User's Guide - 8 - Managing Email

8 Managing Email
8.1 Mailboxes
8.1.1 Creating a Mailbox
8.1.2 Configuring a Mailbox
8.1.3 Autoresponders
8.2 Configuring Outlook Express
8.2.1 Configuring Outlook Express
8.3 Configuring Netscape Mail
8.3.1 Configuring Netscape Email
8.4 Configuring Eudora Mail
8.4.1 Configuring Eudora
8.5 Forwards
8.5.1 Creating a Forward
8.5.2 Configuring a Forward
8.5.3 Forwarding to Multiple Addresses
8.6 Mailing Lists
8.6.1 Adding and Creating Mailing Lists
8.6.2 Configuring a Mailing List
8.6.3 Adding Subscribers to your Mail List
8.6.4 Removing subscribers
8.6.5 Adding Moderators to your Mail List
8.6.6 Adding Message Trailer to Mailing Lists
8.6.7 Aliases
8.6.7.1 Creating an Alias
8.6.7.2 Removing an Alias
8.7 Mail Autoresponders 90
8.7.1 Creating Autoresponders
8.7.2 Editing Response Messages.

Managing Email

8.1 Mailboxes [NA]

Mailboxes allow you to send, receive and store e-mail messages.

To add a new mailbox, do the following:

On your control panel home page, click E-Mail.
At the bottom of the page that appears, click Add new mail resource:

Choose Mailbox from the drop-down list and click Next:

Agree with the charges, if any.
Enter the name and password for the new mailbox and click Submit:

Note: In version 2.3 and higher, if you want your mailbox to work as forward and mail autoresponder at the same time, you can give forward, mailbox and autoresponder the same name within one mail domain. In this case, your mailbox will forward all incoming email to another address and send responses to senders.

Important: You get Postmaster mailbox for free and you can neither delete it nor change its quota. Webmaster is a regular mailbox and it counts towards your total maiboxes. This means, if you get 0 free mailboxes, you pay for the Webmaster box, but you don't pay for Postmaster.

8.1.2 Configuring a Mailbox [NA]

To configure a mailbox, click the Edit icon next to the name of the mailbox. You will see the list of its properties on the right:

Quota
Change the quota for this specific mailbox. Mailbox quota is not related to the site disk space quota. To change your mail quota, enter its new size in megabytes. From that moment on you will be charged for the difference between this new amount and the default free amount. This charge will be added to the recurrent fee at the beginning of each billing period.

Catch All
If it's on, any email messages sent to a nonexistent account on your domain will go to this address.

Example: your mailbox webmaster@example.com is marked as catch all. If someone sends an email to support@example.com, which doesn't exist, this particular message will arrive at webmaster@example.com. If no account were marked as catch all, this message would bounce back to the sender with an error notification.

Password
Click the icon to change the mailbox password.

Autoresponder
Set your mailbox to respond to the sender of incoming mail with a preset message. You need to compose a separate response message for every mailbox. Note: in version 2.3 and higher, autoresponder is an independant mail resource.

WebMail
Go to the web e-mail client to send or receive e-mail messages.

Discard all incoming mail
Turn this ON only if you are absolutely sure you don't need ALL your incoming mail. You can also turn it on when you are going on vacation. Senders won't receive 'underlivered mail' notices.

Delete
Delete the mailbox. To delete a Catch All mailbox, first switch Catch All OFF.

Trouble Ticket
Report troubles with the mailbox.

8.1.3 Autoresponders

Autoresponder is a mailbox attribute. Whenever a message arrives in a mailbox, the system immediately sends a uniform response back to the sender.

Use this form to compose an autoresponse:

Send a Copy To: the optional e-mail address to which copies of response messages will be e-mailed.

Subject: the subject of the response message, e.g. receipt confirmation.

Message: the body of the response message, e.g. Your message was received. Thank you.

8.2 Configuring Outlook Express

To configure your Outlook Express or any other e-mail client, you need to know your POP3 and SMTP servers. To find them out:

Â· Log into H-Sphere control panel;
Â· Click Mail Service on your control panel home page.

Your provider's mail server may use different SMTP relays for sending mail - POP before SMTP or SMTP AUTH. In POP before SMTP, the relay system collects your IP address when you authenticate yourself with the POP server, and then permits SMTP relaying from that IP address for a short period of time. In other words, if your server uses POP before SMTP, you need to check your mail first, only then you can send your messages.
If your mail servers uses SMTP AUTH, you must configure your Outlook Express to send a login and password not only when you receive mail, but also when you send it. Ask your provider which relay the server uses.

