All about Email

Many people regard email as the most important part of the internet and at Orpheus we're no different. We treat your email just as importantly as you do, aiming to provide a fast, reliable and secure service to all our subscribers.

However, sometimes it can be a bit of a maze setting up your computer in order to receive and send your emails smoothly. Different computer systems and different email software can all provide their share of puzzles and configuration issues. We aim to support most variations of systems, but always strive to provide generic help so that you can not only configure your system efficiently, but also learn a bit of how email works along the way.

Once your connection is working correctly and you can connect to the internet, there are two ways to get your email; The first is the usual way of downloading your email into your favourite email program on your computer and the second can be used if you're travelling around the world or just want to quickly check your emails on a friends computer, and that's to access the WebMail system via any web browser.

1. Using an email client
Email uses a protocol known as POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and is downloaded by your computer by a Mail Transport Agent (MTA) and then viewed by an email client such as Pluto, Thunderbird or Outlook Classic.

One incoming mail server is a POP3 and is called pop.orpheusnet.co.uk we also have a server type IMAP and this is called imap.orpheusnet.co.uk

Note for advanced users:
POP uses port 110,995 so you may need to ensure that any firewall you have in use allows incoming traffic on this port. IMAP uses ports 143,993.

RISC OS Voyager users should ensure that they are using the Orpheus updated version of !Voyager, as the original Argonet supplied version does not connect to our mail server and will not work. For more information on Voyager, click here.

RISC OS Ant Suite users should ensure that the mail server name has /ucb appended to the end of the incoming mail server name, thus in the mail setup ensure that the mail server name is given as pop.orpheusnet.co.uk/ucb

Deleting mail from the Orpheus server
To avoid leaving copies of all your messages on our server, which will eventually clog up your mailbox or result in you downloading the same messages again and again each time you do a new mail fetch, you should check your email software to make sure any option to delete mail from server is ticked, or enabled. Conversely, some software words it in the opposite sense, such as leave mail on server in which case you should untick the option - so you need to examine your email settings carefully.

Some computers default to one way and some default to the other way. Apple's new OS X system's 'Mail' application for example, leaves messages on the server as the default option. This is one area to check if you find that messages are repeatedly downloaded each time you connect.

Note on deleting mail from the server:
Mail is only deleted from the server when you actually logout after downloading new mail. If you find that you have a long message and abort the fetch by disconnecting mid-download, this hasn't logged out 'cleanly', so will no delete the messages, allowing you to download them again, from the beginning, next time you connect. This is intentional and is for security reasons should you accidentally disconnect either via pulling a cable out or losing signal (if checking via mobile phone etc). Messages are only deleted AFTER they've been successfully downloaded to your computer.
If you have a very long message that is clogging up your email, or you're using a slow modem and don't wish do download it, you can connect to the WebMail system and delete it from there, without downloading it.

2. Using WebMail

All Orpheus subscribers have access to our WebMail system, which means you can check your emails from anywhere in the world, via a standard web browser interface. You can also examine your mailbox without actually downloading all your messages - which is handy if someone has sent you an excessively long email and you don't want to wait for it to download via the conventional method described above.

Note for !Voyager users:
Voyager automatically attempts to download mail via POP (above) whenever you connect to the internet. This prevents you connecting to WebMail, so you should disable the automatic mail fetch in Voyager before you go online.
To do this, go to the Preferences -> User... and tick the Disable mail usage BEFORE you connect to the internet. This will stop Voyager downloading mails automatically and will give you time to connect to WebMail and check your emails.
Once you've finished, you can go back into the preferences and re-enable mail ready for next time you wish to connect normally.

To connect to WebMail, simply point your web browser at http://email.orpheusnet.co.uk (note, no www) and login using your Orpheus POP username and password (see your original letter providing account details). You should also ensure that 'cookies' are enabled in your web browser, as WebMail requires these in order to work correctly.

Once you've logged in, you should be able to view all your messages and delete any that are long or not required.

If using WebMail for the very first time, you should familiarise yourself with the various settings, including the personal preferences. It's important to set your return email address so that any messages you send via the WebMail system are addressed correctly with your return email address.

This can be set by clicking on the Options link at the top of the screen once you've successfully logged in. This will take you to the various options available. Now click on the Personal Information link. On the following screen you can set your personal information such as your email address, optional reply to address (if different from your email address) and an optional signature (which will be added at the bottom of all your emails). There are various other options too, but these are self-explanatory and can be set/unset for personal preference.

Once you've set all the values you require, remember to click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen, which will save the settings for future use.

Click on the INBOX link on the left hand navigation panel to return to your mailbox.

When you've finished with the WebMail system, you should always log out correctly by clicking on the Sign Out link in the top right hand corner.

3. Using Roundcube

Over the last few years we have added to our Webmail offering with Roundcube another web based e-mail client available from our website. This is a more fully featured webmail system with more options it is available to all Orpheus customers and this option is also for our domain customers who have the details in there domain pdf. Usage is similar to the older webmail and should feel fairly straightforward. If you follow the general priciples as detailed above you will be able to use it quite quickly.

There are a good deal more features such as colour coding, out of office replies and filtering. With these and the fact this is an up to date piece of software which is still supported make this a good opotion for customers wishing to use a webmail system.

4. Sending Emails

Sending out emails uses a protocol known as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

Note for advanced users:
SMTP uses ports 25,465,587 so you may need to ensure that any firewall you have in use allows outgoing traffic on these ports.

Our older outgoing mail server is called smtp.orpheusnet.co.uk and now does use authenticated login. Authentication is done by username and password as given to you when you opened your account with Orpheus.

We have an additional server for non Orpheus ADSL/Fibre customers. This outgoing mail server is called smtp2.genesysnet.co.uk and uses authentication by the user/password combination.

RISC OS Voyager users should again ensure that they are using the Orpheus updated version of !Voyager, because the original Argonet version does not connect to our smtp server and will not work. This software is now very old and this information is here for Archive purposes

Additional support
Using the Ant Suite with Orpheus email (Archive)
Configuring POPStar under RISC OS
Configuring !NetFetch/Hermes under RISC OS
Configuring !Voyager under RISC OS (Archive)

Technical Support - Email Thursday February 5, 2026 - 17:56:50
Home Newsgroups Connectivity Hosting VoIP Payment E-Mail WebMail Roundcube Contact