EMAIL SERVER AND SSL/TLS POP FAQ

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1.                  Why does my email client (which used to work) not work anymore?  Most likely your email client does not support ssl/tls pop, or it is not setup (correctly) to use it.

2.                  Why are your forcing everyone to use ssl?  SSL encrypts network traffic.  Without this, network traffic can be intercepted and read by programs available on the internet.  The biggest danger here is that the afore mentioned traffic includes your userid and password every time you check mail using an email client, or log into a computer using ftp or telnet.  For more information see: http://www.acns.fsu.edu/systems/ssh.html.  But please don’t follow their directions for setting up ssl/tls pop if you are using it to check mail on bio.fsu.edu, their directions don’t apply.  Please see http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/eudora.php for instructions for setting up Eudora.

3.                  Which email clients support ssl/tls pop?  For Windows I recommend Eudora 5.2.  See http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/eudora.php for setup instructions.  There are sure to be other clients that also support ssl/tls pop as well.  For Mac OS9 I recommend Eudora 5.11 but you’ll need Keychain to be enabled (see http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/mac-eudora.php for details.  For Mac OS10.2 I recommend Eudora 5.2, see http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/eudora520OSX.php for details.

4.                  How do I configure Eudora to use ssl/tls pop.  See instructions for various OS’s in question 3.

5.                  Does Eudora on Apple OS support ssl/tls pop?  It does but only under a narrow set of conditions.  You must be using Eudora 5.1 or 5.1.1 and OS9 with keychain enabled.  Eudora 5.2 under OS10.x now supports ssl/tls pop.

6.                  What methods can I use to get my email from bio.fsu.edu? 

a.      You can use any email client that supports ssl/tls pop.  This is will work from any internet connection anywhere.

b.      You can log into bio via ssh and use pine.  This will only work from a registered FSU ip address or from static ip addresses given to me in advance.

c.      You can use http://webmail.bio.fsu.edu (via IMP).  This will work from any internet connection, if you have a web browser that supports ssl encryption.  Almost all recent browsers support this.

7.                  What is IMP?  IMP is the Internet Messaging Program. It is written in PHP and provides webmail access to IMAP and POP3 accounts.  On bio it will be used only via imap, which allows for multiple mail folders, including sent-mail.  Please see http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/imp.php for instructions on using IMP.

8.                  Why did you choose IMP?  All the research I did pointed to IMP as the best webmail program currently available at any price.  Also it’s free.  See http://www.horde.org/imp for more information.

9.                  Since IMP uses imap can I set my favorite email client (Eudora, etc) to use imap?  No, imap is only available via IMP.

10.              Where does IMP store my mail?  Incoming mail on bio.fsu.edu is stored in /var/mail.  IMP stores your sent mail and any additional folders you create (and the mail in them) in your home directory on bio.fsu.edu in a folder named “Mail” (/users/<userid>/Mail).

11.              How do I tell IMP to save my sent mail?  Inside IMP click the “Options” button, then click the “Personal Information” link.  Click the “Edit your indentities” link, select “Default Identity” from the drop down list.  Fill in your name, return address and signature if not all ready filled in.  Then put a check in “Save sent mail” and choose “Use Default Value” from the sent mail folder drop down box.  The click the “Change” button.  You may have to scroll down to see the “Change button.

12.              When I try to log onto webmail.bio.fsu.edu I get a message box complaining about an untrusted certificate, why?  I created the certificate without sending it for signing by a recognized signing company (which costs money).  Just click “Yes” in the dialog box and the log on window will appear.  See http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/imp.php for instuctions on adding the certificate to your trusted certificate list.

13.              Will FSU’s webmail (http://webmail.fsu.edu) still work?  No.  FSU’s webmail program (emumail) does not support ssl/tls pop.

14.              But I get a “lock” on my browser when I use FSU’s webmail.  Yes the network traffic between you and webmail.fsu.edu is encrypted, but the pop connection between webmail.fsu.edu and bio.fsu.edu is not.

15.              When I check my mail using Eudora I get an error message complaining about an untrusted certificate.   Why?  Same answer as question 12.  See the last paragraph in http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/eudora.php for instructions on clearing this error.

16.              OK, I followed the instructions in question 15 but it still gives me the error or times out.   How do I fix this?  See answer to question 17.

17.              OK, I cleared the error but now I have to do this everytime I reboot my computer.  How can I fix this?  Change your network buffer size to 8192 as described in http://www.bio.fsu.edu/complabs/eudora.php.