Secure email connections, send email from WiFi access points

Ever travel or visit friends or clients, and can’t send emails? Anti-spammer requirements of Internet Service Providers mean that you have to know the login ID and password of the account for emails to go out.

Frustrating, since all you get is an error message that your email is not deliverable.

Instead of asking your friend (or colleague) what the account name and password are for their ISP (not a good practice, in fact it would be a security risk), you would usually just send emails through your ISP’s or web host’s webmail program.

But what if you want to keep the record of the emails in your usual email program? Or you simply prefer using Thunderbird to a web browser? Or you like that your email program automatically saves drafts, but the web interface sometimes loses your work if you don’t finish soon enough?

Well, you can use the email security features of your email software and web hosting, instead of the security of the ISP you happen to be connecting through. You still have to give a user ID and password, but your own, not someone else’s.

Set up Secure Emails

Port 587, use Secure Connection, specify TLS if available

Thunderbird Configuration (version 2.0.0.14): go to Tools, Account Settings

Scroll all the way down, to Outgoing Server (SMTP)

Select your domain name’s SMTP server (usually either smtp.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com) and click Edit.

Change the Port: to 587

Specify Use Name and Password, and give your User Name (usually your email address).

Select what your hosting provider says you should use, or just try using TLS, if available and see if it works.

Try sending an email. You will be asked if you trust the security certificate “Website Certified by an Unknown Authority”. If you do, you will be able to send emails; specify Accept this certificate permanently.

You will probably get a message “Domain Name Mismatch”, which simply means that your web site is hosted by someone else and you haven’t purchased your own security certificate.

Let your email program know you trust the security certificate of your website:

Thunderbird setup: Tools, Options, Advanced tab, Certificates tab, View Certificates

In the Websites tab, you will see the certificate of your site hosting provider (you may have to send an email using the secure connection, to receive the certificate). I host with Lunar Pages, so my mail server certificate is from garm.lunarservers.com — you should recognize the host’s name in the certificate.

In the Websites tab, find the certificate of your host, and click Edit. Say you Trust the authenticity of this certificate and click Edit CA Trust and say This certificate can identify web sites and This certificate can identify mail users.

You’re done!