Retrieving Email from GMail using POP3 Programmatically with C#

I'm writing some new Dragonpay code to interface with UCPB's online banking system. I need to retrieve some information via POP3 protocol. POP3 is a very simple protocol using TCP stream over port 110. In fact, I've written code 15 years ago to retrieve email and read it over the phone using text-to-speech synthesis using Dialogic software. But the challenge this time is I need to get the data from Google's GMail.

Unlike regular POP3, GMail's POP3 uses SSL encryption. My limited knowledge on encryption does not extend to SSL encryption. So I did some research. The UNIX fetchmail program can retrieve GMail POP3 email with SSL encryption. But to run code after retrieving the email would require having to program with Linux and procmail. Since I mainly write in C# .NET, that was more trouble than its worth.

I eventually found my answer at Code Project -- http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/Pop3MailClient.aspx. Downloaded the code and it worked like a charm.

Dragonpay Blog

I wanted my Turnkey Wordpress appliance to maintain 2 separate blogs under the same website. According to my tech guy, the Wordpress content management system can only maintain a blog for 1 Wordpress "page". So its not possible to have the equivalent of 2 blogs under the same installation.

Since the main purpose of my Wordpress appliance is to host the main Dragonpay website, I decided to use an external blog for the Dragonpay Official Blog. For that, I went to my trusted Blogger account. I started a second blog under my same account. It seems that a single account can have an unlimited number of blogs under it. I picked a template; customized the host/domain name to use blog.dragonpay.ph instead of the default dragonpay.blogspot.com; and I was up and blogging in a few minutes!

I just got stumped with one minor hitch. I was wondering why articles I post stay as "scheduled" even if the time has already passed. After some tinkering, I found out that all new blogs are assumed to be based on US Pacific Standard Time. Since Manila is about 16 hours ahead of Pacific Time, there was a lag in the time my scheduled posts are being published. To change the timezone, you just need to go to Settings >> Formatting.

Checks to become extinct in UK by 2018

Here's an interesting piece of news I found -- the UK Payments Council has set a date of Oct 31, 2018 to phase out checks! The Council apparently will be shutting down the inter-bank check clearing house by that date. This is the strongest move I've heard of to push for online payments.

The author brings up an interesting point of what happens to the older generation who just don't want to go online? For e-commerce players, this is good news as this will open up more interest especially with direct bank debit payment options as it doesn't have the disadvantages of credit cards, and yet, have all the advantages of being able to do realtime payments.

Using RCBC Access One Internet Banking

I got my RCBC ATM card yesterday. It took them almost a couple of weeks to release an ATM card. With other banks like PSBank and Landbank, you get your card at the same time you open the account. I guess RCBC does not invest in the card embossing equipment for each branch and would rather have it centrally done.

The ATM card is needed to enroll to RCBC's internet banking, called Access One. Using the online enrollment facility was quite simple. You fill-up all the details and just click the submit button. It then tells you that they will need 1 day to manually verify the details. I kinda preferred Chinabank and BPI's method of just activating it through an ATM machine instead of going through this manual verification process.

In any case, I received an SMS at 8am on my way to work telling me Internet account is ready. So when I got to the office, I tried the id and password I defined to enter the system. The screen area where my account is supposed to appear was blank. I called up the call center and they told me that sometimes, the notification alert is sent too early -- before the account is really ready. That's weird.

Another little snag I observed is that their system sends out an email notification also telling you that your Access One account is ready. But in my case, I also received notifications meant for other people! The RCBC guys have to do a bit of debugging when it comes to notification.

UCPB Online Banking

I opened a basic ATM/Savings account with United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) to try out their online banking facility. The online registration is very simple and user-friendly. You fillup the details online and it gets activated immediately. There is no need to physically go to an ATM to activate your account unlike with BPI and Chinabank. And there is certainly no need to physically print out a form to submit to your branch unlike BDO. There is no fancy SMS-based authentication unlike Standard Chartered.

The most basic ATM account just requires a minimum balance of PHP2,000. You can perform Funds Transfer to non-enrolled third party accounts. As a form of 2-factor authentication, it creates a one-time-use session password everytime you want to perform a funds transfer. This password can either be sent via SMS to your registered mobile number, or to your registered email address.

While the 2-factor authentication does provide an extra level of protection against improper use of the account, I wonder if they will cause as much hassle to legit users as both methods do not really offer any form of guaranteed delivery time. My previous experience with Standard Chartered's SMS-based authentication was not really positive. The delay of receiving the txt message was very significant that my session has already expired by the time it arrived.

Standard Chartered Online Banking Registration

I passed by Standard Chartered Bank in Ortigas last week to know more about their online banking service. While I don't have a bank account with SCB, I do have a credit card with them. And they allow creation of an online account using just your credit card (although, of course, the available features are very limited).

Unlike the other online banking enrollment systems I've encountered, SCB is the only that that relies on SMS as a form of confirmation. During the enrollment, you will be prompted for your mobile phone and it will send some registration code there. Upon receipt of the SMS containing the code, you can proceed with the activation.

Now, I would normally say that's an ingenious way of confirming one's identity. The only problem is the SMS delivery system seem to be very unreliable (or perhaps their SMS gateway is heavily clogged). But from the time I made the request until the time I actually received the SMS, it took more than an hour -- so much so that the time alloted for me to enter the code to continue with my activation has already expired.

I had to manually call their call center for assistance. It was a bit of a pain. And it seems that this mobile confirmation system is also implemented with the regular banking functions like authorizing funds transfer. Again, I laud them for this extra confirmation process, but if its that unreliable, it will just end up being more of a bane than a boon.