ePrompter Free eMail Notification Software



Frequently Asked Questions Please note that *ePrompter* has experienced a number of problems with certain email types such as Gmail and Hotmail over the last several years, and as a result, we have totally re-written 2 million lines of code to correct these problems. We are in the process of beta testing ePrompter version 3.0, and hope to have a fully tested version 3.0 available by early-2015. What exactly does ePrompter do? Where can I get a link for the latest version of ePrompter? Is there a forum for ePrompter? Someone at the ePrompter forum mentioned doing a total uninstall to correct a problem they were having with their ePrompter. Can you provide the instructions for doing such a total uninstall, as well as doing the subsequent re-install? I just encountered a "Runtime Error" which caused ePrompter to crash and I can't get it to work. Is there a remedy for this? Is there a way that ePrompter can be made to check more than its limit of 16 accounts? How can I change the length of the interval between retrieval updates? All of a sudden, I have been getting this strange "mail slot" icon flashing in the taskbar. The same icon shows up next to the "Tell a Friend" banner on the main screen. What is this icon for and how do I make it go away? When scanning through the list of messages in an account on ePrompter, is there an easier way to choose which ones I want to delete than by having to click on the deletion box for each individual message? What does it mean when I have an * in the lower left hand corner of one of the mailboxes on my ePrompter screen? What does it mean when I have the word "Outbox" in one of the mailboxes on my ePrompter screen? I am unable to send a message and have a "?" in front of that message in my outbox? I see that you offer the option of using a generic server if I don't know my accounts SMTP server name. Why should I even bother to find out what my SMTP server name is if I can just use the generic server that you offer. How do I find out what version of ePrompter I am using? All of a sudden my ePrompter stopped retrieving one of my email types, which it had been checking perfectly before. What should I do? Why is my POP3 account not working with ePrompter? Can I change the notification sound to something other than the two choices ePrompter offers? Why am I only able to read the headers for my messages? When I try to read the messages I get nothing. How do I find out what my POP3 mail server address is? How do I delete an old account from ePrompter? How do I password protect my email account on ePrompter? How do I delete a message I no longer want to keep? How can I avoid having the Yahoo/Hotmail messages flagged as "Read" so they still appear as "New" when I check my mail on the email website? What should I do if ePrompter appears to be "frozen" and I am unable to exit the program? How can I change the order of my accounts on the ePrompter page? How do I set up additional accounts on ePrompter? I just accidentally deleted all of my messages for one of my email accounts. This is a total disaster! Is there anything I can do? I don't want to show my email address on the ePrompter screen. Is there a way to use a different name or word to identify my account? My ePrompter says I'm always offline, even though I am online. What should I do? Is there a way to retrieve attachments using ePrompter? Is there a way to print out the messages I receive through ePrompter? Are there any plans for ePrompter to read full HTML messages? My ePrompter keeps showing that I have 50 unread messages for one of my accounts, but I know that my account has at least twice as many messages as that. Why is this happening? When ePrompter retrieves my mail from my email account, does it remove that mail from email account's inbox? Does ePrompter work with firewalls and/or proxies? Do you plan to support IMAP on ePrompter? Why doesn't my MSN Instant Message email notification program notify me anymore when I have new messages in my Hotmail account? This function has not been working since I started using ePrompter. How can I remove the ePrompter screensaver from being my screensaver? When I choose certain colors, like pink for my dot color, it shows up gray in the task bar. Why does this happen? What languages can I use ePrompter with? Which Yahoo country codes does ePrompter support? What is the ePrompter outbox for? I noticed the word "status" on the drop down menu for one of my mailboxes and I was wondering what it was for. It was grayed out, so when I clicked on it, nothing happened. I am using ePrompter with Windows XP and for whatever reason the ePrompter task tray icon has simply disappeared and I don’t know what to do. All of a sudden my main ePrompter screen has disappeared. The ePrompter icon is visible in the task bar showing the number of new messages I have, but no matter what I try, I cannot get the main screen to open up. What should I do? Is there a backup file for ePrompter? If so, can you transfer it from one computer to another? If all else fails, is there one trouble shooting recommendation that you would suggest? What is the trick to setting up an SBC Yahoo account? I have tried the normal procedure and it just doesn't work. ePrompter tried to connect to www.ep1020.com using HTTP port. This is a concern, what with all the spyware and similar stuff. But I would like to think there could be a valid reason for it. Any ideas why? Does it matter if my email account's message list is set in descending order or ascending order? My password is a combination of letters, numbers and symbols and ePrompter appears to have a problem with it. Why is this? Does ePrompter work with authentication like SPA (secure password authentication)? Can I use ePrompter to read the text of my HTML mail and my POP3 mail messages feeling at least fairly comfortable that the senders cannot determine if my address is active? When trying to start ePrompter - I am