Unless you have opted for the virtual smtp/pop option, your web hosting account includes one pop email account, and all email sent to your domain will be delivered to that one pop email account. This means that "anything" @ yourdomain.com is a valid email address. For example, [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] all point to your single pop email account.

To check your email, use a program such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Configure your mail program to use your domain as the smtp and pop3 hosts. Use your login name and password to access your mail. For example, if your domain name is anydomainatall.com and your username is jrabbit and you want to have people email you at [email protected], your Eudora settings should be configured as follows:

POP account:    [email protected]
SMTP:           anydomainatall.com
Return address: [email protected]

For Outlook Express, you would use:

My incoming mail server is a "POP3" server.

E-mail address:       [email protected]
Incoming mail server: anydomainatall.com
Outgoing mail server: anydomainatall.com
Account name:         jrabbit

All email addressed to your domain will be redirected to your single pop account. If would like your email selectively redirected to outside email addresses, see the Autoresponders and Redirection help section.

Problems Sending Email

If you are having problems sending email, you might be experiencing a new measure many ISPs are taking to prevent unauthorized mailings through their systems. What these ISPs are doing is blocking all outgoing access to port 25, which is the port used to send email. Earthlink and AOL are two of the bigger ISPs that have begun doing this. See this link for more information. If you can receive email but cannot send email, this is probably your problem. To remedy the situation, you can do one of three things: 1) use your ISP's smtp server, 2) get another ISP, or 3) use The Workaround.

If you want to use the ISP's smtp server, you'll need to get that information from them and fill out the appropriate fields in your mail program. For Earthlink, it would be mail.earthlink.net. If you configure your mail program with this information, you should be able to start sending email again. However, with other ISPs, you still might not be home-free, as their smtp server might require to configure your mail program with the email address that your ISP gave to you when you first signed up with them. For example, if you signed up with AOL, your mail address might be [email protected]. Most mail programs will allow you to use your domain-based email address (like [email protected]) as your "Reply-to address".

If changing ISPs is not an option, or you are otherwise happy with them, you can try the workaround.

The Workaround: We have made port 2525 a mirror of port 25, which means that you can configure your mail program to use port 2525 instead of port 25 to send outgoing email. In some mail programs, it's easy to make this change. Other programs make it very difficult.

If you are using Outlook Express on Windows, go to Tools, select Accounts, click the Mail tab, highlight the appropriate account, and click on Properties. Then, click the Advanced tab. Change "Outgoing mail (SMTP)" to 2525 and click OK. That's it.

If you are using Eudora or Netscape Mail on Windows, open your Windows directory and look for a file called "services". Open it with NotePad. Look for this line:

smtp 25/tcp mail

You want to change it to:

smtp 2525/tcp mail

Then, Eudora and/or Netscape Mail will begin using that port to send out your outgoing email. You might need to restart your computer for the change to take effect.

If you are using Eudora on a Mac, open the Eudora Folder, look for a folder called Extras or something like it. Inside this folder, you will find a file called "esoteric settings". Drag this file into your Eudora Stuff folder and start Eudora. Go to Special:Settings and you will notice a new option: Ports & Protocols. Change the smtp port to 2525 at this point. Eudora will begin using port 2525 to send all outgoing email.

If these workarounds do not fix your sending problem, or if you are using another email program, email us at [email protected].