Tell me about Radkeland Email Services

E-mail (or email, the jury's still out on the correct spelling) is a contraction of Electronic Mail. Have you ever been frustrated by having to change Internet Service Providers, and having to get a new e-mail address? Trying to remember everybody who has your old email address and let them know you've changed? Perhaps you've had your computer crash, and you've lost all of your email (like that killer joke you just wish you could find ... or contact information for an old friend). Maybe spam is getting to you? Maybe you wish you could get at your email from another location?

Lots of folks have had these problems, and we set out to solve them:

Have a truly permanent email address
Let somebody else (the system administrators at Radke Land) worry about backing up your email
Store your email on the server, so you can access it from any computer
Let somebody else (system administrators at Radke Land) worry about managing your spam filtering

As long as someone can carry the Radke Land torch, your e-mail address will never go away. When you get a new Internet Service Provider, you use the same e-mail address you always have. Do you have a special request? Maybe theres this spam newsletter that just won't stop sending you updates. Talk to the friendly family administrators, and we'll just take care of it.

Sound good? Let's get started with:

Understand how Radke Land does email
Get a Radke Land Account
Set up your favorite e-mail client
Have fun!

IMAP? What's that?

There are two protocols for getting your email from a remote server that almost every email client out there understands. The most common is POP (Post Office Protocol), and the other is IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). Radke land only IMAP(s). Read on for why/how.

Ok, let's compare the two protocols. Before we start comparing, however, we'll take a look at what they have in common. When Aunt Martha sends you an email, she's really sending the email to her ISP, with some instructions about what to do with it. Her ISP contacts the MTA (mail tranport agent) for your ISP, and delivers the message. Finally, your MTA (mail transport agent) hands to message off to your MDA (mail delivery agent), and it magically appears when you 'connect' with your mail client.

POP and IMAP describe exactly how the email gets from your ISP to your computer:

POP: Your client connects, all (or sometimes all new) messages are sent to your computer, and you're done
IMAP: Your client connects, all (or sometimes all new) headers (just the title, when received, etc.) are sent to your computer; If you want to read a single message, just that messages is transferred back to you

Enough of the mumbo jumbo, get on with it!

Ok, here's the straight pros and cons comparison:
POP:

Messages are (most frequently) removed from the server after downloading. They are not available from anywhere but the computer you downloaded them from after connecting (this is a simplification) (Con)
For every message, there is only one transfer (Pro)
Messages are not backed up, unless you manage backups from your home system (Con)
Messages must be sorted (folders, etc.) on your home system.

IMAP:

Messages stay on the server, only headers are transferred. Quicker startup time. (Pro)
Sorting your messages (into folders, etc.) is done on the server, though your client makes it look like its on your computer
You can use exactly the same mailbox from as many computers as you like (laptop, desktop, cell phone, etc.) (Pro)
Your mailbox (and how you organize it with folders or whatnot) is accessible from any computer that has internet connectivity. (Pro)
Messages are backed up on a regular basis. Deleted items may be recoverable if needed (Pro)
It is possible to deploy a web client (where you just use your browser to check/manage your email) to use this type of email (this is a simplification) (Pro)

There's one more tweaky detail. We actually use IMAPS (IMAP secure). When you connect to mail.radkeland.org, the initial login is encrypted with TLS, and all information transfers are encrypted. Don't worry too much about the details; the punch line is that your password is never sent 'naked' over the internet, and neither are your emails (betcha never thought about your emails flying around for anybody to read!)

When starting Radke Land, we wanted to choose only one protocol, since switching between the two can be a real mess. Its hoped that the above list shows why we chose IMAP.

Get a Radke Land Account

In order to start using Radke Land email services, you must first get a machine account. Your machine account will uniquely identify you by a Username and Password (login credentials). To get a machine account, just contact the webmaster by email or phone. You'll get your login credentials, and you can follow the next pages to set up your email client.

Note: Your machine account is not the same as your website account! Your website credentials allow you to post comments here, without waiting for approval; they also allow you to access and use other features associated with this website. Your machine account credentials will be used to access your email account, ftp service, and potentially other services.

Let's talk a little bit about security. The Radke Land system administrators have to think about this all of the time. On the good side, we have total control over almost every aspect of the system, and can generally do a good job of keeping the computer safe and sound from crackers. The single thing we don't have control over is how users (like you!) use their login credentials. We work very hard to make sure everything works for you, but that radkeland won't be 'broken' by a cracker that gets ahold of this information. Unfortunately, machine access opens us up to a whole realm of theoretical security concerns. Please keep your username and password safe! Do not share it with you friend/cousin/bob down the street. We're happy to generate as many new credentials as are needed, but if there is an intrusion, the first thing that happens is that your account will be disabled.

