Summary of current top issues
WebMail, like any software, has room for improvement. Over time, it will undergo changes to include new features, fix problems, improve its ability to handle the number of simultaenous users it can serve, improve its usability or speed, and similar reasons. The most pressing current issues which all require a certain amount of development and testing effort are:

• Quota and usage on the mail server
  Include a way for the user to see the usage and quota on the mail server. Currently, this must be done using a different MIT webserver which requires personal MIT certificates. WebMail does not require personal certificates. We want WebMail users to be able to check their usage and quota while using WebMail.
• Loss of "Compose" window on session timeout
  Symptoms and workarounds are described below. When user is composing a message, there is little or no interaction between the web browser and the WebMail server. Interaction occurs during the attaching of files, during spell-checking, or when the "Send", "Save Draft", or "Cancel" button is selected. Due to the way secure connections are managed, user must have an active connection for the interaction to succeed. Currently, if the session has expired, the Compose window is lost after an attempted interaction. We want to preserve the contents of the Compose window, so that if the session has expired, the user can simply re-login, then send the message.
• Users whose mail is delivered ultimately to a non-I.S.-supported mail server
  Everyone who has a Kerberos principal can have a "post office box" on one of the central, I.S.-supported mail servers (PO9.MIT.EDU, PO10.MIT.EDU, etc.), but people are not required to use those. WebMail currently checks the mail server associated with the user's Kerberos principal. If the user has mail delivered elsewhere (for example, if mail addressed to 'user@mit.edu' gets forwarded to 'user@someplace.mit.edu' or to 'user@attbi.com'), then WebMail will display an empty mailbox. We want WebMail to detect whether the user's mail is forwarded elsewhere, and mention that to the user.
• User-settable options do not persist across sessions
  Maintaining user-settable options across sessions will require incorporating additional functionality into the webserver.

Browser-specific problems
The browser plays a big part in the user's "WebMail experience", since it is responsible for the appearance of the pages, loading pages, running any Javascript code, and so on. WebMail is written in a general way to work on as many platforms and as many browsers as possible. If you find consistent errors or slowness with one browser, you may find that the errors or problems disappear if you use another browser.

Known browser-specific problems will be listed here as they become known. If there is a workaround or if the problem at some point becomes fixed, those will be noted here.

October 2, 2003: Netscape 7.0.2 on Mac OS X hangs using WebMail. We are looking into the cause, but the symptom is that the little colored disk spins, and 'top' shows that the Netscape process is using nearly 100% of the CPU cycles. Workaround: Use the 'Mozilla' browser that comes with MacOSX (since you don't need to use a personal certificate with WebMail).

Folder Creation and "Subscription"
WebMail is an "IMAP client", which means it accesses your mail using the IMAP protocol. Part of that protocol specifies the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" commands, which refer to mail folders. When WebMail was introduced in late 2001, it was configured to show all your folders, regardless of whether you were "subscribed" or not. A side effect of this setting is that any folder you created using WebMail would be created as "unsubscribed". Thus, if you used another IMAP mail client that only showed your "subscribed" folders, your unsubscribed folders would seem to disappear. By January 2003, it seemed necessary to change the behavior of WebMail to make it create new folders as "subscribed". Thus, WebMail now subscribes you to any new folder you create using WebMail. This should result in a more intuitive experience for users of WebMail and IMAP clients that respect the subscribed/unsubscribed status of mail folders. [Top]

I spent an hour writing a mail message, and it was lost when I tried to send it. What happened?
The short answer is, "Your session timed out." The WebMail server maintains a "session" with your browser, so that only you get the pages you want, and only pages that "belong" to you. There may be many people using WebMail at the same time; WebMail sessions are how the server distinguishes between them. Sessions eventually time out due to inactivity between the browser and the Webmail server. If more than a few minutes go by where there is no activity between your browser and the Webmail server (for example, if you spend a long time reading a single message, or a long time composing a message), the session will time out automatically. This is necessary to conserve resources on the WebMail server, and as a security feature in case you forget to log out on a public-use machine.

To prevent your session from timing out, especially when you are composing mail messages, leave the WebMail window displaying your INBOX. This is refreshed automatically every few minutes, which has the effect of keeping your session alive. Obviously, this depends on an active network connection. Some sytems may automatically drop the network connection if there is no network activity, in which case your session will eventually timeout. In general, if you are composing a lengthy message, you probably should create it using an editor and then "attach" the message in the WebMail compose window. It may be worthwhile to recall that when you composing a message using the WebMail "compose" window, the communication is strictly on your local system, between your keyboard and the browser window. When you click the "Send", "Save" or "Spell check" buttons, you initiate contact between your browser and the WebMail server. That contact will succeed only if your session is live. [top]

Session Timeout: How do I keep my WebMail session from expiring?
The WebMail server, like all webservers, has certain fixed resources available to use in doing its work. Examples of fixed resources include the amount of memory and the amount of disk space on the the system. Webservers expend resources in managing "sessions" (that is, the sequence of pages you see while accessing a site such as https://webmail.mit.edu/). In order to provide the best use of these resources, sessions automatically time out after a period of inactivity.

