- Origins of www4mail
- www4mail Main Features
- What www4mail Users Need
- The Ongoing Challenges
www4mail Main Features
The www4mail service allows individuals to receive fully functional Web pages without graphics or with HTML links to images/graphics. In addition, users can access online databases and any other Web based information resource just by sending an email to any public server. The server returns a plain text version of the HTML page, if the user so requests, but www4mail is best when used in conjunction with a Web browser working in offline mode.
Presently, a www4mail server is multi-lingual and can return information and even error messages natively in English, French, German, Russian, or Spanish. www4mail users contributed all language modules except English; additional language module contributions are welcome. In addition, www4mail can also help blind Internet users surf the Web through the application of text-to-speech software to read text from the downloaded Web pages.
Access to the www4mail servers may be controlled by parameters such as maximum quota per user, maximum file size, and so on. www4mail also provides resources access control under which certain file types can be denied. Dynamic content filters can scan Web pages for keywords and phrases associated with inappropriate material before delivery to the end user via email. Documents containing these keywords and phrases won't be delivered.
It is possible to configure the server to permit or deny access to some pages based on URLs or to entire sites based on domain names and IP addresses. Also, the servers can be configured to answer only to a closed set of users (a private server), which may be used by organizations or to set up private www4mail services. The configuration of a www4mail server is so flexible that it permits the variation of configuration parameters on a user-by-user or resource-by-resource basis.
The www4mail service, and the software behind it, directly addresses the problem of the "digital divide." www4mail provides vital and equal access to the wealth of Web information to Internet users in countries where full connectivity is not widespread or is cost prohibitive. In addition, www4mail handles cookies, redirections, refresh, frames, and also preserves Web contents, language, style, and so on. Public www4mail servers answer requests from anyone and tend to reply within an hour.
As a matter of fact, all available servers are currently operating at full capacity. On average, these deliver thousands of Web pages each via email, and not only where Internet access is poorest. Most importantly, www4mail is easy to use and extremely reliable.