In the future, you'll be able to change your password. Please don't grumble when this tool forces you to only choose passwords that look cryptic. If you're used to using passwords like "football", "11/21/69", or "beer", I'm sorry that these won't be allowed. On some days I've seen 10,000 attempts against this server to gain access; let's keep the bad guys out.

Set up your email client

These pages will take me some time to finish. I'll try to get pictures of each step involved with configuring each kind of mail client to use Radke Land email services. If your client is not listed here, please either contribute pictures or ask me to try to get a quick guide to setting it up.

Before we get started with specific clients, here's my (purely opinion!) run down of available email clients. If the client can be freely downloaded, the title will provide a link to where it can be acquired.

Thunderbird: I just discovered the Thunderbird email client (Jan 2007)), and I'm in love! This client is quick, easy to use, and it just works.
Opera M2: I used Opera for years, and it works well with POP servers. The IMAP implementation seemed strange to me, so I switched to Thunderbird
Evolution: Evolution is gorgeous. Unfortunately, the Microsoft Windows version is still in development. If you run GNU/Linux, this should probably be your first choice. If you use windows, you can still dig around and get it working. The version I played with in January, 2007 wasn't so stable.
Microsoft Outlook Express: I have no experience with this client. I expect it will work fine.
Microsoft Outlook (Various versions): I use Outlook 2002 at work daily (we're locked in by some infrastructure choices), and it works well. Setting up the IMAP for use with Radke Land was equally painless.
Eudora: I have no experince with Eudroa. It does have an excellent (historical) reputation, however. Eudora features three modes, with various costs, check out the link above for more details.

What? I didn't list your email client? Well, wikipedia has 30+ different email clients listed. Don't worry about it! In the end, the setup for all of the clients is essentially identical.

Generic email client setup

This is the information you need to set up any client. If you want to skip ahead to your specific client (and I have a walkthrough for it written) go ahead; otherwise, read on for everything you need to know.

Note: You will probably get a warning that says something like "This certificate has not been signed by a certificate authority" when you first connect to the mail server. Read this explanation for background on this message.

Some clients make this fact obscure, but you will be configuring two email servers. Your incoming server is where you'll be getting your email from, and your outgoing server is where you send email to. Each client has different vocabularies, so please contribute by noting here other names for these setup options.

The incoming and outgoing mail servers are both mail.radkeland.org.

Incoming server configuration:
Server type: IMAP
Encryption: SSL Encryption
Authentication type: Password (Do not use "secure authentication", as the login is already SSL encrypted)
Username: The password discussed on this page.
Password: You get this the same place as your Username

Sending server configuration:
Server type: SMTP
Encryption: TLS Encryption
Server requires authentication: Yes!
Username and password as in your incoming server configuration
Authentication type: Either "Plain" or "Login"

Other Options:
Synchronize Mail Locally: Makes it so your local (on your computer) copy of the mailbox information stays current with what the server has. This may be a bit slower when synchronizing, but is very useful if you have a slow connection. Note that IMAP can be a bit strange with this. Say you keep local copies of all of your email, and move something from your inbox to another folder. Then, you travel with your laptop, and find that the message is still in your inbox; this happens because it's in your local (on that computer) inbox, and this is where the confusion happens. Take a look at the folder you thought you put the message in ... if it's there, just delete it from your inbox.
Save Password: This is incredibly convenient. If you change your machine account password, it will need to be updated in your email client. Also, if you computer is compromized (cracked, stolen) you should change your machine account password.
Check for new messages every ___ minutes: How often does your computer check with mail.radkeland.org for new mail? Somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes is what I usually use. If you're waiting for an email, most clients have a 'get mail' command, which synchronizes immediately.

Thunderbird Client Setup

The Thunderbird email client is a relative newcomer with some ancient (in internet timescales) roots. It grew out of the Mozilla project which was launched by Netscape (does anybody remember that browser?) in 1998. Configuration is pretty straightforward, just follow the screenshots. Note that until you permanently aceept mail.radkeland.org's certificate (details here), you will be prompted whenever you start the client.

