So unfortunately, I've been tasked with setting up an Ubuntu server to send and receive email (amongst other things). My friend is hosting the Ubuntu VM on his box, but has only done limited setup.

The Daily Cup of Tech web site describes how to set up a portable email client and SMTP server on your USB flash drive. Great for folks who carry their lives on a thumb drive, portable Thunderbird, ...

Desktop clients send email over Gmail using the simple mail transfer protocol. You can use the telnet program on your computer to connect to Gmail's SMTP server and verify the connection is working ...