getting a Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library popup window, and ePrompter won't work. What should I do? Is there a portable version of ePrompter, or at least a simple method for transferring ePrompter with all my current settings from my current computer to a different computer that does not already have ePrompter? I just changed the password for my email account. How do I revise my password for this account on ePrompter? Can't find your answer? Please try going to the ePrompter Forum at: http://forum.eprompter.com *Q. What exactly does ePrompter* do? A. The ePrompter email notification program automatically and simultaneously checks and retrieves your email messages from up to sixteen password protected email accounts such as AIM, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, Yahoo Beta, Earthlink, Excite, Juno, Lycos, Mail.com, Mindspring, MSN, MSN Live Mail, MyWay, Netscape, POP3, Rediffmail, SBC Yahoo, USA.net and hundreds of other email domains. Once new messages have been retrieved, the ePrompter email notification program notifies you which accounts have new messages and how many new messages you have in each account. The ePrompter email notification program‘s notification features include a unique rotating tray icon, the main ePrompter screen, audio alerts for new messages, and a choice of five unique screensavers that let you know at a glance the number of new messages in each account. And with a simple click on the account of your choice, you can read, delete or respond to any of your messages. ePrompter gives you the ability to delete unwanted spam or suspicious looking mail - the kind that might contain viruses - without having to launch your email program or go to your web mail's site. ePrompter also lets you compose and send original messages, as well as forward or reply to your retrieved messages, again without having to launch your email program. ePrompter also features an address book. ePrompter is so easy to set up and use, you'll have it up and running in minutes. Top of Page Q. Where can I get a link for the latest version of ePrompter? The latest download is available at: http://download.eprompter.com/public/epsetup.exe Get the download and install it right over your current ePrompter - say yes or okay to all the questions and all your settings and addresses will be retained. BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE EXITED YOUR CURRENT EPROMPTER BEFORE YOU DO THE DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL. Top of Page Q. Is there a forum for ePrompter? A. Yes, there is an ePrompter forum which is populated by some of the more avid ePrompter users. It can be found at: http://forum.eprompter.com Top of Page Q. Someone at the ePrompter forum mentioned doing a total uninstall to correct a problem they were having with their ePrompter. Can you provide the instructions for doing such a total uninstall, as well as doing the subsequent re-install? A. The directions for a total uninstall, which only takes a couple minutes, are listed below. But first we would suggest that you save all of your ePrompter account settings by transferring them to a floppy (or use any method of saving information that you are comfortable with) - your account settings can be found in your Windows folder in a file labeled "eprompter.ini" or in some cases simply labeled "eprompter". This holds everything but your ePrompter address book, which you'll find in the ePrompter folder under Program Files in a file labeled "2998.dat” (You won't find this file if you haven't used the address book). Be sure to save both of these files. Next do a total uninstall and then download the ePrompter email notification program again. I have listed the directions below. = = = TOTAL UNINSTALL DIRECTIONS = = = FIRST, go to the main screen and click "Menu"; click on "Help" and click "Uninstall ePrompter" and complete the uninstall by clicking "okay" in the right places. If you no longer have the ePrompter screen available, simply move on to the next step. NEXT, go and click your computer's general "start" button, go to "Find", go to "files or folders" - put "eprompter" in the "named" box, and click "Find Now". When the results come up, click the "edit" tab in the "Find: All Files" box and click "Select All" and then hit the "delete" button on your keyboard. Say "Okay" to the question about wanting to remove all files. NEXT, go to "start" go to "Find", go to "files or folders" - put "epsetup" in the "named" box, and click "Find Now". When the results come up, click the "edit" tab in the "Find: All Files" box and click "Select All" and then hit the "delete" button on your keyboard. Say "Okay" to the question about wanting to remove all files. Please make sure that this "epsetup" files do not include a similarly named file, "epsetup.eif" which is used for Epson. NEXT - and this only has to be done if you have used the ePrompter screensaver - go to "start" go to "Find", go to "files or folders" - put "epsaver" in the "named" box, and click "Find Now". When the results come up, click the "edit" tab in the "Find: All Files" box and click "Select All" and then hit the "delete" button on your keyboard. Say "Okay" to the question about wanting to remove all files. You should be clean now. Time to reboot your computer** and then go to: http://download.eprompter.com/public/epsetup.exe and download ePrompter again. After you have completed the ePrompter installation, go through the set up wizard up to the point where it asks you to set up an email account and hit cancel and then exit out of ePrompter. At this point, transfer the files on the floppy (or wherever you stored it) back onto your computer, simply putting the files in the same folders that you took them from in the first place. The eprompter.ini file goes in the Windows folder and the 2998.dat goes in the ePrompter folder. Hopefully at this point everything will be in working order - but if it isn't, try rebooting* one more time. Top of Page Q. I just encountered a "Runtime Error" which caused ePrompter to crash and I can't get it to work. Is there a remedy for this?