Ok, on with the screenshots. In configuration one, name the account whatever you like. You can fill out the Email Address: and Reply-to Address: to be whatever you like. This may be particularly useful if you are using an email alias that you happen to like better than the default name you were given when you got an account here at Radke Land. Finally, note that your outgoing server may not be available until you've configured one (screenshots four and five).
Thunderbird Configuration One

Screenshot two has settings critical to getting your client working correctly (top half), and some general preferences (bottom half). Note that even though the checkbox for "use secure authentication" is not checked, your authentication is encrypted via the SSL link created before you actually log in (in otherwords, your username and password are never sent in the clear).
Thunderbird Configuration Two

None of the settings in figure three can break your email access, but it's worth talking about them, since there are peculiarities with IMAP. If you want a local (fast) copy of all of your email messages, put a checkmark in both of the top boxes. This will make it so that each email is only downloaded once. The reason they are not checked in this screenshot is that I use the same account from at least two different computers (on a daily basis). When I move messages from the client on one computer, the changes won't necessarily show up on the other if I've got the messages cached. There's no particularly easy way around this issue, since the Radke Land email server doesn't care where your client is connecting from. The lesson: Be confused, but not troubled.
Thunderbird Configuration Three

Thunderbird doesn't hide that you need to configure ingoing and outgoing mail servers. In fact, it makes it much easier to let you use a reliable outgoing server for all of your emails. This is the screen where you would add an ougoing server.
Thunderbird Configuration Four

As you can see from this final screenshot, setting up your outgoing server is just plain simple.
Thunderbird Configuration Five

Enjoy your use of Thunderbird, one of the nicest email clients I've used! And as always, if you have any question, feel free to email me.

Outlook Express Client Setup

Outlook Express is Microsoft's "default" e-mail client, and has been included with many versions of windows. It's also the most obscure in terms of the configuration screens aligning with what the settings really are. If your screens look pretty much like these, you should be up and running (provided your specific information is filled in correctly). Outlook Express does not appear to allow you to permanently accept a certificate! If you get a message that says something like "The server you are connecting to is using a security certificate that could not be verified ...", see this link about unsigned certificates.

You can start a new account with Tools:Accounts:Add:Mail. I don't have screenshots for the wizard - these are for the account settings after they've been added.

Ok, on with the screenshots. The first box is the name that will show up in the navigation outline (normally on the left pane in Outlook Express). I has no effect on how Outlook works with Radke Land's servers. User information boxes determine what is attached to your headers. Sorry, plain english: When you look at a received e-mail, you see something like: From: Joshua Radke . You can just use your machine username, or an e-mail alias that has been configured for you (all users should have a FirstName.Lastname alias).
Configuration screen one

Open the servers tab. This screenshot is fairly self explanatory. If you were configuring a different account (say you have an Earthlink account, but weren't able to send emails when you weren't on an earthlink dialup, you could configure the outgoing server to use mail.radkeland.org (and leave the incoming server what it was). This may take some fiddling, but you won't have to worry abou those pesky "unable to relay" messages. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just ignore the babbling.
Configuration screen two

If you click the "Settings button" on the server tab, you get to Configuration screen three. This is where you would change information in the strange case I mentioned in the previous paragraph. If you decided to ignore the babbling, keep it up!
Configuration screen three

The connection tab really has nothing to do with making Outlook work with mail.radkeland.org. Here's my setup (with a broadband connection, on a home LAN)
Configuration screen four

The security tab (I think) can also be left to the default values. Like figure five.
Configuration screen five

The advanced tab is important. In particular, make sure you're using SSL (both ways), and that the IMAP port is 993.
Configuration screen six

That's it, you're done! Well, actually, one Radke Land member had to reboot their OS *boggle* to get the connection to work. I take no responsibility over the sillinesses of operating systems.

Email Aliases

What?!? You gave me a username of robertan, nobody calls me Roberta, it's Bobbi!

Whoa ... breathe. Your username is used to identify you with the Radke Land servers, and I promise, they're not judgemental! You can have (within reason) as many aliases to your username as you like! For example, my username on the Radke Land servers is josh. If I went out job hunting, it might be prudent to have a stuffier email address, like Joshua.Radke@radkeland.org. The process of setting this up is trivially easy, so I encourage you to ask for as many aliases as you think you'd like (please don't get carried away!).

You can then configure your email client (the option will be named something like "Reply To:", or "Display As:") to show your alias. Email to any of your aliases will go to the same place as emails to your machine username.

For now, is is unlikely that there will be any 'clashes' for aliases. If you really want an alias that someone already has configured, I'll hook you up with the person who claimed it first, and perhaps you two can work it out. I suppose I'll have to work out a dispute system someday, but let's just play nice for now.