About our Email Services
Want a reliable email service with everything you need and no hidden costs for what should come as standard.
If you only need a mail account but don't have need for web space then an e-mail only account will suit your needs. All our email packages come with POP3 & IMAP functionality, Authenticated SMTP, Webmail. You even have the choice of accessing your Webmail via industry recognised Horde Webmail or Bluecube Webmail. All of our email and hosting packages are compatible with the latest Smartphones including iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices.
As standard we configure your domain with an SPF record, which means that your email is automatically verified as originating from your domain. The benefits of this is that anyone you send an email to will know it is a genuine email, and reduce the chances of the email being blocked as spam or failing to arrive. Some companies use space to attract customers, when the chances of you using anywhere near the space. But cut costs on any spam/virus filtering or reliability.
When we setup your email hosting with your domain name, we provision it with a primary mail accountwith a user name and a password. Bydefault we also setup a number of aliases attached to the first email account. An "alias" isan email address. So for example "enquiries@your-domain.co.uk" and "info@your-domain.co.uk"are twoof the aliases we set up to begin with.
At any time you can add additional password-protected email accounts and aliases - either using yourhosting control panel, or, if you prefer, asking us to make the changes for you.
Your own SMTP server
"SMTP" is short for "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol". With your email hosting plan we create an SMTP server for your domain called "mail.my-domain.co.uk". That means you can then configure any email device you have (computers, netbooks, tablets, mobile phones, and even some "webmail"services such as Google Mail) to send email through your own SMTP server.
But why can't I just use my ISP's SMTP server to send email?
Your ISP (your broadband provider) will almost certainly block you from sending emails with anyidentity other than the email address they provide you. So it's only by having your own SMTP server for your domain name that you can count on being able to send emails with your own domain name. Some companies charge you extra for the SMTP server access they know you will need. We include SMTP free as standard because we know you will need it, and are against there being any hidden costs.
Incoming emails with POP and IMAP
Think of each password-protected email account as a virtual "box" sitting outthere on the Internet. An email addressed to, say, "info@your-domain.co.uk" dropsinto the box - and there it sits waiting for your computers, netbooks, mobile devices etc. to login tothe box to read the email. And that's where POP and IMAP come in: POP and IMAP refer to two differentways for your email software to mange your email "box".
- POP (or "POP3" as it is often called) is short for "Post Office Protocol".It's the more traditional method of handling incoming email. The key thing is this: POP3 is a very simpleand reliable protocol that is excellent when you use one device to read your emails. In thenormal mode of operation, if your email software is running POP, then it's as if your computer reachesout to your mail box out on the Internet, and pulls the message into your computer. Once the messageis on your computer, you can read it, sort it, and search for it very quicklyand efficiently. That's because these operations are "local" - they don't depend onyour Internetconnection (which is always much slower than your hard disk). The disadvantage of POP is thatif you have another device, perhaps a smart phone, and that device connects by POP to your mail box, itwill not see the emails that have been read by the first device as they have been "pulled out ofthe box"!
- IMAP stands for "Internet Message Access Protocol".The main idea is that it offers a way to synchronise your email box with all the devices that you useto access your email. So let's say you want to accessyour mail account with a PC at your office, a netbook when you're at home, and a mobile phone when you'reout and about. If they are all operating IMAP with your mail server, each device will "see" the sameemails. And if, say, you move an email to your trash bin on one device, say on your mobile phone,then that's how you will see it on your office and home computers too. As you can imagine, keeping emailsin sync between devices like this is much more complicated, and demands more from your Internet connection,than the simple POP protocol. But with the advent of faster broadband, and especially mobile deviceswith better and better Internet connectivity, IMAP is becoming more popular.
Anti-spam, anti-virus and email auto-responders
At the point where the email is going to drop into your mail box, your mail server offers three usefulfeatures:
- The contents of the email can be scanned for "spam". Your server is running thepowerful and effective open source "SpamAssassin" emailfilter (Wikipedia summary here). "SpamAssassin" isa mature, stable, and safe spam filter that does not block "good" emails ("falsepositives"). You can choose to have SpamAssassin silently delete obvious spam beforeit even gets into your mail box. Or, if you prefer, the spam email can have a tag added to the emailsubject line.
- The contents of the email can be scanned for "viruses". Yourserver runs "Clam AV" (Wikipedia summary here).But please note - whilst this provides a great first line of defence for your computers and devices,you should always be sure to run anti-virus software on your computers as well. After all, email is just one wayyour computers can get infected!
- You can send back an automatic response (an "autoresponder"). For exampleif you're away on holiday, or unable to get to your emails for any reason, you might configure your autoresponderwith a message - e.g. "I'll be away from the office until the 11th. I'll attend to your messagewhen I get back". (Or, if you prefer, "Don'tbother me, I'm on holiday"!).