Set Up e-mail

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Setting Up E-mail

Domains hosted at Daily Data will have the following servers for mail, regardless of what third party client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) you are using. Basic instructions follow. When you see example.com in the instructions below, type in your actual domain name, not example.com. So, if you are setting up an account for dailydata.net, you would replace example.com with dailydata.net in the following instructions.

Quick and Dirty

Use the web based Squirrelmail (see Using_SquirrelMail) or Postfix (see Using Postfix User Tools). In general, accounts created after November 15, 2008 will use Postfix (on our second mailserver). If you are unsure which one your account uses, please contact us.

or

If you want to set up your e-mail on your local computer, perform the following steps:

  1. Open your e-mail program
  2. Create a new e-mail account
  3. Select IMAP
  4. For incoming server, type imap@example.com replacing example.com' with your actual domain name (the part after the at sign (@) in your e-mail account).
  5. Enter your login name (sometimes called username) as your domain name, and underscore, and your e-mail account name. Thus, if your account were jane@example.com, your username is example.com_jane.
  6. Enter the password given to you when you received your e-mail account.
  7. Set up your outgoing e-mail server as smtp@example.com replacing example.com' with your actual domain name (the part after the at sign (@) in your e-mail account).
  8. Choose My server requires authentication and tell it to use the username and password that are the same as the incoming server.

For more information about specific email clients, check out the wiki articles about them.

Incoming email

Choose either POP or IMAP. See bottom of this page for a definition of these two terms.

  • POP - pop.example.com
  • IMAP - imap.example.com

Outgoing mail

  • Server Name: smtp.example.com
  • Requires authentication. Use same authentication as with your incoming mail server.

User Name and e-mail accounts

This confuses many people. Your user name may actually be different from your e-mail account - either way, it will be provided to you by Daily Data. Since our server hosts many different domains, this allows different domains to have the same user (i.e. jane@example.com and jane@example.net are two different accounts), your user name must contain your domain information in it and will be in one of two formats - yourdomain.com_yourusername (where yourusername is the part of your email address which comes before the @ sign) or yourusername@yourdomainname.com.

If you are still unsure about your username, please contact Daily Data.

Password

Your password is assigned when your account is created, either by Daily Data personnel or your Domain Administrator at your company. You are encouraged to change your password on a regular basis. You can change your password by going to http://client.dailydata.net/ and selecting the User Administration link. Log in with your log in name and your email password. Many other e-mail options, including an auto responder and spam settings can be changed here also.

Troubleshooting

First, feel free to call us at any time. You should not need to become an e-mail expert to use our service. However, if you want to do some troubleshooting yourself, the following may help.

===What's the difference between IMAP and POP? 

   IMAP works by keeping mail on the server. POP works by downloading your mail to your computer.

===How do I know if I normally use IMAP or POP to check my mail? 

   The vast majority of users access their mail using POP. So if you don't know which you use, you can safely assume it's POP.

==What does this mean to me?

If you usually use POP to check mail, then when you use the SquirrelMail interface you'll only have access to new mail -- none of your folders will be available. Likewise, if you create folders via SquirrelMail and move mail to them, that mail will not be available the next time you check your mail via POP. 

   Also, IMAP will insert a message into your INBOX to keep track of certain things. This message will only be visible when you check your mail using POP. Despite what the message says, it is safe to delete it.

   If you normally use IMAP to check your mail, then all of your folders will be accessible using the Webmail interface.


Incoming and outgoing e-mail are two different things. There are three scenarios discussed below

I can not send or receive e-mail

  1. Disable any firewalls on your computer. Try to receive mail. If you succeed, modify your firewall to allow ports 110 (POP) and 143 (IMAP) through and try again.
  2. Disable any anti-virus programs. Try to receive mail. If you succeed, contact your anti-virus vendor for assistance in allowing ports 110 and 143 through.
  3. In your e-mail program, tell it not to use TLS or Encryption. Try to receive mail.
  4. Check that your incoming server is correct. If it is, change it to mail.dailydata.net. Try to receive mail. If it works, contact Daily Data and tell them that the mail alias for your domain is not set up.
  5. Open a command prompt. Under Windows, click on Start, then Run, type in cmd and press the Ok button. On OSX, go to Applications, then Utilities, then open Terminal. Under Linux, open Utilities, then open Terminal (it may be under a different menu, depending upon your distribution).
    1. You will have a blank window.
    2. Test that your computer can find our server. Type ping mail.dailydata.net and press the Enter (Return) key. It should return a message like PING mail.dailydata.net (206.123.69.100). The only thing important is the number (206.123.69.100). If you do not get that number, contact your Systems Administrator and tell them "Our DNS cannot resolve mail.dailydata.net."
    3. Test that your computer can contact our server for POP e-mail. Type telnet mail.dailydata.net 110. You should get a response ending in the line +OK Hello there.. If you don't, make sure your firewall is disabled, and turn off any anti-virus programs that may be running. If you do get +OK Hello there., type quit and press then enter key to exit.
    4. Test that your computer can contact our server for IMAP e-mail. Type telnet mail.dailydata.net 143. You should get a response with the text Courier-IMAP ready. in it. If you don't, make sure your firewall is disabled, and turn off any anti-virus programs that may be running. If you do get Courier-IMAP ready., press and hold the control key and, with it still down, hit the right square bracket key (]). A new prompt, telnet> shows up, and just type quit and press then enter key to exit.
  6. If all the above worked but you still cannot receive mail, please contact Daily Data for assistance resolving this issue.
  7. if you can now receive mail, but still cannot send mail, read the following.

