HSphere Control Panel Tips and Tricks - Power At Your Fingertips: Part 1

The first topic we are going to discuss is email. HSPHERE (the software running the control panel) offers many useful functions including mail forwarding, auto responders and a mail list manager. You can add new emails at anytime you wish. To add a new e-mail mailbox, do the following:

Select E-Mail in the main access menu area. Since HSphere allows you to manage multiple domains or web sites in one interface, you first need to select the account you wish to make entries for regarding e-mail. Select the domain you wish to administer and select GO. NOTE : if you only manage one domain name it will appear as the default.

When this refreshes after you select the domain, you will see the proper information appear including all existing e-mail accounts. Postmaster and Webmaster @ your domain name are standard defaults and will always be present. We suggest you forward these to more active e-mail accounts once setup. NOTE: This screen also shows you your e-mail settings that will be required to put into your e-mail client so you can connect properly to our e-mail server(s). You will need to make note of the Incoming and Outgoing server information. In this example case they are : mail.yourcompany.com

Then select NEW E-MAIL. You will then see the main interface screen for controlling all of your e-mail functions. This may be one of the screens you use most at first, please take the time to explore using this system.

To setup an e-mail box you need to provide three pieces of information minimum in this area. (1) The actual e-mail address prefix you wish to use. (2) Confirm that it is a mailbox. (3) Supply a password to access the e-mail account.

Once complete, scroll down the page and select SUBMIT.

The other options available in this interface are for the particular e-mail account.

CATCH ALL: This is used to let the e-mail server forward all e-mail messages that are not addressed to a specific e-mail account on your system to this e-mail box. This can be effective if used properly. One main use is that will never miss an e-mail due to incorrect spelling or similar reasons. Please also be aware that electronic tools and SPAM engines take advantage of these and you will see an increase in the amount of e-mail traffic to different e-mail addresses at your domain.

DISCARD ALL INCOMING MAIL: If selected, the email server will automatically delete all e-mail to this address.

MAIL FORWARD: If you wish to forward all e-mail received into this account to another e-mail address, you can enter the values here.

MAIL ALIASES: These are used to let the mail server know that these particular e-mail prefix names (the actual aliases you setup) will be automatically forwarded to this main e-mail address where they were entered. An example may be to have JSmith@yourcompany.com be an e-mail address account and assign aliases; John.Smith@ or JohnSmith@ or JohnS@ etc. to allow the particular e-mail user the ability to accept e-mail where people may have made a common mistake. Or John Smith may also handle your sales@yourcompany.com e-mail address which you would need sent to his main e-mail address.

AUTORESPONDER: This is a message that you can have run anytime that will automatically send a message to the sender once received by the mail server with the message. Some may use this while on holidays, and other may just wish to acknowledge receipt of an e-mail.

Next article we will discuss the mail list manger that HSPHERE offers.

Sheri Barnes has been working in the web design and web hosting business for over 10 years. She is currently the owner of My Web Visions a company that has been providing superior web hosting and design for over 3 years.