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  • screenshots

    view screenshots of the Webtop here

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    Webtop 2.03 has been released! This version has been redesigned with a professional UI, has full support for the Mozilla web browser, and has new email filter rules for utilizing the SpamCop and SpamHaus mail services. The downloadable version of the Webtop is a fully functional 30-day trial with a 5 user license. Download here!

       


    frequently asked questions

    What is the Webtop?
    What can the Webtop do?
    What browsers does the Webtop support?
    How does the Webtop's user licensing work?
    What email protocols does the Webtop support?
    Can I import email from Outlook into the Webtop?
    Is SSL supported?
    Does the Webtop support IMAP?
    How can I "integrate / modify the user interface" of the Webtop for my own purposes?
    How can I use my own authentication system with the Webtop?
    How do I change the port on which the Webtop runs?
    What operating systems does the Webtop support?
    What databases does the Webtop support?
    Does the Webtop use its own POP / SMTP servers?
    Does the Webtop integrate with the Palm OS or Windows CE?




    What is the Webtop?

    The Webtop is your own, personal web-based email system. Not Hotmail, not yahoo mail... you don't subscribe or create an account with us... you download the webmail software, install it on your own server, and run the whole system on your own. There are now privacy concerns, no disk space limitations (other than your own hard drive), and no hassles.

    What can the Webtop do?

    First, see the "Features list" section of the web site... that will give you a complete list of features. But, to start with - the webtop will:

    What browsers does the Webtop support?

    The Webtop currently supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla (and any browser using the Gecko rendering engine).

    How does the Webtop's user licensing work?

    A Webtop "user license" refers to the number of user accounts that can use the Webtop for any one installation (this is also called a "named user" license). For example, if you purchased a 10 user license, you can add 10 user accounts to your Webtop server and each user can configure as many POP3 email accounts as they need.

    What email protocols does the Webtop support?

    The Webtop supports SMTP and POP3. IMAP is not currently supported.

    Can I import email from Outlook into the Webtop?

    Yes. There is a very nice utility (located at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ol2mbox) to convert Outlook .pst files into mbox files. mbox files can then be imported directly into the Webtop. The Mozilla email client can also convert Outlook email into mbox files. Mozilla stores email natively in mbox format - these files can then be imported into the Webtop.

    Is SSL supported?

    Yes.

    The Webtop is fully capable of integrating with other 3rd party web servers and servlet engines. We have found that running the Apache web server (www.apache.org) with Caucho's Resin servlet engine (www.caucho.com) is a good combination. By doing this, you can configure apache to run with SSL encryption and, hence, encrypting traffic to and from the Webtop.

    If you are planning on using the Webtop's embedded web server and servlet engine, SSL encryption is supported "out of the box". The embedded web server and servlet engine services are provided by the excellent Jetty server (jetty.mortbay.com).

    Does the Webtop support IMAP?

    The goal of the Webtop was to be both a good email client as well as a powerful information management server. The Webtop is designed to pull all messages down to your local server so that you don't have to worry about a disk space quota with your email provider. With that in mind, IMAP was not designed into the core architecture of the Webtop. It is possible that we will be incorporating IMAP functionality in the future - but this is not a planned feature at this time.

    How can I "integrate / modify the user interface" of the Webtop for my own purposes?

    Please see the "UI Customization Guide" located both in the documents section of the yourwebtop.com web site and the "UI_Customization_Guide.doc" document located in the /docs directory of a Webtop installation.

    I have my own authentication scheme for my users (LDAP, SSO, custom...) - how can I use it to authenticate Webtop users?

    We are currently working to modify the authentication scheme to be more modular in order to account for the myriad of authentication possibilities. If you have a specific request or need, please contact us at contact@yourwebtop.com.

    How do I change the port on which the Webtop runs?

    The setting for the web server port is located in the "jetty.xml" configuration file in the directory "htdocs/WEB-INF/classes". In that file, you will see a line that looks like this:

    The "80" is the port on which the Webtop is configured to run. You can change that to whatever port you need and you will need to restart the Webtop after making that change.

    What operating systems does the Webtop support?

    The Webtop is written in Java and can run on any operating system that can run Java. Java version 1.3+ is required.

    What databases does the Webtop support?

    The Webtop uses Java's JDBC functionality... so, technically, any database that has a JDBC driver can work with the Webtop. The two currently supported databases are Oracle 8i+ and MySQL 3.23+. If you would like to run the Webtop on another database, you will need to take the following steps:

    1. Add the JDBC driver for your database to the WEB-INF/lib directory
    2. Modify the webtop.properties file to specify the JDBC driver and JDBC url string (as well as the username/password to connect to the database)
    3. Modify either the Oracle or MySQL sql creation script (located in the /sql directory) to work with your database

    Does the Webtop use its own POP / SMTP servers?

    No, the Webtop is web-based email client. It will use whatever POP and SMTP servers you specify when you setup a new email account. You can connect to as many POP and SMTP servers as you need to for however many email accounts you use.

    Does the Webtop integrate with the Palm OS or Windows CE?

    No, the PDA market appears to be in flux right now... the time and effort required to support PDA integration does not appear to make sense at this time.