SECURE MAIL ACCESS

Proceed to webmail

In order to improve the security of our servers, mail access now uses SSL encryption. Few steps are necessary to set up your browser or mail client to use secure connection. These steps need to be done only once.

Instructions for Firefox
Instructions for Internet Explorer
Instructions for Thunderbird

Firefox

1. When you access the secure page on bones.swmed.edu for the first time, you will see This Connection is Untrusted page. This is because our site uses self-signed SSL certificate. Click I Understand the Risks.



2. The page will expand showing more options. Click Add Exception button.



3. A dialog box will appear, please disregard warnings it contains. Make sure that the checkbox Permanently store this exception is checked and click Confirm Security Exception.



Done! Firefox will now remember the certificate of bones.swmed.edu and will allow you to use the secure connection without further warnings.

Proceed to webmail

Internet Explorer

When you access the secure page on bones.swmed.edu, you will see the following warning page. This is because our site uses self-signed SSL certificate. Please ignore the warning and click Continue to this website (not recommended).



After this the site will work fine, but Internet Explorer will remember your choice only until you close the program. If you later visit any secure page on our server, the warning will be displayed again. There is a way to permanently import the SSL certificate into Internet Explorer, but it is quite cumbersome. Please follow the instructions below at your discretion.

Proceed to webmail

How to permanently add an SSL certificate to Internet Explorer

1. Go to Start menu, right click on Internet Explorer and select Run as administrator. (You may need to click All Programs in order to view Internet Explorer line.)



A window titled User Account Control may pop up. If it does, click Continue.

2. In the Internet Explorer navigate to one of our secure pages, e.g. https://bones.swmed.edu/webmail or https://bones.swmed.edu/zolab-wiki . You will get a warning page, click Continue to this website (not recommended).



3. The page will load, but the address bar will have red color and will display Certificate Error. Click on Certificate Error and then on View certificates in the drop-down box.



4. In the following window click Install Certificate.



5. A wizard window will show up, click Next.



6. Select Place all certificates in the following store and click Browse.



7. Select Trusted Root Certification Authorities and click OK.



8. You will return to the previous window. Make sure that your selection is listed as a certificate store, and click Next.



9. Click Finish.



10. A security warning may pop up. If it does, click Yes.



11. You should get a message saying that the import was successful. Click OK.



12. You will return to the certificate window. Press OK.



13. Exit Internet Explorer. (Remember that you were running it as administrator, which is unsafe.) Close all remaining instances of Internet Explorer.

14. Start Internet Explorer again (as normal user) and navigate to one of secure pages on bones.swmed.edu. The page should display without security warnings. If warnings appear, this means that some part of Internet Explorer was not closed properly in the previous step. In this case, please reboot your computer and repeat this step.

Proceed to webmail

Thunderbird

1. If you try to retrieve mail, but cannot connect to the mail server, the likely reason is that you use plain connection rather than an encrypted one. To change this, click on your account name and then on View settings for this account.



2. The Account Settings window will appear. Click on Server Settings.



3. In Server Settings window click TLS. Make sure that port number is the same as the default value (for IMAP this should be 143, for POP - 110). Click OK.



4. You can now try to retrieve mail. On first attempt you will get a message window as below. Please disregard the warnings, select Accept this certificate permanently and click OK.



Done! Thunderbird will now remember the certificate of work.swmed.edu and will allow you to use the secure connection without further warnings.