A: The POP3 server is where your email account exists, this is where you log on and download your incoming messages from. Our POP3 server is called mail.atc.no.
Q: What is an "SMTP" server, and why do I need one?
A: The SMTP server is used to send email to other people.
For certain reasons we won't go into here, you must always use an
SMTP server operated by the same company you connect to the Internet via.
This means if you use Telenor ADSL, you must use an email server operated by Telenor.
Our SMTP server is called mail.atc.no.
(Yes, it's the same computer as we use for POP3)
Q: What is "IMAP"?
A: IMAP is used to read email stored at the mail server, but unlike
POP3 the messages stay on the server, organized in "folders" analogous
to the folders commonly used in email programs.
The advantage is that you can access those folders from any computer,
the disadvantage is that it's slightly more complicated to set up and
you must stay online while reading the email, much like a "webmail" solution.
Our IMAP server is called mail.atc.no.
Q: Do you support POP3 and IMAP over SSL?
A: Yes.
Q: How do I open a new account with Ano-Tech Computers?
A: We no longer offer any commercial services, accounts are available for
members and family only.
Q: What happened to your loopback service?
A: We used to offer such a service by which you could send a specially
formatted email to a particular address and get an automated response for
diagnostic purposes. Unfortunately, we had to remove this service because of
frequent abuse.
Q: What is the difference between an "account" and an "alias"?
A: An email account is like a Post Office box, it has an address associated
with it and messages are stored in it so you can pick them up at your
convenience using an email program. An alias is an additional email
address that does not have a Post Office box of its own but instead refers
to one or more accounts. Example: johndoe@atc.no and janedoe@atc.no
may have one personal account each, but if you send an email to thedoes@atc.no
then that message could be delivered to both accounts.
Aliases are usually provided for free, while accounts cost money because
they require disk space for message storage.
Q: How can I protect myself against virus in email?
A: First of all, 99% of all virus email does not become active until
you click on the attached virus file. Unless you expected to receive
that particular file from that person, contact the sender or simply delete
the email without opening it. If more people would follow this rule,
virus email would not be a problem. Secondly, get proper antivirus software,
and make sure you update it frequently (atleast once a week). Thirdly,
our mail servers automatically filter out MOST potentially harmful
attachments. We say "MOST" because while MS Office documents (.doc, .xls etc)
can carry so-called "macro viruses", we do not block those file formats.
Also, certain viruses use malformed email headers to "hide" dangerous files in the message.
Finally, we use Norman Virus Control to scan all email for known viruses,
but even this is not 100% bullet proof.
Q: How can I protect myself against SPAM?
A: The short answer is: You can't. Spammers use all sorts of techniques to
find valid email addresses, either by searching the web, by hacking
or exchanging information with websites where you have registered,
by monitoring mailing lists or simply by guessing. This is usually
done by automatic systems, and while some people will advice you to
"hide" your email in various ways (for instance by typing
johndoe at atc dot no or nospam-johndoe@atc.no)
believe me... spammers are not that stupid, they know all the tricks.
Also, changing your email address is like moving to another house
because a salesman rang your doorbell; It won't really solve anything
and it makes it harder for your friends to keep in touch.
But all is not lost. Our mail servers use an advanced set of filters
called SpamAssassin to detect and "tag" spam messages.
Q: Is it safe to send confidential information via email?
A: No. Everything you type in an ordinary email message can be intercepted
and viewed by unauthorized persons with very little effort.
Because of this, you should never ever send confidential or sensitive
information via email unless you use some form of strong encryption.
Even with proper encryption your data is never 100% safe, it will just
take more time for an attacker to decipher the information.
Q: Do you offer a webmail solution?
A: Yes, this is found in our Inventory system.
If you have a POP3 account with us, just send us an email at
support@atc.no
and ask for webmail access.