Evolution Mail (primarily used on Linux systems, Ubuntu in particular) is a popular email client capable of handling a wide array of email protocols and is a useful tool for managing your online communications. Evolution is a pretty standard alternative to software suites such as Microsoft Outlook but obviously designed for the free open source Linux platforms. This guide will show you the basis on how to set up Evolution mail on your computer:

Accessing the Wizard:

1. In order to access the setup wizard, please click "Edit" followed by "Preferences".

2. The following prompt will then be available, simply click "Add" to begin the Evolution setup wizard.

Accessing the Wizard

1. Upon first launching Evolution or by selecting the Preferences prompt (as shown above) you will be presented with the following screen welcoming you to Evolution. Simply click "Forward".

2. Should the following prompt be displayed, simply ignore and select "Forward". Otherwise please skip to step 3.

3. When prompted with the following screen, please enter your full name as the business name, or alternatively this can be any name you like (it is used to reference the account and as the "Sender"). Also, enter the email account, reply-to account and organisation as required. (Please note that the addresses below are for example use only.) Click "Forward".

4. From the list of available options, please ensure that the "Server Type" is set to "POP". Also, the mail server itself can be referenced as shown below or can be better set to mail.yourdomain.com (yourdomain.com being your actual domain name). The username must be entered as the email account you wish to check, other details must be entered to match those shown below. Click "Forward".

5. Receiving options are completely optional, however, we recommend setting the check time to 10 mins as this is normally sufficient, further, for backup / second access purposes you may wish to leave a copy on the server but we do not recommend doing so for extended periods of time. 7 days is more than suitable in most cases. Click "Forward".

6. The SMTP settings are detailed below, the server must be set to SMTP and the outgoing server can be set to mail.freestart.com as shown or alternatively mail.yourdomain.com (yourdomain.com being your actual domain name). It is required that you "check" the option of "Server requires authentication". Secure connections are currently not supported and as such this must be set to "No encryption". The only currently supported Authentication type is "Login" and the username must be set to the email address you wish to send from. For convenience, we recommend to remember the password. Click "Forward".

7. The final step required is to name the account, this is simply for your own reference purposes and holds no value otherwise. A standard entry is a repetition of the email address itself. Click "Forward".

8. At this time, Evolution should report that it has all the information it requires, simply click "Apply" to ensure that the changes are saved..

9. Immediately following the setup the mail account should be checked and it will require you to enter the password. Simply ensure that the address and server information is shown correctly and enter the password supplied or referenced within your control panel.

10. If shown, you may need to set a keying for the application. This should not be required unless you have never used Evolution before, your standard user password should suffice as this will automatically unlock the details required upon entry.

11. Congratulations, at this time, evolution should now be fully active showing the prompt below (or similar). You can now use the application to send / receive email without issue.