1. Set-up an Auto Responder on a mailbox via Webmail
2. Log in with your:
   Full email address, e.g. me@my-domain.co.za and
   Email password (remember, passwords are case-sensitive)
3. Click on Settings (the cog icon at the top right)
   
4. Click Manage Mailbox in the left menu
5. You now need to again log in with your mailbox password
   
6. Click the Change password button
   
7.  Enter and verify your new password
   
8.  Click Update Mailbox at the bottom of the page

Ensure your password is strong. Following our guidelines:

• Use both upper and lower case letters
• Incorporate numbers or punctuation marks
• Ensure your password is at least 11 characters long
• Do not use your usernames, email addresses or domain names associated with your account
• Do not use your personal information, like your pet’s name, special dates, or your ID number
• Use different passwords for your various hosting services
• Store your passwords securely using a secure application e.g Last Pass or 1 Password

Set-up an Auto Responder on a mailbox via Webmail

Launch your mail applicationQ

1. Start by selecting the mail icon from your applications screen

Setup email

2. Enter the email address and email password

• Choose  Manual Setup

Account type

3. Choose IMAP

Incoming server settings

4. The programme may try to connect to the server, but will fail – you will need to add the full email address as User Name.

*Note: Android may pre-populate the first half of your email address in the username field.  Ensure that you update the field with your full email address

Check the other settings:

• Security type is None
• Port is 143
• select Next

Outgoing server settings

5. Enter all the relevant details as in the screen below and then select Next

Checking outgoing server settings…

6. Wait while your settings are tested

Account options

7. Adjust the additional Account Options as preferred.

Name

8. Specify an optional account name (for your reference only), and enter the name you wish to be displayed on outgoing mail, then select Done.

Complete Setup

9. The account has been set up successfully and your messages will now be downloaded.

Replace example.co.za with your domain name.

1. Launch Outlook
2. Select File on the top left menu bar
   
3. Select the Add Account button in the middle of the screen, then Account Settings
   
4. Insert your email address
5. Select Advanced options, then select Let me set up my account manually  > Connect
6. This temporary screen will display
   
7. This screen will display the various account options – select POP or IMAP
   
8. Server Settings: (Note that some versions of Outlook don’t allow you to adjust server settings at this stage. In these cases, complete the account setup and then check your server settings by going to File > Info > Account Settings dropdown > Server Settings).
   • Incoming mail: add mail. before your domain name e.g. mail.example.co.za*
     • Port 993 (or 995 for POP)
     • Encryption method: SSL/TLS
     • Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) is unticked
   • Outgoing mail: add smtp. before your domain name e.g.smtp.example.co.za*
     • Change Port to 465 (not 25)
     • Encryption method: SSL/TLS
     • Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) is unticked
       
9. Click Connect
10. You will now be prompted for the password
    
11. Your setup is complete!
    

1. Launch the Outlook app
2. Select Get Started 
3. An Add Account screen will appear, enter your email address and select Continue
4.  Select the ? icon on the top right-hand side of the screen, select Change account provider 
5. On the Add Email Account screen select IMAP
   
6. Complete the following fields:
   ° Email address -- type in your full email address (in lowercase)
   ° Password -- type your email password
   ° Display name -- Your full name (eg John Smith)
7. Complete all Advanced Settings
   • IMAP Incoming Mail Server
   • e.g. mail.domainname.co.za
     
   • IMAP Username is the full email address
   • IMAP Password is the mailbox password
   • SMTP Outgoing Mail Server
   • e.g. smtp.domainname.co.za
   • SMTP Username is the full email address (same as IMAP)
   • SMTP Password is the mailbox password (same as IMAP)
8. Select the ✔ icon in the top right-hand corner
   
9. A message will appear that reads ‘Attempting to log in…’
10. The next screen -- Account added -- will confirm that the email account has been added successfully
11. If you would like to add another email account, select Continue. If not, select Skip
12. An email tutorial will appear; by selecting Skip you will be taken directed to your inbox. Alternatively, your inbox will appear after the tutorial.

Automatic Account configuration

1. Launch Mozilla Thunderbird

2. Choose Create a new account > Email 

3. Choose Skip this and use my existing email

Mail Account Setup

4. Enter the following details:

• Your Name (which will appear in the “From” field in your emails)
• Email address
• Password 
• > Continue

5. Thunderbird will now automatically check your email settings. Ignore this warning message, tick and choose Done

6. If your settings are found, then your setup is complete and you can press Done.If your settings are not found, click the Manual config button and continue as below

Manual configuration

Follow the Automatic configuration above, and then choose Manual config.

