email account settings

This overview summarize what you'll need to know in order to receive and send email using your trilithium.net account(s). Step-by-step instructions with screen shots are available for users of:

Eudora

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook Express

Netscape Mail

For other email applications and experienced users, here are the relevant configuration details:

• The incoming (POP3) mail server should be set to mail.trilithium.net
• The incoming mail server uses the POP3 protocol (not IMAP). Encrypted POP3 connections (POP3 over SSL/TLS using port 995) must be enabled. Read more about encryption below.
• Your login name will be the same as your email address (one of them, rather) for most users. The login name and password have been sent to you when you signed up for trilithium.net services. Select plaintext POP3 authentication (not APOP, Kerberos or RPA).
• The outgoing (SMTP) mail server should be set to smtp.trilithium.net
• You need to authenticate yourself before sending mail, using the same login and password you use with the incoming mail server. Enable SMTP authentication (either AUTH PLAIN or AUTH LOGIN method) as well as encrypted SMTP connections (STARTTLS or the alternate port 465).
• The Secure Password Authentication (SPA) option, if present, must be disabled.

While Outlook and Outlook Express are fully supported, we recommend against using these email clients due to their long history of security problems. A decent free alternative is Mozilla Thunderbird.

Please don't configure your email program to check mail automatically more often than once every five minutes. Once every 10 minutes is frequent enough for most users, and checking mail very often puts unnecessary strain on our mail server.

There's also a web mail interface available.

Encryption and secure email

Encrypted SMTP and POP3 connections are essential for protecting your account password and other sensitive information from eavesdroppers, which is why you need to use an email client which support SSL/TLS connections for POP3 and SMTP. All the common email clients have such support today (you can work around limitations in old software, but upgrading will usually be a better alternative).

Note that while the secure connections will protect information transferred between your computer and the server, the mail you send may not be transmitted securely to their final recipient. If you are sending sensitive information through email, it should be encrypted using software such as PGP or GnuPG.

Known issues

Some ISPs are blocking or redirecting outbound port 25 traffic. This means you won't be able to send mail over the standard SMTP port. If this affects you, use the alternate port 465 (SMTP over TLS) instead when sending mail.

Versions of Eudora before 5.2.1 have a known problem with using SMTP authentication over a secure connection. Several other bugs have been fixed since then; the recommended way to fix this is to update to the latest version of Eudora.

Early versions of Microsoft Outlook (including the one included in Office XP) have problems with encrypted connections on port 465. Microsoft has released a fix for this bug; update your Office installation with the latest Service Pack if you have this problem.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express and receive error 0x800CCC7F while trying to connect to the SMTP server, then it may be a problem with antivirus software scanning outgoing mail. Norton Antivirus in particular is known to not work correctly while connecting securely. To solve the problem, disable scanning of outgoing mail or use a scanner that works with your email software.

McAfee VirusScan 8.0 appears to have a bug affecting incoming mail (all email clients) even when mail scanning is disabled. There's no known workaround at this time; avoid upgrading to this version.

If you still have problems with your trilithium.net email accounts after reading this document, please contact trilithium.net support for help.