Email Setup Choices
Email is a service that can be provided by either your ISP or hosting
company, or a combination of both.
Incoming Mail
The simplest way of describing the incoming mail choices is 1) pop
box or 2) alias or forward. (IMap and Exchange Servers are not covered
here.)
A pop box is an actual email address. Your ISP typically provides
you with a pop box at their domain, i.e. user@madriver.com or user@verizon.net.
You can also or alternatively have a pop box using your website domain
from your ISP or your web hosting company (if offered). Alias email
is essentially a forward to your ISP email address.
MadRiverWeb offers domain pop boxes and aliases, i.e. user@yourdomain.com.
We team with MadRiverAccess
and require you to abide by the terms and conditions that pertain
to email stated on their website as well as what we have restated
in our spam policy.
Whether using a domain pop box or alias, you can get all of your
mail in one software location; your computer's email program can check
multiple boxes at once including your domain pop box, or your alias(es)
will be forwarded to the email address (account) you already use.
The technical difference that may matter most to you is whether you
want to take the few minutes to set up an extra account in your email
program (and any other devices such as cell phones).
Webmail
With a pop box from MadRiverWeb, you will have the added benefit
of being able to check your email while away from your office or computer—known
as web-based email or webmail. This is also generally available
from your ISP. If we have provided you a pop box, go to the URL http://mail.madriveraccess.net
to access the webmail console. If you elected an alias, you can view
the incoming mail in your ISP's webmail system.
Travel
If you experience difficulty sending email from your laptop while
traveling, please check with the local network you are accessing prior
to placing a support call with us. There may be a firewall issue.
Double-check that you are able to view websites.
Sending
You will likely want to send personal and business mail under separate
"names." See below for the benefits of sending as your business
name.
- With an alias, we suggest duplicating your personal email account
and then altering the second account so you are sending from you@yourdomain.com,
both in the visible name and the "from" address. Leave
the incoming settings the same.
- With a pop box, create a second account using the information
to the right.
With most pop boxes, you have access to great features such
as vacation messages, forwarding, auto responders... These can be
set by accessing your web-based email console.
Regardless of whether you have an alias or a pop box with your domain,
there are some settings in your email program that you should change
or verify. Depending on the program, "Edit Preferences",
"Tools Accounts" and "Tools Options" are the areas
of interest. In Outlook, Tools Accounts allows you to set up an additional
pop box and each of your mail accounts will be checked. In one of
the other areas, you will find where you can set your "from"
address and your "reply to address." Even if you use your
ISPs email, and have an alias from your domain, you can set up the
"from" and "reply to" using your domain email
if they don't require authentication.
Another added benefit from MadRiverWeb is virus scanning and
spam filtering of all of your domain email. (I have received
only six viruses by email in the five years that this has been in
place, and my Norton program caught them.) We encourage you to continue
to subscribe to virus protection services to protect yourself from
viruses transmitted through your ISP's email, CD or floppy files given
to you, through web-downloads, and as a back-up to our scanning. Redundancy
is a good practice in the event either system has a problem.
As a business, it is far better to use your domain name in your email
address, whether it is set-up as an alias or a pop box. The numerous
advantages are as follows:
- You are continually reinforcing your company name and domain name
and marketing your firm rather than your ISP.
- If you decide to change internet services someday, the change
in your email will be transparent. Your network of prospects, clients
and business associates will already have your domain email. If
your domain email is an alias, it will be re-programmed to point
to a new email account that you establish, or if you have a domain
email pop box, the new website hosting company will establish the
mail account(s) for you. This is similar to the situation where
your mailing address does not change if you move your place of business
and you have a PO box. If your "network" has been using
an email address provided by your ISP, encourage them to begin using
your domain email address. Additionally, if your "reply to"
address does not reflect your domain name, your network will continually
be presented with your ISP's address. Change it to your domain email
so that when they "reply" they will start seeing your
domain email. Ask them to change this in their address book. Allow
6 to 12 months before changing or discontinuing services from an
ISP email address.
- Some places where you list your website do not allow a link to
your website, or do not allow you to visibly display your URL. An
alias/domain email address accomplishes the not-so-subtle task of
making your domain known so they can type it in themselves.
- Domain email allows you to do targeted marketing and promotions.
You can display a specific email address such as magspecial@yourdomain.com
to offer a special price, for example, only honoring it when people
write to you using that address. This allows you to measure the
effectiveness of specific marketing efforts. Contact us in advance
with the email address(es) you wish to use.
- When hosting with large organizations or server farms, I have
seen alias email "break" in a few instances when server
programming is temporarily disabled or changed, causing you to lose
or temporarily lose emails. If you use your alias on a regular basis,
you would notice a disruption in email service quickly. In most
cases, the lost emails are "hung" on the server and can
be retrieved. For this reason, we suggest you establish a REGULAR
schedule of testing all distinct email aliases or pop boxes. This
applies to forms, too—test the forms on your website once per
month. And rest assured, MadRiverWeb is a small organization dedicated
to exceptional customer service, and we are not making mapping changes
such as those that can cause these problems—once your account
is established, the programming is unlikely to be touched again
without your knowledge.