* The remedy for this problem is to do a total uninstall, for which the directions are available in the answer just above this FAQ: http://www.eprompter.com/faqs.htm#q3 Top of Page Q. Is there a way that ePrompter can be made to check more than its limit of 16 accounts? A: Thanks to the efforts of the ePrompter Forum moderators and a few creative forum members, there is now a workaround that allows you to use ePrompter for an unlimited number of accounts. It should be noted that you will still only be able to see up to 16 accounts on a single ePrompter screen at any one time, but this workaround will allow you to track an unlimited number of email accounts on a single computer. To get more information, go to the following link: http://www.eprompter.com/forum/index.php?showforum=15 BE FOREWARNED: The only downside to using this program is that it will require that you have an understanding of how to rename files in your Windows directory (if you don't know, then find someone who does). Top of Page Q. How can I change the length of the interval between retrieval updates? A: To set or change the retrieval intervals for the ePrompter email notification program, go to the main ePrompter screen; click on "Menu"; click on "Setup"; then click on "schedule"; and then select the interval you want between updates. Top of Page Q. All of a sudden, I have been getting this strange "mail slot" icon flashing in the taskbar. The same icon shows up next to the "Tell a Friend" banner on the main screen. What is this icon for and how do I make it go away? A. That is just an internal message sent out from the ePrompter team. Click on it and it will show you the message that was sent out by the ePrompter Team using the internal ePrompter messaging system. Mark it as read and it will stop the flashing of the mail slot icon in your task bar. Top of Page Q. When scanning through the list of messages in an account on ePrompter, is there an easier way to choose which ones I want to delete than by having to click on the deletion box for each individual message? A. Actually, when you are on the ePrompter page that lists the messages for an account, you can mark a message for deletion by simply hitting the "x" on your keyboard. If you keep hitting the "x" key, it will continue to put an "x" in each subsequent box. If you want to keep a message, you can hit the space bar to simply move to the next message. Other keyboard shortcuts are more garden variety, such as to "select all" of a message, you can hit ctrl/A; to copy a message you can hit ctrl/C; to print a message you can hit ctrl/P; to send a message, you can hit ctrl/S; to paste a message you can hit ctrl/V; to cut a message, you can hit ctrl/X; and there are probably others we are not even aware of. Top of Page *Q. What does it mean when I have an in the lower left hand corner of one of the mailboxes on your ePrompter screen?** A. If you have an * in the lower left hand corner of one of the mailboxes on your ePrompter screen, this means that there was a problem retrieving or sending mail from that mailbox's email account. If you click on the * itself you will bring up a screen which will indicate the appropriate actions for you to take, which includes checking the respective website for that account to make sure it is working properly. If the account works directly through the account website, but has never worked with ePrompter before, it is recommended that you verify the email address and password that you have entered into ePrompter. One other thing to note - for a password to work with ePrompter, it must use only letters and/or numbers - if it uses any non-alphanumerical symbols, it will not work with ePrompter. Top of Page Q. What does it mean when the word "Outbox" is in one of the mailboxes on my ePrompter screen? A. That simply means that you have a message in your outbox that is waiting to be sent. However, if you notice that the word "Outbox" has remained in your mailbox for more than one ePrompter update, there may be a problem with the transmission of that message. To find out if there is a problem, click on the word "Outbox". This will take you to your outbox. If you find a "?" in front of your message, then there has been a problem with the sending of that message. (See the next answer). Top of Page Q. I am unable to send a message and have a "?" in front of that message in my outbox? A. If you find a "?" in front of a message in your outbox, then there has been a problem with the sending of that message. The first thing to do is double click on the message and check to make sure that the address or addresses are correct, and then click on the "send" button to send that message again. If it fails again, go to the "TO:" box of your outgoing message and try removing any extraneous information besides the actual email address itself. In other words, if the "TO" box has "Craig" <comment@comment.com> listed, remove everything but the <comment@comment.com>, and try sending the message again. If that fails, there may be a problem with either your email service or with ePrompter. Please check your email service. Top of Page Q. I see you that you offer the option of using a generic server if I don't know my accounts SMTP server name. Why should I even bother to find out what my SMTP server name is if I can just use the generic server that you offer. A. That's a good question. Basically we are offering the generic server to make the SMTP set up a little easier for you. You will note that the generic server option is offered “with some restrictions”. In order to thwart the unscrupulous use of the ePrompter email notification program's generic server as a vehicle for the delivery of spam, we are forced to put limitations on the number of messages that you can send at the same time, as well as limitations on the