PARKBITS.COM

Internet services for the discriminating user

 Frustrated user

Account Setup Information

Email Setup
Email Client:
 To setup an email client on your PC, you will need to enter
  1. Your new email address
  2. Your new account (user) name
  3. the incoming email server
  4. the outgoing email server (usually)
You will also need to enter your new password, usually when you first access the account.  Use the email address, account name, and password as shown in your accout setup message.  Use the incoming and outgoing servers as shown below.
Webmail Access
 For webmail access, you will need your new account name and password.  Click here and enter those in the popup window. After your first login, you may want to click on options->personal information and add your full name, signature, etc.  For secure (SSL encrypted) webmail access, use https://mail.opost.com/sqmail/
Email Incoming Server:
 mail.opost.com
You can use IMAP or POP3 protocols.  IMAP is recommended in order to take advantage of spam filtering and other optional features.  You can specify a secure connection (SSL) if available in your email client.
Email Outgoing Server:
 mail.opost.com
If necessary, check the box to indicate that name and password are required for the outgoing server and to use the same as for the incoming server.  (Tech trivia: using a different outgoing server may work some of the time, but some recipient ISPs will bounce mail when the sender domain and the sending server do not match.)
Spam Filtering
Setup:
 Spam filtering using SpamAssassin is available on ParkBits email accounts.  SpamAssassin in an open source system which is aggressively maintained to detect the latest spamming techniques yet have very little chance of a false positive.  Spam filtering can be enabled for any email account by request.  Click here to request spam filtering to be turned on or off for your email account.  With spam filtering enabled, you can choose either of two ways to handle the messages found to be spam:
  1. Put them into your inbox as usual but with "{Spam?}" added to the beginning of the subject line.  This will alert you to spam, and you can also setup filters in your local email software to automatically move the spam messages to a separate folder.
  2. Put them into the folder spamfile on the server. This avoids even downloading the spam messages; yet you can still check for mis-categorized messages if necessary.  For this option, your local email software should be configured to use IMAP to access the ParkBits mail server.  This allows you to keep mail folders on the server, including the spamfile folder.  These features are also available with webmail access to your account.
Controlling spam filtering:
 You can improve the effectiveness of spam filtering by identifying messages which have been incorrectly categorized.  Your email software must be configured to use IMAP to access the mail server.  First, create two new folders named isspam and isnotspam in the same group as your inbox.  Use those names exactly, and be sure to enter them as all lowercase.  Then, when you receive a spam message which was not flagged as such, move or copy it into the isspam folder.  Similarly, if a message is flagged as spam that should not be, copy it into the isnotspam folder.  That's all there is to it.  Twice a day, the server will update the filtering data for your account to include the characteristics of these messages, and the filter will "learn" to do a better job.  You can delete messages in these folders after a day or so.

In addition to the above, you can identify certain addresses as never sending spam.  This is called "whitelisting".  This should be used cautiously, if at all, as many fraudlent and 'phishing' emails are sent using forged names and so may appear to come from a known source.  SpamAssassin will usually identify these as spam but will not do so if the sender address has been whitelisted.  To whitelist addresses, first create a folder named whitelist in the same group as your inbox.  Use that name exactly and be sure to enter it as all lowercase.  Then, to whitelist a sender, copy any message from that sender into the whitelist folder.  As above, the server will update your filtering data twice a day and will never flags as spam a message from a whitelisted address.  If you copy a message to the folder nowhitelist (created as for the folders above), the sender address will be removed from the whitelist.
Web Site Setup
FTP Server:
 ftp.opost.com  Use the name and password provided with your account setup info. Secure ftp (sftp, scp) may also be used.
Directory setup:
 There are four subdirectories initially in your web area:
  • htdocs/ - This is where normal web files should go.  They will have extensions like .htm, .html, .jpg, .gif, .pdf, etc.  You may also use SSI (.shtml) files. There is a default index.html file provided.  This is what browsers get for the url http://www.yourdomain.com/.  You should customize this file first.
  • cgi-bin/ - This is where cgi-bin files typically go.  They will have extensions like .cgi, .pl, etc. Such files may also be placed in the htdocs/ directory if desired.
  • admin/ - Other files can be put here that should not be accessible to web browsers.
  • logs/ - This holds the logs that record activity on your website.  
Normally, there is no reason to put files in your top-level directory.  Any such files cannot be seen by web browsers.


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