First and foremost, Wikinewsies need to start by getting their account configured through webmail.
Be warned, though! The interface, whilst secure, uses a certificate for the virtual host. The screenshots below give you the needed information to check the certificate, and add an exception for it in Firefox.
The ‘perfectly normal’ security warning
If you want to check the details, then you may want to look at the following screens.
Once you have added an exception for the certificate, you will be prompted to supply your full email address and password to log into the front panel of the webmail.
Details of the host’s certificate
If you know how certificates work, then you’ll know the important bits to check are the fingerprints!
However, if you add a permanent exception for this certificate, you should not be warned about it again – at least until it expires and is replaced.
Adding an exception
Take note! If you don’t have the tick in “Permanently store this exception” then you will need to reconfirm that you trust the certificate every time you restart your browser and go to your webmail.
Webmail login form. Simples!
The only thing you need to pay attention to here, is that you use your full email address to log in to the webmail. The next displayed screen gives you the control-panel options for webmail. With our Amsterdam hosting, you’re offered three different webmail programs. You can try each of them out, and when you’ve picked one you like, use the [ Enable AutoLoad ] option underneath it to make it the default.
Webmail: Initial screen
Now, your password is just that – yours. The first thing you do when you log in should be to change it. Personally, I recommend going three or four characters beyond where the form scores your password at full strength. To keep your account secure, you should change your password every couple of months.
No screenshot of the password form; if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. But, we’ve got SpamAssassin working to keep mailboxes cleaned out. How aggressively you choose to set that is up to you.
Using Filtering – For SpamAssassin
The above is setting the spam score threshold to 3. That is actually a fairly aggressive setting. Scoop is set with a threshold of 5, which should clear an awful lot of email. And, any mail to scoop which does not contain its email address in the “To:” line will not be forwarded on any more.
You want an autoresponder? Perhaps a ‘vacation’ message? That’s possible too:
Autoresponder: Sorry, I’m dead
Please don’t set up one as tasteless as this!
Now, although we’ve no quota caps on the mail hosting in Amsterdam, it’s always sensible to keep a copy local to you. Here are the relevant settings you’d use for a mail client running on your PC:
Details for manual email client program configuration
Please use the best security settings you can! Usually that’s SSL/TLS. You will find a very large number of ISPs will block outbound connections to port 25 anyway. That’s to stop you, and your fellow subscribers, having zombie spambots running riot on their network.
Enjoy your new, European-based, webmail!