7. Ensure that your settings are correct as below (these are the default settings – replacing with your own name and domain).

• Choose POP or IMAP
  • IMAP: Incoming port 143, Outgoing 587 (as below)
  • POP : Incoming 110, Outgoing 587
• Ensure that the Username is the full email address.
• SSL is None
• Authentication is Normal password.

8. Click Done. Your email setup is complete.

• Select Mail
• Select Accounts

Note: If Accounts is not visible, click on Passwords and Accounts instead of Mail 

• Select Add Account
• Select Other from the menu

Select Add Mail Account

Enter your account information: Enter your Name, Email & Password > Next

• Select IMAP (default) or POP according to your needs (See POP vs IMAP)
• Scroll down to Incoming Mail Server and enter all the relevant details, then do the same for Outgoing Mail Server, as in the screen below and then select Next.

Host Name:

• Incoming mail server: has mail. before the domain name e.g. mail.example.com*
• Outgoing mail server: has smtp. before the domain name e.g. smtp.example.com*
• Ensure that Username is the full email address
• Username & Password are the same for both Incoming & Outgoing servers

Click Save

1. Log in the EASY-MAIL Web Console with your email address and password - SEE HOW HERE.

1. Select the email folder which you wish to download from the left side menu (The Inbox is selected by default)
2. From the bottom menu, click Select and then All from the dropdown menu
3. From the top menu, select More and Download. The Maildir format (.zip) option is recommended.
4. A download will immediately commence in your browser and the selected folder will be downloaded as a single .zip file into your computers default Downloads folder.
5. Inside the zip file, each email will be listed as an .eml file. This file format can successfully be read and imported into all major email programs such as Outlook, Mac Mail and Thunderbird.
6. Folders nested within other folders i.e. subfolders, won’t be downloaded, but should be selected individually for download.

 7. Folders nested within other folders i.e. sub-folders, won’t be downloaded, but should be selected individually for download. 

OFFLINE ARCHIVING

1. Open Outlook and Click the Home tab > New Items > More Items > Outlook Data File.

Give your PST Outlook data file a name and click OK.

TIP: By default, Outlook stores PST files in the C:\Users\*USER*\Documents\Outlook Files folder.

*USER* being your Username you log into Windows with.

2. With the .PST Archive file created, Outlook automatically adds it to your Profile on the left side of the Home Tab. You can now begin archiving old emails from your Easy Mail (IMPA) folder into your newly created .PST archive.

3. To do so, you can create New Folders in your Archive file (see screen shot by groovyPost.com). Once you have created a new folder in your Archive file, you can drag-and-drop emails  from your Easy Mail IMAP Account  into the folder you made in the Archive file .

4. You can make a copy of this PST file as a backup on (1) an external hard drive or flash memory card; (2) your server or (3) on a cloud storage system.

TIP: Make sure that Outlook is CLOSED before attempting to move, copy or renaming .PST files.

WARNING: When moving or renaming an .PST file that is connected to Outlook, you will receive a error/warning message when opening Outlook. You will then need to re-add this .PST file to your Outlook Profile to gain access to the moved archive file (.PST). Alternatively, place the .PST back in the original location with its original file name. 

Overview:

• POP and IMAP are 2 methods/protocols to access email.
• Do you use more than one device for email (e.g. desktop & mobile)? Then IMAP is your best choice – but watch out for disk over–usage on your hosting account.
  • If you exceed your hosting account quote, extra charges may be allocated.
• Do you download email to only one device e.g. your computer? Then POP is an option.
• If in doubt use IMAP

Choose the correct incoming email protocol when setting up an email account:

POP 

Port 110

POP (Post Office Protocol) simply downloads email to your computer and then deletes the email from the server. If you access your email on more than one device (desktop, laptop, tablet or phone), your mailboxes will not synchronize. 

Best uses for POP Accounts:

• When disk usage on the server needs to be used sparingly.
• When emails can be backed up locally on the device(s) and server backups are not as important.
• When synchronization of folders from the device to the server and with other devices is not a requirement.

Pros:

1. If you want to send and receive your emails through one device, a POP account is suitable.
2. As emails are downloaded and usually removed from the server, you don’t risk disk over-usage charges on your hosting account.

