Account Properties
Account Properties window allows you to modify account data. The window has 4 tabs - Basic, Servers, Advanced and Expert.
On the top of the Basic tab there is an icon which displays account type - it can be either email or newsgroups account. Depending on type of the account the layout of options and edit boxes will be a bit different.
Basic (email and newsgroups accounts)
- Account name - This is a descriptive name of your account which you can use to recognize it in the list of accounts. It can be anything you like.
- Display name - Your name, as shown to email or newsgroups recipients. It is usually your name or your nickname. For example John Smith or John.
- Organization - This field is optional. It can be used to input the organization to which you belong or to which the machine belongs. If used, it will be added to outgoing messages as "Organization" message header (this can be seen in the message source). As most users do not look at message source they probably won't see this.
- E-mail address - Enter your e-mail address here. Your contacts cannot reply to you if this field is incorrect so type it in carefully. This e-mail address is used when your recipients reply to your emails.
- Reply-To address - This field is optional. Enter your Reply-To e-mail address here. This e-mail address is used instead of E-mail address above when your recipients reply to your message. It can be used if you want to receive replies to a different address than the one you are sending from and which is in the E-mail address field. There is no need to place the same email address here as in E-mail address field, rather leave this field blank if you don't need it.
- Include this account when receiving e-mail - If this checkbox is checked this account will be checked for email when you use Send/Receive function or when program checks for new email automatically. If the checkbox is not checked you can still download messages from this account if you click on individual account name (selected from the main menu or Send/Receive menu).
Servers (email account)
- Incoming server (POP3) - The name of your server as given by your provider - it is required to download new emails. If you do not know server name, you need to contact your Internet provider and ask them your POP3 server name.
- Authentication type - Selects which method will be used to send your username and password to server. If unsure, you can use Automatic (recommended) option.
- Automatic (recommended) - Asks server which authentication types it supports and then it uses the most secure one based on how well it can encrypt your username and password. High-grade encryption is always chosen over the low-grade or unencrypted type. Use this option if you do not know what to choose because it is always the most secure option. Also, using this option prevents you from choosing an option your server does not support.
- Clear Text (common) - This is commonly used authentication method. It sends unencrypted username and password. It is least secure but also most widely supported on servers. Avoid it if possible and only use it if no other option will work. If other options don't work though, this one likely will. Note that this option is secure to use if connection is already encrypted using TLS encryption. In that case entire connection is encrypted and not just username and password.
- Authenticated POP (APOP) - Sends encrypted password. If your server does not support APOP and you select this option, email downloading will not work so you have to select different option.
- SASL/AUTH Authentication - SASL authentication supports a range of methods for sending username and password. OE Classic will examine the list of offered SASL authentication types as reported by server and automatically use the most secure one based on encryption strength. If your server does not support SASL methods and you select this option, email downloading will not work so you have to select different option.
- Username - Username used to authenticate to email mailbox on the server. If you do not know it you should contact your Internet provider.
- Password - Password used to authenticate to email mailbox on the server. If you do not know it you should contact your Internet provider.
- Remember password - If checked, your password will be saved in encrypted form to your computer.
- Outgoing server (STMP) - The name of your server as given by your provider - it is required to get send emails. If you do not know server name, you need to contact your Internet provider and ask them your SMTP server name.
- Outgoing server requires authentication - If your outgoing server requires username/password (and most of them do), you need to check this checkbox.
- Use same settings as incoming server - Quite often if not always, incoming and outgoing servers use the very same username/password. If this is the case (and most often it is), checking this checkbox will use the incoming server username/password for outgoing server as well so you don't have to type them in again. If you uncheck this checkbox, you can provide different username/password for the outgoing server but this is likely not needed.
- Username - Username for outgoing server, used to authenticate to email mailbox on the server. If you do not know it you should contact your Internet provider. Quite often this username is the same as the username for incoming server so there is usually only one username/password provided.
- Password - Password for outgoing server, used to authenticate to email mailbox on the server. If you do not know it you should contact your Internet provider. Quite often this password is the same as the password for incoming server so there is usually only one username/password provided.
- Remember password - If checked, your password will be saved in encrypted form to your computer.
