Novell Linux Desktop 9 Users Handbook

Electronic mail (email) has been available on the Internet since 1972, dating back to a time when the Internet was still called ARPAnet. Email is certainly one of the most widely used applications on the Internet.

To configure an email account you need to know certain things such as the names of the mail servers that you will use to send and receive email. And of course you need to know your email address and a password to access the email account.

If you work for an organization that maintains its own mail servers, your email account will typically be configured for you. If you are using NLD with an email only account through an Internet service provider, there are some things you need to know about to actually configure your account.

Note

The type of email account that you have depends on the network environment that you work in. Home and small office users typically use Internet email accounts hosted by an Internet service provider. In a corporate environment your email account is a corporate account that also provides Internet email capabilities and is controlled by your organization; the organization typically has its own email servers (such as Novell or SUSE Linux mail servers) and system and network administrators that configure desktop computers and servers. In most corporate and institutional environments, your email account will be set up for you on your system. If you are an NLD home user or small office user, the information that you need to configure your Internet email account will be available from your Internet service provider.

The following list provides short descriptions of things you need to know to configure your own Internet email account:

• Email address You need to know your Internet email address. Sometimes you are allowed to select this when you sign up with an Internet service provider. It takes the form of username@company.com. Where the username would be your email account username and the information that follows the "at" (@) sign is the domain name for the Internet service provider that is supplying you with the account.

• Email account password Email is a secure service and so it is password protected. You need to know the password for your email account.

• SMTP server name SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) allows you to send your email. So, you need to know the domain name (friendly name) of your provider's SMTP server. It is typically in a format such as smtp-server.mail.company.com.

• POP3 server name Mail that is sent to you is held on a POP (Post Office Protocol) server, until you download the email to your computer (using your email client). You need to know the POP3 server name, which will be in a format such as pop-server.mail.company.com.

Key Term

SMTP server The server that accepts your email when you send an email. The SMTP server then passes the email on to its final destination.

Key Term

POP3 server The server that acts as the post office and holds your received email until you download them to your computer using your email client.

Note

There is also another mail server type called an IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) server. An IMAP server can take the place of a POP3 server as the post office for your received mail. IMAP allows you to leave mail on the server (even after you access it) and store the mail in folders on the server. This is useful for people on the go who may access their mail from different devices such as computers, handheld personal assistants, or email-ready cell phones. IMAP allows you to see all your email messages you received no matter what device you are using.

It goes without saying that you have to be connected to a corporate network that supports email or have an Internet connection to take advantage of Internet email. One thing that I did not mention that you need is an email client. NLD provides Novell Evolution as the default email client, and it is installed when NLD is installed on your computer. It is Evolution that you will configure for corporate and/or Internet email accounts.