Chapter 16. Webmail
Table of Contents
- 16.1.Enabling Webmail On Your System
- 16.2.Starting Webmail
- 16.3.Logging In
- 16.4.Viewing The Inbox
- 16.5.Logging Out of Webmail
- 16.6.Composing Messages
- 16.7.Reading Messages
- 16.8.Deleting Messages
- 16.9.Using Contacts
- 16.10.Changing Webmail Preferences
If you wish, you can configure your SME Server so that users can access their e-mail via a web interface. Once webmail is enabled, users will be able to access their e-mail from the local network or anywhere in the world via the Internet using any standard web browser (provided it supports Javascript and tables, which almost all browsers do).
For added security, the server supports the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connections. When your users connect using SSL, all communication between their browser and your web server is securely encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.
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The specific program we use for webmail is the Internet Messaging Program (IMP) . If you would like more information about IMP, you can visit the project web site at: http://www.horde.org/imp/ |
If you intend to enable webmail, you should consider whether your users will use webmail exclusively or will use webmail part of the time (for example, when travelling) and a regular e-mail client the rest of the time. If they plan to use webmail and another client, they should make sure that the other client uses the IMAP protocol. If they use POP3, their e-mail messages will be pulled down from the server into their local e-mail client and will therefore not be visible when the user logs into webmail. If IMAP is enabled on the local client, the messages will remain on the server and will be visible both from the local client and via webmail. (For more information on IMAP and POP3, read the earlier section in Chapter 7.)
A second issue is that using webmail will affect the performance of your server. We recommend that you evaluate your server hardware if you plan to use webmail. (Note that webmail can always be disabled later if you find that your system is not performing well.)