Web Hosting Articles & Tutorials

cPanel and Webmail - cPanel Tutorials Ch.3

Those new to web hosting are likely to have email accounts from other Internet Service Providers or Yahoo.  You’ve been receiving mail there for years, so why even worry about creating new accounts?  Here a few reasons why you may think to use these additional email domains available on your website.

Credibility - Using an email address that relates to your domain adds to your professional appeal.  This is certainly an advantage when operating an online business.  joe@joestools.com is certainly more presentable than joe2000@yahoo.com    

Control - Emails included with your web hosting server will be much more manageable than one from an IP. cPanel allows you to forward automatic emails to multiple individuals, modify your accounts, implement auto-responders and more.  Users can also select how they’d like to access email.  This can be done securely from any browser.

Enhanced Spam Defense -   Several servers come equipped with anti spam filters with effective spam fighting functions.  

All your email functions may be accessed by clicking the “mail button” on the primary cPanel screen.

SET UP YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNTS  
  
Creating email domains via the cPanel is a fairly simple process.  Here are a few tips.  

- To begin setting up email accounts you must enter cPanel.  

- From there you enter a username and password.  

- Click on the “mail” icon. 

- Click “POP Email Accounts” from the menu section.

- Find the “Add Account” area.  Type in the new email address and passwords in the appropriate fields.  

- Click “Add”.

The new accounts have now been added and should work fine.  Any issues you may have can normally be resolved by your web host.

DELETE EMAIL ACCOUNTS

Deleting email accounts from cPanel is just as easy as creating them.  

- To begin deleting email accounts you must enter cPanel  

- From there you enter a username and password.  

- Click “POP Email Account” from the menu.  This will detail all existing accounts that have been added to the account.  

- To delete an account select it by checking the red circle beside it. 

REDIRECTING AND FORWARDING EMAIL
 
Redirecting and forwarding email to other domains shows creativity.  Lets say you have an account forjoe@joe.com.  You may wish to display a more efficient business by adding submissions@joe.com.  Your new domain can be redirected to the primary account and keep your message system simple and easy to manage.  

Many servers permit users unlimited forwards to redirect to a single account.  To makesubmissions@joe.com point to joe@joe.com follow these directions.

- Log into cPanel

- Click “Mail”

- Click “Forwarding” 

- Click “Add Forwarder”

You will then see your email domain with an empty box beside it that should be filled out with the address to be forwarded to.  

- Click “Add Forward” below and the process is complete.

SPAM SETTINGS

Most of us are familiar with the term “SPAM”.  This is the designated name for unsolicited email messages delivered to your inbox.  Spam Assassin is one filtering system used with cPanel to regulate this ongoing problem.  To access your spam settings follow the directions below.

- Log into cPanel

- Click “mail”

- Click “Spam Assassin” or what ever application the host supports

- Click “manage” beside the email domain you would like to regulate.  

- Click “configure” to determine how long the message will remain in the queue for your approval.

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.