Managing E-mail in ISPmanager 5

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Managing E-mail in ISPmanager 5

Overview

Note! This user guide is specific to creating and managing E-mail using ISPmanager 5. Information on how to create and manage e-mail using ISPmanager 4 is located here - Managing E-mail in ISPmanager 4. How to determine which version of ISPmanager you are using can be found here - ISPmanager versions

In ISPmanager 5, e-mail addresses are part of a Mail domain. From the Mail domain, you can add e-mail addresses, set up mail forwarding and auto-responders, and also make changes to existing e-mail accounts.

With ISPmanager 5 the individual e-mail users can log in to the system and access a limited set of features so that they can set up auto-responders, mail filters, and change their e-mail passwords.

Prerequisites
Adding a new Mail domain for an existing user
Creating E-mail addresses using an existing Mail domain
Additional E-mail configuration - Auto-responders, Filters, and Mail Forwarding
E-mail user access to the ISPmanager 5 Control Panel

Prerequisites

  • In order to use a Mail domain in ISPmanager 5 you will need to have a user. This is the user who will own the Mail domain. If you have not already created a user, see How to create a User in ISPmanager 5.

Normally the Mail domain is set up at the same time as the Web-domain for the website, and the same administrative user for the Web-domain is used for the Mail domain. If the Mail domain being used does not have a corresponding Web-domain, then you will have to add the user first, and then the Mail domain.

  • The domain name used for the Mail domain has to be a valid FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) that was purchased from a domain registrar and that exists in DNS. The domain can be hosted in the eApps DNS service, or you can use the DNS service provided by your domain registrar.

The DNS A record for this domain must point back to an IP address that has been allocated for your Virtual Server as part of your eApps Hosting account, and the DNS MX (Mail eXchanger) record for this domain must point back to the A record for this domain.If you are hosting your domains in the eApps DNS, this is easily done as part of the basic domain setup. More information about adding domains to the eApps DNS is found here - DNS Manager.

Adding a new Mail domain for an existing user

If you created a user but did not add the domain as a Mail domain as part of the website creation, you can still add the domain as a Mail domain and set up e-mail addresses for it. Remember that the new Mail domain must be a fully qualified domain name and exist in DNS. See the Prerequisites for more information if needed.

Go to Domains > Mail domains. In the List of mail domains screen, click on Add in the upper left.

This takes you to the New mail domain screen.

New mail domain

Only one item is required on this screen: Name

  • Name - this is the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) for the Mail domain. Only use the domain name, and not an alias or CNAME. What this means is that if you have the domain name of example.com, you will enter that as the name. DO NOT enter something like www.example.com as the Name.

    • Correct - a domain name like domain.com or example.com for Name
    • Incorrect - entering something like www.domain.com or www.example.com for Name

The Name is all that is need to create the Mail domain. If you have multiple users you will need to select the correct Owner, and you can set the IP address and Default action if needed.

  • Owner - this is the user who owns the files and directories associated with the Mail domain. If there is only one user then ISPmanager will default to that user, if there are multiple users you will need to select the correct user from the drop down menu. This is the same user that owns the website (Web domain).

  • IP address - if this domain is using a specific IP address, select it here from the drop down menu.

  • Default action - this is the action taken if e-mail is sent to a mailbox on the mail domain that doesn't actually exist. There are several actions available.

Once you have added the new Mail domain, click Ok. This adds the new mail domain to ISPmanager and takes you back to the List of mail domains screen. From here you can add e-mail addresses to the new Mail domain.

Creating E-mail addresses using an existing Mail domain

This scenario assumes you already have a user and a domain available, usually added as part of creating a user. To add e-mail addresses to this domain, go to Accounts > Mailboxes. In the List of mailboxes screen, click Add in the upper left. This takes you to the New mailbox screen.

New mailbox

Only three items are required to create the new mailbox (e-mail address): Name, Password, and (password) Confirmation.

  • Name - this is the part of the e-mail address before the @ sign, called the local-part. This must be in lowercase letters, and the numbers 0 - 9 and the symbols - and . are allowed (see below for information about the Domain).

