The purpose of the Status Tab is to provide feedback about what Top Dog is currently doing.

Mode
Top Dog operates in one of three modes: "Power User" "Advanced" or "Lite".

• The purpose of the Lite mode is to provide a simplified interface for those users who have more basic needs and do not want to be bothered by all the options of the more advanced modes.
  
  
• Advanced mode gives more options for the user who wants a little more flexibility.
  
  
• Power User mode is designed for optimum power and flexibility to meet the needs of the more demanding user.

If you want something easy, choose Lite mode.
Most users find Lite mode is more than adequate for their needs.

The Doghouse
Top Dog's Doghouse is a temporary place where bad email are sent.
The Doghouse gives you the chance to review suspicious messages before they are deleted.
You can choose to automatically send certain types of email to the Doghouse according to the Rules you have set.

The Doghouse box shows you the number of messages in Doghouse and provides you with a button to access Doghouse.
If you press the "View Doghouse" button, a window will pop up where you can review the messages in Doghouse.

From this window you can also preview messages by double clicking on them. This will show you the plain text of the email and will not leak any private information or run any scripts.
You can categorize email by selecting them and either right clicking and choosing a category from the menu or using the combobox at the bottom of the window.
After categorizing them you can choose to delete or release the email.
If you choose to release a message it will be downloaded to your email program the next time it checks for mail.

To avoid messages building up over time, Top Dog will automatically delete email left in Doghouse longer than the time specified on the Receiving Tab.
If you do not want Top Dog to delete messages from Doghouse, simply set the time limit to a very large number.

When Doghouse contains email the Top Dog's icon in the system tray will change and it's hint indicates the number of items in Doghouse.
(The system tray is the area of the task bar where system extensions are shown. Usually found on the right hand side of your task bar.)

Incoming Messages
This box shows you if there are any messages waiting for you to read and the progress Top Dog is making in retrieving and processing new messages.
Note: If there are messages available to be read but your email reader is not picking them up it is because Top Dog only deletes these messages when they have been deleted from your server. In other words if you have the "leave mail on server" option on your email program turned on then the messages sitting on your server will also appear here.

If you want Top Dog to check your server for new messages immediately, you can press the "Check for mail now" button.
If you right click on this button you can choose to download from a specific account.
Otherwise, mail will be downloaded every time your email reader requests mail.
You can further control this timing using controls on the POP Client Tab.

Outgoing Messages
The outgoing messages box shows you Top Dog's progress in sending messages, as well as allowing you to change the way a particular message is sent.

"Messages Being Processed" indicates the number of messages that are being processed.
The processing of outgoing messages simply consists of removing any information that Top Dog may have added to the message when it was originally received and updating your whitelists.
This option can be turned off on the Sending Tab.
Top Dog also uses information in sent messages to avoid blocking email from people you want to correspond with.
These options can be controlled via the Sending Tab.

If you have the Enable extended mail sending options option checked on the Sending Tab then Top Dog will hold the message briefly before sending it.
These messages show up as "Messages Being Held".

The purpose of this delay is to allow you time to tell Top Dog how to handle the message before it is sent using the "Send Mail Options..." button (see below) on the Outgoing Messages Tab. The delay has the added advantage that if you have any misgivings about an email you've just sent, you can catch it and delete it before it is sent from Top Dog to the recipient.

If you want to avoid this time delay, you can press the "Send Mail Now" button which will cause any message being held to be sent immediately.

Pressing the "Send Mail Options..." button gives you three options that will apply to the current message only.

• Remove Top Dog Information from message when sending.
  This option removes any information from the outgoing message that Top Dog may have added.
  This only applies to messages you are replying to. In this case, Top Dog may have inserted information into the email on it's way in, which it will now remove on it's way out again.
  You may want to disable this option for a specific email if you want to send this information to someone.
  
  
• Send message anonymously. (This makes it difficult though not impossible to identify the sender.)
  This option removes any reference to your email address from the message.
  This may be a desirable option if you are sending a message to a public mail list or some other place where you don't want your address advertised.
  It may still be possible to identify you as the sender through the headers that your Internet Service Provider adds to the message. However, in general this would involve contacting your ISP and requesting the information. ISPs generally only give out this information if the message you send constitutes abuse in their eyes.
  
  
• Schedule message
  This option allows you to specify the time you want the message to be sent.
  You may want to schedule large messages for a time when network traffic is minimal, or you may have time sensitive information that you want to give out only after a certain time.
  These messages show up as "Scheduled Messages" and are able have their options changed at any time by pressing the "Send Mail Options..." button again.
  Needless to say, you should only use this option if you are sure your computer will be able to access the internet at the scheduled time.

Occasionally, Top Dog may fail to send a message. This may happen if your email server is out of service or if your account information found on the SMTP Account Tab is incorrect.

When Top Dog is unable to send a message two things happen.

• A message is sent back to you informing you that there was a problem.
• The failed message is placed in the retry queue

The message that Top Dog sends back contains a form that allows you to change your SMTP account information. You should check that this information is correct and correct it if it is not.

The number of messages waiting to be retried is indicated by Failed Messages in Retry Queue.
Top Dog will continue to try to send the message periodically according to the time set on the Sending Tab.
You can also tell Top Dog to retry the message immediately by pressing the Retry Failed Messages Now button.