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DOMAIN HOSTING

Set Up Guide Page

This page has detailed help on access of Control Panel and Email Set Up for new users

Control Panel | Email Help | Web Site Help

CONTROL PANEL

To go to your Control Panel use the URL: http://yourdomain.com/controlpanel
For example, if your domain is called www.goofy.com then use http://goofy.com/controlpanel
The pop up will ask for your password. This password is given to you once your domain is live on the server. Once you enter the password you will get to the screen that allows you to use website tools or set up email. Most of the tools have explanations. The Help link on the main control panel page may be disconnected which is why this page is provided.

EMAIL

How to setup email, mail program setup, Web Based email, and special important notes.

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SET UP EMAIL

In the Control Panel go to Set Up My Email
Logging into the the mail control system:
Username: postmaster
Password: provided (this MUST be changed for your security as soon as you log in)
Domain: yourdomain.com

Mail Software Setup:

Settings:

Incoming Mail Server (pop3) pop.yourdomain.com
Outgoing Mail Server (smtp) pop.yourdomain.com
User name format: user%yourdomain.com
Please note that there is a % after your user name. For example if you setup the mail address webmaster@yourdomain.com when you collect the mail from the web address you will enter webmaster%yourdomain.com in your mail program as the user id or name. If you use Eudora e-mail software you will have to put webmaster%yourdomain.com@yourdomain.com as the mail server.

Mail Relay:
You may use our smtp server providing that you are able to make a connection to the pop3 server and authorize yourself as the owner of that pop 3 account. This must be done before you will be able to send mail. Your proxy or firewall must allow this to happen or you will not be able to send mail through the server. If you have a normal ISP, DSL, or Cable connection you should not have any problems.

If you have any problems logging into the Email SetUp program, go to: http://64.156.139.200/

Web Based Email

To access your email on the web, use http://pop.yourdomain.com
If your domain was called www.goofy.com, then use http://pop.goofy.com (note that there is no www in this address)

If you have any problems logging into the Web Based Email site, go to: http://64.156.139.200/

Special Important Notes

The most important thing to remember when using this email system with mail software is that you MUST RECEIVE email and download it from the server BEFORE SENDING email or you will receive an error message.
In Outlook Express, beside the Send and Receive button, there is an arrow. If you press this arrow you will have the choice to either Send or ReceiveAll email. If you keep receiving error messages when trying to send email, clear the server by using this arrow and choosing to Receive All. Then send the email.
If you continue to experience problems, log into the Web Based Email system to clear the server as there may be a piece of email on the server that is clogging the download to your email program.

At times, the email server is down for a short period of time for repairs or maintenance. Usually this is a mere ten minutes, but sometimes it is a little bit more. Please do not report the email server down unless you are unable to retrieve email for more than 24 hours.

Here is the FAQ about email:
We provide access to the email servers at no additional cost as an adjunct to the domain hosting. You may set up your own email at the control panel.
The email servers are extremely dependable and a full time technical staff watches them for performance 24 hours a day. Should one system fail there is a back up, and a backup of the backup, so there is little possibility that email service will be interrrupted and downtime is minimal.
However, this is POP email, not isp generated email, and certain rules apply.
99.99 % of email problems are user generated. 99.99% of the time email problems are reported unnecessarily when the system is running perfectly.
Unless the email server is down for over 24 hours do not report it, as there is probably not a problem.
If there is actually a server problem it will be corrected as soon as possible. There is a full time, 24 hour a day, seven day a week, technical staff monitoring server activity, so it is doubtful that it will ever be out of service for 24 hours. In the past four years, there has been only one occasion when the server was inaccessible for more than three hours. On that day, the server was back and running in four hours.

This is how the system works:

--On occasion, maintenance service is rendered to the email servers and web page servers and you will not be able to access sites or email for short periods of time. These rarely put the system out of service for more than an hour, but a certain amount of downtime must be expected with any internet system as improvements are added to the systems.

--The email system is "flushed" regularly, and for periods of about 45 minutes once a week the service will not be working. The solution is to wait and come back later to get your email.

--Once a user has logged onto the email system, it will quit accessing after a few hours. There is an automatic cutoff. The only solution is to log off the internet and dial back in to be re-registered.

--Due to immense traffic on the email server it is advised that users set the email program to poll for email no more than every 15 minutes.

Common problems:

--If user computer, email, or internet settings are incorrect, or have been disrupted while online, sometimes rebooting the system fixes email access problems.

--A common user problem is having incorrect return addresses in email settings which clogs the system with Mailer Daemon messages. If you use return receipts this problem is magnified. The solution to continual email problems is to make sure that email addresses and settings are correct to avoid taxing the system and frustrating yourself.

--The most common, # 1 user problem is forgetting to RECEIVE email before trying to SEND email. Email on the server must be downloaded completely before any email can be sent. The solution is to use the RECEIVE ALL function of your email program before trying to send email.

--On occasion some email will not download from the server to a pop account and this problem is magnified if there is a large number of blocked sender accounts. Then you will not be able to send email. This problem is usually NOT a problem with the POP email server, but with the local internet service provider. The solution is again to wait until the system has cleared at the local ISP. To check if this is the case, go to http://pop.yourdomain.com and check your email on the web based server. You can simply read and send email from the web page or the email on the web page can be deleted to clear the box. That often fixes the problem within the hour. Once the email appearing on the web page server is either deleted or downloaded to your "in" box the problem will disappear.

Usually most problems disappear within an hour, so if you wait, most likely the problem will be corrected without any action on your part. When you experience continual problems with POP email, first check your POP account settings, then visit the web based email page, then try reconnecting to the internet, then try rebooting.

WEB SITE HELP

The number one problem with new web site owners is understanding that there MUST be a web page named index.html uploaded into the folder.
It cannot be named index.htm
If you type in your domain URL, http://goofy.com and a directory shows up, then you have uploaded index.htm

Web sites may be hosted at one of several servers, using one of two different systems. Some systems will have subfolders and some won't. If you arrive at your domain folder on the FTP system, and find a subfolder named www, then you may upload your html files into the www folder. Some of the servers allow you to simply upload to the folder itself without using the www folder. You must experiment to see which works for your website.

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