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Client Settings for Hosted Email Account

The following settings will help users of KanREN's hosted email service configure their Apple Maill.app client.

Version Information

This tutorial is version number 1.0. It was last updated on June 24th, 2007.

This tutorial references Apple Mail.app version 2.1.1 (752.3).

Setup Steps

Quick Settings

  • Inbound mail server: post.example.com
  • Inbound mail username: user@example.com
  • Inbound security: SSL with username authentication
  • Outbound mail server: post.example.com
  • Outbound mail username: user@example.com
  • Outbound security: SSL with username authentication

Initial Account Creation

The following steps will guide you through creating an account "from scratch".

  1. In the "Welcome to Mail" window, click the Continue button.
  2. In the General Information window, select either IMAP or POP3 from the Account Type menu.
  3. Fill in your name and email address in the window and click the Continue button.
  4. In the "Incoming Mail Server" window, enter "post.example.com" but replace example.com with your domain.
    (Examples: fredoniaks.com or usd435.k12.ks.us)
    This will likely be a change from your typical settings. Most organizations use "mail.example.com" for their incoming and outgoing server. By using a different hostname, we can ensure that email will pass through the antispam device.
  5. In the User Name field, enter your FULL email address.
    It is important to use the full name because the KanREN hosting server is fully virtualized. The only way the email server can identify incoming connections for different domains is if their domain is passed with the username.
  6. Enter your password in the final field and click the continue button. Mail.app will attempt to connect to the server listed.
    If you get an error screen, check that all settings are correct. If you're sure everything is filled in correctly, contact your site technical administrators.
  7. In the "Outgoing Mail Server" window, enter "post.example.com".
  8. Click the Use Authentication checkbox and fill in your FULL email address and password and click Continue.
  9. In the "Outgoing Mail Security" window, select the "Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)" checkbox and click Continue.
  10. You will be prompted with an Account Summary window. If everything looks correct, click the Continue button.
  11. The last step in creating your account is to click the Done button on the next screen.

Converting an Existing Account

The following settings will convert an existing account for use on KanREN's hosted email system.

  1. With Mail.app open, go to the Mail menu and select "Preferences".
  2. Highlight your existing email account in the left column. This will display the basic settings for your existing account.
  3. Change your incoming mail server to "post.example.com", your User Name to "user@example.com" and click the "Server Settings" button at the bottom of the screen.
  4. In the new window, check the box that says "Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)". Make sure "Password" is selected from the Authentication menu and enter your FULL email address and password. Once everything has been entered correctly, click the OK button.
  5. You should be looking at the Account Information screen again. Click the Advanced tab for security settings.
  6. At the bottom of the Advanced window, select the "Use SSL" checkbox.
  7. Close the Mail.app preferences window and save the settings.

Advanced Security Certificate Settings

The following settings will configure your OSX 10.4.10 system to trust the self-signed security certificates from the email hosting server.

These settings should remove the "error" messages regarding untrusted SSL certificates when checking and sending email.

Please Note: These settings are for advanced users only. Non-administrator users are not allowed to change the settings described below. If you have questions regarding your organization's security policy, please contact your technical administrators.

  1. When you first open Mail.app, if your client is configured for SSL you are prompted with an error box saying "Unable to Connect". This window is presented because KanREN's hosting server uses self-signed security certificates.
  2. Click the Show Certificate button in the error window.
  3. Click-and-drag the Certificate icon onto your desktop.
  4. Because you can set SSL on incoming and outgoing connections, we need to grab the outbound certificate as well. To do this, attempt to send an email. After pressing the send button, you should be presented with an Error box saying "Unable to verify SSL server..."
  5. Again, press the Show Certificate button and drag the Certificate icon onto your desktop.
  6. Next, we need to open Keychain Access to add the certificates to our keychain.
    1. Open Spotlight by pressing Apple+Space.
    2. Enter Keychain Access in the search field.
    3. The application Keychain Access should be the top entry. Double-click it to open the app.
    4. By default, you'll only see keychain items associated with your account.
    5. Press the "Show Keychains" button in the lower left corner.
    6. Select "X509Anchors" from the list in the upper left menu.
    7. Drag both the localhost.cer and plesk.cer files from your desktop onto the Keychain Access window.
    8. You will be prompted for the username and password of an Administrator user.
    9. With X509Anchors still selected, click on Certificates.
    10. Locate the "localhost" entry and double-click it.
    11. Scroll to the bottom of the new window and expand the "Trust Settings".
    12. In the "When Using This Certificate" menu, select "Always Trust".
    13. By changing the overall policy, all other menus will automatically be changed as well.
    14. Close the window and your settings will be saved automatically.
    15. Repeat the trust settings process for the plesk certificate.