Getting Email Working

Back to Linux How-tos

The "Steve" Method

Recently whilst upgrading to Suse 11 KDE 4.0 I found that Kmail didn't work as usual when I logged in. Doing the normal I checked the wiki and couldn't find anything about this. What I found is that for some reason the Kmail settings did not transfer over to the new Kmail. As such I had to go to another machine with the older Kmail on it and pull them all off, this was annoying so to be helpful I have place the settings here.

Under Settings in Kmail go to Configure

Goto Accounts

In Receiving tab click add

Choose the IMAP setting

Set the following in the 'General' tab:

• Account name = Exmail.nottingham.ac.uk
• Login = ad/YOUREMAIL (minus the @nottingham.ac.uk garb)
• Password = YOURPASSWORD
• Host = imap4.nottingham.ac.uk
• Port = 993

In the Security tab select 'Use SSL for secure mail download'

Click ok

In Sending tab click add

Set the following :

• Name = Email.nottingham.ac.uk
• Host = smtp.nottingham.ac.uk
• Port = 25

Click ok

All being well Kmail should function now. It is worth noting that Kmail no longer automatically puts a icon in your system tray this has to be turned on.

As ever written to be useful, if it's not change it.

The "Matt" method

For this method you need a .fetchmailrc file and a .procmailrc file. Your mail will be fetched from the server, filtered and stored locally. Once per boot you need to run fetchmail.

Matt's .fetchmailrc

poll imap4.nottingham.ac.uk protocol imap port 993
user "yournovellusername" pass "yournovellpassword" ssl
smtphost localhost
smtpname matt
fetchlimit 500
set daemon 15
set logfile /home/matt/.fetchmail.log

Matt's .procmailrc

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH="$HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/include:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin"
MBOX=$HOME/Mail
LOCKFILE=$HOME/.procmail.lock
ASSASSINLOCK=$HOME/.spamassassin.lock
JUNKMAIL=$MBOX/spam_filtered
TESTING=$MBOX/testing
BITBUCKET=/dev/null
LOCKTIMEOUT=10
ACADEMIC=$MBOX/academic
UCU=$MBOX/aut
LOGFILE=$HOME/.procmail.log
#LOGABSTRACT=no
#VERBOSE=no

#Everyone goes through the spam filter
#Run SpamAssassin daemon mode
#spamc is the daemon for spamassassin
#spam mails will come back marked with a spam header
:0 fw : $ASSASSINLOCK
| spamc

:0:
* ^X-Spam-Optics: Y
$JUNKMAIL

:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Y
$JUNKMAIL

:0:
* ^X-Spam-Flag: Y
$JUNKMAIL

:0 :
* ^To:.*EZ-
$ACADEMIC

Now your email will reside on optics rather than the imap server, however, it will be filtered locally by spamassassin so you'll get less spam.