Web services contracted through Net Presence may include email under the same domain name as your website address. Thus if your website address were “www.yourdoman.com,” you could have email addresses such as “service@yourdomcain.com” and “products@yourdomcain.com.” When you set up email boxes at your domain, you also have to decide how you are going to manage that mail. The first choice is whether you simply want your new mail forwarded to you at a pre-existing email address or whether you want standalone mail boxes.
FORWARDING: An e-mail address (such as “poobah@yourdomain.com”) is set up to take all incoming mail and forward it to another address (or to several addresses) of your choosing, such as a gmail.com or a yahoo.com address. This is easy to set up and easy to deal with. The down side is that generally when you send mail, the “From” field on the email lists e-mail address to which you are forwarding (such as gmail.com or yahoo.com), and not “yourdomain.com.”
If, on the other hand you set up standalone mail boxes, you have two main options for managing your mail.
The first option is that you use your Web browser (such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Torch) to log in to your mail server. You then read your messages, compose and send messages, delete mail and do other mail management tasks through a Web browser interface. This has the advantage of being very simple at the front end. All you need to know is the address of your mail server, your e-mail address (which is your username), and your mail password. It also has the advantage of making your mail available to you wherever you are – as long as you have an Internet connection and a Web browser. This is the same kind of arrangement provided by popular mail services like Gmail and Yahoo!.
The down side of Web mail is that you usually have to go through extra steps to empty your trash after you delete a message. If you do not, your mail box runs the risk of filling up. Some people who like to save messages to their computer’s hard drive find that the extra steps you go through to do that from a Web mail interface is annoying. If you prefer the Web mail option, you may get further instructions from the document titled “Doing Web mail.”
A mail client is software specifically designed to manage e-mail. These include such programs as Eudora, Evolution, IBM Notes, Mac Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Open Office Mail, Opera Mail, Outlook, Pegasus, and Seamonkey Suite. Some of these client packages, like Evolution and Outlook are integrated with personal organizer programs. Others, like Seamonkey and Opera Mail are part of Web-enabled software suites. Each has its advocates.
If you plan to use client software you may get further instructions from the document titled “Using mail clients.”