====== Accessing your SDF Email ======

//**under construction**//

//There are several ways to get and send email at SDF, but the different options depend on your membership(s) here. This guide is intended to describe the options simply and clearly, by membership level//

===== Membership Levels and Email Access =====

Here are the membership levels that matter for email (see [[http://sdf.org/?join|SDF join page]] for more details):

  * User
    * Pre-validated User: This is before you are "validated" by either sending a nominal amount of money to SDF(enter "validate" at shell) or by finding a MetaARPA member to validate you
    * Validated User/ARPA
  * VPM/VHOST*
  * MetaARPA

*VHOST includes VPM

The differences of the above accounts, besides the cost, is that VPM, VHOST and MetaARPA are annual memberships, so require continuing support of SDF, while User and ARPA are lifetime memberships, and only require payment once.

===== Ways to Get and Send Email at SDF =====

By default your E-mail Address is your SDF username, which by default works with a couple of domain names (you can also choose the domain you would like to use from the list of SDF domain names).

So if your username is "coffee" you can try sending yourself a mail with your existing E-mail account to:

//coffee@sdf.lonestar.org// or //coffee@freeshell.org//. Then you can try to read it.

Ways to read and send your SDF mail include the following:

==== Email Programs from Shell //(Memberships: User or ARPA or MetaARPA)// ====

You can always access your SDF mail account through any of several email programs installed on the server. All of these emails access your "mail spool", where your email is put by the mail server.

  * //mutt// is available even to **Pre-validated Users**. Just type "mutt" at the command prompt. Here's a mutt tutorial
  * Other programs, including //pine, alpine, mailx and rmail// are available to any **Validated User or ARPA or MetaARPA**. //Pine and Alpine// are related programs (Pine is older, Alpine is newer) that are both frequently considered to be the easiest shell email programs to use, with on-screen help and a menu interface. Enter "pine" or "alpine" respectively to run either of these. You can find more info on how to use them at [[http://sdf.org/?tutorials/e-mail-beginners|E-mail Beginners]].(For users at the **User** level, to learn about your limited allowed space and the significance of the mail spool, see the difference between using mutt and alpine for Users vs ARPA]])==== Webmail //(Memberships: Validated User or ARPA or MetaARPA)// ====There are two webmail interfaces:
    * The old SquirrelMail, accessible for Validated Users or above, accessible from the "webmail" link at the top of the [[/|SDF home page]]
    * Roundcube, a slicker experience, accessible by MetaARPA users from the link on the [[http://ma.sdf.org|metaaaray home page]]==== Client Email: POP3 and IMAP //(Memberships: User or ARPA or VPM or VHOST or MetaARPA)// ====This section and the next include a small distinction. While **User or ARPA can read mail on their own machines or devices**, these memberships **don't allow you to send email** from your account **through SDF**.**You can, however, use your ISP to send mail from your SDF account**//read//=== Reading Incoming email in your computer or device client if you are User or ARPA or VPM or VHOST or MetaARPA ===There are two ways to read your incoming email using a client mail program. You can choose either, except if you are using virtual mailboxes with a VPM membership, in which case your only option is POP3:
    * **POP3** fetches a copy of your mail from the mail spool to your local machine, and optionally deletes it from the spool. POP3 works with most any email program, and you can keep the messages on the server to be able to access mail equally from multiple machine/mail programs. However if you are accessing a POP3 server from multiple machines, having to deal with synchronizing and multiple copies and deleting mail from the server can be a problem;
    * **IMAP** accesses mail on the server and lets you organize it into folders on the server. IMAP keeps your mail centrally located and organized so it is all equally accessible from multiple mail programs and devices at the same time.=== Setting up to read mail with POP3 ===(from the [[http://sdf.org/?faq?EMAIL?03|POP3/IMAP email faq]])The mail server to connect to for POP3 is "wm.sdf.org"The rest of the POP3 settings should be:
    * Your security should be set to None
    * Your Port should be 110
    * Your user name depends on the account:
      * for your main User/ARPA/metaARPA account, it should be the same as your login name, example: "user1234"
      * If you are accessing mail for a //VPM// account, your username should be the full email address with your VPM/VHOST domain name, ex: "user5678@vhost1234.org"
    * your password should be either your account password (for your main User/ARPA/metaARPA account), or the password you set for the VPM email address using "mkvpm"=== Setting up to read mail with IMAP ===The rest of the IMAP settings should be:
    * Your security should be set to None
    * Your Port should be 110
    * Your user name depends on the account:
      * for your main User/ARPA/metaARPA account, it should be the same as your login === Sending Mail from your client if you are User or ARPA ======= Sending Mail from your client through SDF//(Memberships: VPM/VHOST or MetaARPA)// ======== Advanced Mail Topics ==== $Id: email_at_sdf.html,v 1.1 2017/03/19 04:41:59 peteyboy Exp peteyboy $