Advanced (email account)
- Incoming port (POP3) - A port number needed to connect to your server. Most commonly this is either 110 or 995. 110 is used for unencrypted connection and 995 for encrypted connection. Very rarely the port number is different from these two values. In fact, the program will prevent you from entering non-standard values. If you specifically need to enter non standard values, then you need to uncheck the Only allow entering standard port numbers option in Expert tab.
- Outgoing port (SMTP) - A port number needed to connect to your server. Most commonly this is either 25, 465 or 587. 25 is used for unencrypted connection and 465 for encrypted connection. 587 is used for both unencrypted or encrypted connections. Some servers prefer one value over the other so you may need to experiment with these. Very rarely the port number is different from these 3 values. In fact, the program will prevent you from entering non-standard values. If you specifically need to enter non standard values, then you need to uncheck the Only allow entering standard port numbers option in Expert tab.
- Server requires secure connection (TLS) - If your server requires a secure connection using TLS encryption (many of them do) you need to check this checkbox. Checking this checkbox will first encrypt the connection before sending any data but your server must support it as well. If your server does not support TLS you may get errors so in that case try with this checkbox unchecked. Checking the checkbox will automatically switch port to 995 (POP3) or 465 (SMTP) because this is almost always the correct port for secure connection. If you uncheck the checkbox the port will be switched back to 110 (POP3) or 25 (SMTP) which is the correct port number for unsecured connection.
Expert (email account)
Unless you really know what you are doing, please DO NOT modify these options. They are provided mostly for special purposes where standard account options are insufficient and most of the time they don't need to be modified. You can always return them to safe values using the Reset All to Recommended Defaults button.
- Reset All to Recommended Defaults - Resets all options in this tab to their recommended default values which are compatible with most servers.
- Use StartTLS (secure connection) when supported by POP/SMTP server - You should always keep this checkbox checked. Very rarely it needs to be unchecked. This option controls if STARTTLS will be used or not. What it does is if the server supports switching from unsecure to secure connection using STARTTLS command (starts TLS encryption) and if this checkbox is checked, the program then uses STARTTLS command to secure the connection by encrypting it. So, it connects, then examines if STARTTLS command is available and if it is and if this checkbox is checked it uses it to make the connection secure before sending any data. Unchecking this checkbox will override this behaviour - even if the server supports STARTTLS the program will not use it, therefore the connection may not be secure then. So in most cases, you will want to keep this checkbox on. In fact, the program will warn you if you uncheck it that this is likely not a good setting. If the server does not support STARTTLS command then it cannot be used anyway so this checkbox doesn't matter (so you can keep it checked all the time).
- Only allow entering standard port numbers - This checkbox prevents novice users to accidentally enter wrong port values in Advanced tab. Unchecking it will allow you to enter any port value in the allowed range (1-65535).
- Incoming/outgoing server (POP/SMTP) TLS protocol - This drop-down allows you to select version of TLS encryption used by your server. As a general rule, you should use the highest version supported by your server because higher versions are more secure. You will know it is supported by server when you do not get "Wrong SSL version" error when connecting to the server - in other words when the connection will work and you will be able to connect without errors. The default value is set to TLS 1.2 because this version is supported by most servers so it is also most likely to work. Note that the TLS version in OE Classic is the minimum version to be used. If the server supports higher version and advertises it, OE Classic will use the higher version (for example 1.3), but won't go below the minimum specified version.
Simplified TLS, StartTLS and No encryption comparison
This simplified table outlines how commands are exchanged. Red color means, unencrypted connection, green color means encrypted connection.
TLS
(Advanced tab) |
StartTLS
(Expert tab) |
No encryption |
| TLS handshake |
|
|
| Initial greetings of OE Classic and email server |
Initial greetings of OE Classic and email server |
Initial greetings of OE Classic and email server |
| OE Classic checks server supported commands |
OE Classic checks server supported commands |
OE Classic checks server supported commands |
| |
StartTLS handshake (if server supports it) |
|
| Username/password sent |
Username/password sent |
Username/password sent |
| Emails sent/received |
Emails sent/received |
Emails sent/received |
As you can see, both TLS and StartTLS are secure to send/receive username, password and emails, with small difference when the encryption is initiated, but with both protocols it is always before sensitive user data is sent/received. However, with unencrypted connection, encryption is never done and thus, if server does not support TLS or StartTLS encryption, you should be careful, when using this type of connection in a public Internet/WiFi locations such as coffee shops, airports and so on.
