Setting Up E-mail

All users of the lionking.org system have an e-mail address here. You don't have to use it at all if you don't want to; it's simply the way UNIX works. :) Whether or not you want to advertise username@lionking.org as your e-mail address, though, there are a few things you should know how to do:

• Set up a forwarding address
• Use mail.lionking.org as a POP server
• Read your mail on the server

This option is for if you don't want to use lionking.org as the place where you get your e-mail by default; it's the one I recommend, since you've most likely already got an address somewhere. You should also use this option if you don't want to deal with a @lionking.org address at all; forwarding your mail to your permanent address will catch any odd messages that do get sent to your address here.

To set up a forwarding address, you need to create a file called .forward in your home directory. If you telnet to the server lionking.org, use the command:

echo username@my.system.com > .forward

This will create the file, and your mail will be forwarded to your address at username@my.system.com.

You can also create the file on your local machine, and then upload it via FTP. The file must be a plain text file with nothing in it but the e-mail address where you want the forwarded e-mail to go; the file must be called .forward (don't forget the "." at the beginning!), without any extensions or anything.

If you'd like to keep your @lionking.org mail separate from your other mail, or if you'd like to get your mail directly from this server, you just need to set mail.lionking.org as your POP server (or Incoming Mail server) in your mail program. In Netscape Navigator, this can be found in the "Servers" tab under Mail & News Preferences; in Netscape Communicator, it's under "Mail Server" in the Mail & Groups preferences option. There should be similar setup options in other mailer programs.

In order to get mail from more than one different POP servers and have them go into different Inboxes, you probably will need two different e-mail programs; i.e., use Netscape for one POP server and Eudora for another, for instance.

Note: PLEASE don't mark the option "Leave Mail On Server"! If you do that, your mail spool will build up on my disk and take up space. Make very sure that your e-mail program is set to remove the mail from the server when you check for new messages!

As for the SMTP server, I recommend that you keep your existing SMTP server if you're using POP mail; i.e., use the SMTP server at your own Internet Service Provider. The reason for this is that for you to use lionking.org as an SMTP server, you have to use it as a relay; relaying is also the preferred method used by spammers, and SMTP servers all over the net are blocking relaying because of it. It makes things much more simple for me if you don't relay through lionking.org... it won't affect the way your message is received or sent.

This option is for if you're familiar with UNIX, and/or you prefer to use UNIX mail programs. Since this more or less entails that you already know what you're doing, I'll just say that there are various mailer options available on the lionking.org server: pine and elm are installed, as well as emacs and (of course) mail.

As with the POP server option, please try to keep your mail spool's size under control. Don't leave big binary attachments sitting around in your inbox! :)

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