Saracen EMail Q&A

COMMON QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Domain Names


 Q. Can I choose my own Domain Name?
 A. Yes, for a small annual charge. Try and choose something obviously unique as many words and
 names are now taken. Then you can choose any email addresses you want.
 Note: you cannot easily move data between different mailboxes, so better to make this decision
         before  committing.

Q. I already have my own domain name registered elsewhere?
 A. That should not be a problem, even if you have a website on it. We can transfer the domain so that
 we host it for you. Or we can 'split' the email and web hosting for a small extra charge.

Q. Can I have more than one Mailbox on my own domain?
 A. You can have as many as you like.
 


Terminology

 Q. What is a Mail Forwarder?
 A. It redirects email to one or more other email addresses, anywhere, internally and/or externally.
 Thus sales@yourname.co.uk can be redirected to all your sales team.

 A special forwarder called “nobody” can redirect ALL email other than for existing mailboxes to go to a
 “master” mailbox. Thus for example, miss-spelt and other emails would not be lost. BUT, this makes
 your domain more open to spam, so is not generally recommended. Instead we recommend wrongly
 addressed email be returned to sender. It is your choice.
 Note: Forwarders do not have virus or spam protection.
 


Communications

 Q. What is POP3?
 A. This denotes an industry standard method of communicating with a mailbox. Emails only stay in the
 mailbox until the email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, etc) collects the email, transferring it to the
 local computer. Both Standard and Advanced Mailboxes are POP3 only.
 Note: this conflicts with Webmail, where emails are manipulated directly on the Server. If you usually
 access your mailbox by Outlook Express, say, then do so later by Webmail – only the more recent
 emails will be there.
 Note 2: Email Clients can often be set to “leave a copy on the server”. This can be useful for combined
 Webmail and POP3 use, as you will see the emails on both systems. The drawback is that you may
 have to deal with the 'rubbish' email twice.

 Q. What is IMAP?
 A. IMAP is a communication system designed to leave emails on the Server, but also efficiently
 download a copy to the local PC. Most email clients can do POP3 and IMAP. It's advantages include:

   a) Efficient over slow phone lines.
   b) It is useful for Laptops/Travellers.
   c) More than one PC can access the same mailbox/emai
   d) The data is partially “backed up”, being on the local PC and the Server at the same time.

 Only Exchange Mailboxes work with IMAP.

 Q. What is RPC over HTTP?
 A. This is how Outlook 2003/7 talks to an Exchange Server and is built into Windows XP Service Pack 1
 and newer. Outlook and Exchange Mailboxes work seamlessly to provide local AND remote data
 synchronisation. This means Laptop users can still access all their recent data even when offline, and
 then resynchronise quickly even over slow telephone lines. Thus also, ALL your data is always available
 by Webmail. The data is also backed up, again, locally. You don't really need to know about all this, it
 is handled automatically for you.
 


Standard Mailbox

 Q. What is it's capacity?
 A. It is 20Mb, or 500 EMails. It cannot be enlarged, instead you need to upgrade to an Advanced Mailbox

 Q. Does it have Antivirus & Antispam?
 A. No, you have to upgrade to an Advanced Mailbox for that.
 


Advanced Mailbox

 Q. What is it's capacity?
 A. It is 100Mb or 5,000 EMails. It can be enlarged in steps of 100Mb.

 Q. How good is the Antivirus?
 A. We use powerful, industry standard virus scanning which is updated daily and more often if
 required. All attachments of types: .vbs .scr .pif .exe  .pl  are automatically removed
 (senders should Zip them up if they are genuine). If Viruses are found in other types of attachments,
 then these are cleaned and delivered if possible, else they are deleted.

 Q. Is Antivirus & Antispam an option?
 A. No, they are automatically included. If you want to fine tune the antispam you need to use the
 optional Mailbox Control Panel (MCP).

