WebMail Access to Paclink

Paclink is a program for licensed Amateur Radio operators that allows you to send and receive email using the world-wide Winlink 2000 radio email system (see http://www.winlink.org). Paclink, skipping many important details, is a Winlink mail gateway that can be used with any email client that supports standard POP and SMTP protocols.

Now, you can provide a (local) email web server right on your Paclink machine. This will enable your users to send and receive email through the Winlink system using only a web browser. No need to configure users' email clients - just set up your tactical accounts (which you would have to do in any configuration) and provide your users with the account login information and the URL to your Paclink WebMail server. Setup is done once, only on the Paclink machine. There are no changes to agency computers.

Once you see this in action you'll agree that this is the only way Paclink should be deployed. There's virtually no setup costs other than making your Paclink machine accessible to the served agency.

Benefits

• Easy deployment
• Zero Cost - all software is free
• Simple setup for users - a browser is all that is needed
• Fully usable even if you are unable to connect with agency machines
• Provides a fully functional Apache Web Server and MySQL Database that can be used for other applications

Weaknesses

• No address book
  • Unable to import address book from other email clients
• No storage of incoming, sent or draft messages

Here's What You Need

1. Properly installed and configured Paclink
   1. You should join the Winlink 2000 software forum
      1. Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Winlink_Programs_Group/
   2. And then download the Paclink setup program from the files section
      1. Note: The setup program may have moved to the Winlink web site. If so, go to http://www.winlink.org to download the Paclink install program.
2. WampServer
   1. Go to: http://www.wampserver.com/en/
   2. Click on the link to go to the downloads section
   3. Then, click on the "Download WampServer 2.0" link
      1. Save the install program somewhere you will be able to find it later
3. WebMail Lite
   1. Go to: http://www.afterlogic.com/download/webmail.asp
   2. Click the PHP radio button
   3. Enter your email address (optional)
   4. Press the "Start Downloading" button
      1. Save the archive somewhere you will be able to find it later

WampServer Installation

WampServer is a combined installation of Apache Web Server 2, MySQL 5, and PHP 5 all for Windows. We won't be using the MySQL portion - you can stop the MySQL service from running, but it consumes minimal resources when not actually being used.

Installation Steps

1. Locate and execute the WampServer setup program from the machine you want to use as your Paclink server. Follow the install wizard being sure to check the box to automatically launch WampServer on startup.
2. In most cases, you should use the defaults (these steps assume that you have used the default file system locations).
3. When the installation completes choose the option to run WampServer (or run it from the Start menu if you missed this step).
4. You should now see an icon in the system tray titled "WAMPSERVER" (the hint when you hold the mouse over the icon). It should not have any red portion and may indicate that the server is "Online" or "Offline" at this point. Refer to the help system for assistance in resolving any issues.
5. Configure the PHP system to support WebMail by enabling the PHP IMAP option. Left-click the WampServer tray icon and then select PHP | PHP extensions | php_imap
6. Left-click the WampServer tray icon and choose the "Put Online" menu item. This will start the servers (Apache and MySQL)
7. After a short while the servers will start up and hovering over the tray icon should show that all services are running and that the service is "Online".
8. To test your configuration thus far, select the localhost menu item from the local menu (left-click on tray icon). You should see the WampServer start page showing configuration information.
9. If you have any problems with this installation or see errors when attempting to place the server Online, right-click the WampServer tray icon and choose the Help menu item to open the help system. There's also a WampServer forum at: http://www.wampserver.com/phorum that should be of benefit if you need help getting things set up properly.

WebMail Installation

Installation and Configuration

1. Create a folder called "webmail" under the default WampServer web folder (c:\wamp\www)
2. Using your favorite zip program with the webmail_php.zip archive:
   1. Extract the contents of the "web" folder into the "webmail" folder (c:\wamp\www\webmail)
   2. Extract the "data" folder _and_ its contents into the "webmail" folder (c:\wamp\www\webmail)
   3. You should now have the webmail folder containing the "data" folder (from the install archive) as well as the complete contents of the web folder (from the install archive)
3. In the "webmail" folder, edit (using a text editor - like notepad) the inc_settings_path.php file so that the path to the "data" folder is "c:/wamp/www/webmail/data/". Be sure to save the file when you are done.
4. Start your browser (from the Paclink machine) and browse to http://localhost/webmail/adminpanel
   1. If you get an error or see a red error box on the admin page, review the previous steps and if needed consult the WebMail on-line help (AfterLogic site or browse to http://localhost/webmail/adminpanel/docs/index.php)
5. Log in using mailadm as the user name and 12345 as the password.
   1. You can change this password later if you want
6. In the Administrative Console select WebMail Settings and make the following changes:
   1. Set the site name to "Winlink PacLink WebMail" (or another name of your choosing)
   2. Optionally set Attachment Size Limit (Winlink limits this as well, but it may be a good idea to limit this at the mail server to save your users some time)
   3. Click "Save" to save your changes
7. In the Administrative Console select Login Settings and make the following changes:
   1. Select the "Hide Email Field" option
   2. Enter "winlink.org" as the domain to use
   3. Uncheck "Allow Advanced Login"
   4. Check "Automatically detect and correct if user inputs e-mail instead of account-name"
   5. Click "Save" to save your changes
8. Exit the Administrative Console by clicking the "Exit" item

Using WebMail

From the Paclink machine

1. Browse to http://localhost/webmail/
2. Enter the login name and password for one of the accounts you have previously set up in PacLink
3. Experiment with WebMail for Paclink!

From Some Other Machine

1. Browse to http://[paclink_machine_name_or_ip_address]/webmail/
2. Enter the login name and password for one of the accounts you have previously set up in Paclink
3. Experiment with WebMail for Paclink!

Next Steps

Since your Paclink machine is now a full blown portable Apache web server (with MySQL database) you can implement just about any kind of web application (HTML or PHP) that you care to.

For example, you can include a startup page (a portal) that briefly describes your organization and the service that is being provided, give usage instructions, restrictions, contact information, etc. I'd probably make this my default page for the root web site (index.php in the www folder) so that users could just point their browser to the name or IP address of the machine and then use a link on that page to go to WebMail.