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FAQ: Email
General Email Information
Your hosting account allows you to set up several email accounts. You can access the email accounts either through a webmail interface (one of 2 programs: Horde and Squirrel) or through POP3 which you can set up in your own email client program.
To add an email account in Cpanel: Click on the Add / Remove accounts link in the Mail Menu area. Click on the Add Account link. Enter the first part of the email address and the password for the account in Email and Password fields. Click on the create button. Your new account has been added.
You may want to set up email forms on your account which process sending of email using the php mail() function. Care must be taken to ensure any such email scripts are secure and do not expose your email account to exploits and script injection. Please submit any email scripts you are planning to use for risk assessment.
Accessing Email
How do I access my email via a web browser
You can access webmail via: http://www.yourdomain.com/webmail/ . A more user-friendly interface may be available (depending on the server setup) at http://webmail.yourdomain.com/ .
Again depending on the server, a secure version may be available as well. Check with your hoster.
What is POP3 email and how do I create a POP3 email account?
POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) email stores your email on the server to be downloaded locally by your email program. If you don't want to use POP3 email, you can setup an email redirect to forward your email to an outside email address. You can set up as many POP (Post Office Protocol) email accounts as you require, up to your maximum limit. Each one of these is in the standard email formation of address@yourdomain.com. As with your default email address, you can access these accounts through Webmail using Horde or Squirrel Mail or through your own email client application like Outlook or Eudora and others.
The steps described below for setting up email accounts in Outlook/Outlook Express can be extended to set them up in other email clients as well, these are just for illustration.
How do I setup POP3 email (Outlook, Outlook Express) ?
There are already functions in Cpanel to help set up your email client. But you can do it manually as well.
View this tutorial for Outlook Express with screenshots (applicable roughly to other email clients, such as Thunderbird, Outlook, etc), or follow the general instructions below.
- Go to Tools | Accounts
- Click on Add | Mail
- In Display Name, type whatever you want. Click "Next"
- E-mail address: name@[yourdomain].com Click "Next"
- My incoming mail server is a "POP3".
- Incoming Mail(POP3 or IMAP)server: mail.[yourdomain].com
- Outgoing Mail(SMTP) server: mail.[yourdomain].com or what your ISP provided you.*
- Click Next
- POP account name: [username], Password: [passwd] Click "Next".
- Internet Mail Account Name: whatever you want
- Choose your connection type depending on your connection method. If using AOL, choose "Connect through ...LAN..." option.
- Click "Finish"
* Many ISPs do not permit using port 25 with an SMTP server other then their own. You may try port 26. If it doesn't work, you will have to use your own ISP's SMTP server as well as your ISP provided email account and password for outgoing email. You can provide a different reply-to email address in any case.
Email Troubleshooting
How come I can't send mail?
First, your domain name must be propagated. Then use "mail.yourdomain.com" for the SMTP server in your Email client configuration. we use SMTP Authentication. This means you MUST configure your email client to authenticate with your username and password, much like when you check mail.
Our SMTP servers are configured as secure relays. This means that you cannot simply reference "mail.yourdomain.com" as an Outgoing mailserver unless you successfully log in via one of your pop3 accounts at "mail.yourdomain.com' before you try to send.
This is a mandatory setting to prevent spammers from using our mailservers as havens for unsolicited email. If you are getting a "relaying prohibited" or "disconnected by administrator" error, it means that you haven't logged into the pop3 server at your domain before you tried to send through the smtp server at your domain.
To log in, you need to check for mail first. In addition to this, you might not be able to send regardless of if you check mail successfully. Some ISPs have it set so that their users cannot use an outbound SMTP server to relay messages. If you are still experiencing problems sending through your domain, and are certain that you have logged in via pop3 to an account at your domain, you might want to contact your local ISP to see if they do allow their users to use outbound smtp servers.
Several large ISP's are in the process of blocking all access to port 25 (the SMTP port). A few hosts that are currently doing this are: Earthlink UUNet Prodigy - Sympatico.ca . (There are probably others, these are just some we are aware of) They do this so that you will be forced to use their outgoing SMTP servers. Instead of using mail.yourdomain.com as your outgoing mail server, you should use the SMTP servers that your ISP provides you with.
Why do I get a "Relaying Denied: Authenticate with POP first" error when trying to send email through the server?
You need to login to your pop account and check your mail first. The server has anti-spam software installed that won't allow anyone to use the smtp server until they have logged in first. This keeps just anyone from connecting to the server and sending out thousands of messages. You may need to wait 20-30 seconds before trying to send mail again for the server process to recognize you after you check your mail. Once you have logged into the pop server and have been authenticated, you will be allowed to send mail for 30 minutes without having to login again. If you do login again, your 30 minutes will start from the time you logged in last.
Anti Spam Tools: Spam Assassin
What is Spam Assassin, and how do I enable it?
Spam Assassin is a mail filter installed on a mail server used to identify spam. It checks for spam using a large number of pre-set rules that check the header, body, and sender of all email messages sent to your domain mailbox.
To enable Spam Assassin: Click on the Spam Assassin link in the Mail Menu area. Click on the enable spam assassin button.