MANAGING YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNTS

 The Mail area allows you to manage all aspects of your e-mail, from adding new accounts, managing mailing lists,and setting spam filters. There are quite a number of options available, so take your time.

Note: All e-mail options can be used in conjunction with each other. For example, you could set up an autoresponder on your main account to e-mail an “Out of Office”message, a forwarder to send the e-mail to your uncle’s house where you are staying, and a spam filter to reject all e-mail with “credit” in the subject line. This flexibility is what makes e-mail so powerful as a communication medium.

To open the Mail area:

• Click on the Mail button on the homepage.

READING YOUR E-MAIL

 You can read your online e-mail using NeoMail, Horde, or Squirrel Mail. All of these popular web mail applications allow you to read your e-mail, save them, keep an address book, and perform all of the other basic e-mail functions that you are used to. The main difference between web mail and an offline e-mail applications, such as Eudora or Microsoft Outlook Express, is that all of these functions are performed online, rather than on your own computer, and offline applications generally provide more features.

Web mail is optional. You can still use your favorite offline e-mail applications, if you prefer. You can even use a combination of web mail applications and another tool – you can check your e-mail online, perhaps when you’re at work, and download your e-mail to your computer when you get home. You can automatically configure Outlook Express, or manually configure other mail applications to read your e-mail offline.

To read your e-mail online:

1. Click on the Web Mail link in the Mail area to access your default e-mail account, or click on the Add/Remove accounts link and click on the Read Webmail button next to the account that you want to read.Note: You can also save this link as a bookmark, so that you can access it without having to use cPanel.
2. Click on the web application that you would like to use.
3. You are now in the web mail window for your default e-mail address. Refer to the following links if you need more information about the web mail application you are using:

• Horde summary
• Squirrel Mail summary

E-MAIL ACCOUNTS

You can set up as many POP (Post Office Protocol) e-mail accounts as you require, up to your maximum limit. Each one of these is in the standard e-mail formation of address@yourdomain.com. As with your default e-mail address, you can access these accounts through web mail or through your own offline e-mail application.

To add an e-mail account:

1. Click on the Add/Remove Accounts link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Add Account link.
3. Enter the first part of the e-mail address and the password for the account in E-mail and Password fields.
4. Enter the maximum size limit of this mailbox in the Quota field, if required. The size limit is in megabytes. Not entering a number means that the mailbox size is only limited by the available disk space.
5. Click on the Create button.
6. Your new account has been added. Refer to Configuring Outlook Express to read e-mail if you want to use Outlook Express to read e-mail received by the new account.

CONFIGURING OUTLOOK EXPRESS TO READ E-MAIL

Because Microsoft Outlook Express is the most popular e-mail application available, you can automatically configure Outlook Express from cPanel. This saves time in manually configuring your e-mail application and avoids errors.

Note: This will only work if you have Microsoft Outlook installed on your machine and are running any version of Windows.

To automatically configure Outlook Express:

1. Click on the Add/Remove Accounts link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Outlook (Express) Auto Config link next to the required account.
3. Read the message in the alert window and click on the OK button. You may need to repeat this step two or three times.
4. Click on the Open this file from its current location radio button, and click on the OK button in the File Download window.
5. Click on the Yes button in the Registry Editor window and repeat for the last window. Outlook Express has now been configured for this account. You need to repeat this process for as many accounts as you want to access through Outlook Express.

CHANGING THE PASSWORD OF AN E-MAIL ACCOUNT

It is useful to occasionally change the passwords on your e-mail accounts to maximize your e-mail security. You should always change your password if you think someone else has access to your account.

Note: Make sure that you change the password in your offline e-mail application as well, or you will not be able to upload or download e-mail to this account.

To change the password of an e-mail account:

1. Click on the Add/Remove Accounts link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Change Password button next to the required e-mail address.
3. Enter the new password in the New Password field.
4. Click on the Change button. Your password has now been changed for that account.

DELETING AN E-MAIL ACCOUNT

You can delete an e-mail account when the account is no longer needed. You can not delete your default account.

Warning: Make sure you download any mail that you want to keep, as deleting the account will delete all of the email still in that account. You can not recover this information once the account has been deleted.

To delete an e-mail account:

1. Click on the Add/Remove Accounts link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Delete button next to the unwanted e-mail address.
3. Click on the Yes button.

SETTING YOUR DEFAULT E-MAIL ADDRESS

Any e-mail that is sent to an unknown account at your domain name, such as unknown@yourdomain.com, gets automatically rerouted to your default e-mail account. All web site accounts are automatically assigned a default e-mail address – user@yourdomain.com – which you can change, if required.