This page updated
04/11/2011
. |
Email Settings
Email Set-up The following are fairly comprehensive
instructions for Mad River Web customers using our mail servers or those of
Green Mountain Access or VTWeb.
If you will be using a pop box provided by MadRiverWeb or one of our affiliates,
please specify a user and password for each mailbox needed. You
may also have a reasonable number of "aliases." Please specify to
which other account(s) to point the aliases.
Your Email Program Depending which email program
you use, the common places to make changes to settings are in the menu items
Tools Accounts, Tools Options and Edit Preferences. We recommend that you "add"
an account or profile to represent the email address we provide, and follow
the instructions based on the type of address.
General (POP and Aliases) Start by viewing
the properties of your existing email account provided by your ISP and write
down the outgoing (SMTP) settings exactly. Most ISPs require that you send
mail through their outgoing mail server (generally called smtp) in an attempt
to reduce spam and viruses. (We request that you send through your ISP unless
there is a reason you need to send through us.) If you can "duplicate"
your primary account and give the new account a new name, do so. If not, "add"
an account. Then use the Wizard that your email program provides. Give the new
account a name such as MadRiverWeb Email.
Use the following incoming settings (or we may have provided special settings
for your domain).
MadRiverWeb Mail
POP (incoming): mail.madriveraccess.net
username/login: user@yourdomain.com (the full string)
password: (the one you provided)
VTWeb Mail
POP (incoming): hermes.vtweb.com
username/login: (the one provided)
password: (the one provided)
GMA (see their website)
Insert the outgoing settings provided by your ISP. Do not check "logon
using secure password authentication" unless your ISP requires this. For
Green Mountain Access customers, the outgoing mail server is smtp.gmavt.net.
Most ISPs allow you to send using your domain name, i.e. name@mybusiness.com,
so be sure to input that information as desired in the outgoing settings.
When done using the wizard, edit the account to add the settings the wizard
did not, including the paragraph below regarding multiple devices.
On the "general" tab, add your "reply-to" address and organization
if desired. You will also likely need to uncheck "requires authentication."
From: user@yourdomain.com
Reply-to: user@yourdomain.com
Specific for Aliases If you set up an account
to send as your domain email through your ISP, but it is only an alias, the
last step is to un-check "check this account when sending and receiving
mail" because it is not an actual pop box.
Spam Filtering Caution Regardless of whether
you have a pop or alias, you should always be aware that mail can get spam filtered.
Try to verify that new recipients put your address in their address book. Spam Info
Checking from multiple devices
Most users have multiple devices, i.e. computers, cell phone. You will need
to make your email accessible from all devices before being deleted from the
server. Many computers are now defaulted to leave mail on the server indefinitely.
This is not good either as you will either reach a maximum capacity and your
mail will bounce or excessive mail will slow server performance. To avoid future
interruption you'll want to find and check the setting to leave mail on the
server for 30 days (a reasonable amount of time for all devices to access your
mail). You do not necessarily need to change all devices; you only need to make
sure 1) none of them is set to delete mail from the server and 2) at least one
is set to delete it in 30 days. The following are some locations to make
this setting. Search your email software's help program as needed.
Outlook 2010
File-> Account Settings-> Account Settings…-> select your POP3
account-> button Change…-> button More Settings…-> tab
Advanced
Outlook 2007
Tools-> Account Settings-> select your POP3 account-> button Change…->
button More Settings…-> tab Advanced
Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2002/XP
Tools-> E-mail Accounts-> Next-> select your POP3 account-> button
Change…-> button More Settings…-> tab Advanced
Miscellaneous
Please do not set your program to check mail automatically any more frequently
than ten (10) minutes. We consider anything less than this an unnecessary use
of our resources. If you are expecting a message you can always manually click
your "send and receive" button.
If you have reason to use our mail server to send (applies to pop boxes, not
aliases) rather than your ISP's mail server, use these settings:
SMTP (outgoing): mail.madriveraccess.net
Select "servers" tab, and near the bottom, check "my server requires
authentication," but leave the settings alone, at "use same settings
as my incoming mail server."
MadRiverWeb may establish an alias called "webmaster@yourdomain.com"
that will be forwarded to us.
Webmail
MadRiverWeb WebMail Go to the URL http://mail.madriveraccess.net.
Login as email address and password.
VTWeb WebMail Go to the URL http://hermes.vtweb.com:20000.
Login using user and password.
Other ISPs provide webmail also. Please check with your provider for the address.
GMA's is near the top left of their website.
For your convenience while traveling, so that you don't have to remember this
URL, we can place a hidden link to this address in one of two places on your
website: 1) beside the copyright symbol, or 2) at the very bottom center of
the home page. There is no indication of this link to the public, although they
could see it accidentally. Hover your mouse until you find it; the cursor will
change to the "finger." If you don't find the hidden link, ask us
(or your website developer) to put it on your website. |
