Webmail Evaluation - Spring 2000 - Evaluation Matrix
(Grey columns have been eliminated.)
| Required |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Desktop Standards
Run on current desktop standards
(low-end, probably v4 browsers)
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
Incomplete |
Yes |
Protocol Standards
Support Internet standards: SMTP,
IMAP
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes/No |
No |
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
Remote Access
Provide remote access to users' inboxes
on existing mail servers on campus
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
No |
|
Yes |
|
No |
Attachments
Support for MIME attachments
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
ELM Interoperability
Interoperability with ELM mailbox
structure
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
Vendor support
Technical support and/or ongoing
development
|
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
|
|
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
| Nice to have |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LDAP |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
|
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
POP3 |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
|
|
No |
|
|
No |
|
Yes |
Mail Folders
Provide remote access to users'
additional mail folders on existing mail servers on
campus
|
Yes |
Yes |
YesProblems with University of Washington's mail folders are being worked on. |
|
|
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
Password encryption
Password encryption should be possible in
some configurations but not required
|
YesLocal through SSL, potentially Kerberos 4 w/ Kerberos patches to University of Washington's C-client IMAP client libraries |
YesLocal through SSL, potentially Kerberos 4 w/ Kerberos patches to University of Washington's C-client IMAP client libraries |
YesLocal through SSL |
|
|
|
YesLocal through SSL |
|
|
YesLocal through SSL, potentially Kerberos 4 w/ Kerberos patches to University of Washington's C-client IMAP client libraries |
|
No |
Filters |
No |
No |
No |
|
|
|
No |
|
|
No |
|
No |
Search
Message search (search for string within
messages)
|
No |
No |
No |
|
|
|
No |
|
|
No |
|
Yes |
Spell checker |
Yes - Ispell |
Yes - Aspell |
No |
|
|
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes - Ispell |
|
Yes |
Address Book |
YesMySQL per account logon |
YesMySQL per account logon |
Yes |
|
|
|
Yes |
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
Customization
Ability to customize user interface with
Penn/school look and feel
|
Yes |
Yes |
No |
|
|
|
Somewhat |
|
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
Code
Source code available for local
modifications
|
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yes |
|
No |
Kerberos Support |
Potentially works but untested |
Potentially works but untested |
No |
|
|
|
No |
|
|
Yes |
|
No |
| Other Information |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Cost |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
|
|
|
$0 |
|
|
$0 |
|
$249 / 100 accounts |
| Server Platforms |
Linux, Tru64, Solaris/SunOS, etc. UNIX |
Linux, Tru64, Solaris/SunOS, etc. UNIX |
Windows NT4, Solaris, Tru64 Unix, Linux, *BSD |
|
WinNT, Unix, Macintosh |
|
Linux, Tru64, Solaris/SunOS, etc. UNIX, NT |
|
|
Linux, Tru64, Solaris/SunOS, etc. UNIX |
|
Solaris 2.6, WinNT4.0, (HP-UX, AIX, Tru64, and IRIX under development). |
Comments
AnyEmail
Couldn't find evidence of support for IMAP.
EMU3
For the current version3.0 of EMU3 for WinNT there is no IMAP capability.
They are planning on having that feature available in a year or so, but
IMAP is available on the UNIX side.
An annual technical support contract is available and renewable.
It entails unlimited email
inquiries, up to 4 phone call inquiries, and all EMUmail Software Upgrades.
Although SAS has had very bad experiences with EMU support. The company just disappeared on them and then resurfaced recently. This doesn't give us a lot of
confidence in the product.
GLWebMail
Appears to be proprietary e-mail product, not standards-based.
Cannot find evidence of IMAP or functionality with other mail
servers
IMHO
Sessions are managed by cookies. Requires Roxen Web server, IMAP compliant server.
Supports Virtual Server. IMAP, maybe XML-RPC authorization. Because of it's
dependence on the Roxen Web server which is not widely used, we are eliminating this product.
IMP
Currently sessions are managed by cookies; the next version promises to be managed from MySQL. Requires horde, C-client from University of Washington, Ispell, IMAP compliant server, Apache, LDAP, MySQL, OpenSSL, Rsaref, Javascript.
No Virtual Server support.
Netscape/iPlanet
Netscape's iPlanet Messenger Express webmail product only works
with Netscape's Messaging Server, thus not compatible with existing
mail servers
OCSemail
SINE
While SINE looks promising, development on this product is not expected to be
completed until July 2000. It is strongly recommended that this product be
included in the next round of evaluations.
SilkyMail
Developed by the same developer of IMP but sponsored by the Cyrusoft Co who also offers Mulberry. Site technical support is available for $500 with an education discount of 20%. Promises to be a better product than IMP and is scheduled to be released 4th quarter, 2000.
After numerous exchanges with the developers and promises that a product is on the way, we have not been able to get a copy of this software to test and therefore it must be removed from our list.
TWIG
Currently sessions are managed from MySQL. Requires C-client from University of Washington, Aspell, IMAP compliant server, Apache, LDAP, MySQL, OpenSSL, Rsaref, Javascript, PHP.
Supports Virtual Server. IMAP, SQL, LDAP, NNTP authorization.
Extra features include: news reader, schedule, to-do, bookmarks.
WebEdge
Runs on it's own proprietary Web engine. Seems designed for commerical ISP's with optional scrolling banner ads.
WorldPilot
It runs on Zope, which in turn requires you to have a thread capable Python
installation. Python is a high-level scripting language similar to Perl.
It currently dosen't like Uwash impad folders. They are actively working on
getting it to work nicely with UWash imapd. It was designed around the Cyrus Imap server, which uses a slightly different foldering scheme.
Group Calendaring, Group Notes, Group ToDos and Group Address Books.
All items created (except for email, which is not stored on the WP server) are stored as Zope
Objects. Zope acts like a database for anything created with it. There is no need for an external database
like MySQL.
Zope is its own webserver: this greatly simplifies installation. A
typical installation for a
World Pilot + Zope takes about 10min. There is no manual configuration necessary.
Zope is itself a web-based management system- all configuration and
management of WP is done via Zope and therefore done via http.
Zope provides a strong authentication/user management system which
WorldPilot uses.
|