number of messages that can be sent over a certain period of time. That is the only catch to using the generic server. If you use the SMTP server for your respective POP3 account, you will not be bound by the above-mentioned restrictions. Top of Page Q. How do I find out what version of ePrompter I am using? A. To find out which version you have, go to the ePrompter screen menu and click the "Help" tab, and then click "About ePrompter". It will show you what version you have in the first line. Top of Page Q. All of a sudden my ePrompter stopped retrieving one of my email types, which it had been checking perfectly before. What should I do? A. The first thing you should do is to go to the respective email service website and make sure that you can retrieve your messages there, because if you can't get them directly from an email service's website, the ePrompter email notification program won't be able to retrieve them either. If that checks out, then you should make sure that you have our latest version, 2.0. To get this new version, just go to www.eprompter.com, get the download and install it right over your current version - say yes or okay to all the questions and all your settings will be retained. Make sure that your current ePrompter is not running when you do the new install. Top of Page Q. Why is my POP3 account not working with ePrompter? A. Your POP3 account should work with the ePrompter email notification program – all you should need is the correct server address for the POP3. Your POP3 account may not be working because ePrompter was not able to correctly identify the pop server for your email address. Try going to the individual ePrompter box for the problematic account, clicking "options" and then click "setup" which will take you to the "Account Options" box. In the lower right hand corner you will see the pop server box - make sure that the correct pop server is in that box. If that doesn't work, please try entering your full email address in the login box right above the POP3 Server. Also, it should be noted that there are also certain "proprietary" POP3s types that do not work with ePrompter - hopefully your POP3 is not in this category. Top of Page Q. Can I change the notification sound to something other than the two choices ePrompter offers? A. We are currently in the process of making it possible for people to use any WAV file they want for message alerts for release in the not too distant future. Top of Page Q. Why am I only able to read the headers for my messages? When I try to read the messages I get nothing. A. You may have accidentally hit the "Read mail headers only" option in the account set up. To check this out, go to the main ePrompter screen; go to the account that you are only getting the subject line and in the right corner of that specific account's box, click on the word "setup". You will get a page entitled "Account Options" and in the upper right hand corner you will see "Mail Options" and a box in front of the words "Read mail headers only" - this box should be unchecked - if it was checked, then that was your problem. Top of Page Q. How do I find out what my POP3 mail server address is? A. The POP3 mail server address is commonly found in your email program's Edit, View or Tools menu, under Preferences or Options (Outlook, Netscape, Eudora). If you cannot find your mail server address, contact your ISP; ask your company's network administrator; or visit your email provider's Web site and look for help in configuring your email software. Examples of server addresses: mail.myhost.com pop.mail.myhost.com Top of Page Q. How do I delete an old account from ePrompter? A. As far as removing that old account - not a problem. When ePrompter is not in its updating mode, just put your cursor over the account you want to remove and right click on your mouse, click on delete, click on "yes" and it is gonzo!!! Then just just put your cursor over the empty space where the account used to be and right click on your mouse, click on "new" and set up a new account. Top of Page Q. How do I password protect my email account on ePrompter? A. You can protect your message information from potentially snooping eyes by going to the box of the individual ePrompter account, clicking "setup" which will take you to the "Account Options" box. Halfway down the left side of this ox you will see the option "Protect account info with a password" which you can enable to protect your account from snoops. Top of Page Q. How do I delete a message I no longer want to keep? A. To delete a message simply check the "delete" box at the bottom of the page that the individual message is on, or mark the "delete" box next to the message on the "headers" page. Be sure to close the page with the "OK" button at the bottom right (not with the "X" close at top right), to ensure that the update works properly and deletes the marked items. The selected messages will be completely deleted at the next ePrompter update. By completely, I mean it will never be seen again on ePrompter, your email provider’s website, or anywhere else – once you delete it, it’s gone. Top of Page Q. How can I avoid having the Yahoo/Hotmail messages flagged as "Read" so they still appear as "New" when I check my mail on the email website? A. From your account setup screen, check the "Headers Only" option. Then you will still receive email notification along with date/from/subject information but the body of the message will not be retrieved. Yahoo/Hotmail will keep the message flagged as "New". Top of Page Q. What should I do if ePrompter appears to be "frozen" and I am unable to exit the program? A. First, let us apologize for any inconvenience this "freeze" may have caused you. Anyway, if ePrompter seems to be "frozen", it is most likely stuck in the "Updating" mode. If so, just click on "Menu" on the main ePrompter screen; next hover the cursor over "Help" and then click "Quick Fix" on the option list to reset the mail for any