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All about Email

Many people regard email as the most important part of the internet. We treat your email just as importantly as you do, aiming to provide a fast, reliable and secure service to all our subscribers.

However, sometimes it can be a bit of a maze setting up your computer in order to receive and send your emails smoothly. Different computer systems and different email software can all provide their share of puzzles and configuration issues. We aim to support most variations of systems, but always strive to provide generic help so that you can not only configure your system efficiently, but also learn a bit of how email works along the way.

Once your connection is working correctly and you can connect to the internet, there are two ways to get your email; The first is the usual way of downloading your email into your favourite email program on your computer and the second can be used if you're travelling around the world or just want to quickly check your emails on a friends computer, and that's to access the WebMail system via any web browser.

1. Using an email client
Email uses a protocol known as POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and is downloaded by your computer by a Mail Transport Agent (MTA) and then viewed by an email client such as Pluto, Eudora or Outlook Express.

Our incoming mail server is a type POP3 and is called pop.orpheusnet.co.uk

Note for advanced users:
POP uses port 110 so you may need to ensure that any firewall you have in use allows incoming traffic on this port.

RISC OS Ant Suite users should ensure that the mail server name has /ucb appended to the end of the incoming mail server name, thus in the mail setup ensure that the mail server name is given as pop.orpheusnet.co.uk/ucb

Some computers default to one way and some default to the other way. Apple's new OS X system's 'Mail' application for example, leaves messages on the server as the default option. This is one area to check if you find that messages are repeatedly downloaded each time you connect.

Note on deleting mail from the server:
Mail is only deleted from the server when you actually logout after downloading new mail. If you find that you have a long message and abort the fetch by disconnecting mid-download, this hasn't logged out 'cleanly', so will no delete the messages, allowing you to download them again, from the beginning, next time you connect. This is intentional and is for security reasons should you accidentally disconnect either via pulling a cable out or losing signal (if checking via mobile phone etc). Messages are only deleted AFTER they've been successfully downloaded to your computer.
If you have a very long message that is clogging up your email, or you're using a slow modem and don't wish do download it, you can connect to the WebMail system and delete it from there, without downloading it.

2. Using WebMail

Note for !Voyager users:
Voyager automatically attempts to download mail via POP (above) whenever you connect to the internet. This prevents you connecting to WebMail, so you should disable the automatic mail fetch in Voyager before you go online.
To do this, go to the Preferences -> User... and tick the Disable mail usage BEFORE you connect to the internet. This will stop Voyager downloading mails automatically and will give you time to connect to WebMail and check your emails.
Once you've finished, you can go back into the preferences and re-enable mail ready for next time you wish to connect normally.

Once you've logged in, you should be able to view all your messages and delete any that are long or not required.

If using WebMail for the very first time, you should familiarise yourself with the various settings, including the personal preferences. It's important to set your return email address so that any messages you send via the WebMail system are addressed correctly with your return email address.

This can be set by clicking on the Options link at the top of the screen once you've successfully logged in. This will take you to the various options available. Now click on the Personal Information link. On the following screen you can set your personal information such as your email address, optional reply to address (if different from your email address) and an optional signature (which will be added at the bottom of all your emails). There are various other options too, but these are self-explanatory and can be set/unset for personal preference.

Once you've set all the values you require, remember to click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen, which will save the settings for future use.

Click on the INBOX link on the left hand navigation panel to return to your mailbox.

When you've finished with the WebMail system, you should always log out correctly by clicking on the Sign Out link in the top right hand corner.

Sending Emails
Sending out emails uses a protocol known as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

Note for advanced users:
SMTP uses port 25 so you may need to ensure that any firewall you have in use allows outgoing traffic on this port.

Our outgoing mail server is called smtp.orpheusnet.co.uk and does not use authenticated login. Authentication is done by verifying that you're actually connected to Orpheus in the first place

If you're not physically connected to Orpheus when you try sending messages via smtp.orpheusnet.co.uk you will receive a "550 Relaying Forbidden" error message, which basically means that our server has refused to relay your mail message.

RISC OS Voyager users should again ensure that they are using the Orpheus updated version of !Voyager, because the original Argonet version does not connect to our smtp server and will not work.

Additional support
Using the Ant Suite with Orpheus email
Configuring POPStar under RISC OS
Configuring Hermes under RISC OS
Configuring !Voyager under RISC OS