The first time you run KMail, you are faced with the Kontact main window, the mail section being selected. Access the -> sub-menu to bring up the configuration window. It is organized as a list of categories (on the left) and the configuration options for each of those categories (on the right). First, an identity[5] must be defined under the Identities category. KMail offers you a template for the default identity based on your system's account data (login, name, etc.). Click on the button and, in the General tab, fill Your name, Organization and Email address with your data (see Figure 8.1, “Setting General User Parameters”).
Use the Cryptography, Advanced and Signature tabs to set up other parameters such as different “Reply-To” addresses, a GPG key for secure message transmission, and so on. Once you are satisfied with your settings, click on and then on : your default identity will be defined.
To configure the mail servers, select the Network category. In the Sending tab click on the button, select SMTP as the transport type and click on . In the General tab, fill the Name field with a meaningful name for this server and the Host field with the SMTP server's name or IP address (see Figure 8.2, “Setting the Outgoing Mail Server”). The remaining fields can be left with their default values.
To receive mail, you need to create at least one account. In the Receiving tab click on the button, select POP3 as the account type[6] and click on . In the General tab, complete the Name field with a meaningful one for this account and the Host field with the name or IP address of the POP3 server. Your ISP should have provided you with an e-mail user name and password which have to be entered in the Login and Password fields. Put a check mark in the Store POP Password in configuration file to avoid having to type the password each time messages are retrieved (see Figure 8.3, “Configuring a POP3 Mail Account”)[7]. If you use many computers to access your e-mail with a POP3 account, you should check the Leave fetched messages on the server option. That way you can access messages which you already downloaded from another computer. Click on to add the account.
If you want KMail to handle more than one mail account just repeat the above procedure for each extra account. Once you are satisfied with your settings, click on . KMail is now ready to read and send mail on the Internet.
[5] If you have more than one e-mail address, for example one for your work and a private one, it is useful to create a different identity for each of them.
[6] Since almost all ISPs provide POP3 accounts to retrieve mail, we used it in our example. If you have another account type, such as an IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol) one, the configuration will differ slightly.
[7] However please understand that this means anyone can actually access your e-mails if they are using your user account.