8.2.1 Configuring Outlook Express

To configure this email client with the POP before SMTP relay:

Open Outlook Express.
In the menu bar, go to the Tools drop-down menu and select Accounts.

On the page that shows, click Add and select Mail.

On the wizard page that shows, enter your name in the field and click Next to proceed.
Note: this email will appear when you send out emails.

On the page that shows, enter your Email Address and click Next to proceed.

In the form that shows:

in the drop-down box, choose POP3 as your incoming server
enter the Mail Server Name for both Incoming Mail and Outgoing Mail;
click Next to proceed

On the page that appears:

make sure to enter full email address in the Account Name field;
enter mailbox password in the Password field
check the Remember Password box to avoid entering it every time you check or send email; -
click Next to proceed.

On the page that shows
click Finish to save settings
get back to the list of email accounts

Now that email account is created, select Accounts from the Tools drop-down menu in the menu bar.

On the Internet Accounts window, select the newly created mail account and click Properties to edit the settings for your email account.

On the Properties page that appears, choose the General tab and check the settings of your email account.

Here you can:

set the name that will show in your letters
set reply email (should be the same as email )
Click Apply and OK to save settings.

8.3 Configuring Netscape Mail

To configure your Netscape Mail or any other e-mail client, you need to know your POP3 and SMTP servers.

To find them out:

Log into H-Sphere control panel;
Click Mail Service on your control panel home page.

Your provider's mail server may use different SMTP relays for sending mail - POP before SMTP or SMTP AUTH. In POP before SMTP, the relay system collects your IP address when you authenticate yourself with the POP server, and then permits SMTP relaying from that IP address for a short period of time. In other words, if your server uses POP before SMTP, you need to check your mail first, only then you can send your messages. If your mail servers uses SMTP AUTH, you must configure your Netscape Mail to send a login and password not only when you receive mail, but also when you send it. Ask your provider which relay the server uses.

8.3.1 Configuring Netscape Email

To configure this email client with the POP before SMTP relay: Open Netscape Mail.
(attention: Netscape 4.7 is not compatible with our email services.)
Note: Netscape users may experience problems with collecting their mail. In this case, mail server login name must be written with the % character instead of the @ sign, e.g. username%example.com. Netscape only supports a clear-text SMTP AUTH protocol so SSL use is required.

In the top menu bar, select Preferences from the Edit drop-down menu.
Click Mail and Newsgroups in the left menu and select Identity.
On the page that appears:
enter your name as the following example shows;
enter the email address of the account you're setting up;
enter the reply email address (usually the same as email address).

Select Mail Servers in the left menu and click Add against the Incoming Mail Servers field.

On the dialog window that shows, choose the General tab and fill the form:

Enter the Server name;
Choose POP as Server type
Enter User name
Select Remember password if you want to login to your mail account without having to type a password every time.
Optionally, select Check for mail every specified period of time.
Select the POP tab to choose different Incoming Mail options.

Click OK to save settings.
Back on the Mail Servers page, enter the Outgoing Mail Server info:
Enter Outgoing Mail Server name;
Enter User name (make sure to type full email address in this field).
Click OK to save settings.

Now your netscape mail is configured and you are welcome to use it.

To configure your Eudora or any other e-mail client, you need to know your POP3 and SMTP servers.

To find them out:

Log into H-Sphere control panel;
Click Mail Service on your control panel home page.

Your provider's mail server may use different SMTP relays for sending mail - POP before SMTP or SMTP AUTH. In POP before SMTP, the relay system collects your IP address when you authenticate yourself with the POP server, and then permits SMTP relaying from that IP address for a short period of time. In other words, if your server uses POP before SMTP, you need to check your mail first, only then you can send your messages. If your mail servers uses SMTP AUTH, you must configure your Eudora to send a login and password not only when you receive mail, but also when you send it. Ask your provider which relay the server uses.

8.4.1 Configuring Eudora

To configure this email client with the POP before SMTP relay: Open Eudora.

In the menu bar, go to the Tools drop-down menu and select Options.
On the page that shows, select Getting Started on the left and fill in the following form:

Real name
Enter the name you would like others to see when they receive your e-mail;

Return address
Your full e-mail address;

Mail Server
Your incoming mail server;

Login Name
Your e-mail address;

SMTP Server
Your outgoing mail server.