email accounts that were updating at the time. Now ePrompter should work normally again. If this doesn't do the trick, simply press the "Ctrl" and "Alt" keys simultaneously with one hand, and at the same time press the "Delete" key with the other - this will bring up the "Close Program" window. Find and highlight ePrompter on the "Close Program" list and then click the "End Task" key. This will exit you from ePrompter. Simply double click the ePrompter icon to start the program again - your addresses and passwords will remain stored in the ePrompter during this procedure - and ePrompter will be up and running again. Top of Page Q. How can I change the order of my accounts on the ePrompter page? A. To change the order of your accounts on the ePrompter page, simply put your cursor over the account that you wish to move and hold down a left click on your mouse and drag the account to the position you want it to be in. If there is already another account in that position, it will automatically swap positions with the account that you just moved. You can do this repeatedly until you have all the accounts in the order that you want. Top of Page Q. How do I set up additional accounts on ePrompter? A. To set up additional accounts on the ePrompter email notification program, go to the ePrompter menu; go to "Setup"; scroll down to and click on "new" and the new account wizard will walk you through the new account set up procedure. Top of Page Q. I just accidentally deleted all of my messages for one of my email accounts. This is a total disaster! Is there anything I can do? A. If it's a web based account, you should be able to recover deleted messages for that web based account by just going to your Web based account’s website and following these general directions: click on "folders"; click on "Trash Can"; mark all of the messages that you want to put back in your inbox; look for a box that says "Move to" with a list of choices and select "inbox" and then click on "Move to" - this should recover the messages that were inadvertently deleted. If it's an AOL account, just go to "Recently Deleted Messages", which is found under "Mail" or "Mail Center; go to "edit"; click "Select All"; and then click "Keep As New" at the bottom of the "Recently Deleted Messages" box, and you should be back in business. If it's a POP3 account, I'm afraid I don't know what to tell you, but good luck. Top of Page Q. I don't want to show my email address on the ePrompter screen. Is there a way to use a different name or word to identify my account? A. Yes. Go to the main ePrompter screen; go to the respective account and in the right corner of that account's box, click on the word "setup". Under "Display Options" there is a box entitled "A short descriptive title for displays" in which you can put the name of your choice to identify your email account. You have the option to use a different identifier for each account. Top of Page Q. My ePrompter says I'm always offline, even though I am online. What should I do? A. Try going to the ePrompter menu, click on "setup", click on "wizard", then click "next" and you should be on the page that says "How do you connect to the internet?" Now select the top choice - "Always connected" and see if that gets you up and running. Top of Page Q. Is there a way to retrieve attachments using ePrompter? A. No there is not, and we are sorry but there are no plans to have it do so in the immediate future. However, we plan to add a feature that will show whether your message has an attachment, as well as tell you the size of the attachment and the message itself. We also plan to add a button that will take you to your email client or your actual email service's inbox in the event you want to retrieve or send attachments. Top of Page Q. Is there a way to print out the messages I receive through ePrompter? A. To print out a message, simply place the cursor over the respective message; right click; click on “print”; click “OK” and it will print out. Top of Page Q. Are there any plans for ePrompter to read full HTML messages? A. No. we are sorry but there are no plans to have the ePrompter email notification program read full HTML messages in the immediate future. We are constantly working to improve ePrompter's ability to read HTML mail - doing our best to strip extraneous HTML code from messages. Part of our decision to not pursue HTML is based on the fact that there are a number of negatives associated with that, such as a user's susceptibility to viruses. Top of Page Q. My ePrompter keeps showing that I have 50 unread messages for one of my accounts, but I know that my account has at least twice as many messages as that. Why is this happening? A. The ePrompter email notification program only reads the first page of messages for any web based email service. Web based email services such as Hotmail and Yahoo allow a user to set the number of messages (within certain limits) that he or she wants shown per page. In your case, your web based email service has been set at a 50 messages per page limit, therefore that is the number of messages that ePrompter will retrieve. It is important to note that the first page of each web based email service will always show the most recent mail, and therefore, only the most recent messages will be reflected on ePrompter. BTW, as far as we can ascertain, you cannot change the per page limit for AOL - it appears to be set at a 25 messages per page limit. Top of Page Q. When ePrompter retrieves my mail from my email account, does it remove that mail from email account's inbox? A. ePrompter leaves the retrieved messages in the respective inbox(es), whether it's AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, POP3, etc. - the only way you can remove the messages from the respective inbox(es) with ePrompter is by using the ePrompter "delete" function. Top of Page Q. Does ePrompter work with firewalls and/or proxies? A. The latest version of the ePrompter email