To set your default e-mail address:

1. Click on the Default Address link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Set Default Address link.
3. Enter the complete e-mail address of the new default in the field next to your web site name drop-down list.Note: You can enter :blackhole: to throw away all incoming mail, or:fail: no such address here to bounce the e-mail back to the sender.
4. Click on the Change button. Your new default e-mail address has now been set.

AUTORESPONDERS

Autoresponders are e-mail messages that are sent automatically when an e-mail arrives for a specific e-mail account. Autoresponders are most commonly used for an “Out of Office”style message to inform your correspondents that you are not available, without you having to reply manually. You can have more than one autoresponder on one account. You can use plain text or include HTML code in the autoresponder, and choose from a wide variety of character sets.

To add an autoresponder:

1. Click on the Autoresponders link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Add Autoresponder link.
3. Enter the address of the account that the autoresponder responds to in the Email field.
4. Enter your name or address in the From field. You do not have to put anything in this field.
5. Enter the subject line of the autoresponder in the Subject field.
6. Click on the required character set for this autoresponder from the Character Set drop-down list, if required.
7. Click on the HTML Message tick box if you want to include HTML code in the autoresponder.
8. Enter the autoresponder message in the Body field. You can not use HTML code in this field – plain text only.
9. Click on the Create button.

EDITING AN AUTORESPONDER

Modify an autoresponder if you need to alter the details of the message or if you set it to the wrong account.

To edit an autoresponder:

1. Click on the Autoresponders link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Edit button next to the autoresponder that you want to edit.
3. Edit the autoresponder’s fields as required. Refer to Autoresponders if you are not sure what you can do in each field.
4. Click on the Create button to edit the autoresponder.

DELETING AN AUTORESPONDER

Delete an autoresponder when you no longer need to use it. If you use the autoresponder at frequent intervals, such as an “Out of Office” message, you can modify it to point to a non existent email account, such as store@yourdomain.com, and then simply change the account name back when you need it again. Refer to Edit autoresponder for more information.

To delete an auto responder:

1. Click on the Autoresponders link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Delete button next to the autoresponder that you want to delete.

E-MAIL FILTERING

You can block an e-mail using spam filters. There are many definitions of spam, but one particularly useful one is the following:

Spam is the electronic version of junk mail, and has been around since the Internet was created. E-mail filters are a way of filtering your e-mail to remove unwanted mail based on a variety of criteria. You can block any sort of e-mail, not just mail of a commercial nature. Blocked mail can be deleted automatically or sent to another e-mail address or script. These filters are quite flexible – some examples are provided after the instruction on how to add a spam filter below. All filters are cumulative.

Useful spam links:

• Six simple things you can do to prevent spam
• Alternate definition of spam

Also refer to Spam Assassin for another approach to dealing with spam.

To add an e-mail filter:

1. Click on the E-mail Filtering link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Add Filter link.
3. Click on the required header field in the first drop-down list. These are the various fields in any e-mail message.
4. Click on the required filter action in the second drop-down list. This action will act on the text entered in the third field.

• equals – match the text exactly (whole words only). “Credit” will block “Credit”.
• matches regex – matches the text based on regular expression (regex) rules. Regular expressions are a powerful but complex area. You do not need to use regular expression filters for most circumstances. Refer to these two good introductory tutorials – Using Regular Expressions and Learning to Use Regular Expressions – for more information.
• contains – match the specified text in any circumstance. “porn” will block “porn” and “pornography”.
• begins with – match the specified text when it is the beginning of a word. “porn” will block “porn” and “pornography”.

5. Enter the filter text in the third field. This text is case sensitive.
6. Enter the destination for the filtered e-mail in the Destination field. There are three separate types of destination:

• Destroy the e-mail – Enter Discard in the field.
• Redirect to another address – Enter the e-mail address to which to redirect the e-mail.
• Redirect to a script – Enter the full script path on the machine that hosts your web site.

7. Click on the Activate button.

Example:

• To redirect all e-mail from “john@paradise.net”, enter:From, equals,john@paradise.net,david@corse.org.nz
• To delete all e-mail from paradise.net, enter:From, contains,paradise.net, Discard
• To delete all references to pornography, enter: Any Header, contains, porn, Discard
• To discard all e-mail that Spam Assassin has marked as spam,enter: SpamAssassin Spam Header, begins with, yes, Discard

DELETING AN E-MAIL FILTER

Delete a spam filter when you no longer need it. There is no way to modify a spam filter – if you have made a mistake, simply delete the filter and start again.

To delete a spam filter:

1. Click on the E-mail Filtering link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Delete button next to the spam filter that you want to delete.

FORWARDERS

Forwards simply allow you to automatically forward e-mail sent to one account to another account. This is useful when you work at two separate locations, or have gone on holiday.

