This information is for new customers and users of EmailThatWorks.net, to set up an IMAP client program to read and send email.

You must complete these steps:

1. Know or find out your email address and password.
2. Choose an IMAP client program and install it on your PC.
3. Configure your IMAP client with server-specific details.
4. Test your IMAP client.
5. Test Webmail and set your password.

Know your email address and password

Your email domain administrator will have created a user account for you on the mail server. It uses the same value for your Internet email address and your login username. We refer to it here as user@domain, though it may take one of several forms, such as jdoe@example.com or john.doe@example.com. Enter it exactly as written. Email addresses are not case-sensitive.

You should also have been told an initial password for the account. Passwords are case-sensitive, so be sure to get capital and lowercase letters right.

Choose an IMAP client program.

This may have been decided for you, or you can look over our list of recommended clients for your platform. If there are problems installing it on your PC, you will need to find help locally; we cannot support customer systems or local network connectivity issues.

Configure your IMAP client.

See the client-specific instructions for Thunderbird and Outlook.

Or use these basic settings that apply to all clients:

• Email system type: IMAP or IMAP-4 (rather than POP)

• IMAP server settings:

  • IMAP server hostname: m1.imap-partners.net
    • Don't forget the hyphen (-).
  • Your real name: whatever you like (e.g. John Doe)
  • Your email address: as above (e.g. jdoe@example.com)
    • The program will put this in the From: header on mail you send.
  • Server login username: same as the email address
    • This is called various things, but it's the one that goes with your password.
    • Do not use just the part of your email address to the left of the '@' sign, e.g. jdoe, or our server won't know what domain you're in.
    • If you are asked for your password here, enter it, or wait until it asks for it later.
  • IMAP port number: 143, the default (or 993 if SSL is enabled)
    • Generally when you check the SSL box, this number changes automatically.
  • IMAP Security: SSL or SSLv3.
    • Optional, but strongly recommended. This encrypts your entire session with the mail server, including your password, to protect it from eavesdropping in the network.
    • Do not choose TLS here, or anything else you're not sure about, such as Outlook's "Secure Password Authentication", which has a nice ring to it but won't work here.

• SMTP Settings (outgoing mail)

  • SMTP server hostname: m1.imap-partners.net (same as for IMAP)
  • SMTP port number: 25 (the default)
    • Do not use a different port, with one exception
  • SMTP authentication: yes
    • Optional, but you may not be able to send mail to other domains, ie. relaying without it.
  • SMTP username/password: same as for IMAP
  • SMTP security: TLS or TLSv1 or STARTTLS.
    • This will encrypt your password in transit when you send a message.
    • Do not choose SSL or SSLv3 here; this server does not support that.

• Review any client-specific caveats

  • In particular, setting your client's delete behavior (mark-and-expunge vs. move-to-trash) is important to understand, as is its idea of where to store Sent messages, drafts, and trash.

Test your IMAP client.

1. Send yourself a test message, and see if you can log into the IMAP server and read it.
2. Delete the test message and be sure you know how your client handles deletions: either the mark-and-expunge method or the move-to-trash method.
3. Try to retrive the deleted message from the Trash, or un-set its \Deleted flag if using that mode.
4. Find and try the Expunge, Compact, or Empty Trash function, whatever your client calls it.
5. Be sure a copy of the sent message was saved where you expected it, if configured.

Test Webmail and change your password.

It's a good idea to try logging into Webmail at this point. It can help give you another view of what's really in the server, as a doublecheck. And you should change your password from its initial value. This cannot be done through the IMAP protocol itself (with our server), but must be done over the web.

Be sure to use secure HTTP (HTTP-S) so you don't send your new, strong password over the Internet in the clear.

Edited 14 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2006 04:49PM by jxh.