Getting Started with Zimbra

As a user of Zimbra you can acess your email, calendar and contacts in several different ways by using different email clients.  You can always use Zimbra's own web-based email client thourgh your web browser.  Alternatively, you can use most other email clients including Microsoft Outlook, Apple iMail, Entourage or Thunderbird.

Web client

Zimbra has an excellent web client that has pretty much all the functionality of Zimbra (see below). You can access it from anywhere with an internet connection.

We recommend you use Firefox 2 to access Zimbra. You can also use Firefox 1.5, Internet Explorer 6 or Internet Explorer 7. Other browsers may not work correctly with the standard Zimbra web client, but there is a basic client that will work fine..

1. Point your web browser at http://mail.gozimbra.com (your url may be different, e.g. http://mail.mycompany.com). You may be prompted to accept a certificate, do that and accept the certificate permanently if you can (depends on your browser).

2. Enter your name and password. The name is everything before the @ in your email address.

3. You should now see the main Zimbra client screen.

IMAP client

You can also access your Zimbra mail by IMAP from many email clients. We recommend Thunderbird but most clients that support IMAP will work fine. Reasons to use an IMAP client include the ability to configure it to keep local copies of your mail (so you can access old emails without an internet connection), you can set your "from" email address to be whatever you want and you can have HTML signatures in your emails (which the web client doesn't yet support, though we expect it to in the next few months).

This example uses gozimbra.com: please replace with your domain name.

To set up your account in Thunderbird :

1. Edit -> Account Settings -> Add an account -> Email account

2. For identity, fill in your name and email address (e.g. name@gozimbra.com)

3. Type of incoming server is IMAP, incoming server is mail.the-hub.net

4. Account information is up to you.

5. Incoming username is name@gozimbra.com (note, this is your full email address; the domain will differ if you've got your own company domain). Outgoing username is the same.

6. Set the account name to whatever you want.

7. You're set up but there's an extra bit of configuration : you need to connect using SSL for security. On The main account settings pane, find your Account, select "server settings" and under "Security settings" select "SSL".

8. Click on OK. Now highlight your account and click on "Get Mail". You'll probably be prompted to accept a certificate (accept it permanently) and to enter your password (do so). You should now see your mailboxes and accounts. If you don't you've probably made a configuration error so check your settings.

Sending mail

Mail sent from the Zimbra web client will always go via Zimbra: no configuration is needed.

If you use another email client such as Thunderbird, you need to specify an SMTP server in the configuration (The SMTP server is the computer that sends your emails to other people and need not be the same as the computer that delivers mail to you) .  Here you have two options:

1. You can use the SMTP server your ISP has specified, in which case follow the instructions your ISP has given you.

2. Our hosted Zimbra service includes Authenticated SMTP, meaning you can send email via Zimbra from anywhere.   In this case, you set the SMTP server to be the same as the receiving server (e.g. mail.gozimbra.com) and set your mail client to use TLS (this should be an option you can click).  You need to enter your username which is your full email address (e.g. sandy@gozimbra.com) and your account password.  You may be prompted to accept a certificate when you first send email (you should accept).

Forwarding mail

If you already have an email service you're happy with, you might like to continue just forwarding your email from Zimbra to there. Mail forwarding can be configured from the Zimbra web client.

Using multiple methods to access mail

There's nothing stopping you accessing your mail with the web client and an IMAP client, even at the same time. For example, you might want to use an IMAP client for everyday use and then a web client when you're away from your normal computer.

You can also log onto the web client multiple times if, for example, you want to have mail and calendar views open in front of you at the same time.  Just use different browser tabs or windows for each session.

Firefox can be downloaded legally and at no cost from http://www.getfirefox.com Thunderbird can be downloaded legally and at no cost from http://www.getthunderbird.com

Functions missing from web client

Whether you use the Zimbra web client will depend on personal preference.  You might prefer to use another mail client, or you might use the web client in addition to other methods.  However, there are some functions that are currently missing from the web client.

1. The web client currently only supports plain text email signatures; most email clients support HTML signatures too.

2. Currently, the web client is unable to be used offline (this is due to change with the Zimbra Desktop, currently in testing).  If you want to keep an offline copy of your email on your computer, use an email client like Thunderbird with IMAP and configure it to keep a copy.