WebMail has the property that while you are using the Compose window, you are interacting with your local computer and not with the WebMail server. Thus, while you are composing a mail message, the WebMail server doesn't actually hear anything from you. If you take more than a few minutes to compose a message, the session may time out, and your message will be lost when you attempt to send it, check its spelling, or save it as a draft.

A workaround for this, to ensure that your session stays active even while you are composing a lengthy mail message is: Leave the other WebMail window set to display your INBOX. If you stay connected to the internet, the INBOX display will automatically refresh every few minutes, which has the effect of keeping your session active. Another way of keeping your session active is to select the two round arrows displayed on each mailbox listing page to check for new email. Information Systems continues to explore more elegant solutions for this known issue. [Top]

Resizing Compose Window May Lose Your Text
In some browsers, if you resize the Compose window after you have entered some text, your text will be lost. It is best to either resize the window before you start entering your message, or verify that resizing will not result in the loss of your message. This is a feature of your browser, not of WebMail, but IS has been working to improve WebMail's handling of window resizing. [Top]

WebMail says I don't have any mail, but I am sure I have plenty!
In order to access your email using WebMail, your mail must be addressed to user@mit.edu (not user@ai.mit.edu, user@sloan.mit.edu, user@yahoo.com, or to any address other than "@mit.edu"). In addition, the mail must get delivered to one of the central, Information Systems-supported mail servers (such as PO9.MIT.EDU, PO10.MIT.EDU, etc.). If your incoming mail is addressed to you@mit.edu, but if you or your department has set up mail forwarding, then your mail will not get deposited on the central mail server. In this situation, when you login to WebMail, it will quite correctly show you an empty mailbox: the mailbox on the central mail server where your mail is never delivered.

This is admittedly not useful, and we are working to improve WebMail's handling of cases where a user has a mail directory on a central mail server, but does not use that directory for incoming mail delivery.[Top]

Why can't I get a secure connection to WebMail? My browser says I have an insecure connection!
WebMail only allows secure connections - despite what certain browsers say (such as IE on Macintosh). When connecting to WebMail, Internet Explorer on Macintosh will occasionally provide messages about not being able to establish a secure connection. Please be assured that WebMail only allows secure connections. The message IE is displaying is because the IE browser doesn't recognize the MIT Certifying Authority. To prevent this message from appearing again in the browser you are using, you can obtain the MIT CA Certificate. [Top]

Automatic "save copy" feature does not work
To save a copy of each message you send in your "webmail-sent" folder, you have to check the "Save a copy" box in the Options section of the Compose window. In other words, on a per-message basis, you have to check a box if you want to save a copy. If you explore the "Options" settings, you will find that it _should_ be possible to set this on a per-session basis, such that the "Save a copy" box will get automatically selected when the Compose window opens. This is currently not working.

WebMail Does Not "Automatically" Interpret Attachments or Encoded Mail Messages
WebMail is configured so that you must open or download attachments yourself. It does not automatically open or interpret any attachments. In addition, it does not interpret any html that appears in the body of a message.

For example, if the message contains the text <b>Toner Cartridges!</b>, you will see the html code and not the interpreted html of Toner Cartridges!

While MIT's installation of IMP can show HTML and attachments inline (inside) a message, this exposes the user to security risks via their browser. By enabling inline HTML, any javascript (ActiveX, Java, etc.) in the attachment will be executed by the browser. Both IMP and Information Systems developers felt that this posed a security risk that the WebMail server cannot allow. [Top]

When you send an attachment, the WebMail server may not be able to determine the type of the attachment. Attachments are encoded, and in general, the type must be correct in order for a recipient to read (view or download) the attachment easily. When using WebMail to send an attachment, be sure to check whether the attachment type is shown correctly before you send it. The type is likely to be correct if the file you are attaching has a "standard" file name extension, such as ".html" or ".htm" for a file containing HTML and .doc for Word files. [Top]

Internet Explorer sometimes remembers passwords
A number of WebMail users have noticed that when they go back to a computer with Internet Explorer, it allows them to log into WebMail without entering their password. This is a feature of Internet Explorer, NOT WebMail. The WebMail team has created instructions for clearing passwords IE has stored. [Top]

Fonts and Colors
There are many factors that affect how WebMail looks when used on different browsers on different platforms: monitor resolution and tuning; browser settings and capabilities; and user eyesight, taste and judgment are among the most obvious. If you don't like the way WebMail looks, here are some things you can do to change its appearance:

• Resize the browser window
• Adjust the brightness or contrast on your monitor
• Modify the font or color settings in your browser
• Use a different browser