SSL email setup with Linux server
One of the differences I see between my Windows hosting package and Linux is, I think, a reflection of the basic difference in philosophies between open source software and the alternative. The alternative thought “we are afraid that you, the user, will goof this up so just hit this automatic button”. Of course, I know marketing, so the marketing version is something like “automatic setup, nothing to worry about”.
And automatic stuff is fine with two exceptions. First, it doesn’t work. Second, you want to use it for something they had not anticipated. Change hardware, integrate with some other software package, whatever. The result is the same, it doesn’t work. In either case you stare at the “automatic button” and keep clicking it.
I have multiple email accounts (why? I dont’ know, because I can I guess) and so I have become accustomed to using Outlook to get them all at the same time. After switching over to my new Linux server, I had to set them up again. What did I find? The best of both worlds! A series of links to click to automatically set up my Outlook for the email account. It did not work. But right below the list of links was a series of lines that said “For outgoing mail, POP3, SSL server is …………… port …….” Wow. No digging, No guessing. There is the data. As a result, I was able to set it up with SSL. Why use SSL? Because otherwise your password is floating out over the internet free and clear for anyone to intercept. Say, maybe, spammers wanting to use your server resources?
In Outlook, the boxes to check are pretty obvious, like SSL required. But what took a bit of time was noticing that my server did not use the default ports. I corrected this and it is working great.
When automatic works, it is great. But when it doesn’t customer satisfaction is so much greater when you get the feeling that you, as a customer, can be trusted with a bit of basic knowledge.
- the Muse
