I T West

Web Hosting

Virtual Servers

Virtual Hosting

Subhosting

Internet Service Provider

Domain Names

Web Site Hosting

Internet Sites

Email Support Page

Please check the following instructions on how to use email with your server. If they do not answer your questions try our email FAQ. Our support staff will be glad to help with unanswered questions.

In the instructions that follow, we assume "you" are the Servadmin (Server Administrator).

Your server comes with one or more branch email boxes, also known as email accounts or POP accounts. We will use the term "ebox" for "email box". Each ebox has a name and a password. Your main ebox has the same name and password as your server. In other words, your server also handles email. Additional branch eboxes may have been set up at the time your server was created. They will have the names and passwords you supplied at that time. You may add more branch eboxes as desired, up to the limit allowed with your type of server. Contact our support staff to have the limit raised.

Most of the operations described below require you to be connected to your Server as the Servadmin using Telnet/SSH. Do this before you try to execute any of the commands. Some of the operations can also be handled by your FTP client. Please see the instructions that come with that client.

To add an ebox

To remove an ebox

To forward email from one ebox to another.

To create email aliases

To change an ebox password

To see how many eboxes you have

To read your email

To make an alias for multiple eboxes

To add a branch ebox to your server,

First login via Telnet/SSH to the server. Then type the command vaddpop. You may be asked for the password for your server. Two numbers are displayed: the first is the number of branch eboxes allowed, the second is the current number of eboxes. Supply the name and other information for the new ebox as requested.

To remove an ebox

As the Servadmin, type the command vrmuser <username>, where <username> is the name of the ebox. Verify, from the display, that the process completed correctly.

To forward mail from one ebox to another

Create a file named .forward in your root directory. This is done via Telnet/SSH or by uploading the file with FTP. Place in the file the forwarding email addresses, one to a line. If you also want a copy of arriving email to remain at this ebox, include the name of the ebox preceded by a back-slash character. For example, suppose your ebox is called sales and you want mail forwarded to two other eboxes named Mary and Bill@EBenterprises.com You also want a copy of arriving mail to remain at this ebox. Your .forward file should look like this:

	\sales
	Mary
	Bill@EBenterprises.com

Upper- and lower-case letters may be used In the names you supply. They are all treated the same. Note that you can forward mail to "internal" eboxes e.g. Mary or to eboxes elsewhere e.g. Bill@EBenterprises.com.

To create email aliases

To create email aliases you will want to use Telnet/SSH to add lines to the existing file named aliases in your /etc directory. The file contains several necessary aliases already, together with some helpful reminders. Add one line for each alias you wish to create, in the format as shown:

&lf;alias>:  <email address>

An example is shown below, in which the added aliases are the last four lines.

   #       **********      The program "vnewaliases" must be run after
   #       ** NOTE **      this file is updated for any changes to
   #       **********      show through to your virtual sendmail.
   #

   # Basic system aliases -- these MUST be present.
  
   MAILER-DAEMON: postmaster
   postmaster: 

   # Add your own aliases here
   # (aliases are in the form (alias: mail address)
  
   webmaster:  support@MySite.com
   service:    support@MySite.comm
   sales:      business@MySite.com
   questions:  business@MySite.com

Note that more than one space may occur following the colon. In this example mail sent to webmaster@MySite.com or to service@MySite.com will actually arrive at the ebox support@MySite.com, while mail sent to either sales@MySite.com or questions@MySite.com will arrive at the ebox business@MySite.com. The last line illustrates that an alias can also refer to offsite eboxes.

To change an ebox password

Do one of the following, depending on whether you want to change the password for the main ebox or for a branch ebox:

To change the main ebox password (Caution, this is the password for your server and will affect how you login using FTP and Telnet/SSH.), type passwd. You will be prompted for your current password, then for the new one.

To change a branch ebox password you must be connected via Telnet/SSH or an FTP client. In Telnet or SSH type chpasswd <ebox name> . You may be prompted for your main password (as verification of identity), then you will be prompted for the new password for that ebox. Note: Changing an ebox password also changes the FTP password, since they are the same.

To see how many eboxes you have

Simply type chpasswd. You may be prompted for your main password. The eboxes associated with your server will be displayed.

To read your email

You have two choices:

Configure your favorite email client (perhaps Eudora) to use your site as its POP server. Use your ebox name as your username and your domain name as the Mail Host (POP server). For example if your domain name were EBenterprises.com and your ebox name were Tom, then you would configure your email client as follows:

	Mail Host (incoming POP server):  EBenterprises.com
	SMTP (sendmail server):           EBenterprises.com
	User name (user ID):              Tom

You will probably also want to set the email client to remove messages from the server as it retrieves them.

To read email at your main ebox you may also log in via Telnet/SSH to your server and use the UNIX mail clients, such as PINE, ELM and MAIL.

To make an alias for multiple eboxes

Point the alias to a branch ebox associated with your server. Then make a .forward file in the root directory for that branch account. Place in the .forward file the email addresses you desire. Mail arriving at alias "ebox" will be forwarded to the set of eboxes you specified in the .forward file.

See also

Uploading Files

Definition of "ebox"

Back to the Top