After logging in with the "Save Password" checkbox set, your password will be saved locally on your machine using a 'cookie'. This means the next time you go to http://www.fastmail.fm, you will automatically bypass the login screen and be logged in. This is useful if you use FastMail.FM regularly from the same machine, are not worried about other people using that machine, and don't want to be prompted with a login screen every time you go to http://www.fastmail.fm.

For this to work, you must have cookies enabled on your machine. Also, when you're finished using FastMail.FM, don't click 'Logout', just close the browser window.

If you want to remove the cookie so that you are no longer automatically logged in, you can go to the Preferences screen and click the 'Clear' button under the 'Saved password' area.

Passwords can be stored in your browser using cookies, or the browser can store the password using the 'Auto complete' feature.

To clear the password saved in cookies, click on the 'Logout' button in your mailbox screen.

To clear the password saved for the 'Auto complete' feature of your browser (Internet Explorer), go to 'Tools' -> 'Internet Options' -> 'Content' -> 'Auto Complete' and click on the 'Clear Passwords' button. If you do not want to save the usernames/passwords, uncheck the 'User names and passwords on Forms'.

When you login to your account, a new "session" is created. This is what lets you click around between pages and always just see your account, but no one else can see your account.

A session has an "inactivity timeout" period. This means if you don't click a link or button on a page within a certain amount of time, the session will expire, and you'll have to login again to continue.

Users can select the session timeout from the drop down menu in the login screen. They can do this by clicking on the "More +" link beside the "Login" button in the login page.

For a "Regular" login we default the session timeout to 2 hours but for "Long term (auto login)" we default it to 8hrs. For "Public terminal" the default value is "30 mins", to make it more secure.

If you would like to change the session timeout, just click on the "More +" link and use the "Session time" drop down to choose value of your choice.

FastMail.FM supports secure sessions using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Click here for more information on SSL. When you click 'Secure Login', all communication between your computer and FastMail.FM will be done using a secure channel. This means that you can read and write emails without others on the internet being able to spy on what is happening between your browser and the FastMail.FM server. Note though, that once an email is sent from the FastMail.FM server, it is transported using SMTP, a standard internet mail transfer protocol that is not guaranteed to be secure.

What does this really mean? When using FastMail.FM from an internet cafe or your work, no one at the cafe or at your work will be able to see what you are reading or sending via FastMail.FM. Once the email is sent, it's on the internet like any other system.

Using SSL does not slow down webpage activity, so if your browser supports it (and most modern ones do), we recommend that you use it.

When you use a web browser, the software used for viewing web pages automatically saves all pages you view on the local computer. This saves time because if you view those pages again, the browser simply displays the local copy (i.e., the "cache") instead of downloading the page content again from scratch. However, this is not a good idea if you are reading private messages on a public computer, since another user may look at a page in the cache and see your private data, without needing your password. Checking "Using a public terminal" tells FastMail.FM that you are on a public computer, and causes it to turn off the cache for FastMail.FM pages. When you are finished, be sure to Logout, in order to close your session.