Support: Email: K-mail

This setup was written for Kmail v. 1.6.2

If you find errors or develop other configuration how-to's that you can share, please email helpdesk at cotse.net

Configuring Kmail 1.6.2 (New Setup)

The following is for POP3/SMTP setup:

• Go to: Kmail "Settings -> Configure KMail..."
• Click "Identities," set your default identity, and click "Modify"
• Enter your personal information (You do not need to use the PGP field or a signiture file, but if you are using PGP or GnuPG you need to set your key in the OpenPGP Key field in the Advanced tab).
• Select the "Network" icon on the left
• Select the "Sending" tab on the right
• Click the Add button, choose "SMTP" and enter the following information
  • Name = COTSE SMTP (this is a human name so anything will do)
  • Host = www.cotse.net
  • Port = leave the default at 25
  • Check the "My server requires authentication" box.
  • Login = enter your Cotse username
  • Password = enter your Cotse password 
• Click "OK"
• Click the "Receiving" tab
• Select "POP3" in the box that appears and fill in the details as follows:
  • Name = COTSE POP3 (this is a human name so anything will do)
  • Login = your Cotse username
  • Password = your Cotse password
  • Host = mail.cotse.net
  • Port = leave the default at 110
  • Set your other POP3 options:
    • Check the "Store POP Password in configuration file" box (see NOTE, below)
    • Check the "Delete mail from the server" box (unless you want to leave it there...)
    • Modify any of the other settings to your taste (periodic mail checking etc)
• Click "OK"
• You are ready to test your setup

NOTE: if you select Store POP password in configuration file, KMail will remember your password so you will not have to type it every time you start KMail and fetch new mail. This is not as secure as entering your password each time. KMail cannot really encrypt your password, so people who can access your configuration files (e.g. system administrators) can easily get your password if you select this option.

Encrypting Your POP3 Account:

You can use ssh to tunnel your POP3 connection using the following command:

ssh -L 11000:127.0.0.1:110 user@host

Modify your KMail configuration to fetch the mail via POP3 from localhost and ssh will tunnel the connection for you. If non-encrypted messages have already been sent via Internet, the only advantage of using ssh is that your password will be sent encrypted to the POP3 server.

To configure POP3S and STMPS, use the previous configuration settings but :

• Change the SMTP Port to 465,
• Change the POP Port to 995.
• Encryption = "Use SSL for secure mail download" and set Authentication Method = PLAIN.
• The first time you send and receive you will be asked about the security certificate. Say "Continue" then in the second pop-up select the option to remember the certificate. You should only have to do this step ONCE.

If you find any errors in this configuration guide, please let us know by email to helpdesk at cotse.net