----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction: X-Ray is a mail-filtering program. Major objectives of X-Ray are: 1. To provide privacy by removing unwanted mail headers; 2. To make it convenient to switch between several different incoming and outgoing mail servers without reconfiguring your mail software; 3. To operate stably and unobtrusively. X-Ray is primarily intended to work with Rit Labs' email client "The Bat!," but will work with any email program that sends mail via SMTP and receives it via POP 3. If you are comfortable changing the server and port settings in your email client, this program won't scare you; on the other hand, if you don't know what port settings are, you should probably get help from your local expert. Major features of X-Ray are: 1. Filtering Kludges (Headers) in incoming/outgoing mail. 2. Fast change of SMTP/POP server. 3. Work with 'News by Mail' servers. 4. Cyclic change of POP server. 5. Saving of program settings to "Schemes" and fast changing of current "Schema". 6. Works as service under WinNT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls: After starting the program you will see it as an icon in the system tray. The program can be controlled both via its tray icon and via the icon's context menu. Left-clicking on the tray icon switches the program between enabled, indicated by a blue "X" in the tray, and disabled, indicated by a red "X." Right clicking on the icon in the system tray will bring up the context menu. Double-clicking on the tray icon brings up the "Options" dialog. The delay between clicking and the program's reaction is conditioned by the Windows double-click timing and can be changed in Control Panel -> Mouse. After you open the "Options" dialog in the program (context menu item "Options" or double-click on the program icon in the tray), you will be able to configure the program. There are 4 tabs: "Servers," "Kludges," "Special," and "General Settings." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Choose "Servers" tab when you want to add/remove/edit data about your POP/SMTP servers. Each server is defined by its name, local port number, and remote port number. The local port number can be unique for every server or can be set manually to the same value you enter in "General Settings" as the default. All servers which have a local port which is set to the same port as the default value will be accessible from the "POP/SMTP Servers" submenus available by right clicking on the tray icon. This feature enables you to easily switch servers without adjusting your e-mail software; the port number is required to be the default value so that you won't have to adjust the port value in your mail reader with every server change. For a detailed explanation of port numbers, read through: http://members.home.net/mendina/troubleshooting.html#first The standard port number for an outgoing mail server is 25, but numbers like 4724 may be used if you like--just be sure to know which number you're using. For POP3-servers it is possible to enter your Username and Password into X-Ray. This data will be substituted for the name and password sent by your mail client (e.g. the Bat!, Eudoara, Outlook, etc.) to the POP server. Again, this feature allows easy changes between mail servers without having to adjust your mail software. Why would this be useful? It allows the collection of email from different mail accounts on different servers in ONE place in ONE mail program. The server change can be done automatically for your--have a look at the item "Cyclic change" in the submenu "POP servers". ATTENTION: Do not forget to set the address of your outgoing (SMTP) mail server to the value "localhost" (or 127.0.0.1, the generic number that means "this computer", or to the IP address of your computer if it's static) in your mail program. X-Ray can't work on your email if it's not relayed through X-Ray. ATTENTION: Please make sure that you aren't already running software (e.g. UUCP<->SMTP gate, or another POP3/SMTP server) which uses the local ports that you want to use with X-Ray. Only one server can use each port! Adjust X-Ray to avoid conflict with any other servers on your computer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kludges: "Kludges" is another word for "Headers," the text strings at the top of a message that tell servers where the message has been, what it is, and where it's going. For example: From: Bill@microsoft.com Received: (qmail 2998 invoked by uid 1100); 26 Dec 1999 08:15:10 -0000 X-Mailer: The Bat! 1.31 S/N 2E288 (Personal) are all kludges. The "Kludges" tab contains list of kludges which will be changed and/or deleted during the transfer of messages to and from server. Every kludge operates on one of the two mail transfer services: outgoing SMTP (Marked by a large "S") or incoming POP (Marked, as you would expect, by a large "P"). POP-type kludges will be filtered only when receiving mail and SMTP-type kludges only when sending mail. Kludges may be changed in several different ways: 1. "Change to text" - replacement of a kludge's value (the part after the colon) with predefined text you enter here. 2. "Just delete" - remove the kludge; no one will know it was there. 3. "Take from file" - exchange of the Kludge's value with a random line from a file. 4. The "Special" type of kludge filter is explained below. The "Take from file" option will insert a single line from a file as the value of a kludge; it cant insert a quote into the body of a message. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Special: The "Special" tab allows you to actively add new kludges by analyzing the values of those already in your email. Let's discuss an example that's already set up in X-Ray. Suppose that you don't have Usenet (Newsgroup) access at work, and so in order to post to your favorite discussion group during the day, you need to write, using The Bat! and a mail-to-news gateway, an email message to be relayed to the newsgroup. It is necessary to add a "Newsgroups:" kludge with the name of newsgroup (or several newsgroups if you cross-post) as the value of kludge. Most mail programs do not allow you to edit message headers, and most of those that do make it inconvenient. With the help of X-Ray this task can be automated in this way: 1. On "Special" tab create a new element with settings: a. Signal string: "newsgroup" b. Separator: "#" c. New kludge name: "Newsgroups:" (The colon will be added automatically if you forget it.) 2. On "Kludges" tab add new element with fields: a. Kludge: 'To:' b. Change to 'Special kludge' and choose the rule 'newsgroup' (created on previous step) from combo-box (signal string is a name of rule). In plain English, you are telling X-Ray to filter the "To:" field using the "newsgroup" rule." [Note that X-Ray allows you to have several rules with same signal string.] That's all. Now, when you send a message to address like newsgroup#newsgroup.name# your message will be sent to the server "news-by-email.com," and to your message's headers will be added the string: "Newsgroups: newsgroup.name". When you cross-post, it is necessary to separate the newsgroup names with commas and put the whole string in quotes, otherwise your mail will be rejected by the mail server: "newsgroup#newsgroup1.name,newsgroup2.name#" (Even if your server doesn't reject it, one of the many servers that you mail passes through on its path will. Use the quotes!) Did you notice that the separator character must come after BOTH the signal string ("newsgroup") and the value string? ("newsgroup1.name,newsgroup2.name") X-Ray must be able to recognize where your special header ends and the regular headers resume. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Settings: This tab is the simplest. It is where you set the default local port numbers for SMTP and POP3 servers, and also where you indicate to X-Ray whether or not to run as a service (NT only). The connect timeout is the time, in seconds, that x-ray will wait for the server to respond to a connection attempt. The send-receive timeout is not implemented yet, but will probably be used to abort the connection if the server stops sending or receiving data in the middle of a connection. The timeout values are not used when set to 0--If you have problems with timeouts, just put a zero in the blank and X-Ray will not abort connections. Please note, that your mail client is ALREADY CONNECTED (to X-Ray, but not to the server!), so it will wait forever. Future revisions of X-Ray will be able to filter IMAP email kludges, and the greyed-out IMAP4 option here will be enabled. Collections of settings including servers and kludges can be saved and loaded using the "schemes" button at the bottom of this settings page. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Service: Services are a special class of programs on machines that run Windows NT. If you don't have NT, you may still have programs called "services," but the don't behave in quite the same way; "service" in Windows 95/8 simply refers to an invisible program that runs in the background. In NT, it refers to an invisible program that has special powers and privileges and is managed in a special way. X-Ray can operate as a system service if you are running Windows NT. To use the program as an NT service, it is necessary to make sure that xray.srv is in the same folder (directory) as Xray.exe. Then, if "Use Service" is checked on the "General Settings" tab, the X-Ray program will not itself connect to the port(s), but instead will try and start the X-Ray system service (if it is not started yet). The service can also be stopped and started manually by right clicking on the tray icon and choosing "Service," then "Stop" or "Start." If the service is started--and not stopped manually before shutdown--then it will be started automatically on every system boot. Configuration of the service can be done with the help of Xray.exe. ATTENTION: The service can work ONLY under Windows NT 4.0 (or, maybe, Windows 2000). You need Administrator privileges to install it. Please make sure that you have these libraries: Name size date time version Mfc42.dll 995383 27.04.99 00:00 6.00.8447.0 MSVCRT.DLL 266293 02.02.99 00:00 6.00.8397.0 Usually these libraries are already installed on your system, because many applications use them. If you don't have them installed in your /winnt/system directory, you can find them here: http://xraysoft.cjb.net/ or with the help of FtpSearch: http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/cgi-bin/search?form=advanced&query=mfc42.dll&hits=50 http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/cgi-bin/search?form=advanced&query=msvcrt.dll&hits=50 There are many different versions of the libraries, so the size and date are given for reference only. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Support and Communication: If you want to receive messages about changes in program, send a mail to If you have questions about program use, or comments about program bugs, please write to aliases ;) You can send your gratitude to: Alex Sanyukovitch <- author. Evgeniy Korenkov <- co-author ;-). Program, libraries and data about new versions are accessible here: http://xraysoft.cjb.net/ http://xray.newmail.ru/install/x-ray.zip http://members.tripod.co.uk/xraysoft This documentation was revised by "Tony A.T. Mendina" http://members.home.net/mendina Please send suggestions for changes and updates.