arkenho82
Yes I agree also that as you are a new user, you would be better off starting with sme server v9.
In your situation probably easiest to start afresh & do a clean install of sme9 OS & configure it as a new system.
Note if you have newer 64bit (compatible) hardware you can use the 64bit version of the operating system, which can provide useful (some would say essential) advantages, such as the ability to install different package versions of php, mysql etc to allow compatibility with other required addon applications & contribs.
Refer to Software Collections articles in Wiki
https://wiki.contribs.org/Software_CollectionsYou can also use Docker Containers, refer Wiki
https://wiki.contribs.org/DockerYou can upgrade your sme8 system to sme9, but you will have to do a full backup, then do a clean install of sme9 onto empty clean hard disk(s) & then restore from backup, as the upstream OS (CentOS) does not support direct upgrades from earlier versions (due loosely speaking to so many changes & improvements in system design).
Re email, you can configure your favourite email client to access mail using IMAPS protocol using secure connections.
On mobile devices eg Android, the K9 app or Gmail app are both quite good & can use IMAPS.
You do not need to use webmail access on desktops unless you cannot configure the email client. Same goes for mobile devices, but all of them can use email apps.
Also the standard email client on iOS devices works quite good using IMAPS & will talk OK to a sme server configured (enabled) as a private mail server.
Many mail clients on many different devices can seemlessly read/send using the same email account by using IMAPS & secure SMTP.
If you prefer webmail as a server based mail client, then of course that is OK, you can improve the situation by installing Dimp & Mimp.