SMTP - Sending Mails From Your Aegee.org Alias
Introduction
The magic STMP allows the use the variety of mail programmes to send email from your AEGEE.org account to
other mailboxes. See below how to get an aegee.org address and configure your favourite mail client to send mail from it. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and regardless how you send your mails, SMTP is used to transport your message to the destination.
The role of the aegee.org accounts
Every member who has an aegee.org account, has also an alias of the form firstname.lastname@aegee.org . Mails sent to that address are forwarded to the mailbox specified in your aegee.org account or in your primary Addresss Book entry. The alias is formed by replacing all spaces in the aegee.org account name with a dot, all put in the domain @aegee.org. E.g. a member called Ivan Vasov, will get the address ivan.vasov@aegee.org .
If you still don't have an aegee.org account, get a new one from aegee.org/accounts -> Register. Use the same page to update your email address. Sometimes it is not enough to change your mail address in the aegee.org account, you need to change also your data in the AEGEE Address Book. The process is described at aegee.org/ab/help.
Modifying the destination address of your aegee.org alias is effective from the following morning.
The Reply-To header
All mail applications offer you to setup a Reply-To field. It specifies where the replies to your mails will go. In the next section you will learn how to adjust your software, so that you will start sending mails from your aegee.org account. Leave the Reply-To field empty. By default your mails will be sent back to your aegee.org forward. Shall you want other behaviour, then enter your address in the Reply-To field in the formart "Your Name" <your.address@example.com> . Entering just email address there looks bad, as your name will not appear in the replies, but only your email address.
Configure your mail client
Once your have an aegee.org account, you can not only receive but also send mails coming from your firstname.lastname@aegee.org address. To send mail you need to configure a mail client to connect to port 465 on smtp.aegee.org over a SSL-Tunnel and authenticate with user -- your aegee.org account, followed by @aegee.org, and password - the password of your aegee.org account.
Below is a detailed description of how to configure your mail program to send mails from your aegee.org address. Leave the unmentioned fields as they are. In most of the applications an existing account needs to be altered, so that it sends mails, comming from your aegee.org address. Choose on of the mail accounts you have in your mail client, we will refer to it with your normal account. In the examples below our imaginary user has an aegee.org account Ivan Vasov, he authenticates towards the smtp server with ivan vasov@aegee.org and has aegee.org forward ivan.vasov@aegee.org . Notice the difference in the latter two -- just a dot.
Remeber, this service works when both servers karl.aegee.org and smtp.aegee.org are online. During spam attacks smtp.aegee.org gets overloaded and temporary does not accept new mails. Shall it happen, please retry later to send your message.
Alternative approaches
Sending mail from a non-existent mailbox is not a mystery and all the spammers make use of it. Naturally there are also other providers, which allow you to send mails from your @aegee.org address. Usually such providers keep their address as an envelope sender, and put an additional Sender: mail header, telling the real mailbox you use. This might lead to problems when writing to a mailing list. To avoid them, use smtp.aegee.org as smtp server.
If it happens one day to be in the AEGEE Headoffice in Bruessel, use mail.ho.aegee.void as smtp server. You don't need to authenticate, and messages from arbitrary email addresses can be send.
There is locally installable software, allowing you to send mails from every e-mail address. The problem with them is, that your computer is used to submit the email and it has a dynamic-ip. A lot of antispam software increases the spamminess of mails comming dinamic-IPs.
As an alternative option for travellers, there is web smtp client at https://webmail.aegee.org/. Log in with your aegee.org account, followed by @aegee.org and the corresponding password. Clicking on "new message" lets you send mail from your aegee.org address. Keep in mind to send yourself a copy, as the sent messages are not stored on the server.
As last resort, there is a travellers' version for mobile devices - https://webmail.aegee.org/.
Future expansion
Even if aegeeserv accepts only mails from the aegee.org domain, it could send messages coming from other domains. The service will be offered when huge interest is shown. Prerequirement would be, that all users who want to send mails from the other domains have an aegee.org account.
Contact
This page is written with the intention to be as detailed as possible, and leave no space for misunderstanding. If reading it, something is still left unclear for you, feel free to contact mail <at> aegee dot org . You can address there any questions related to the electronic mail in AEGEE, including mailing lists.
Written in March 2007, by Дилян Палаузов, last update 20070411.