Cons:

1. Data loss is possible if your computer is stolen or corrupted, as the mail is removed from the server. (The EasyMail Restore Backup system makes daily backups which can be used to recover emails, however, only emails available on the server at the time the backup was made can be restored.)
2. Synchronization of sent emails is not possible. All emails in the sent folder need to be backed up locally.

If you don’t use IMAP but would like to store copies of incoming mails on the server, then set up your mail client to leave a copy of messages on the server .

IMAP 

Port 143

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is the most modern and widely used protocol, which can download AND upload (synchronize) data with the server whereas the POP protocol is a download–only protocol and thus will not be able to upload data to a server. IMAP can synchronize advanced permissions and other folders and is also able to distinguish between already read/opened mail from device to device.

 Best uses for IMAP Accounts:

• When you want to synchronize / mirror image your account emails and folders with the server and with other devices.
• When the increased disk usage that this configuration will consume on the hosting server is not as much of a concern.
• When reliance on our Backup system is more convenient than backing up the email account locally. (Kindly remember that our Backup System is not guaranteed).

Pros:

1. All email and folders are synchronized and stored on the server.
2. Folder and file directories will appear the same way each time you set up the same account on a different device.
3. You can switch between your email software and the EasyMail interface at any time and the same emails should still reflect.
4. If the data stored on your computer is corrupted, formatted or if your computer is stolen your emails will still be available on our server.

Cons:

1. Your disk usage on the server builds up quickly depending on the volume of emails received/sent.
2. You will need to continuously remove unwanted emails to control server disk usage.

IMAP–Root Folder Path / Root Document Path

The IMAP Path Prefix is a setting entered into your email software settings that tell the software that it should synchronize ALL of the folders currently active on the server with the device. It is a commonly used setting that when specified, ensures that all folders are effectively synchronized.

The IMAP path prefix is INBOX. Please be sure to enter this in all caps.

This setting can be entered by clicking on “File > Account Settings > More Settings > Advanced” within most versions of Microsoft Outlook. Android devices can specify the IMAP path prefix within the “Incoming Server” settings menu.

The IMAP path prefix is generally pre-configured in most email software packages and on most devices but can be useful when troubleshooting folder synchronization difficulties.

Changing protocols

When changing between protocols you will need to keep the following steps in mind:

1. Make a local backup of the emails currently on the device– ensuring that if the current protocol is IMAP that the emails being backed up include the full email body content as well as the attachment.
2. Remove the current account.
3. Recreate the new account selecting the new protocol.
4. Import or “drag and drop” the locally backed up emails and folders into the newly created account.
5. If the newly selected protocol is the IMAP protocol, you will need to allow some time for the newly imported emails to re-synchronized (upload) to the server.

Email Backups

The EasyMail Backup system makes daily email backups, which are kept for fourteen (14) days. All emails on the server at the time of a backup will be available for restore for fourteen (14) days. Should you wish to request an email backup restore, please send an email request to support@compueasy.net for assistance. Please include the following information in your backup-restore request:

1. The domain name.
2. The email accounts/folders you would like restored.
3. The backup date (within the past 14 days) that you would like the above account (s) / folder (s) to be restored from.
4. If you would like the backup restored and replaced (most popular request) or copied into a separate folder on the server.

Missing Emails

If you have a POP device configured with the ‘Leave a copy of messages on the server’ option unchecked, emails will automatically be removed from the server after downloading them to your device or software. As such, if you have additional POP or IMAP devices that are configured to send and receive emails to/from the same email account when these devices connect to the server, the emails downloaded by the POP device will no longer be available to download from the server.

The same can be said for POP accounts that are configured to remove copies from the server after (X / 10 / 14) amount of days. If there is another device that synchronizes with the server via the IMAP protocol, when the emails are removed from the server after (X / 10 / 14) amount of days, the IMAP device will reflect this change which will result in the emails “going missing”. In this case, the emails will need to be sourced locally on the device connecting via the POP protocol.

OUTLOOL:

1. Click Tools and then Email Accounts.
2. Select View or change existing e-mail accounts and click Next.
3. Select your account and click Change.
4. Click More Settings and then click on the Advanced tab.
5. Close to the bottom, tick the checkbox Leave a copy of messages on server.
6. Also tick Remove copy from server after: and set the value to whenever you wish it to remove old messages (we recommend the maximum of 2 weeks). Click OK to save.