I can receive e-mail, but can not send e-mail

  1. Disable any firewalls on your computer. Try to send mail. If you succeed, modify your firewall to allow port 25 (SMTP) through.
  2. Disable any anti-virus programs and try to send mail. If you succeed, modify your anti-virus to allow port 25 through.
  3. Change your outgoing mail server to mail.dailydata.net, and turn off anything that says Encryption and/or TLS. Try to send and e-mail.
  4. Open a command prompt. Under Windows, click on Start, then Run, type in cmd and press the Ok button. On OSX, go to Applications, then Utilities, then open Terminal. Under Linux, open Utilities, then open Terminal (it may be under a different menu, depending upon your distribution).
    1. You will have a blank window.
    2. Test that your computer can find our server. Type ping mail.dailydata.net and press the Enter (Return) key. It should return a message like PING mail.dailydata.net (206.123.69.100). The only thing important is the number (206.123.69.100). If you do not get that number, contact your Systems Administrator and tell them "Our DNS cannot resolve mail.dailydata.net."
    3. Test that your computer can contact our server for SMTP e-mail. Type telnet mail.dailydata.net 25. You should get a response ending in the line 220 stargazer.dailydata.net ESMTP Postfix (Debian/GNU). If you don't, make sure your firewall is disabled, and turn off any anti-virus programs that may be running. If you do get 220 stargazer.dailydata.net ESMTP Postfix (Debian/GNU), type quit and press the enter key to exit.
    4. If the above test fails, it is possible your Internet Service Provider does not allow you to send e-mail directly from your computer except to their service. For Southwestern Bell (now AT&T), you can contact their technical support and request they turn on port 25 or enable SMTP from your account.
  5. Contact Daily Data for assistance

I can send e-mail, but not receive e-mail

This is a very weird case that we have not run into. Please call Daily Data for assistance.

Web Based E-Mail Reader

We provide a web based e-mail reader, Squirrelmail, for our clients. This is especially useful when IMAP is chosen for your incoming e-mail on your "normal" e-mail program and you are away from that computer. It allows you to read your e-mail from any location you can open a web browser from.

See Using_SquirrelMail for detailed set up instructions.


IMAP and POP

IMAP and POP are two ways (protocols) for you to receive e-mail. IMAP, the newer protocol, stands for Internet Message Access Protocol and POP, which has been around for a long time, stands for Post Office Protocol.

In a nutshell

Choose IMAP if you will be accessing e-mail from many different computers, and want all of your e-mail available from any of them. Choose POP if you are security conscious and want your e-mail removed from our server as rapidly as possible.

Detailed Explanation of IMAP

With IMAP, your messages stay on our server until you actually delete them. Daily Data replicates our e-mail and web servers daily, so lost e-mail can be recovered if discovered prior to that replication.

Since e-mail stays on our server, you can check mail from any IMAP client (with the proper username and password). This is especially good for people who want to check e-mail from the office, from home, and even from client sites.

  • Replication of all e-mail accounts nightly means your e-mail is recoverable if you accidentally delete it and contact us prior to the next replication.
  • Create folders on your e-mail, and those folders are maintained from any e-mail client you use.
  • You do not need to worry about losing your e-mail when purchasing a new computer or using a different e-mail program.
  • Sent messages, Drafts and Trash are saved on the server on a correctly configured IMAP e-mail client, and thus available from any computer.
  • Your address book is not stored on the server.
  • Web based e-mail (SquirrelMail) can be used from any computer connected to the Internet.

Detailed Explanation of POP

With POP, your e-mail is more secure as received e-mail is downloaded to your computer and removed from the server upon successful download. Sent e-mail is removed from the server as soon as the addressee's mail server accepts it. Thus, mail stays on Daily Data's servers the minimum time necessary.

With some e-mail programs, you can tell it to not delete the message as soon as it is downloaded, but to save it on the server for a specified time period after it has been successfully downloaded. Most will allow such messages to be deleted when you delete them from your mail program.

  • mail is transient on Daily Data's servers, residing on the servers only long enough for it to be delivered to the recipient.
  • mail is not available on multiple computers (unless you tell the program to "Leave Messages On Server")
  • You must back up your e-mail. In case of system failure, you have the only copy of any e-mail accounts using POP.
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