Setting up your personal email account
All your emails at Example orga is accessed from your user account at mail.example.org
As a user at Example orga,
you can use your [[account]] to send and receive emails.
All emails you receive will end in your account at mail.example.org.
You can access them using either a web browser or a dedicated email application.
Special strings
NB! This documentation includes the following special strings
used e.g. when generating a documentation website:
organisation: Example orga
mailhost: mail.example.org
domain: example.org
contact_sysadmins: contact sysadmins
Addresses
Your account name is used as your default email address -
i.e. if your account is janedoe
then you have the email address janedoe@example.org.
You can have additional addresses.
Please contact sysadmins if you need that.
All emails sent to you will be received at your personal account,
no matter which of your email addresses was used.
Webmail
You can access your emails via a web browser -
also called a webmail webapp -
at the website https://mail.example.org/.
Using webmail is simpler since you only need to know its web address,
but can be less secure and less efficient than using a real email application.
Application
You can access your emails via a dedication application
installed on your system.
Using a "real" email application requires a bit of setup,
but works faster and more reliable.
It is also less of a burden on the server.
If you have a computer of your own,
please consider using a "real" email application in favor of webmail.
-
Download Mozilla Thunderbird
(!) Other email programs work too, but Mozilla Thunderbird is considered
most reliable, while still both userfriendly and
free.
-
Create an "imap" account
(!) The alternative, pop3 (suggested by default in many applications), is
less flexible - e.g. does not work well concurrently with webmail access to
your emails.
-
Use your provided username and mail.example.org as both
incoming and outgoing server
-
Enable encryption for incoming mail (imap or pop3):
- Enable "TLS" (also called "SSL" or "secure connection")
-
Enable encryption for outgoing mail (smtp):
- Enable "TLS" (also called "SSL" or "secure connection")
- Change port number from the standard 25 to 465 (Mozilla Thunderbird does
this automatically)
- Enable authentication, using same username and password as for your
incoming mail
/!\ Avoid "secure passwords") - it does not work
together with TLS.
Many email applications help you setting up your account using a "wizard".
Unfortunately security setup is often left out from such routines.
If you are guided by a wizard, you therefore afterwards need to manually check
that the configuration produced match the above instructions.
/!\ Some applications stash away security options (TLS, password etc.) below
"advanced settings" or similar.
Special quirks with Apple Mail
The default setting for some versions of Apple Mail is to leave a copy of all
your emails on the server, even when deleted in the application.
If you use Apple Mail, you need to avoid filling up your
[[allowed disk space|quota/intro]] by changing that behaviour:
- Open "Mail"
- Go to Preferences > Accounts > Advanced
- Check "remove copy from server after retrieving a message"
External links
The help texts at riseup.net is generally good, as their system works much like
this. Just remember to use mail.example.org whenever
"mail.riseup.net" is mentioned.