Click OK.
Once you have filled these fields, Eudora will populate other settings based on your input.
Select Checking Mail on the left and fill out the form that shows:

Mail Server (POP) and Login Name
Should be populated from your input on the Getting Started screen.

Check for mail every "X" minutes
Determine how often Eudora will check for new mail messages when you are connected.

Send on check
Allows you to send any outgoing mail messages at the time that you check for incoming mail.

Save password
Check this option so you will not have to enter it each time you check your mail.

Click OK to save settings.
Select Incoming Mail on the left and check the necessary options:

Server Configuration
Must be set to POP;

Leave mail on server
Allows your e-mail to be stored on a server;
Otherwise, mail can be deleted after storing for a certain amount of days or upon emptying from Eudora's Trash bin;

Skip messages
Allows you to not download messages that are of a large size;

Offline
Should not be checked;

Authentication style
Should be set to Passwords.

Click OK.
Select Sending Mail on the left.

Return address and SMTP server
Should already be completed from previous fields on the Getting Started tab;

Domain
Field can be left blank;

Allow authentication
Should not be checked for POP SMTP relay;

Immediate send
Allows Eudora to send messages immediately after being written, as opposed to storing them in the Outbox for you to send at a later time;

Send on check
Check the box to send any outgoing mail messages at the time that you check for incoming mail;

Secure Sockets
Leave it as the default setting;

Click OK to save settings.

8.5 Forwards

You can have any or all your email forwarded to an outside email account or to a different email address within your domain.

8.5.1 Creating a Forward

To create a forward, do the following:

On your control panel home page, click E-Mail.
At the bottom of the page that appears, click Add new mail resource:

Choose Mail forward from the drop-down list and click Next:

Agree with the charges, if any.
On the page that appears, create the forwarding rule:

Local e-mail address: the address your mail will be forwarded from.

Remote e-mail address: the address your mail will be forwarded to. In case it is your local address, you must write it in full.

8.5.2 Configuring a Forward

To configure a forward, do the following:

Click the forward.
This will open its properties on the right:

Configure forward properties:

Local
The local address your mail is forwarded from.

Remote
Any local or external address your mail is forwarded to.

Catch All
If it's on, any email sent to a nonexistent account on your domain will be forwarded to the remote address(es).

Example: you have a forward from president@example.com pointing to webmaster@example.com. If you mark this forward as catch all, incoming mail will be forwarded to webmaster@example.com. If someone sends an email to support@example.com, which doesn't exist, this particular message will still arrive at webmaster@example.com. If this forward wasn't marked as catch all, this message would bounce back to the sender with an error notification.

Delete
Click the wastebasket icon to delete the forwarding rule.

Trouble Ticket
Send your technical administrator a Trouble Ticket to get assistance with the forwarding rule.

Note: You can have a mailbox named, say, mailbox1@domain.com and then create a forward with exactly the same name, i.e. mailbox1@domain.com. However, in H-Sphere no mail sent to mailbox1@domain.com is stored in it. A forward works only as a foward.

8.5.3 Forwarding to Multiple Addresses

To add one more destination address to a forward, do the following:

Click the forward. This will open its properties on the right.
Click the Edit icon in the Remote field.
Enter a new destination address.

8.6 Mailing Lists

Mailing list allows you to send mail to multiple users. The Mailing Lists feature is implemented through EZMLM/IDX MAILING LIST MANAGER (www.ezmlm.org). A comprehensive FAQ for ezmlm can be found at http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/infosys/mail/qmail/ezfaq/.

8.6.1 Adding and Creating Mailing Lists

To create a mailing list, do the following:

On your control panel home page, click E-Mail.
Click Add New Mail Resource at the bottom of the page. A new form appears:

Choose Mailing List from the drop-down box above.
Agree to additional charges if any.
Create the mailing list using the form that appears:

Enter E-mail address: This is the e-mail address from which mail will be forwarded to subscribers.

Important: you can only enter a new e-mail address. If you need to use an existing address, first delete the resource that uses it.

Comment: add a comment that will help you identify this address among other mail resources, if needed.

Note: to remove a mailing list, click the Delete icon in the Mailing List Properties section .

8.6.2 Configuring a Mailing List

To configure a mailing list, do the following:

Click the name of the mailing list. Its properties will show on the right.

