SSL Support for IMAP

The systems folks at ibiblio are constantly trying to improve security for you, the contributors, and your collections. To that end, we are happy to announce SSL support for imap and pop on the ibiblio mail server.

What does this mean?

SSL, secure sockets layer, is the same technology used for secure web browsing. Normally, pop and imap transmit data between the mail server and the client in plain text. This includes your username and password. Although it oes not happen often, if someone intercepted this communication, your email and your password could be easily read. Adding SSL to pop and imap sessions encrypts the communcation between your client computer and the mail server, making it much more difficult to read the email data.

Does it affect me?

If you...

• connect to the ibiblio login server (login.ibiblio.org)

and check your mail using pine: No. The connection between the ibiblio login and mail servers is quite secure.

• have your ibiblio mail forwarded to another account: No.

Since you're not connecting to the ibiblio mail server to check your mail, this doesn't affect you.

• check your email from a non-ibiblio computer using a pop

or imap client such as Netscape, Eudora, Mozilla, MS Outlook, etc.: Yes.

How do I take advantage of SSL support on the ibiblio mail server?

 1. Use mail.ibiblio.org as your mail server. The server to
 which your email client connects must match the hostname
 in the SSL certificate. mail.ibiblio.org is the hostname
 in the SSL certificate on the ibiblio mail server.

 2. Enable your mail client to use SSL. In most graphical 
 applications, there is a checkbox which says something 
 like "Use secure connection (SSL)." Consult the 
 documentation for your email client for details. Newer
 versions of Mozilla, Netscape, Eudora, Mutt and Pine all
 support SSL.

If you have questions, please email help@ibiblio.org