How to make email work for you
When you subscribe to Internet connectivity through ILS, you automatically get a free mail account and free use of the ILS mail servers.
Your ILS mail is free, and you can choose to use it or not to use it.
There are other free mail services that you may want to use: Hotmail, Gmail, Qmail, YahooMail, all work well with connectivity through ILS. If you use a mail service other than ILS, please notify accounts@ils.net of your non-ILS email address, so you still receive your invoices and other important notices from ILS.
Setting a Mail Program - Windows Live Mail, MacMail and others
There are dozens of different free mail programs available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The most common ones already installed are: Windows XP: Outlook Express Windows Vista: Windows Mail Windows 7: Windows Live Mail Mac OS: MacMail Linux: Thunderbird, Evolution
The settings needed for all mail programs are the same: username (account), password, Incoming (POP3 or IMAP) mail server, Outgoing (SMTP) mail server.
Incoming (POP3 or IMAP) mail server:
Server name: mail.ils.net
Port: 110 (POP3) or 143 (IMAP)
Security: none
Authentication: clear text password
Outgoing (SMTP) mail server:
Server Name: mail.ils.net
Port: 25
Security: none
Authentication: no authentication
The ILS Incoming mail server will allow you to check your mail from any computer (non-ILS-connectivity). If you are not sure whether to use POP3 or IMAP, use POP3.
The ILS Outgoing mail server will allow only ILS connected machines to send mail. Example: Your iPhone when connected to your ILS based home WiFi network can send mail. When it is connected through its Telus or Bell 3G celllular, it has to use Telus or Bell Outgoing mail server.
The mail servers have limited quotas for each user. Save all important mail in your own computer and clean up your server mail folders so you will never reach your quota.
The ILS mail service heavily filtered for mass mailing, viruses, etc. Do not send mass mail of any kind. We will not be able to help you if you get blacklisted by the International Spam Filter organizations.
Using ILS WebMail
The ILS WebMail is a handy "works anywhere" mail client that does not need installation or settings. It is fast, works through any connectivity. However it has limitations in displaying multimedia or handling mail attachments.
The easiest way to access your ILS mail account is through our home page. Start a web browser, go to http://www.ils.net/ and click the ILS WebMail link. You come to the login page. Type in your username - not email address - just username in lower case letters, no spaces or extra characters. Then the password.
The ILS webmail window opens up. On the left you see the different folders, the first one being INBOX. WebMail opens in INBOX. In the middle of the window, you see messages that have arrived for you.
To read a message, click on the message itself. To get back to the INBOX, click "Message list". Mark messages by checking the little box in front of them, from the right click "Delete". If there are no messages, it says "this folder is empty".
To send a mail: click compose, a new window opens up. Easy. Type in the receivers email address in the To: field, add a subject then the message itself to the text area. When you are done, click "Send".
Deleted messages are not really deleted. They are stored in the "Trash" folder, just in case. Keep the Trash and other folders trimmed. Delete all unwanted mail from your folders as often as possible because once the quota is reached, mail stops working.
Note that the mail folders are in our server, not in your computer. Below each message, you have the option "to download this as a file" to your own computer. This is very important, the mail folders are for temporary keeping only. ILS takes no responsibility of mail left in the ILS mail server.
You can access your ILS Webmail from anywhere, any computer that is connected to the Internet and has a working web browser in it. The Webmail is great for those who get a few messages per day, mostly text based mail. If you want to send and receive attachments, and handle a large number of messages, you should use a mail program installed in your computer (see below).