Click the Edit icon next to the Mailing List name.
On the page that appears, choose the preferred settings. See below for details.
Click the Submit button to save changes.

For profound information on how to configure your mail list please read documentation at www.ezmlm.org)

Now let's take a closer look at some of the options:

Enter the e-mail address that enables mail list subscribers to report their problems or error messages sending requests to your_mailinglist-owner@domain.com. Since EZMLM can take care of virtually all requests without human intervention, the list owner may read mail only infrequently.

By default, all messages sent to a list are kept archived. This way, subscribers can later retrieve messages from the archive. For instance, subscribers haven't been following the list for a while, or they just want to see the discussion of a specific question.

Check Not Archived to disable archiving the messages sent to the list.

You can prohibit the overall access to the archive and authorize only moderators to get in.

Here you can restrict the access to the mailing list archive by allowing only subscribers retrieve the archive. Non-subscribers' requests will be rejected.

Check the Digest box to set up the mailing list with a digest function. The digest is a special kind of mailing list extension. Instead of sending separate messages, it sends out a collection of messages ordered by digest subscribers collections of messages. Digest is sent out when a predetermined time or traffic limit has been reached.
Receiving digest is very convenient for users who want to follow a list, but not to participate in the discussion. Digests contain each message as it was sent out by the list. No editorials, no missing messages. If the list owner has chosen to restrict posts and archive access to subscribers, digest subscribers are automatically given the same privilege.

From the subscriber point of view, the digest list for the mailing list your_mailinglist@domain.com is called your_mailinglist-digest@domain.com. You use the same commands to work with digest as you do when you work with the main list. The only difference is that you use your commands with 'digest' indication.

Check "No prefix" to prohibit adding prefix to the subject line of each message that does not already contain it. If you want the subject line of each message that does not contain it, to include the prefix, place the text in the file DIR/prefix

Usually an applicant for subscription (your_mailinglist-subscribe@domain.com) is sent a confirmation request. To confirm it, one should just reply to the message. When it is done, recipient's address is added to the database and he becomes a subscriber.
This verification mechanism tests if the person at the subscription address really wants to be a subscriber. You can always include or exclude confirmation from the subscription procedure.

Mailing lists may use subscription moderation. Subscription to these lists is identical to the process described above, except that after confirmation the request is passed on to the list moderator(s). One becomes a subscriber only after his request has been approved by a moderator, i.e. he replies to the ``Reply-To:'' address.

In special cases, the list owner may set up the list to be message moderated. On a message moderated list, messages, instead of going directly to the list (to send messages to the list, one must know its name. If the list is called mailinglist@domain.com, just send a message to mailinglist@domain.com), are sent to one or more moderators.
They can accept or reject, but not modify the message. If the message is accepted, it is sent to the list unmodified. If it is rejected, it is e-mailed back to the sender, optionally with an explanation from the moderator. On moderated lists it may take a little longer for the message to reach all the subscribers, since it has to be read and approved by at least one moderator before being sent out to the subscribers.

Here, you can allow remote administrators to edit the text files that make up most of the ezmlm responses. Replies are sent only if the target address is a remote administrator. With this switch, ezmlm replies to the -edit command with a list of the files in dir/text/. Only files where editing seems reasonable are included in the list. The remote administrator can edit any file in dir/text/ by sending e-mail containing the new text to -edit.file where ``file'' is the name of the file replaced (edited).
In reply to this command, ezmlm sends a message with the file and editing instructions. A ``cookie'' based on the date, file name, and contents of the file is added to the ``Reply-To:'' address. The cookie becomes invalid as soon as the file has been changed, or after 27 hours, whichever is shorter. Also, the cookie cannot be used to edit any other file, even if the other file has exactly the same contents.

Here you can disable posting by subscribers to the mailing list, so they will only receive messages posted by moderators. This is usually chosen to send announcement or notifications where the interaction between recipients is not intended.

A remote administrator is an address with the rights to do certain administrative tasks remotely by E-mail. Depending on how the list is configured, remote administrators may have the right/ability to list subscribers, search for subscriber addresses by name, add and remove subscriber addresses and/or edit the texts that are sent in reply to list commands.

Mailing list users are not allowed to list the addresses of all subscribers. Still, you can allow remote administrator to get it. The subscription log stores entries for each modification made to the subscriber database. Remote administrators can list this log or search it for specific entries. For example, listing this file allows the remote administrator to see recent additions and removals.

