Finding out about your environment

What type of connection do you have?

Read the section on Connection Methods and find out what type of connection you currently have. Remember that TCP/IP connection is better than serial connection. If you have a choice, always choose TCP/IP. If you only have serial connection, consider upgrading to TCP/IP.


Does your host run POP server software?

We have found that software like Eudora-J is the easiest to use for e-mail exchange in Japanese. This software (categorically called "POP client software") requires a piece of software called "POP server" to be installed on the host machine. (The next section discusses POP client in more detail.) Therefore, you need to find out whether your host machine has POP server installed. There are a couple of ways:

Do you have the escape problem?

If you use recommended software like E-tomo or E-tomo/WIN, it will tell you whether your host has this problem. Since you are not going to know this initially, we recommend that you assume that you have this problem and set up software accordingly. If you later find out that you don't, you can possibly use different software with a nicer interface.