Email Autoresponders - cPanel Tutorials Ch.4 | Web Hosting Articles & Tutorials

Email Autoresponders - cPanel Tutorials Ch.4

We have already learned that what has made cPanel such a widely used program for web hosting is its extensive email functions. Aside from forwarding and redirecting messages cPanel also allows you to set email auto-responders.

A lot of users new to web hosting have a level of confusion concerning the “Auto-responder” tab in the cPanel. This section will thoroughly describe this function and explain how to use it.

WHAT ARE AUTO-RESPONDERS?

The definition of auto-responders is rather clear cut and straight forward. To keep it simple, they are email messages sent automatically when email is delivered for a specific account. Here is a perfect example:

After receiving your computer software in the mail you have some concerns about the condition in which it arrived. You search the invoice for contact information and are instantly referred to an email address for a company representative. You open your mail server and type a message into the body of the email. After clicking the send button you receive a message similar to this, “On vacation, will return next week” or “Out of the office until tomorrow”. This is the result of an auto-responder.

Several web hosting services provide a free auto-responder that can be found within your cPanel. They are typically one shot responders that allow you to enable others to receive your documents via email. Most browsers also permit users to have multiple auto-responders per account. This can be done with plain text or even HTML scripts that allow you to select from a vast number of character sets.

SETTING UP AUTO-RESPONDERS

Using the auto-responder feature is a fairly simple process. Below are detailed directions.

- First login into cPanel using the appropriate address

- Enter your username and password

- After you’ve reached the main page of cPanel you will observe several icons. The one you are looking for is titled “mail”.

- After clicking on that you will be prompted with a screen that displays several options. You will search for the “auto-responder” tab which should be the fourth selection from the top.

- After clicking the auto-responder tab you will be taken to a fresh screen with numerous boxed
categories that will read something like this:

Email:
From:
Subject:
Character Set:
HTML Message:
Body:

Email: Starting from this line you will type in the prefix for email address that you will use. On the right side of it is a drop down box. Click on that and choose the domain or subdomain it’s relevant to.

Category: In this section you will type in just who the email will be sent from. This may include a name, particular email address and more.

Subject: In this line you will of course type in the email’s subject. This is what recipients will see before even opening the mail.

Character Set: In this line you click the drop down menu to select the character of your choosing. On most occasions there will be no need to make adjustments in this area.

HTML Message: This option allows you to add vibrant life to emails via HTML scripts. By enabling it you can drop scripts into the body of an email and it will automatically be translated and sent with the message.

Body: This is perhaps the most important part of auto-responder. In this section you fill in the text designated for individuals to read once the automatic response is sent out.

Lastly you will find a “create” tab at the bottom of the page. Click on this and you will be taken to a new screen that should explain if your “auto-responder” was created successfully.

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