Mail Manager Main Menu features explained.
This section of cPanel will allow a user to accomplish many tasks dealing with the mail on an account. Anything from setting up Email accounts, to setting auto-responders can be accomplished in this area. We’ll go over each area in this section and explain its uses.
Web Mail
The web mail section of the main section “Mail” is where a user can check their email through a web GUI “Graphical User Interface”. Most users prefer this type of mail client because it’s simple to use and very easy and quick to setup. Most servers already have at least one web mail client setup, in some cases there are more.
Also see Step by Step Tutorial How to set-up and use “WebMail” Tutorial (online)
Email Domain Forwarding
Do not confuse ‘Forwarding’ with ‘Forwarders’ seen further down this page.
An email domain forwarder redirects all email coming in on a specific domain name to another domain name. For example if we setup dot.com to redirect to dot.net, all email coming in on dot.com will redirect to its corresponding user on dot.net. (mike@dot.com redirects to mike@dot.net). Any pop accounts setup under each domain name will not be affected by this forwarding option.
Add/Remove/Manage Accounts
This is where email accounts are managed including adding a new email account, changing its quota (space) and change its password. Icon access to online web mail for each account as well as deleting an account. Click on the link below for a detailed explanation of how to Manage Email Accounts.
Default Address
In this section a user can specify what the default Email address will be. The default Email address is used to receive all email that is sent to account that are non-existing. For example if someone sent an email to mike@yourdomain.com and used mik@yourdomain.com, forgetting the e on mike, it would send that email to the default email address. This is useful as no Email can be lost but it makes it very easy for Email Spammers.
We highly recommend the default address is configured to :fail: which replies with an error message to incorrectly addressed emails. Spammers hate it !
Autoresponders
Auto responders are setup to be used to automatically respond to an email that has been sent to the corresponding email address. Auto responders are very useful for people that are going away for a long period of time and wouldn’t be able to answer their emails. An auto responder can be setup to respond to incoming emails with any message specified by the user.
E-mail Filtering
Email filters can easily be setup so users can manage incoming email address. These are very similar to the way Outlook uses filters. Filters are very useful for users with large amounts of spam. If Spam Assassin is enabled and set-up (see below), a custom filter can be setup to automatically delete all email that Spam Assassin deems as spam.
There is also a testing section, to test filters that have been added. Just simply fill out the required information and hit “Test Filter”. It will then display how the message will be affected by the new filters that have just been put into place.
Block Unwanted Emails
If you don’t want to receive mails from a ‘specific’ email address you can block it using Email Filtering
1. Choose ‘Add filter’
2. Choose ‘From’ in the first drop down menu
3. Choose ‘Equals’ in the second drop down menu
4. Write the email address in the empty field.
5. Activate
Forwarders
Forwarders are used to direct an email address to another email address on or off the server. This is useful for users that want to direct old email accounts to a new email address. Forwarders are very easy to setup, just a few simple steps.
Examples:
emailaddress@mydomain.com forwards to anotheremailaddress@mydomain.com
emailaddress@mydomain.com forwards to myemail@isp.com (Optus, Telstra)
emailaddress@mydomain.com forwards to myemail@gmail.com
Mailing Lists
This section of the Mail section is used to setup mailing lists. Mailing lists are extremely useful for users wanting to email a large number of users at once. Be extremely careful not to breach spam laws and guidelines.
Simply input the mailing lists name, a password to use for it and the domain name that it will be used on and hit create. That’s it, that simple. Once a mailing list is setup, email address can be added to it through this same section. There are allot of scripts available to manage mailing lists easier, there is also a free one that comes with cPanel, check under the scripts section.
Spam Assassin
Spam Assassin is used to filter out incoming email on a server side basis. Meaning it’s sorted through as it comes into the server. There is also a Spam Assassin Spam Box that can be enabled and email that Spam Assassin deems as spam, will be forwarded to this box and can be viewed by the user at a later date.
Trace an E-mail Address
Tracing an email address is similar to running a trace route on a user’s computer. It will basically map out the paths that an email takes to get to the server. This information can be useful in finding out where an email be getting lost. This information is also very interesting as it will show the complete path from the server to the email address.
Modify Mail Exchanger (MX Entry)
Most users will not need to use this option. This works basically the same as a domain name forwarder, as it will change the direction of email on a server to the specified domain name provided by the user. This inputs the information on the servers MX records and shouldn’t be used unless a user knows what their doing. Incorrectly inputting information could result in loss of email from an entire domain name.