Email Configuration

Email - used responsibly - can work well in tandem with your website. BRAINBOX offers a wide range of configuration options for email.

In this article:

• "Creating" email addresses
• Receiving email
  • Email forwarding
  • Local Delivery
  • Email forwarding to multiple email addresses
  • Local delivery to multiple email addresses
  • Using Forwarding and Mailboxes in combination
• Sending Email
  • Sending from an existing email account
  • Sending via the Mail Server
• Advanced options
  • Autoresponders
  • Delivery to Multiple recipients
  • Program Activation

"Creating" email addresses

The great news is that once you own a website address - such as http://www.greatwebsiteaddress.com - you can put just about anything you like in front of it:

• your.name@greatwebsiteaddress.com
• orders@greatwebsiteaddress.com
• info@greatwebsiteaddresses.com
• aardvark@greatwebsiteaddress.com

There's no need to "create" these email addresses: they are all yours as of right.

Receiving Email

When an email is sent to your @greatwebsiteaddress.com email addresses, it goes to the greatwebsiteaddresses.com Mail Server (a.k.a. Mail Exchange Server, a.k.a. MX Server).

What happens next depends on the way the Mail Server has been configured.

Email Forwarding

In most cases, people neither need nor want "yet another mailbox" to log in to. They want the emails delivered to an existing email account (perhaps a gmail or hotmail account). That's where email forwarding comes in.

Local Delivery

The alternative to forwarding is "local delivery." The Mail Server puts all received email into a single mailbox. As this email will receive emails sent to any @greatwebsiteaddress.com email address, it's known as a "catch-all" mailbox.

To read the emails, you have to access the mailbox. You would usually do this via an email client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. It's also possible to access a mailbox via an online service such as mail2web.com.

Multiple Mailboxes

If all of the emails are to be read by one person, then redirect all/catch all is usually adequate.

Where different email addresses are to go to more than one person, it makes more sense to direct the emails to different places, and this may be achieved using mailboxes, redirection... or a combination of both.

Forwarding to multiple external email addresses

Emails sent to a specific email addresses can be forwarded to an external email address.

Multiple local mailboxes

Additional mailboxes can be created to hold emails sent to specific email addresses.

Each of the mailboxes can be accessed separately - with separate access details.

Using Forwarding and Mailboxes in combination

It's also possible to mix and match and use a combination of mailboxes and forwarding.

Sending Emails

In most cases, you'll also want to be able to send emails from @greatwebsiteaddress.com.

Sending from an existing email account

In most cases, you'll be able to use your existing email account (gmail, hotmail, etc.) to send from @greatwebsiteaddress.com.

Many people are shocked by this statement, so it bears repeating:

In most cases, you'll be able to use your existing email account to send from @greatwebsiteaddress.com.

It's just a case of changing the "from" address in your email client. How easy this is depends on which email client you're using:

• Mozilla Thunderbird makes it very easy for to change the "from" address. (It also allows you to set up multiple "identities," which makes it easy to select from a list of "from" addresses when sending an email.
• It's much more of a tricky job if you're using Microsoft Outlook, but there's a good "how to" here

Sending via the Mail Server

The Mail Server can also be used for sending emails - with the following proviso:

Advanced options

Autoresponders

An Autoresponder will send out a reply when a message is sent to a selected email address. This is a useful way of automating the delivery of information such as FAQs or contact details on request.

Delivery to Multiple recipients

So far we've talked about forwarding to a single recipient, but it's also possible for emails sent to a selected email address to be forwarded to multiple external addresses.

Program Activation

Emails sent to a selected address can also be used to activate a program. Have you ever unsubscribed from a newsletter by replying to an email? If so, the email you sent most likely activated a program to unsubscribe you (remove you from the database, etc.)