This tutorial explains how to create free (no cost) email account at BitMessage E-mail and setup it in mail client with IMAP mode on Ubuntu. The mail client used here is Thunderbird, which is only an example as you can apply same steps to Icedove and other mail clients. You will get @bitmessage.ch mail address, which can send/receive emails to regular emails such as @gmail.com and @yahoo.com, and with ability to delete your account permanently. Happy emailing!
About Privacy and BitMessage
We are all more aware today about our online privacy since the global surveillance 2013 case. Because of this awareness, we may want alternative to Gmail service owned by Google, and some of us will have difficulties to find such gratis (no cost) service with IMAP/POP feature, with privacy protection. BitMessage E-mail Gateway is an email provider hosted in Switzerland recommended by PrivacyTools.io, PRISM Break, and PRXBX (checked 4 July 2018). It's free (no cost) and it supports IMAP/POP client, a very rare feature of privacy-oriented gratis service.
Summary
- Sign up: https://bitmessage.ch/register
- Webmail login: https://bitmessage.ch/webmail.html
- Alias creation: https://bitmessage.ch/alias
- Client setup guide: https://bitmessage.ch/faq.html
- TOS: https://bitmessage.ch/terms.html
- List of features: https://bitmessage.ch
- Account removal: https://bitmessage.ch/delete
1. Sign Up
Register a new account at https://bitmessage.ch/register. The registration is quite instant.
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| Registration page |
2. You Get An Email Account @bitmessage.ch
Check your mail inbox you used to register. Your username and password for BitMessage Mail is there (if not, check your Spam Box). The mail address you get looks like BM-2cUblablabla@bitmessage.ch, it is not so cool, and it is always started with BM-. But you can change this address with a cool alias like john@bitmessage.ch for example.
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| Your email address and password delivered |
3. Change Your Password
- Login to Profile Page https://bitmessage.ch/MailAdmin.
- Change your mail account's password.
- Logout.
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| Changing password in BitMessage Mail Admin page |
4. Create Your Cool Alias
You can create a cool alias like john@bitmessage.ch per account. An alias is equivalent to your Gmail/Yahoo! Mail address, like john@gmail.com, instead of the hard-to-remember BM-2cUblablabla@bitmessage.ch. You can use this alias to send/receive emails with your regular email friends! Go to Alias Page https://bitmessage.ch/alias and have on for yourself.
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| Creating an easy to remember email alias |
5. Setup Mail Client with IMAP
- Open up your Thunderbird Mail Client.
- Create new mail account or open the Mail Account Setup.
- Type your BM-address (not the cool alias address) as username, and your BitMessage password as password > Continue.
- Thunderbird will automatically guess IMAP/POP address based on your credentials. The guess is incorrect so we need to edit it below.
- Click Manual Config button > change imap.bitmessage.ch into mail.bitmessage.ch > change smtp.bitmessage.ch into mail.bitmessage.ch as well > leave the rest untouched > Done.
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| Only change Incoming and Outgoing addresses |
Finally, setup your alias in Thunderbird: right-click your email account on left panel > Settings > enter your alias to both Account Name: and Email address: fields > OK.
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| Final setting: make yourself can send/receive with cool alias! |
You will have Thunderbird looks like this after setting:
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| See the mail alias? Yes, that is! |
Note: do you want POP setting instead? Just change the selection to POP instead of IMAP in the beginning of configuration above.
Send and Receive Emails!
All done! Now you can send emails to your Gmail/Yahoo! friends. And your friends can send emails to you as well once they know your coolalias@bitmessage.ch address.
Sending email:
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| I'm sending email to regular email |
Receiving email:
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| I've got a mail from regular email! |
Login to Webmail
You cannot use your alias for webmail login. Use your BM- address instead.
Yes, like Gmail, BitMessage Email also provides webmail. Login to https://bitmessage.ch/roundcube using your BM- address. You will get a familiar, nice webmail interface similar to Gmail's one.
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| User friendly webmail for us |
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.