notification has a feature that works with standard firewalls and proxy servers. A lot really depends on how harsh the restrictions of your particular situation are. We will continue to work on improving ePrompter's ability to work with an even wider range of firewall and proxy server restrictions in the future. Top of Page Q. Do you plan to support IMAP on ePrompter? A. Hopefully we will get to IMAP in the not too distant future. Top of Page Q. Why doesn't my MSN Instant Message email notification program notify me anymore when I have new messages in my Hotmail account? This function has not been working since I started using ePrompter. A. With Hotmail, if you choose to have the ePrompter email notification retrieve Hotmail messages in their entirety, messages that are retrieved will no longer be marked as "new" which will interrupt the MSN Instant Message email notification program. The MSN Instant Message email notification program can be used in conjunction with ePrompter if you choose to have ePrompter read only the mail headers of Hotmail messages. These messages will continue to be marked as "new" in the respective Hotmail inbox allowing the MSN Instant Message email notification program to perform its function. Top of Page Q. How can I remove the ePrompter screensaver from being my screensaver? A. You can remove ePrompter as your screensaver by doing the following: 1) Go to your desktop 2) Put your cursor in an "open space" and right click. 3) Click "properties" and the "display properties " box will appear 4) Click on the "screensaver" tab; 5) In the middle of the "screensaver" box will be a scroll box titled "Screen Saver" 6) Select the screensaver option you want and click the "apply" button in the bottom right corner of the window; and 7) Click "OK" which will return you to the ePrompter "options" box, where you 8) Click "OK" again. You have now changed your screensaver. Top of Page Q. When I choose certain colors, like pink for my dot color, it shows up gray in the task bar. Why does this happen? A. Not all of the colors available through the ePrompter email notification program are compatible with certain computer systems, which may result in colors appearing different than indicated on ePrompter. Top of Page Q. What languages can I use ePrompter with? A. If you have an email type that allows you to select a language, then the ePrompter email notification program will be able to display that language, with the primary exception being languages that use Asian signage. We will be working on the inclusion of languages that use Asian signage in the near future. Top of Page Q. Which Yahoo country codes does ePrompter support? A. The ePrompter email notification program supports 17 out of the 21 Yahoo country codes, with the exception of China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Top of Page Q. What is the ePrompter outbox for? A. The outbox comes into play when there is mail waiting to be sent at the next update. This mail resides in the outbox until the next ePrompter update when it is transmitted and the outbox is cleared. However, in certain instances there may be a problem with the transmission of a message, in which case that message will stay in the outbox with a "?" in front of it. If you find a "?" in front of a message, the first thing to do is double click on the message and check to make sure that the address or addresses are correct, and then click on the "send" button to send that message again. If it fails again, there may be a problem with your email service or, shudder to think, but there might be a problem with ePrompter. Top of Page Q. I noticed the word "status" on the drop down menu for one of my mailboxes and I was wondering what it was for. It was grayed out, so when I clicked on it, nothing happened. A. The word "status" stays grayed out unless you are having a problem retrieving mail from that mailbox's email account. Chances are that you would notice a problem with that account because of the presence of an * in the lower left hand corner of its mailbox before you were to notice that the word status was no longer grayed out. In either event, by clicking on the word "status" when it is not grayed out or by clicking on the asterisk, you will bring up a screen which will indicate the appropriate actions for you to take, which includes checking the respective website for that account to make sure it is working properly. If the account works directly through the account website, but has never worked with the ePrompter email notification program before, it is recommended that you verify the email address and password that you have entered into ePrompter. Top of Page Q. I am using ePrompter with Windows XP and for whatever reason the ePrompter task tray icon has simply disappeared and I don’t know what to do. A. With XP the icons for inactive programs are hidden unless you tell XP to do otherwise. This can be corrected by going to XP settings (which can be accessed by right clicking on the taskbar) and putting a check in the "hide inactive icons" box. Then go to "customize" and set ePrompter to "Always Show". If that doesn't seem to be the answer, then you should take a look at the following links and see if either helps: http://www.tech-pro.co.uk/howto_013.html OR http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSystray.htm Top of Page Q. All of a sudden my main ePrompter screen has disappeared. The ePrompter icon is visible in the task bar showing the number of new messages I have, but no matter what I try, I cannot get the main screen to open up. What should I do? A. As far as the missing screen goes, unfortunately, it is a known problem for which we just can't figure out the cause. The following solution should take care of it. (It looks tedious, but it is really quite easy and it sure beats having to input all of your individual account information all over again.): 1. Exit ePrompter and go to your Windows folder; 2. Locate the eprompter.ini file (which in some cases is simply labeled "eprompter") and 3. Rename the file. I would suggest that you simply add a "1" (one) to the end of the file name so that it reads either "eprompter.ini1" or "eprompter1". 