 Q. What Antispam tuning options are available?
 A. These are available if you subscribe to the optional Mailbox Control Panel (MCP). The Filter level
 can be set from 1 – Strongest, through to 15 – Weakest. The default is 5. You can set spam to be
 deleted or just identified in the Subject line. You can block specific email addresses and domains,
 and you can set specific email addresses and domains as 'friendly'.
 


Standard & Advanced Mailboxes

 Q. How do I access my mailbox as Webmail?
 A. From any Internet Browser, you go to webmail.atlaspost.com, or if you have your own Domain Name,
 then just go to webmail.yourname.co.uk, and enter your login name and password.

 Q. Can I import Email Addresses into the Webmail?
 A. Unfortunately not. Email addresses are easily added into the Webmail Address Book from received
 emails, and you can also set up Email Groups. Other addresses would need to be cut+pasted in.

 Q. How do I access my mailbox with an Email Client?
 A. It is a POP3 Mailbox. We provide easy instructions for setting up typical Email Clients, such as
 Outlook and Outlook Express. We use “industry standard” principals.

 Q. Do they work with Apple Macs?
 A. Yes. Macs can use any POP3 email client of their choice (almost all of them), and/or simply use
 webmail from their chosen browser.
 


Exchange Mailboxes

 Webmail:
 Q. How do I access my mailbox as Webmail?
 A. From any Internet Browser, you go to exchange.atlaspost.com, or if you have your own Domain
 Name, then just go to exchange.yourname.co.uk, and enter your full email address and password.

 Q. The Mailbox Control Panel is included?
 A. Yes, though it does slightly less than for Advanced Mailboxes because some options are set within
 Outlook.

 Outlook:
 Q. I don't know how to use Outlook?
 A. Outlook is very easy. All email clients work in a similar way, so it is quick to grasp. Outlook has
 many extra features such as Calendars, Notes, Tasks, etc. But you don't have to use them. In our
 experience though, you probably will eventually
 


So where is my data …
  Q. … if I use Outlook with a Standard or Advanced mailbox?
  A. Your emails and other data are on your PC.

 Q. … if I use Outlook with an Exchange Mailbox?
 A. It is on the Server initially. If you set “Make Folder Available Offline” (a simple setting), then your
 emails and other data will be on the Server AND on your PC. This is ideal for Laptops and as additional
 backup.

 Q. … if I want to use Outlook sometimes and Webmail at others?
 A. No problem. All your data is ALWAYS available on the Server.

 Q. I already use Outlook or Outlook Express, what happens to my current data?
 A. Your current data can be imported into your local Outlook and this will be automatically synchronised
 up onto the Exchange Server. Note: If you use Webmail Outlook only, it cannot do this.

 Q. I already use another email client, what happens to my current data?
 A. Your current data can probably be imported into your local Outlook and then be automatically
 synchronised up onto the Exchange Server.

 Q. What about Outlook Archive Folders?
 A. By definition these are Archives. They will not show up on Webmail. If you want them to, you need
 to import them back into your current folders, but be aware of the Exchange Mailbox storage limits,
 though these can be increased for a small charge.
 We may be able to assist you with transferring data from various programs if required.
 Contact us for a quote.

 Q. You say it's “backed up”, how so?
 A. Our server data is mirrored, and further backups taken regularly. But be aware, should a data
 corruption occur this can also be mirrored, so corrupting the backups. So we recommend you have
 your own regular backup procedure in place. Typically:
 
  a) Set your local Outlook to synchroniseall data. Let it do so.
             optionally b) Export your folders as “Backup”.PST files.
  c) Backup your .PST files to another medium (CD, DVD, Internet)
 
Consider using our Vigilance Internet Data Backup to store your data safely offsite: www.vigilance.co.uk
 


Miscellaneous

 Q. Does it work with Apple Macs?
 A. Macs can simply use webmail from their chosen browser, or use Entourage to synchronise with
 Exchange.

 

Contact us if you have any more questions

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