Quick Set-Up Directions for E-Mail Administrators

Now that you have your own domain name and are working on (or have already published your web site), it's time to set-up your e-mail mail boxes. You may have as many mail boxes as you would like. All of them will have addresses similar to name@YourDomain.com  Typically, companies have a general box like  (info@YourDomain.com), boxes for specific departments (e.g. sales@YourDomain.com or purchasing@YourDomain.com), as well as individual mail-boxes for staff (e.g. charliesmith@YourDomain.com).  The first [30] mail boxes are FREE with our basic web hosting  package. Additional mail boxes may be added for an additional fee, and are instantly available upon request. But no matter how many mail boxes you have, you will need to assign someone to over see (or administer) their operation.

Usually companies delegate that responsibility to their web master, but many companies prefer to have someone actually in their office who is used to administrative responsibilities (e.g. the network engineer or office manager) handle those chores. It is a good idea to keep one mail box just for administrative purposes. If you are not going to use your web master to administer e-mail, you could call it something like admin@YourDomain.com  Through that mail box, your e-mail administrator will be able to create, delete, or modify mail boxes as well as their individual attributes.

If you are the e-mail administrator, click on  http://mail.phoenixws.net/  This link will bring you to the page below.

You will have to set up an administrative mail box with Greg or Erin before you can proceed any further. When you do that, certain "privileges" (e.g. the ability to create or delete accounts) will be enabled that will only be accessible to you (the mail administrator) and only through this mail box.

For this demonstration webmaster@YourDomain.com has been set up as the administrative mail box. Once you are on this page all you will have to do is enter your user ID (your administrative e-mail box address) and your password.

TIP:  Keep your password simple, secret, and something easy for you to remember. If you are worried about security, a really good hacker can decrypt a password like "43rj63ypxq87ipzr" just as easily as he can decrypt "toast". However, toast is a whole lot easier for you to remember. Once you set your password, however, it's yours. Although it remains on our server, we can't tell you what it is. So if you forget or lose it, you won't be able to administer your mail boxes. Incidentally, if your firm is truly at high risk from hackers (e.g. a bank), you may want to consult us about additional security precautions. For everyone else what we have in place is generally more than you will ever need.

Once you log on, you will come to the page below. You will now be able to view or send mail through this mail box just like any other. But... unlike any other user, you will also have all of the administrative options mentioned above.

Main Menu	Mailbox Summary
webmaster Current Mailbox: Main	Mailbox Size (bytes) Message Count Last Modified Main 0 0/0 2002-07-08 15:11 Sent 0 0   Deleted 0 0   Current Mailbox: Main
	Options
	Personal Administration Change Finger Information User Administration Change Password not allowed Alias Administration Change Mail Forwarding Information Domain Processing Rules Change User Information   Change Vacation Message   Change Processing Rules   Address Book   Manage Mailboxes   Auto Response   Preferences Change Signature

Click on "User Administration" and you will get the following page.

User Administration
	webmaster greg

If nothing is selected from list box then default user is used.

Webmaster (in this demo) is the name of the administrative account. You may also see greg or erin listed as well, as we usually keep an administrative mail box in place as a back-up in case yours gets corrupted (or you lose your password!). We do not use it for any other purpose, and you are not charged for this box.

The buttons in the right hand column are pretty much self-explanatory. Add will enable you to create a new mail box.

To use any of the other functions highlight a name first. Then Delete will enable you to remove a mail box that has already been created. Display will let you see all the attributes attached to that mailbox. Chng Pass will enable you to change the password for any mail box. And Modify will enable you to change any of the attributes attached to any mail box (e.g. the number of messages it can hold).

NOTE:  Two advanced features (Alias Administration and Domain Processing Rules) are also available to experienced mail administrators. If you are in this user category, you will know what these functions can do and the proper way to modify them. If you don't know what these features entail, please leave them at their default settings.

TIP:  E-mail policies vary from company to company. If you want everyone's mail box to look and work exactly the same, you can do so, as the mail administrator has the capability of setting mail box preferences for each user. However, most companies allow some latitude in this and will at least allow their users to set their own passwords.

When you are ready to create a new mail box, just click on Add. You will get the page below which will enable you to set up your new user.

Add User	Add a new user
	Current Domain: YourDomain.com
	Enter new user account information.
	UserID:
	First Name:
	Last Name:
	Password:
	Confirm Password:
	Max Mailbox Size:
	Max Num Messages:
	User Attributes	User cannot change password Allow Web access Account access disabled List administrator Hide from information services User cannot modify LDAP attributes

UserID
User Identification (UserID) may be from 3 to 30 characters long and must consist of alphanumeric, '_','-' and periods.

Password
Passwords may be from 4 to 30 characters long and cannot contain spaces.

Max Mailbox Size:
The maximum size (in bytes) for each mailbox created in the user's mail account. If a mailbox exceeds the maximum, any new mail for the mailbox is returned to the sender. Maximum mailbox size should be set to  20,000,000

Max Messages:
The maximum number of messages (the total for all mailboxes created in the user's mail account). If the maximum is exceeded, any new mail for the user is returned to the sender. Maximum number of  messages should be set to  3000 in case of mail loop..

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Generally, the only box you will check will be Allow Web Access.

TIP:  You may or may not allow users to change their individual passwords. Allowing them to do so, usually gives them a greater sense of trust and security. Not allowing them to do so, often raises the specter of "Big Brother", since you know their password too. But if you have an employee in a mission critical role, you might want to be dead sure that you know his password (i.e. check "User cannot change password") in case something should happen to him, or he leaves the company in less than friendly circumstances. In that case you could effectively be locked out of his mailbox, and if it is stuffed with orders for your company... well, the ramifications are obvious.

Setting User Attributes

Set any of the following user attributes:

User cannot change password. Select this option to prevent the user from changing their password remotely.

Account access disabled. Select this option to prohibit the user from accessing the account remotely through POP3 or IMAP4. This option allows you disable the account without changing the user's password or removing them from the system.

Hide from information services. Select this option to prevent the distribution of any information about this user through Finger, LDAP, or Whois if you have the Finger, LDAP, or Whois servers running.

Host Administrator. Select this option if you want this user to add, modify, or delete users and aliases on their mail host by using IMail Remote Administration utility, the Web Remote Administration utility, or Web Messaging. To use the web utilities, Allow Web Access must also be selected.

Allow Web Access. Select this option to allow this user to access their account via the Web Remote Administration utility (provided the utility is configured) and Web Messaging.

List Administrator. Select this option if you want this user to add, modify, or delete list server mailing lists.

This basically is all you need to know in order to administer your e-mail; but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call Greg or Erin at 262-5005.

PS:  Many mail clients are available for users to view and send their e-mail. I-Mail has its own interface. Any of your users may use it by clicking on the link  http://mail.phoenixws.net/  and entering in their individual mail box address and password. They needn't do anything else, if they are content using this interface.

If they prefer to use another e-mail client, such as Outlook Mail (attached to InterNet Explorer) or Netscape Messenger (attached to Communicator), they may do so and may still be able to use the I-mail interface as well. If users are running other mail clients, however, they will need to enter incoming and outgoing (SMTP) server information. In that case they will need to enter mail.yourdomain.com as the incoming server and mail.yourdomain.com as the outgoing server. Some mail clients will, however, only allow one instance of SMTP. If your users are already using e-mail, it will already be set up to use your ISP's SMTP. There is no reason to change it, unless the user wishes mail to come directly from your domain.