Eudora 5.0: A Nice Upgrade, and Free

Qualcomm's Eudora has always been a strong POP3 e-mail package whose extensive filtering capabilities combined with its inexpensive price to attract a ton of users. Now Eudora 5.0 adds new file sharing features and expanded language-checking tools--and you can get it in a free, ad-supported version. I looked at the beta version of the product (which is also available ad-free for $50) and found it a worthy upgrade.

Eudora already had much in its favor: The program easily handles multiple e-mail accounts; has excellent message filtering capabilities; and lets you import account settings and address books from Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Outlook in just three clicks. Eudora can import mail from Netscape Messenger and Microsoft's Outlook 98, Outlook Express, and Outlook 2000. Setting up new accounts is easy: Simply import the settings from another program, or walk through a few simple steps. Eudora also helps prevent exposure to viruses: By default, it won't execute without your approval any code, such as ActiveX or JavaScript, in HTML e-mail messages or attachments.

The late beta of Eudora 5.0 that I tested (the final version is due in mid-September) offers minor usability improvements, as well as Eudora Sharing Protocol--a compelling reason to upgrade. With that feature, a group of users can share a mailing list as well as a file folder that is synchronized on each participant's hard drive. Like a group version of Windows Briefcase, ESP periodically syncs up everyone's shared folder with new or updated files. Setting up an ESP group is straightforward: After you create your folder and mailing list, Eudora sends out invitations to fellow Eudora 5.0 users. When they accept, their copies of Eudora sync with yours, downloading the group list and folder to their systems. You can give group members either full or read-only access; under the latter, files they modify or add to their folder don't sync, and thus don't change the master files.