4. Close the Windows folder. 5. Open ePrompter again - the main screen should show up again without any of your accounts listed - and it will prompt you to go through the setup wizard. 6. Simply hit "Next" on the first screen of the setup wizard; 7. Answer the question "How do you connect to the Internet?" on the second screen and 8. Hit "Next" and 9. Hit "Cancel" on the next screen and 10. Hit "Exit" on the next screen. 11. Now exit ePrompter once more. 12. Open the Windows folder again and 13. Find "eprompter". You should now see two "eprompter" entries - one should have the "1" (one) at the end of it and the other shouldn't 14. Delete the "eprompter" entry that does not have the "1" and 15. Then rename the "eprompter" entry with the "1" one, so that it simply reads either "eprompter.ini" or "eprompter". 16. Open ePrompter once again and this time the main screen should open with all of your account information should appear. Top of Page Q. Is there a backup file for ePrompter? If so, can you transfer it from one computer to another? A. Yes there is. The config file - eprompter.ini - is found in your Windows folder. It contains all of the pertinent information that you need for backup, except the address book, which is in a file labeled 2998.dat, which you'll find in the ePrompter folder under Program Files. Top of Page Q. If all else fails, is there one trouble shooting recommendation that you would suggest? A. Yes, when all else fails, we generally recommend trying a total uninstall, which only takes a couple minutes and then download the ePrompter email notification program again. Here are the directions for doing a total uninstall: FIRST, go to the main screen and click "Menu"; click on "Help" and click "Uninstall ePrompter" and complete the uninstall by clicking "okay" in the right places. If you no longer have the ePrompter screen available, simply move on to the next step. NEXT, go and click your computer's general "start" button, go to "Find", go to "files or folders" - put "eprompter" in the "named" box, and click "Find Now". When the results come up, click the "edit" tab in the "Find: All Files" box and click "Select All" and then hit the "delete" button on your keyboard. Say "Okay" to the question about wanting to remove all files. NEXT, go to "start" go to "Find", go to "files or folders" - put "epsetup" in the "named" box, and click "Find Now". When the results come up, click the "edit" tab in the "Find: All Files" box and click "Select All" and then hit the "delete" button on your keyboard. Say "Okay" to the question about wanting to remove all files. NEXT - and this only has to be done if you have used the ePrompter screensaver - go to "start" go to "Find", go to "files or folders" - put "epsaver" in the "named" box, and click "Find Now". When the results come up, click the "edit" tab in the "Find: All Files" box and click "Select All" and then hit the "delete" button on your keyboard. Say "Okay" to the question about wanting to remove all files. You should be clean now. Time to reboot your computer and then go to: http://download.eprompter.com/public/epsetup.exe and download ePrompter again and hopefully everything will be in working order - but if it isn't, try rebooting one more time. Top of Page Q. What is the trick to setting up an SBC Yahoo account? I have tried the normal procedure and it just doesn't work. A. Sorry for the inconvenience. We will be automating this in our next update, but for the time being, here are the directions to set up your SBC Yahoo account on ePrompter: 1. Enter your SBC Yahoo email address in the account setup wizard and click "Next". 2. On the next screen, manually put your SBC Yahoo email address in the "Login" box in place of your SBC Yahoo login name. 3. Leave the email type as POP3; 4. Enter your password (twice) and hit "Next", and you will see "New Account was Created." 5. Next, determine what the pop server name is for your SBC Yahoo account. Here is a page which gives the correct POP servers to use, depending on whether the account is @sbcglobal, @prodigy, etc: http://support.sbcglobal.net/article.php?item=287 6. Next, go to the main ePrompter screen; 7. Go to the individual box for the SBC Yahoo account that you just set up, click "options" and then click "setup" which will take you to the "Account Options" box. 8. In the lower right hand corner you will see the blank POP3 server box - enter the respective SBC Yahoo pop server in this box. Leave the SMTP box blank so it defaults to the generic SMTP provided by ePrompter. 9. Click "Done" and your SBC Yahoo account should be up and running on your ePrompter. Top of Page Q. ePrompter tried to connect to www.ep1020.com using HTTP port. This is a concern, what with all the spyware and similar stuff. But I would like to think there could be a valid reason for it. Any ideas why? A. The ePrompter email notification program will periodically connect with the ePrompter application on a user's computer (using www.ep1020.com) to track the number of active users, transfer automatic software updates, and send messages through the communications button. But that's all. We are totally committed to maintaining your privacy. We do not ask for or collect personal information. The identity information you provide when downloading and installing is encrypted and stored only on your own computer and will never be shared with anyone. This information is actually mentioned in the ePrompter End User License Agreement (EULA), but does anybody really read the EULA's? = = = OUR PRIVACY STATEMENT ePrompter is committed to bringing users relevant and useful information without asking for or collecting personally identifiable information (name, address, phone number, email address, etc.) from visitors