This tutorial is intended to assist users who have received an email account through a WDCI service including particularly @securesurfing.net email addresses. Parts of the tutorial are similar, but different from other email address services, in particular the web mail component and the mail server addresses. Most images will display a larger version by clicking on them. To minimize the amount of graphics, some images are linked. Most of the links in this tutorial display an image of the specific actions described.

If you do not feel you need in detail instructions, jump to the Quick Guide.

The first thing you should do on receiving your new email address is to log in through the Web Mail Interface and change your password. You may also set up filters and make other configuration adjustments as you see fit.

The address for your webmail will be your service domainname/webmail. For example, if your email address is for the domain securesurfing.net, then you will find your webmail login at http://securesurfing.net/webmail . If your address is a private one, such as your personal or business name, then the web mail log in will be http://yourname.com.webmail. Throughout when we use securesurfing.net, just substitute your own domain. The first time you visit this address you will be prompted for a couple of things. If you have cookies controlled to ask for permission every time, you will see the cookie request prompt.

You will notice that the cookie is not for your own domain address. It will be for whatever server provider WDCI has employed to host WDCI’s various services. At the time of this tutorial, the server providing securesurfing.net email is demeter.lunarmania.com, a LunarPages server.

You should Allow the cookie and apply it to all cookies from this web site.

Depending on the browser you are using and how you have it configured you may also receive a Security Warning. This happens, quite properly, when a secure site is being access with a different address than the one you typed into your browser. So if you typed securesurfing.net/webmail, the browser may note that it is being connected through demeter.lunarmania.com and ask you if you really want to do that. Answer yes, and set an exception rule if necessary in the browser.

It will be necessary in Thunderbird as you will see during this tutorial.

Once you have allowed cookies and handled any certificate exceptions, you will be asked for your username and password. On Windows 7 it should look like the graphic. On Win XP and Linux/Mac systems you will see a different dialogue, often titled “Authorization Required.”

Enter the username and password you were provided for you new email address.

You will then be logged in to your web mail control panel with various options available. You first job is to change your password to one that only you know and of course, which is strong enough to be secure but also one that you can remember.

So to begin with, disregard the other options and choose change password. This will be the password you use in your email client, such as Thunderbird in this tutorial or Outlook or other client.

NOTE: If you are not going to use Thunderbird, then you will see the Configure Mail client option on your control panel. You can choose to use that instead of this tutorial.

Note However to be careful about choosing the right information for your needs.

Once you have changed your password, you can check out the options available on your control panel.

One option is to instruct the service to forward all emails addressed to you at this account to your existing primary email account. Doing this will void the need to set up a second account in your email client, but it will also mean that any time you reply to email received through this account, the reply will come from your existing account.

To be clear, let’s say before you receive your new address you have an existing email account: tom@existing.add and your new address is tom@securesurfing.net. You can tell the service to forward all mail addressed to tom@securesurfing.net to tom@existing.add.

If someone sends an email to tom@securesurfing.net your existing.add account will receive it and deliver it to you as any other email it receives. But if you reply, the reply will come from tom@existing.add, not from tom@securesurfing.net.

This may or may not matter to you but if one of your purposes is to maintain a business presence so the domain is not securesurfing.net but something like farmlibrary.com, then you want yourbusines.com doing the replying, not your pre-existing email address. If your purpose is protecting your anonymity or defending against spam, then you want your replies to come from securesurfing.net not your primary email address. This means you would NOT enable forwarding, but set up the new account in your email client. Continue the tutorial on page 2…