  • Password - this is the password for the mailbox. This is the password that will be used in an e-mail client like Outlook or Apple Mail, in a Webmail client, or to log in to ISPmanager and manage e-mail forwarding or auto-responders. This needs to be a strong password. If this password is easily guessed then a malicious hacker could gain access to the e-mail account. ISPmanager has a function to generate a random password and it is strongly recommended that you use that feature. If you create your own password, ISPmanager will tell you the password strength.

  • Confirmation - if you use the password generator in ISPmanager, the password will be automatically entered here. If you create your own password you will need to retype it here.

These items are all that are need to create the new mailbox. You can also select a Domain, add Aliases, send copies of all incoming e-mail to another mailbox with Send a copy to, and set a Maximum size for the mailbox.

  • Domain - the mailbox creation function defaults to the first domain added to the Virtual Server in ISPmanager. If you have multiple domains you will be able to select the correct domain for this mailbox from the drop down menu.

  • Aliases - these are other names for the mailbox. For example, if you need jsmith@example.com to also get any e-mail sent to johnsmith@example.com or john.smith@example.com, then you would enter johnsmith and john.smith as Aliases.

  • Send a copy to - this sends a copy of any incoming e-mail to this mailbox to another mailbox or mailboxes. This is what ISPmanager calls mail forwarding.

  • Maximum size - this sets the maximum size of the mailbox, in megabytes (MB). By default this is set with no limits on the mailbox size.

You can also add any Notes about the mailbox in the Notes section.

Once you have added the new Mailbox, click Ok. This creates the new mailbox and takes you back to the List of mailboxes screen. The mailbox you just created will be shown there.

To add more mailboxes, click on Add and follow the same process.

More information on creating new Mailboxes can be found here - Creating a new Mailbox.

You can now give the mailbox information - the e-mail address and password - to the user so they can set up their e-mail client to send and receive e-mail using this mailbox.

Additional E-mail configuration - Auto-responders, Filters, and Mail Forwarding

Each e-mail address can use an auto-responder and filters to manage incoming mail. Mail forwarding can also be configured using the Send a copy to feature.

  • Auto-responder - an auto-responder is a message sent automatically in reply to an incoming message. Auto-responders are generally used as out-of-office messages when the mail user is unavailable. More information about setting up the Auto-responder can be found here - Auto-responder configuration.

  • Filter - a mail filter is used to perform an action on an incoming e-mail based on certain criteria. For example, a filter can be set up to scan the header or body of an e-mail for specific key words, and if those words are found perform an action such as forwarding the e-mail to a particular user or moving the e-mail to a spam folder. More information about setting up Filters can be found here - Filter configuration.

  • Mail forwarding (Send a copy to) - the Send a copy to feature works like mail forwarding: a copy of every incoming e-mail send to the mailbox is sent to the e-mail address listed. To configure mail forwarding, go to Accounts > Mailboxes and click on the mailbox where you want to set up forwarding. In the Mailbox - name of mailbox screen, add the e-mail addresses that you want the e-mail forwarded to on the Send a copy to line. Enter each e-mail address with a space between each address. You can add an unlimited amount of e-mail addresses.

E-mail user access to the ISPmanager 5 Control Panel

Any user who has a mailbox created in ISPmanager 5 can access a very limited version of the ISPmanager Control Panel to manage their e-mail accounts. This limited version of ISPmanager will allow them to change their password, set up auto-responders, and also configure mail filters.

Note! Users cannot read or access their e-mail from ISPmanager - they can only do minimal e-mail configuration. To access their e-mail they will need to use an e-mail client such as Outlook or Apple Mail or Thunderbird.

To allow your users to manage their e-mail accounts in ISPmanager 5, give the same URL to login as you use to access ISPmanager.

  • Login - this is their full e-mail address
  • Password - this is their e-mail password

With their login and password they will be able to login and manage e-mail filters, auto-responders, and change their password. More information on how e-mail users can manage their accounts can be found here - ISPmanager E-mail Users. You can give that URL (http://en.5.ispdoc.com/index.php/Ispmgr-handbook-9) to your users so that they can access the official ISPmanager documentation for this feature.

If your users need access to a Webmail client, you can install one from ISPmanager - Webmail User Guide

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