to our website or users of our ePrompter email retrieval and notification software. Your private information is encrypted and stored only on your own computer and will never be shared with anyone else! = = = Top of Page Q. Does it matter if my email account's message list is set in descending order or ascending order? A. Excellent question! In order for the ePrompter email notification program to work effectively, it is imperative that your email account is set up to display your messages with the date in descending order - meaning that the most recent message should be at the top of the message list. Fortunately, almost all of the email services supported by ePrompter set their message lists in descending order as the default, so chances are you don't have to do anything. And in the cases of AOL and POP3 accounts, ePrompter has been programmed so that they do not have to be adjusted for this. However, if you have an account other than these two that is currently set to display your messages in ascending order, you will have to go to your email account's web page and modify the appropriate setting to change it to the descending order option. With most accounts, you will be able to make this change by selecting "descending" in the options/preferences section. In other cases, such as Hotmail, all you have to do is go to your website's message page and simply click the word "date" immediately above your messages, so that the arrow is pointing downward. Top of Page Q. My password is a combination of letters, numbers and symbols and ePrompter appears to have a problem with it. Why is this? A. For a password to work with ePrompter, it must use only letters and/or numbers - if it uses any non-alphanumerical symbols, it will not work with ePrompter. Top of Page Q. Does ePrompter work with authentication like SPA (secure password authentication? A. Yes. Go to the box of the individual ePrompter account, clicking "options" and then click "setup" which will take you to the "Account Options" page. In the lower right hand corner you will see the "SMTP server" box, which you can click on. If you had not previously put your SMTP server in the SMTP server slot, put it in and then look for a box followed by the words "Use Authentication" - check this box, and boxes will appear where you can put in your authentication login name and password. Once you have done that, click "Done" and hopefully you will be able to send. If you had previously put the SMTP, you should see the "Use Authentication" box when you click the "SMTP server" box. Then simply follow the instructions in the above paragraph. Top of Page Q. Can I use ePrompter to read the text of my html mail and my pop3 mail messages feeling at least fairly comfortable that the senders cannot determine if my address is active? A. Yes, you should feel confident that the ePrompter email notification program does not work in any way, shape or form with full HTML, and there are no plans to have it do so in the immediate future. Further, ePrompter does not process any embedded scripts, such as those found in HTML messages, therefore it cannot activate a virus which is passed within an embedded script. ePrompter does not download attached files and therefore ePrompter cannot spread viruses which are passed through attached files. Additionally, ePrompter does not contain the kind of address book through which a virus can spread itself to a user's contact list. A major part of our decision to not pursue full HTML is based on a number of the negatives associated with it, such as a user's susceptibility to viruses. And think about it - who do you know that sends out HTML email - mostly spammers and maybe some newsletters. Top of Page Q. When trying to start ePrompter - I am getting a Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library popup window, and ePrompter won't work. What should I do? A. We are sorry you have had this problem which seems to randomly affect ePrompter users. The suggested solution is to do a total uninstall, which can be found at the following FAQ: http://www.eprompter.com/faqs.htm#q3 Top of Page Q. Is there a portable version of ePrompter, or at least a simple method for transferring ePrompter with all my current settings from my current computer to a different computer that does not already have ePrompter? A. Yes there is a way to do this. You can fit the ePrompter exe and all of your settings on a on a floppy, memory stick, pen drive, USB drive, or any method of saving information that you are comfortable with. First put a copy of the ePrompter exe on your memory device of choice. Next, go to the Windows folder and copy the eprompter.ini file (which may be simply listed as "eprompter") to your memory device of choice. The eprompter.ini file contains all of the pertinent account information that you need for backup, except the address book, which is in a file labeled 2998.dat, which you'll find in the ePrompter folder under Program Files. Copy this file to your memory device of choice. When you transfer these files to another computer, simply download the eprompter exe to the new computer; then put the files in the same folders that you took them from in the first place. The eprompter.ini file goes in the Windows folder and the 2998.dat goes in the ePrompter folder. And you should be good to go. Top of Page Q. I just changed the password for my email account. How do I revise my password for this account on ePrompter? A. If you have changed your email account's password, simply go to the box of the individual ePrompter account, click "options" and then click "setup" which will take you to the "Account Options" box. In the lower right hand corner you will see the "Login Password" boxes - put your new password in both boxes, click "Done" and you should be up and running. Top of Page Home \| About \| Download \| Reviews \| FAQs \| Business \| Support © Copyright 2000-2014 ePrompter®. All Rights Reserved. A product of Tiburon Technology, Inc.