Mail server settings
From OCFwiki
This page contains information on how to configure your mail client software to work with your OCF account.
If you have already followed these instructions in the past and are having difficultly accessing your mail, you may need to update your settings due to changes in our mail services. Please see the following documents for more information:
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POP3
If you are using POP3 to access your mail, our POP server is
mail.ocf.berkeley.edu
Your username is your normal OCF username, and your email address is login@ocf.berkeley.edu, where login refers to your login name. So if your login name were johndoe, your email address would be johndoe@ocf.berkeley.edu.
POP over SSL is required as of August 1, 2007. SSL, short for Secure Sockets Layer, is the same technology used in secure website transactions. Using this option will make it exceedingly difficult for eavesdroppers to sniff your password or the contents of your email while it goes from our server to your computer; hence we require it. Most email clients supporting SSL will have a checkbox or similar that you can select in the mail server settings. The port number for POP over SSL is 995; most mail clients will configure this automatically when you select the option for SSL.
IMAP
If you are using IMAP to access your mail, our IMAP server is
mail.ocf.berkeley.edu
IMAP over SSL is required as of August 1, 2007. SSL, short for Secure Sockets Layer, is the same technology used in secure website transactions. Using this option will make it exceedingly difficult for eavesdroppers to sniff your password or the contents of your email while it goes from our server to your computer; hence we require it. Most email clients supporting SSL will have a checkbox or similar that you can select in the mail server settings. The port number for IMAP over SSL is 993; most mail clients will configure this automatically when you select the option for SSL.
Here's an example using e-mail client Mozilla Thunderbird.
Unless you're Jack Bauer, remember to use your own OCF user name.
SMTP
SMTP servers are used for sending mail. Our SMTP server is
mail.ocf.berkeley.edu
OCF's SMTP server requires authenticated connections via SSL. To make a secure connection to SMTP server, enable TLS/SSL and authentication. The port should be 587. We now have text instructions for setting up SMTP on various e-mail clients.
Here's an example in Mozilla Thunderbird:
Please note that if you are using our SMTP server from a remote computer (e.g., not from an OCF computer), then you must use your OCF email address as the "From" address—you cannot use your CalMail address instead, for example. Restricting the outgoing email to our domain helps cut down on spammers using our server to send spam. If you wish to use a different email address as the "From" address, then you should preferably use the SMTP server that belongs to whoever provides you that email address.
Some ISPs block you from using SMTP servers that do not belong to them. See Problems with outgoing mail for details. Even if your ISP blocks connection to external SMTP servers, usually by blocking port 25, you should be able to connect to OCF's SMTP server securely, as described above, since it uses a different port.
