FAQ: Email accounts and configuration

Email can either be forwarded to one you already have with another provider (for example HotMail) or it can retrieved from our email servers.

We will set up your email accounts when your website is created.

POP3/SMTP Email Accounts

All popular email software works with our mail servers. Your software needs to be configured with the correct settings as follows:

The screen shots used are from Outlook, and are very similar to that of Netscape.

Inbuilt email software in Internet Explorer and Netscape is easier to configure than stand-alone software and, for most people, is the recommended solution.

Specify a name by which you wish to reference the account. In the example we've used Webco.

Next comes the User Information - this is fairly straight forward (John Smith and Webco Ltd for example). It also asks for email address - this is your actual address that you specified when setting up your account via the admin interface discussed above. Also select the option to Include this account when doing a full Send and receive.

Now that you have completed this section, move onto Severs - these are the two vital parts of the configuration of your e-mail account.

Here you need to specify the mail servers that you are using to connect, from your local machine to your mailbox on the remote system, so as you can download messages addressed to you.

Server Information:

Outgoing Mail (SMTP): pop.netsite.co.uk

Incoming Mail (POP3): smtp.netsite.co.uk

Your e-mail account with Blacklab is a POP3 account, therefore state this as shown in the example for the incoming mail server.

The next part Incoming Mail Server: is again vital. You have a username and password which was chosen when the account was set up and confirmed to you. Specify the Account name: as shown in the example using your username and then the password you have chosen.

The other options you have within the e-mail client are very much personal preferences, how often to check for new mail, which news groups to subscribe to. Basically the only vital characteristics are the ones described in detail above.

Useful though, in our experience, is the problem with big emails. You have the option to break up or delete messages over a certain size. If you receive an extremely large message it will sit in your mailbox and cause problems. When you try to connect to that mailbox to download it, you will be prevented from doing so and your connection may time out or close.

You could ask us to delete the message, but this obviously causes disruption and inconvenience. Therefore specify a size (default is 60K but 200/300 k is fine) where your e-mail client will recognise this and deal with it accordingly.