Email on your computer system

Email clients are applications or software that enable you to read, send and often save emails on your computer (as well as some mobile devices like iPhones and Blackberrys). The most commonly known and used clients are MS Outlook, Mac Mail, Eudora, Mozilla Thunderbird which all support POP and IMAP - essential protocols for setting up your email accounts.

Generally, setting up your email is quite a similar process for all clients. So where to start?

Once you have your domain set up, for example, sitemaker.com, you need to create your mailbox through the Moonfruit portal i.e. www.moonfruit.com which you can access through your website. The Domains module is where you can manage your domains, renewals, hide your Whois contact details, check your billing and manage your mailboxes.

We'll use Outlook as the example for setting up your email client due to it currently being the most popular client available. Just remember that Mac Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird etc will vary only a little with settings. So...

Setting Up - E-mail Accounts

  1. The easiest way to set up your account is using POP3 or simply POP (IMAP works just as well and will be similar to set up)
  2. Your name could be anything from Admin, John Smith, Johno987 - this is what your recipients will see in the 'From' section of your email
  3. Email address is the full email (mailbox) address you set up with your domain name - the Mailbox name not any aliases
  4. Your username will be your FULL mailbox address e.g. admin@sitemaker.com (not just "admin")
  5. The password will be your mailbox password, NOT your SiteMaker (website) login
  6. The format you use for your incoming (to receive mail) server will be, for example: pop.sitemaker.com
  7. The format for your outgoing (to send mail) server will be, for example: smtp.sitemaker.com

Outlook_Main_Settings

NB. Click on the images to see a larger version with more detail.

So, is that it then?

Well, not quite. The final steps you need to complete setting up email are to be found in 'More Settings' on the main panel. Click this and a new panel will appear containing four tabs.

More Settings (the forgotten step)

The first tab in 'More Settings' is the 'General' tab. You only need confirm that the 'Email Account' matches your POP or incoming server address e.g. pop.sitemaker.com

Outlook General Settings Tab
















The next tab is the 'Outgoing' tab. You need to check or select the 'My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication' option.

Please note that the most important step is to ensure that you select 'Use same settings as my incoming mail server'. This will match the username and password between incoming and outgoing servers and ensure you can easily send and receive mail.

Outlook Outgoing Settings Tab
















The 'Connection' tab settings are down to you and how you connect to the Internet but should normally be left alone using the defaults provided.

The same can be said of the 'Advanced' tab which controls the ports used. The defaults for the ports should normally be left alone also.

Once you have saved your settings, your email should now be ready to test and use.

NB. If you get an incoming/receiving error please double check your username matches your email address (mailbox name) and that the password is correct for your email account. If you get an outgoing/sending error please do check the 'Outgoing' tab and the same settings are used as your incoming mail server.

Additional Settings (should they be required)

The following 'Settings' are given using 'sitemaker.com' as an example should they be required beyond the default values:

  • User Name: your full email address i.e. support@sitemaker.com
  • Email type: POP3
  • Incoming mail server: pop.sitemaker.com
  • Incoming mail server port: leave as default - normally 110 (143 for POP SSL)
  • Outgoing mail server: smtp.sitemaker.com
  • Outgoing mail server port: 25 (465 or 587 for SMTP SSL)
  • Password: What was created when mail box created
  • Access Point: Choose own setting e.g. WIFI, 3G (whatever you use to access the web)

FAQ

Q. Why am I getting an error when I try to log in?

A. The usual causes are incorrect password or using the wrong mailbox name. If you use an alias rather than the mailbox name the login will fail. To check this, just login to moonfruit.com, go to the Manage Domains section and click the 'Email & Settings' link beside your domain. The name of your mailbox or mailboxes will be listed. These are the ones you must use to login.

Q. Why am I not receiving my emails?

A1. The most common problem is creating an alias that conflicts with one of your mailboxes. For example if you have mailboxes named Admin, Support and Sales and the Sales mail box also has an alias called Admin then an email sent to admin@mydomain.com may fail. The system won't know which mailbox to deliver it to, Admin or Sales (which has the alias Admin) so it is likely to fail. Please just check the aliases in all your mailboxes and remove all that conflict.

A2. Sometimes when testing emails you may try sending an email to yourself i.e. the from and to addresses are the same. This is never guaranteed to work as some email systems view emails being sent back to themselves as redundant and delete or block their return. If you wish to test your email address use another external account to test with e.g. Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo.

Q. Why can't I send any emails?

A. The most common problem is not setting up the SMTP server correctly. Normally the main settings will be set up with correct username, password and server but the user forgets to set them up correctly on the Outgoing element of the account. The simplest way to correct this is to enable SMTP authentication, if provided, by selecting the "Use the same settings as my incoming mail server" option.

Q. How much space do I get to store my emails?

A. With our webmail you get 1GB

Q. If I transfer my domain name to you, will my email be transferred as well?

A. If you are transferring your domain name to us, all your mail will be stored on your current provider's servers, so once the transfer completes your mail will be lost. We suggest using an email client (like Outlook, Mail, Thunderbird) to back up your mailbox locally onto your computer before you begin transferring your domain name.

Q. How do I set up IMAP?

A. Set up IMAP the same as you would set up POP. The only difference will be that the incoming mail servers will use IMAP instead of POP. So on the Main panel the incoming server would be for example: imap.sitemaker.com. You would also need to ensure this is configured on the General tab through More Settings.

Q. Can I view my emails on my mobile phone?

A. If your mobile phone supports POP3 or IMAP then you should be able to set up your email just as simply as we have explained above. Please read your mobile phone User Guide for more detail should you need help settings up your mobile device.

Q. So how do I actually set up my email now that I have a domain?

A. This can be done quite simple through the Domains module. Locate your domain and click on the Email & Settings link. You can then either forward your email address to an external account or you can create up to five mailboxes. More details on creating your email addresses is available in another article: "From domain to email in just a few simple steps."

Q. I need to access my mail remotely while I'm travelling. Can I do this online?

A. Yes you can. You only need the webmail URL for your email account, the username (the full mailbox address) and the password for that mailbox. More details on how to access your webmail can be found in another article: " Getting Connected: Setting up your webmail "

Jargon Buster

POP Or POP3 is the most common way to receive mail. Will be used with SMTP to send mail.

IMAP An suitable alternate to POP for receiving mail. Still uses SMTP for outgoing.

SMTP This is the outgoing server responsible for sending mail. SMTP will be used regardless of incoming choice (POP or IMAP). The simplest process is to use the same settings as the Incoming server by using the 'Requires Authentication' option.

Username This is the full mailbox address e.g. john987@mysite.com (not just 'john987').

.tld This is short for top level domain and simply refers to the extension after your actual domain e.g. .com, .net, .uk, .eu, .us

Mailbox: This is an account you create using your domain name and has a prefix like admin or sales or mail e.g admin@mydomain.com. The mailbox name (the full address) must be used as the username to login to it.

Alias: Alternative names you can give to a specific mailbox to provide more flexibility with your service. For example under the sales@mydomain.com mailbox you could have the names of your sales team e.g. john@, susi@, josh@ all of which would redirect to Sales. Be warned though that 'all' addresses must be unique and aliases cannot be used to access your mail only the mailbox name can.