In order to set up Microsoft Outlook 2010, open the program and complete the following:

1. Click File, Options, and then Advanced.
2. Highlight your current POP3 account and click Change.
3. Choose More Settings and click on Advanced.
4. In the 'Delivery' section, tick the Leave a copy of message on the server box.
5. Also tick Remove copy from server after: and set the value to whenever you wish it to remove old messages click OK to save.

Thunderbird:

In order to set up your Mozilla Thunderbird to leave POP mail on the server open the program and do the following:

1. Click Tools and then Account Settings.
2. Select Server Settings under your e-mail address. You may need to expand the menu by clicking '>' next to the address.
3. Tick the checkbox Leave messages on server.
   
4. Set For at most to the value of whenever you wish it to remove old messages (we recommend the maximum of 2 weeks). Click OK to save.

Mac Mail:

In order to set up your Apple Mail for OS X to leave POP mail on the server open the program and do the following:

1. Click Mail and then Preferences.
2. Click Accounts, and select your email account.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Make sure Remove copy from server after retrieving a message is ticked and After Two Weeks is selected from the drop-down menu.
   
5. Click OK to save these changes.

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encrypts messages over the connection between your mail client and the mail server, allowing you to securely send and receive emails.

Note that Let’s Encrypt SSL, though enabled for all of our domains, does not allow for SSL mail authentication.

Although your domain may not have its own suitable SSL certificate, you can make use of the server’s SSL certificate for authentication. This means that for SSL encryption to work, you need to use the server name for the incoming and outgoing mail servers, instead of the default mail.domain or smtp.domain.

Please contact Comp U Easy at support@compueasy.net for your server name (only if using your domain name does not work).

Set up Email

All mail clients (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird, Mac Mail) have the option to use SSL. When setting up an email account, make these changes to the default setup:

• Choose Use SSL 
• Use the server name for both Incoming & Outgoing servers
• Use the correct ports

To enable SSL for email addresses that are already set up, choose the relevant Troubleshooting Guide and replace the Incoming & Outgoing Server details.

Outlook Server settings:

Thunderbird  Incoming Server settings:

Thunderbird Outgoing SMTP server settings:

We will be renewing our server SSL certificates between 30 June -- 7 July. Following this update, you may receive a prompt in your mail program requesting you to accept the new certificate. You may safely do so. You will also need to ensure your email settings are configured correctly.

Email settings:

Incoming mail settings:

• mail.example.com
• SSL = on
• Port = 993 (IMAP), 995 (POP)

Outgoing mail settings:

• smtp.example.com
• SSL = on
• Port = 465

Spam is defined as an email sent to a large number of recipients, where the recipients have not explicitly given permission to be emailed and the purpose of the email is to solicit a commercial action, eg. selling a product.

Mail servers use spam filters in an attempt to prevent spam from reaching your inbox. These filters use a variety of filtering techniques to determine whether an email is spam or not. Many of these spam filter ‘rules’ are based on words or characters commonly used in spam.

These techniques are dynamic and adapted regularly as spam emails evolve in an attempt to bypass these filters. For this reason, there’s no one complete list of rules to guarantee that email will pass spam checks. There are, however, some best practices you can follow to lessen the chance of your email inadvertently being classified as spam.

Email best practice

Avoid:

• Using all capitals in your subject and body.
• Using punctuation in the subject line
• Using excessive punctuation in the body, eg. punctuation!!??
• Substituting letters with numbers, eg. w3b h0sting
• Gaps between the letters in words, eg. l e t t e r s
• Using many different font colours in your email or large font sizes.
• Using gimmicky words or phrases commonly found in spam emails, eg: Click Here, Buy Now, As Seen On, Money Making, Get Paid, Make Cash, Pre-Approved, Hot Deal, Satisfaction Guaranteed, Lowest Prices, Save Big, etc.
• Using shortened URLs (web links) in your email body, eg. bit.ly or goo.gl
• Adding a large number of URLs (web links) to the email body.
• Using rude language or poor spelling.

Good practice

• Include a text version of your email if you’re sending an email in HTML format.
• Maintain a good text to image ratio, ie. for every image include at least two lines of text.
• Ensure your IP address is not listed on a spam blacklist.
• Add an accurate SPF or DKIM DNS record to your domain.

There’s still a chance that a legitimate email you’ve sent ends up in the recipient’s junk or spam folder, even when following best practices. Spam filter administrators do not publicise their filtering techniques in a bid to stop spammers from circumventing spam filtering.

We advise following up with your email recipient if you do not receive a response from them within an expected time frame.