Normal installation

Just click the JNLP link and that's all. WebStart will automatically download SnowMail if a new version exists and start it. Of course, a Java JRE 1.5 or later with WebStart enabled must be installed on your computer. (installation requirements).

Manual installation (only for specialists)

Download the snowmailclient.jar file, put it in some clever path, for example c:/app/snowmail/ on windows or /home/yourname/snowmail on linux.
In the same folder, you can create a launch file to start SnowMail. Give at least 128Mo memory possibility. On windows, a launch script named snowmail.bat this looks like (on a single line, without line breaks !):

start e:\Java\jdk1.5.0_04\bin\javaw.exe 
    -Xmx256m -jar snowmailclient.jar

If you want to specify the working directory, use the option -homeDir (on a single line, without line breaks !):

start C:\java\jdk1.5.0_04\bin\java.exe 
    -Xmx256m -jar snowmailclient.jar     
    -homeDir="C:\documents\stephan"

This allows you to configure several different SnowMail users on the same local computer account through several batch starters or to put your mail data on a memory stick.

First start of SnowMail

Start SnowMail through the JNLP link, a desktop shortcut or through the batch launch script. At the first start, a basic directory structure is created in your home directory. Either in the specified -homeDir or in by default in the current logged user's home. ( /home/user/SnowMail/ on linux or c:/documents and settings/username/SnowMail on Windows).
All the data is ciphered on the disk. This includes the mail contents, the mail accounts, the address book. For this reason, at the first start of SnowMail, you are requested to enter a global passphrase that will be used to protect all of your stored datas. Normally, this will be the only passphrase you will have to remember. The mail accounts passwords are stored using this passphrase. So, give a good passphrase. Later, you can change the password in the File / set storage passphrase menu.

Below of this dialog, you see the cool secure keyboard allowing to enter some characters with the mouse. This is a small but maybe useful trick to avoid to be listen by keyloggers. The keys are placed randomly and only few pixels or each character is drawed alternatively. This reduce also the possibility to identify the entered key with screenshots and mouse locators.

Normal SnowMail starting

Start SnowMail through the JNLP link, a desktop shortcut or through the batch launch script. You will always first be asked for your global passphrase that protects all of your data.

Adding mail accounts

The menu Mail / Mail Accounts or the botton on the toolbar brings the accounts editor to you. In this editor, you can specify all your POP mail accounts. You must specify the POP and SMTP server hostnames and your User and Password data. Later, this accounts editor let you access to the traffic data and let you see your passwords (after asking for the global passphrase).

Installation Requirements

SnowMail is written in Java and require a 1.5 Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run. Actually, the easiest way is to install the Java 5 JRE on your machine: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp or search it from the sun homepage.