Commonly-Asked E-mail Questions

> Can you walk me through setting them up on their machines.  
> Sorry, but I have been spoiled by AOL and consider e-mail just short of
> voodoo. I am not sure where to tell people in my org. to point their
> e-mail programs (POP server). I am assuming that the SMPTE (or whatever
> it is) is related. Please advise.

To get mail from an account on the FreeNet, follow these steps. Go into
your mail reader program, and set up your mail options as follows:

Username: their username
Password: their password
POP Host: dcfree.net or servintfree.net (depending on which server you are hosted on)
SMTP Host: whatever your current SMTP host is*

*You'll need to use the SMTP (outgoing) mail server of your current ISP,
since we don't allow outgoing mail to be sent through the FreeNet server
from addresses outside of our network. This is an anti-spam security
measure. 

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> Can our organization have e-mail? How many can we get?

We generally allow for 5 POP mailboxes, although more can be set up if
there's a real need. E-mail redirects are unlimited.

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> 1.	The faq document mentions that organizations can have an organizational
> e-mail address.  How do we request this service?  We currently have 5 staff
> members.  Is it possible to have 5 addresses from XXXXXXX.org?  If so
> they would be XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX and
> XXXXXXX.  Is it also possible to have a group email account such as
> education or youth?

To set this up, we'll need the following information:

1. Would these be redirected to existing accounts elsewhere (e.g.,
info@XXXXXXX.org is re-sent to XXXXXXX@aol.com), or would these
accounts be POP mailboxes?

2. If these are redirects, what will the incoming (e.g.,
fred@XXXXXXX.org) addresses and outgoing (e.g., XXXXXXX@aol.com)
addresses be?

3. If these are POP mailboxes, what will the incoming addresses be, and
what are the POP username/passwords you will be using. i.e.,
fred@XXXXXXX.org could point to the POP mail account dmajette on
the FreeNet server. Each username should be 4-8 characters, and should be
in lowercase letters. Each password should be 6-10 characters, and should
include at least one capital letter or numeral.

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> I'm having a problem with my mail. I am getting this message:
> 
> "An unknown error has occurred. Please save any existing work and restart
> the program. (Account: 'webmaster@XXXXXXX.org', POP3 Server: 'dcfree.net',
> Error Number: 0x80004005).

I hate to say this, but this sounds like a problem with the mail reader
program you're using. Normally, if you try to log in and the server
rejects you, a FAILED LOGIN: notice will appear in the system's logs.
However, I haven't seen anything like that today ... leading me to believe
that, for some reason, your mail reader didn't even get all the way
through the login process.

What mail reader are you using? Do you have any documentation that might
explain what a '0x80004005' error is? Do you get the same problem if you
use a different mail reader program?

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> What do I need to give you to set up e-mail accounts?

First, you need a username. The usernames that will be used for getting
the mail need to be 4-12 characters in all lower case. This doesn't affect
their E-mail address; the address Jeff.Carl@dcfree.net can be aliased to
the user "jcarl". However, the username itself should be 4-12 characters,
lowercased.

Second, you need a password. Passwords should be 4-12 characters and
should include at least one numeral or uppercased letter (to make them
more difficult to "crack".)

So, what I'd like to get from you is a list like the one you sent me
earlier, but this time including:

the E-mail address
the corresponding username
the corresponding password

e.g. :

Jeff.Carl@dcfree.net
jcarl
FooBar123

So the user's address would be the JeffCarl@... one, but when they logged
in to POP their mail, they would use the username jcarl and the password
FooBar123.

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> A while back you mentioned the possibility of having individual e-mail accounts.
> For the time being, our pastor has her home e-mail on the web page, but she is
> quite anxious to have her own account for work as separate from home.  You
> mentioned the possibility of having up to four pop-up screens once we were set
> up.  Now that we are set, we would very much like to have them. [Actually, we
> only need three.]  Can you tell me what I need to do to expedite this?

I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to with the "pop-up screens."
If what you're referring to is POP mailboxes (i.e., standard mail
accounts), then that's no problem. What I'll need from you is a list of
usernames and passwords for the accounts. e.g.:

username: fred
password: FooBar123

This user will then receive mail at fred@XXXXXXX.org.

The usernames should be 4-12 characters, all lower-cased. Passwords should
be 4-12 characters, and should include at least one uppercase letter or
numeral.

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> Were you able to set those accounts up for us? Please advise. Thanks again!

A couple of quick questions for you - do you want two separate POP
mailboxes, admin and webmaster, or do you want both to forward to single
POP mailbox? Secondly, your user account wmdc01 can function as a POP
mailbox already - all you need to do is log into it with your username and
password, with your POP server set to dcfree.net (or servintfree.net). Do you want one of the
addresses directed to the wmdc01 account, or do you want one/two new ones
created?

A final caveat about using POP mailboxes on D.C. FreeNet - due to our
anti-spam relaying routines set into our mailserver, you won't be able to
send mail *from* your FreeNet POP accounts, although you can get mail *to*
it ... you'll still need to use your ISP's SMTP (outgoing) mail server to
send mail. 

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> Regarding the possible E-mail boxes @our domain name that you
> mentioned, is it via POP3?  

Sure. Generally, most accounts only ask for a single "redirect" address, but we can
create POP3 mailboxes for you. IMAP is also available. These will need usernames and
passwords.

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> I am also webmaster for another FreeNet user,
> www.XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.org  - and that nonprofit may also want
> mailboxes.  please inform me as to possibilites, limitations,
> tech. requirements, etc. regarding setting up email addresses
> @our domain name(s).

The only issue that generally presents a problem with our POP accounts is
the relaying issue. Our sendmail is set to disallow relaying of any sort -
meaning that anyone using a POP3 account from the FreeNet server will
*not* be able to use the FreeNet server as their SMTP (outgoing)
mailserver. The user can, if they wish, still include user@freenetdomain
in their E-mail address, but the mails they send will need to be routed
through the mail server of their own access provider. 

We try to keep a limit of 5-10 POP accounts per organization, but more are
available in a dire emergency. We encourage users to download their mail
rather than leave it one the server, to save our disk space.

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