please critique: Howto setup email on a modem link

[Tommy Trussell]

This howto has been developing off and on over several weeks (though
mostly as a crutch for my poor memory). Eduardo Silva wrote up a fine
ppp Howto on the wiki, so I took the ppp part out of my notes and
created a subordinate wiki topic.

This describes setting up email and a few of the other things I did to
make the system easy for an inexperienced user --

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/DialupEmailHowto

Critique it, please! 

Here are some things I hope to learn from your comments:

o Are there GUI tools that might make this easier in future releases?
I know about fetchmailconf, but I decided to avoid it because it's not
included in Warty and I didn't want any additional software
requirements.*

o Is it WAY too complicated, and if so, what could be simplified? (I'd
like an easier way --such as an Evolution trick** described at the end
of this message.)

o Is a system set up this way fragile or unmaintainable, or is there a
security risk I should know about?

*Remember, this is a dialup user. I started an apt-get upgrade using
the modem connection and apt initially reported that it would take two
DAYS to complete! oops. I canceled the update, and if I can't improve
the modem speed I will drive the computer to a broadband connection
for an update.

**BY THE WAY, I might have avoided all this trouble if there was a way
to make the online/offline control in Evolution track and/or control
the ppp connection the way ModemLights does. Is there a way to do
that?