In addition to POP3 and SMTP, MultiMail Pro supports IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol 4). It also supports reading and posting to Usenet newsgroups using NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol). Email messages and attachments can be up to 2MB in size.

Message headers can be previewed to allow you to select which messages you want to download to your Palm device. It also has a filtering function that allows you to automatically file incoming messages into folders of your choosing. MultiMail Pro supports up to eight different email accounts.

On the downside, MultiMail Pro costs $39.95 and takes up 200K of memory on your Palm device. However, given all the functionality this program provides, it's quite reasonably priced!

Accessing SSL mail servers
One problem you may run into when using any Palm-based email package is the inability of any of them to access mail servers using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) for security. Right now, there's not a single Palm email package I know of that will allow you to do so. Since many businesses are now utilizing SSL, this can be a real problem for the Palm computer user trying to access his or her business email. My company, for one, uses SSL on their email server. So how can I access my business email on my Palm device?

There are a couple of tricks I've discovered that allow me to access my business email on my Palm unit when I travel. Both of these tricks rely on my home PC to act as a relay system between my Palm device and my business' email server.

Auto-forwarding email
The first trick involves using Microsoft Outlook and its Rules Wizard to auto-forward your business email to my Palm device. If you use Outlook as your email package for accessing all your business email, it will have no problem handling SSL email security.

When you're traveling and want to access your business email from your Palm device, first make sure that your home PC system is set up to automatically start up Outlook when it boots up. That way, when your spouse fires up the PC in the morning, Outlook will automatically start running and retrieving any business email for you. The next thing you do is enable a rule that you created using Outlook's Rules Wizard. This simple rule automatically forwards a copy of any business email message you receive to your personal ISP (Internet Service Provider) email account.

Since your personal ISP probably doesn't utilize SSL, you can retrieve any of the messages that are forwarded to it by using ProxiMail on your Palm device. Of course, you won't able to handle attachments, but, if you're like me, this probably won't be an issue for you when you're traveling. The original message, complete with its attachment, will be on your home PC when you return from your business trip.

Performing a remote HotSync
A second trick allows you to retrieve SSL-based email complete with attachments! To do this, you simply utilize a remote HotSync operation along with a PC-based relay system that has an email package like Outlook or Outlook Express running on it.