proxy settings explicitely.
If your proxy requires authentication, enter your proxy user name and password.
If your proxy settings is configured through a PAC library (common in big companies), enter its URL.
The 'Alternate PAC library' settings should not be used unless explicitly told to do so by a FastCheck developer. This provides additional support for non-standard or complex PAC files and should not usually be required.
Initialization file
By default, FastCheck saves all its configuration in the following registry key:
HKEYCURRENTUSER\Software\Applications\FastCheck
But if, for some reasons, you cannot or do not want to save your configuration (including account details and password) in this location, you can configure FastCheck to save your configuration to an initialization (.INI) file, by running FastCheck with the following option:
FastCheck.exe /ini
A default FastCheck.ini file will be created in the current directory.
If you want to specify the file name, and where it is created, you can start FastCheck using:
FastCheck.exe /ini:c:\temp\config.ini
This latter option gives you great flexibility to save your configuration on a private network drive, or on a floppy disk.
You can also use the Tools/Export menu to create ini files.
