This page has some general information about how you can send and receive email. It was written with our Dial-up and ZoomTown customers in mind, but the same ideas apply to our web hosting customers. The main difference would be to use your domain name instead of spsp.net. Note that new customers start with one mailbox but can create additional mailboxes. For more information, see the FAQ "How do I create and administer my mailboxes on the SpeedSpan server?"

Usually, you would set up an email program (Outlook Express, Eudora, Apple Mail, Netscape, Thunderbird, etc.) on the computer you use most of the time. This allows you to send and receive email easily when connected to the internet.

If you're away from your computer occasionally, a good way to send and recieve email is to use WebMail. See the FAQ "How do I access Web E-Mail?"

Using an email program like the ones mentioned above (as opposed to webmail), you will need to configure the program correctly before you and use it to send or receive e-mail. There is usually a Preferences Panel or Configuration or Options or Settings page. Specific examples for various email clients are in other Email FAQ.

The following covers some basic settings. Use the mail server name "mail.spsp.net" as shown if you have an email address "@spsp.net" (SpeedSpan Dialup and ZoomTown customers). Substitute your domain name in place of spsp.net if you are a webhosting customer, e.g., incoming server = "mail.yourdomain.com". (A few domains use "mailhost.yourdomain.com") Specific examples in other FAQ refer to mail at "yourdomain.com". We will use the mail box name "smithj" and the POP3 password "your-password". Be sure to replace with your existing name and password.

PORT NOTES. (Click the bold words in this paragraph for more info.) Mail transport between computers uses several different ports. Your outgoing mail may have used port 25, the SMTP port, in the past. We highly recommend that you now use port 587 instead, in which case you should set outgoing mail for password authentication (not SSL). The advantage is that your mail should get to the designated outgoing server, no matter which ISP you are using to connect to the internet.

And you can recieve mail on port 110, the POP3 port, but you can, and probably should, use the IMAP protocol, port 143, instead. (Advantage of IMAP.) You can use the secure (SSL) ports for mail hosted at SpeedSpan, but we don't generally recommend it.

SSL (Secure, Encrypted) NOTES. You can designate an SSL protocol (for example, choose port 465 for outgoing mail), but your mail program will most likely complain when you connect to the mail server that the certificate is not correct. The certificate on the mail server is for the domain "sp40.spanmail.net" and that does not match the domain you are sending from ("jsmith@yourdomain.com"). The same is true for incoming SSL ports. You will probably be presented the option of "trusting" this certificate, and then the mail will be delivered.

If you occasionally feel the need to send and recieve mail in encrypted form, you can do it using webmail. Go to the www.speedspan.com front page and at the bottom left click the link that says "Login from public place.". Log in on the page that comes up. Note that the lock is closed on this page.