Tag Archives: mail

Secure DreamHost Mail Settings

Even though the settings aren’t listed on http://wiki.dreamhost.com/POP3_Accounts, DreamHost supports secure POP3, IMAP, SNMP, and webmail access.

  • Server: mail.dreamhost.com – use this, because the mailserver’s certificate is issued for this domain name. This works even though DreamHost says to use mail.<yourdomain.com>
  • POP3 using SSL/TLS: Port 993
  • IMAP using SSL/TLS: Port 995
  • SMTP using STARTTLS: Port 587 or 25
  • Webmail: https://webmail.dreamhost.com – Make sure you enter “https:”, because DreamHost does not automatically upgrade a http connection to https.
  • Username: <username>@<yourdomain.com>

If you want to use STARTTLS for POP3 or IMAP, use the following ports:

  • POP3: Port 110
  • IMAP: Port 143

I recommend using SSL/TLS when possible. Since a STARTTLS session begins as plaintext, because it just adds one (admittedly minor) point of attack. You have to perform a SSL/TLS handshake anyway, why expose yourself to the risk of a STARTTLS upgrade failure too?

iPhone Mail – Mark All Read

Here’s a quick tip I ran into a while back. If you’re using Apple’s Mail app on an iPhone, you can mark a messages read by performing the following steps:

  1. Start on the list of messages you want to mark read (e.g Inbox)
  2. Tap the ‘Edit’ button
  3. Select an unread message
  4. Tap and keep your finger on the ‘Mark’ button
  5. Deselect the selected message (while continuing to hold down the ‘Mark’ button)
  6. Release the ‘Mark’ button and tap ‘As Read’
  7. Mail will mark all of your messages as read

There is no way to undo this