To forward mail from one account to two or more accounts, just add two or more forwards for the account that is being forwarded.

To add a forwarder:

1. Click on the Forwarders link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Add Forwarder link.
3. Enter the first part of the e-mail address that will be forwarded in the first field.
4. Choose the required domain from the drop-down list.
5. Enter the full e-mail address that the forwarder will forward mail to in the second field.
6. Click on the Add Forwarder button.

DELETING A FORWARDER

Delete a forwarder when you no longer need it. You can not modify an e-mail forwarder – if you have made a mistake, simply delete the forwarder and start again.

To delete an e-mail forwarder:

1. Click on the Forwarders link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Delete button next to the forwarder that you want to delete.

MAILING LISTS

Mailman is a popular mailing list script. Mailing lists are an ideal tool for communication between far-flung participants and can be about anything you want. Mailman allows you to set up a mailing list with a large number of configurable options, such as who is on the list, where mailing lists messages are sent, and whether you include welcoming messages to new subscribers.

The Mailman documentation, which is incorporated into its Administration panel, is clear and helpful, and should be referred to for all questions about using the script. The instructions in this section deal with how to set up, modify, and delete a Mailman mailing list from your cPanel. You can can also refer to the Mailmanhome page for more information.

Note: It is a good idea to be aware of spam and its definition before setting up a mailing list – refer to E-mail Filtering for more information.

To add a mailing list:

1. Click on the Mailing Lists link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Add Mailing List link.

3. Enter the name of the mailing list in the List Name field, the password for the list in the Password field, and the domain it is for from the Domain drop-down list.
4. Click on the Create button. The list is created in the /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/mailman/listsfolder.

SPAM ASSASSIN

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 e-mail messages sent to your domain mailbox. For more information about Spam Assassin, refer to the following links:

• Spam Assassin – Spam Assassin web site.
• Spam Assassin rules – A list of all the rules that Spam Assassin currently uses.

Also refer to E-mail Filtering for more information about spam and setting up filters.

To enable Spam Assassin:

1. Click on the Spam Assassin link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Enable Spam Assassin button.

CONFIGURING SPAM ASSASSIN

You can change how Spam Assassin deals with spam. The following options are available:

• required_hits – The number of e-mails received before a certain e-mail is considered spam.
• rewrite_subject – Alter the subject line of spam e-mail. Enter 1 to enable or 0 to disable.
• subject_tag – Text added to the subject line of spam e-mails. rewrite_subjectmust be enabled for this to work.
• blacklist_from – Enter an e-mail address that you always want classified as spam. The asterisk symbol (*) can be used as a wildcard.
• whitelist_from – Enter an e-mail address that you never want classified as spam. The asterisk symbol (*) can be used as a wildcard.

To configure Spam Assassin

1. Click on the Spam Assassin link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Configure Spam Assassin button.
3. Change the settings as required.
4. Click on the Save button.

ENABLING OR DISABLING THE SPAM BOX

The Spam Assassin Spam Box is a separate mail folder called “spam”. If enabled, all e-mail that Spam Assassin flags as spam is automatically delivered to the “spam” folder.

Note: You need an IMAP e-mail client, such as Horde, to view the Spam Box (refer to Horde summary for more information).

To enable or disable the Spam Box:

1. Click on the Spam Assassin link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Enable Spam Box or Disable Spam Box as required.

DISABLING SPAM ASSASSIN

You can disable Spam Assassin whenever you require. If you are not able to receive a non-spam e-mail it is a good idea to disable Spam Assassin and have the e-mail resent.

To disable Spam Assassin:

1. Click on the Spam Assassin link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Disable Spam Assassin button.

TRACING AN E-MAIL ADDRESS

CPanel enables you to trace the delivery path of an e-mail address, from server to server, to your web site.

To trace an e-mail address:

1. Click on the Trace an E-mail Address link in the Mail area.
2. Enter the e-mail address that you want to trace in the available field.
3. Click on the Show Route button.

ALTERING YOUR MAIL EXCHANGER (MX ENTRY) SETTING

cPanel manages your e-mail through its own mail server. However, by altering your MX (Mail Exchange Record) Entry you can point your e-mail to another mail server, if this is required.

Note: cPanel will not be able to manage your e-mail if you change your MX Entry setting. Do not change your MX Entry unless you know what you are doing.

To alter your MX Entry setting:

1. Click on the Modify Mail Exchanger (MX Entry)link in the Mail area.
2. Click on the Change an MX Entry link.
3. Enter the domain name of the new MX Entry in the available field.
Note: You can only change the entry to a domain name (e.g. yourdomain.com), not an IP (Internet Protocol)address.
4. Click on the Change button.

For the full cPanel documentation, click here.

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