You can set up your mailing list to allow posts from subscribers only. In this case posts received from non-subscribers will be rejected and sent back.

If you enable this function, users will be required to request to the remote administrator in order to retrieve mail list archives. Otherwise, archive will be accessible only to the remote administrator.

8.6.3 Adding Subscribers to your Mail List

Subscribers are the recipients of your newsletters. The total number of subscribers is displayed in the brackets.

To add subscribers to your mail list, do the following:

Click the name of the mailing list. Its properties will show on the right.
Click the Add icon next to the Subscribers name.
Enter subscriber's email in the Add subscriber field.
To add several subscribers at once, enter their e-mail addresses separated with line break in the Batch subscribers creation field:

Â· Click Submit.

8.6.4 Removing subscribers:

To delete subscribers one by one, click the Delete icon next to the subscriber.
To mass delete all subscribers, click the Delete icon in the Remove all subscribers field.

To send a message to a mailing list, send the newsletter to the mail list e-mail address using WebMail or any mail client such as Outlook Express.

8.6.5 Adding Moderators to your Mail List

Moderators approve of message posts and requests for subscription. Individual moderator's addresses are kept secret, even from other moderators.

To add moderators to your mail list, do the following:

Click the name of the mailing list.
Click the Add icon next to the Moderator name.
Add a new subscriber by submitting your entry.
To add several subscribers at once, enter them in a Batch Subscribers Creation field.

There can be several moderators, both for messages and subscription:

Message moderators: allow messages to be sent to the mail list. The message will be passed on to the mailing list subscribers only if a moderator approves it.
Subscription moderators: allow people to subscribe to the list. If at least one subscription moderator approves the request, the user address becomes a subscriber.

Important: As a rule of thumb, most lists use the same addresses for both functions. The total number of moderators is displayed in the brackets.

8.6.6 Adding Message Trailer to Mailing Lists
(available in version 2.3 and higher)

Message trailer is an additional text you can add to each message. It usually contains information on how to unsubscribe from the list or some important information for subscribers. There is one trailer for all messages within one mailing list.

To add a message trailer:

Click the name of the mailing list. Its properties will show on the right.
Click the Add icon next to Message Trailer. The following page will show:
Enter the text that will be added to each of your subscribe messages.
Click Submit.
To edit a message trailer, click the Edit icon next to the Message Trailer, edit the text and click Submit.
To remove a message trailer, click the Delete icon against the Message Trailer field.

8.6.7 Aliases
Aliases are alternative addresses for your existing mailboxes

8.6.7.1 Creating an Alias

To create an alias:

On your control panel home page, click E-Mail.
At the bottom of the page that appears, click Add new mail resource:
Choose Mail alias in the drop-down box:

Click Next.
Agree with the charges, if any.
Fill the form on the page that appears:

Enter the alias name in the Alias Local Name field.
In the To Mbox field select the local mailbox you are creating the alias for.
Enter a Comment that will help you identify this alias among other mail resources.
Click Submit.

8.6.7.2 Removing an Alias

To remove an alias:

Â· On your control panel home page, click E-Mail.
Â· Click the Alias you need. This will open its properties on the right:

Â· To delete the alias, just click the Delete icon.

8.7 Mail Autoresponders

The autoresponder sends a uniform response back to the sender whenever a message arrives in a mailbox.

8.7.1 Creating Autoresponders

To add a new autoresponder, do the following:

On your control panel home page, click E-Mail.
At the bottom of the page that appears, click Add new mail resource:
Choose Mail autoresponder from the drop-down list and click Next:

Agree with the charges, if any.

Fill the form that shows:

Send a Copy To: the optional e-mail address to which copies of response messages will be e-mailed.

Subject: the subject of the response message, e.g. receipt confirmation.

Message: the body of the response message, e.g. Your message was received. Thank you.

Click Submit Query.

8.7.2 Editing Response Messages.

To configure your autoresponder, click its name in the list of mail resources. You will see the list of its properties on the right:

Local: local mail resource name without domain part.

Message: a response to incoming mail;

Copy To: email message where copies will be sent.

Delete: click this icon to delete the mailbox.

Trouble Ticket: report troubles with the autoresponder.

To edit the message text:

Click the name of the autoresponder.
On the properties page, click the Edit icon next to the Message field.
A message box appears. Here you can edit the text or enter a new one, change subject and Copy to email.
Click Submit to confirm changes.

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