InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

Like Imail, InScribe provides plenty of room for advertisements in the messaging interface and, through its management service, facilitates the creation and administration of multiple ads to display in browsers at intervals. InScribe also provides an advertisement management service for enterprises that are looking to outsource the sales, service, blocking, and reporting functions for ads.

Although InScribe doesn't let users modify their own mail-delivery rules, it does allow them to send automatic responses, send copies of mail to another account, and automatically forward all mail to another account. Users can limit automatic replies by entering an end date, using a pull-down menu for the month and year. We thought it strange that we could not use a pull-down menu for the specific date as well, but we were happy to see the option.

The address-book view provides a familiar environment, separating entries in an alphabetical arrangement. From here, the process of creating a group mailing list was intuitive. We selected a new group name, added a description, and selected members from the address book. When complete, a group name appears in the book, and it is automatically alphabetized with other entries. You can also import and export address books using a comma-separated value file.

Although weak in groupware abilities, InScribe provides the easiest access to public or shared folders. After an administrator gives users access to the domain-name space through the Critical Path Management Center, public folders appear along with other folders in a list view--unlike in the beta version of OWA, which requires a different URL to access public folders. InScribe would benefit from a discussion list view of its public folders, like the view found in the beta version of iNotes.

Novell Internet Messaging System 2.1
When distinguishing between Web messaging and Web mail, you'll find that without a doubt, Novell Internet Messaging System 2.1 is Web mail. NIMS complements its big brother, WebAccess, as a low-cost alternative to a full-blown LAN messaging system, and it challenges Imail for the lead in giving users the freedom to accomplish administrative tasks. As with the other products we tested, it performs standard Internet E-mail functions but lacks groupware capabilities by design.

NIMS includes its own special-purpose Web server and uses the Novell Messaging Access Protocol to extend Internet functionality to message stores. No Java or JavaScript support is necessary. It can make use of the lowest common denominator in a browser that is compatible with HTML 1.0 to provide a no-fuss, functional interface. Users can test drive this interface from MyRealBox, a free Web-mail service offered by Novell, at www.myrealbox.com.

Although users can't set their own directory information, they can limit or prohibit its publication to other users. Unique to NIMS is the ability for users to set their own default time-outs when using a browser. This reduces the annoyance of having to log back into the server after a short absence of activity.

As with most products in this review, passwords can be changed, and auto-reply and vacation messages can be set to respond to all new incoming messages.

Other administrative tasks give users capabilities not provided by the larger LAN-based messaging systems. Users can set the foreground and background colors of their choice. Like Imail and InScribe, NIMS provides a mechanism to limit mailbox size and alert users of disk-space utilization and restrictions.

Warning messages are transmitted to users when they approach their limits, and the system sends a customizable message to users indicating when a message was not delivered because of quota restrictions. Users can set their own forwarding information and enable the server to maintain a local copy. Like Imail, NIMS lets users configure responses to finger requests.

NIMS is the only product to offer users their own Lightweight Directory Access Protocol configuration. Users can search other LDAP servers in addition to the system defaults. And users can configure their mailboxes to retrieve mail from other POP3 and IMAP4 accounts. We set NIMS to retrieve mail from our POP3 account on CompuServe and our IMAP4 account on WebAccess. In minutes, we had a universal E-mail box: one place to check all our mail.

Sean Doherty works for Computing and Media Services at Syracuse University. You can send comments on this article to him at spdohert@syr.edu