AOL/Compuserve mail settings for Opera

I'm sure some (perhaps many) will wonder why I still use a Compuserve e-mail address, but I've had it in a personalized form based on my name's initials for close to 25 years now and plan to keep it active for awhile longer (and no, I'm NOT interested in using Gmail or Yahoo or whoever else in the least at this time). Since Opera is my primary browser (has been since v4-something, & I paid to remove the ads), when AOL shut down the classic CIS servers 3 years ago I finally switched from their ancient proprietary mail client to the built-in Opera mail client and have generally liked how it performs.

However, today I'm less content and a bit unclear on why this might happen, but after getting a response from the webmaster for a monthly e-newsletter I receive (or am supposed to receive) about the status of their newsletter broadcasts that had not been received for the past couple of months, I checked the online AOL/Compuserve webmail portal for the first time in many months -- I discovered there were a number of messages there which simply weren't acknowledged or recognized by Opera's mail client. Some had been flagged by AOL as spam and were in their separate folder for those, but others were in the regular mail queue and had not been indexed or downloaded by Opera. Some of these "missing" messages were indeed spam; some were not spam but relatively trivial, although some of the non-spam messages were not at all trivial.

So, I'm left wondering just what in my mail settings for both Opera and for AOL/Compuserve need to be modified to ensure that this doesn't occur again. My working presumption for the moment is that the Opera client doesn't download/index anything which AOL/Compuserve's spam filter "definitively" traps and places into its separate spam folder, just what gets slotted into their normal in-box that may not (yet) be flagged as spam. So, one thing I've already done is to modify the AOL default setting for the spam filter from "medium" to "low", but am guessing that this will allow more spam into the Opera client that I'll have to tag or confirm as spam.

The other major question then is how Opera's mail client feeds information back to AOL regarding what the user has identified as spam after it's been downloaded/indexed, moved to the trash can and then deleted. It's apparent that some sort of feedback mechanism does exist, as the user-designated spam in Opera once trashed and the trash emptied also appears to be deleted from the AOL listings, but is there some transference of what an Opera user has designated as spam to the AOL mailbot so it will recognize those characteristics and apply them to future mails received before Opera's client checks in?

FWIW, the old classic AOL/CIS mail service was based on POP and that's what my current settings in Opera mail still reflect -- I gather from a quick scan of AOL's online mail "help" that I might be able to use IMAP settings, but am not at all certain of that.

Hopefully, one (or more) of the forum wizards can add some clarity and/or advice on this issue, so thanks in advance for whatever advice might be offered. I don't want anyone to give away secrets about how Opera (or AOL) discriminates in the spam filtering which might encourage spammers to try new tricks, but since I rely heavily on e-mail for both business and personal interests I'm very interested in getting things set properly to avoid similar glitches in the future.

Originally posted by jvance:

FWIW, the old classic AOL/CIS mail service was based on POP and that's what my current settings in Opera mail still reflect -- I gather from a quick scan of AOL's online mail "help" that I might be able to use IMAP settings, but am not at all certain of that.

From what I know, for AOL, you should access it via IMAP in a client or http://webmail.aol.com/ if you want to access it via the web page. I didn't know there was still POP access available.

So, if you're using POP, there are a few of things to note.

1. With POP (in any client), only messages from "Inbox" are fetched.

2. In Opera, if it's not seeing new messages then that probably means the uidl file for the account is corrupted. It's in the POP3 folder in the mail folder. There's one for each account. See accounts.ini in the mail folder with a text editor to see what number the account is. Anyway, you can close down Opera and delete the uidl file so Opera creates a new one. Then, things will be fine (noting #1 of course). But if there are still messages on the server that are already in Opera, they'll be fetched again and you must delete the old copies and keep the new.

3. What you do in POP client doesn't sync with the server except when you permanently delete a message in the client. Marking messages as read or as spam as no effect on the messages on the server or in another client that has already fetched the messages.

What you want to do is use IMAP to check your email (if that's possible with a compuserve email). That way, you get all messages from all folders and if you set a spam, trash and sent folder in the IMAP account's properties in Opera, deleting a message will move it to the trash IMAP folder, marking a message as spam will move it to the spam IMAP folder and sending a message will save a copy in the sent IMAP folder. Then, when you goto webmail.aol.com or another client that's using IMAP, everything will be synced, including marking messages as read etc.

Now, if you move a message to the IMAP spam folder, AOL's IMAP server should cause AOL's spam filter to learn. But, that's up to AOL. I'm not sure if they make that work, but that's how it should work if they support it. In cases like this, you don't need to use Opera's built-in spam filter, so you can turn it off for the account in the account's properties (on the IMAP tab). You can also right-click on "All Messages/Spam", goto properties and turn off the built-in filter and turn off "learn from labeled messages" on the options tab. It's up to you. You can use both Opera's spam filter and the AOL's if you want as long as they don't interfere with each other.

Also note that by default, Opera shows spam with your regular messages. But, you can turn that off by clicking on the view button (wrench) on the mail toolbar that's above each message list, going to "show" and unchecking "show spam".

Also note that in addition to Opera's views, there's a you@example.com access point just for the IMAP folder views. You can use those views when you want to drag a message from one IMAP folder to another for example.

I don't know what AOL's IMAP and SMTP settings are supposed to be, but generally, you want:

incoming server: whatever it is. imap.aol.com maybe?
port: 993
TLS: checked
authentication: auto
username: username or email address depending
password: your password

outgoing server: whatever it is. smtp.aol.com maybe?
port: 465
authentication: auto
username: username or email address depending
password: your password

But, if port 993 doesn't work, try port 143. If that doesn't work either, try 143 with tls unchecked.

If port 465 doesn't work, try port 587 or port 25. If those don't work, try port 587 or 25 with tls unchecked.

Now, if you have mail in the POP account that only exists in Opera and is no longer on the server, you can create the IMAP account first, upload those messages to the IMAP account and then when everything is fine, you can delete the POP account in Opera. (When doing major changes, always make a backup of the mail folder while Opera is closed first.)

Once you're using IMAP, things will be a lot better. And, if the account in Opera gets corrupted, you can just delete the account and add it back in or delete the mail folder and add the account back in to get your messages back. With IMAP, fixing problems is way easier.

So, you definitely want to use IMAP. But, if POP still works on the AOL mail servers and you're set on using it, the POP directions above should help you fix the problem.