E-mail Helps and Hints 

Probably half the customer support involves E-mail.  People either get too much SPAM or junk mail, or have problems sending or receiving mail.  Our goal is to try and place hints and suggestions here for you to use in

  • Configuring your mail program

  • Settings for incoming and outgoing mail

  • Filtering your incoming mail to help protect you from virus or SPAM

To configure your mail program you need to access your account.  If you are using Outlook Express, then the tab at the top indicates Tools, then Accounts, then click on the Mail Tab.

 
Choose which account you want to modify or configure, and then click on Properties off on the right hand side of the screen.

 
The first screen, General, has very little to do with the actual operation of the mail program, but will make it easy for you to recognize the account.

 
The next screen, Servers, is where the meat and potatoes of the mail program do their work.  Most of your mail accounts should be a POP3 account.  On the next line down, the incoming mail server should be mail.domainname.com, where domain name is the domain you get your mail through.  Example:  mail.securesupport.ws  On the next line down, the outgoing mail server is normally set the same as the incoming mail server.  However, if you access the internet through a dial up account through a local ISP, you may need to contact them for the name of an outgoing mail server that you can send mail through to prevent mail relay from occurring.  The next line we want to examine is the Account Name.  In this box, put in your entire e-mail address.  Example: support@securesupport.ws  In the box below that is a space for your assigned password.  Please type it in carefully, as Windows will remember a bad password as long as it will remember a good password.  If you have been directed to use passwords for outgoing mail, and your outgoing mail server is of the format mail.domainname.com then place a check mark in the box labeled My Server Requires Authentication.

   

These settings should be all of what you need to normally check or send mail with any of our domain accounts.

If there is a problem with sending mail, it will almost always be with the outgoing mail server name or with the check mark in My Server Requires Authentication.  Here is a link to the IPSwitch site to help those with Netscape, or Eudora mail programs that may need different characters, like % or & in place of the @ symbol in the account name. 

Netscape        http://support.ipswitch.com/kb/IM-20010423-DM01.htm

Eudora           http://support.ipswitch.com/kb/IM-20010423-DM02.htm

To set up filters for your mail program to filter mail or protect you from SPAM there are several commercial programs available for very little money, or for free.  For those that don't want to be bothered, or for domain administrators, here is a link to IPSwitch site with recommendations for writing a mail filter for the mail server.  http://support.ipswitch.com/kb/IM-19990609-DM06.htm

It should be noted that most of the process can be done within Outlook Express or Outlook without the assistance of any other software or server filters.  If the offensive mail is always from the same user or mail address, it is a simple process to add them to the blocked senders list.  With the message highlighted, simply click on Messages at the top row of tabs, and the click on Block Sender.  It will prompt you to see if that is what you want to do, and then again to see if you want to delete all messages from that sender.  To check the condition of the Blocked Senders List, click on Tools, then Message Rules, and then Blocked Senders List.  If the mail is not always from the same party or parties, then you can write mail rules to sort your mail first, and then send it to deleted folders or other folders as you desire.  You can write a rule that any mail with ADV in the subject line automatically goes into the deleted folder, instead of your inbox.