Air-Stream Members receive an email account when they join, which is to be used for all formal correspondence within the group. The username you provided on your application form is used to set up your account, full details are emailed to your alternate address when it is created.
To reset your email password, just use the Member Control Panel.
Secure Mail Access
Air-Stream mail services are configured to use TLS/SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connections. This provides a secure medium for your mail application to communicate with the server, and is required for access via the wireless network.
All secure Air-Stream services use certificates that are signed by the "Air-Stream Certificate Authority". To remove the warning pop up you receive in your browser/email client, you need to add the Air-Stream Root Certificate to your software's keychain. This will allow your software to correctly verify any certificates signed by Air-Stream.
See Securing Air-Stream Services with TLS/SSL for more information.
SPAM filtering
Please see SPAM Filtering Usage page for more information.
Web Mail
Secure mail services can be accessed from anywhere via an Internet web browser, by visiting this address: https://mail.air-stream.org.
* If you are having difficulty with the configuration of your favorite mail application, try using the Web Mail as fall back for support, or to contact the committee.
Retrieving mail via IMAP
When using IMAP protocol your email client connects to the server and views messages directly, downloading them only if required. Messages are usually left on the server until deleted at a later stage. IMAP is used by the WebMail client.
Incoming IMAP Server: mail.air-stream.org
Username: your Air-Stream username
Password: your Air-Stream password
IMAP Prefix: none
* Service available on insecure port 143 from the Internet or secure port 993 from the Internet or wireless network.
* Clients connecting from the wireless network must enable 'SSL' in their mail clients.
Retrieving mail via POP3
POP3 is the most common external mail retrieval method. The client checks for new messages on the server and downloads them, after which they are deleted from the server. Optionally they can be left on the server for a period before deletion (configured in your email client).
Incoming POP Server: mail.air-stream.org
Username: your Air-Stream username
Password: your Air-Stream password
* Service available on insecure port 110 from the Internet or secure port 995 from the Internet or wireless network.
* Clients connecting from the wireless network must enable 'SSL' and use port 995.
See this page for instructions on how to do this in most common email clients.
Sending mail via SMTP
Air-Stream's mail server uses Authenticated SMTP with TLS encryption.
What this means is that in order to relay mail through the Air-Stream server (send to non Air-Stream accounts) you must configure your mail application to login with your username and password first. To ensure these credentials are kept safe, this must be done over a secure channel (using TLS/SSL). Most email clients support this feature, by entering your username and password when specifying the SMTP server. There is usually also a tick box selection for the use of TLS or SSL.
Outgoing SMTP Server: mail.air-stream.org
Username: your Air-Stream username
Password: your Air-Stream password
* Relaying is only available to authenticated clients.
* Relaying is available using TLS on port 25 from the Internet or secure port 465 from the Internet or wireless network.
* Clients connecting from the wireless network must enable 'SSL' and use port 465.
If you have any comments or questions please contact the committee
Email Accounts
Remember to use your Air-Stream Wireless member email account, as this is one of your key contact points to important information and other members:
- The members [at] Air-Stream mail list is a great way keep in touch with other members, ask questions, report problems or offer help.
- It provides easy proof of membership for member discounts and many other benefits.
- It ensures your kept up-to-date on important information and what other members are doing.
- Email is multi-homed Wireless and Internet, so you can use it no matter where you are.
Note: If you are having any difficulties using your member e-mail or jabber accounts or you have forgotten your LDAP details please contact committee and we'll fix it for you ASAP.
Mail List
A mail list is a list of e-mail addresses identified by a single name, when an e-mail message is sent to the mailing list name, it is automatically forwarded to all the addresses in the list.
For members of Air-Stream Wireless an e-mail to the name "members" the e-mail will be sent to all other Air-Stream members who have an active email account. To prevent spam being sent to this address and so all other members, only an active member account may send emails to this name.
SPAM Filtering Usage
Air-Stream Mail Services now utilise the DSPAM content filtering package to filter incoming emails.
DSPAM is another fine open source product, see the SourceForge project page for more info: http://dspam.sourceforge.net.
How it Works
As emails arrive they are identified as spam or not spam and tagged with a special signature so that the system can remember its choice. You can see this signature along with some other info if you view the message headers:
X-DSPAM-Result: Innocent X-DSPAM-Processed: Tue Aug 18 18:21:18 2009 X-DSPAM-Confidence: 0.9899 X-DSPAM-Probability: 0.0000 X-DSPAM-Signature: 4a8a6b86266376863418247
Since the DSPAM starts out knowing nothing, initially it thinks nothing is spam, so users are required to train the filter by telling it what is and is not spam. This is done by either moving the falsely identified message to a special folder, or forwarding them to the DSPAM system for retraining. DSPAM then reads the signature from the email and uses it to change its decision about that message.
After a bit of training, DSPAM will be able to accurately recognise spam messages. To ensure it doesn't filter out any of your legitimate mail you should check the SPAM folder regularly, read on to find out how.
Checking the SPAM Filter
When a message arrives that is identified as spam it will prefix the subject line with the word [SPAM] and moved it into a special "SPAM" folder within your Inbox. To check what's in this folder simply log onto the Web Mail or have a look in your IMAP client.
Use the training methods below if you find DSPAM is incorrectly tagging your messages.
Training the Filter: Method 1
As with any learning content filter, occasionally the system gets it wrong and either doesn't tag a message a spam when it really is (false-negative), or tags it as SPAM when it really isn't (false-positive).
For those of you who use IMAP or Web Mail, training the filter is simple. A new namespace called "Public" has been created, with 2 folders HAMLEARN and SPAMLEARN. Users can move messages into these folders and they will be used to retrain the system periodically, then removed. These folders are visible by all users so keep in mind that anything you move there can be seen by others.
SPAMLEARN: Move false-negatives into this folder. If a spam makes it into your inbox, you should put it here.
HAMLEARN: Move false-positives into this folder. If a legitimate message is filtered out of your inbox (you found it in the SPAM folder), you should put it here (as long as you don't mind everyone being able to read it). Alternatively see Method 2 below.
Training the Filter: Method 2
As an alternative to the above method, you can also forward any falsely identified emails to the following addresses:
ham _at_ air-stream dot org: For false-positives.
spam _at_ air-stream dot org: For false-negatives.
If you use this method, ensure that the email is being forwarded in its entirety, with all email headers included.