Introduction to WebCom Email Accounts

Email is a vital part of any web presence. WebCom understands the importance of email and offers an incredibly flexible email system that allows users to create the email accounts that they want, when they want, and with a wide variety of options. Because of all the functionality that WebCom provides, and terms that are frequently misunderstood, even experienced email users may feel lost when they first use WebCom email.

This page is intended as an introduction to WebCom's email services. Here we will cover all the basics, define terms, and illustrate the most common email configurations. For more advanced topics such as auto responders or distribution list, please see our email help index.

Core Concepts

An email account is the basic email unit. What an email account does is accept incoming email messages, and deliver them to a designated location. WebCom users can create, view, and configure email accounts through the Online Email Services Menu.

An email address is one small part of the email account. Email addresses determine which email messages the email account accepts, and looks like this: yourname@yourdomain.com. Email addresses are also known as incoming addresses.

An email account can contain any number of incoming addresses. For instance, if my friend named Binky has an email account, he might have the addresses: binky@domain.com and bink@domain.com. (His friends call him "Bink" or "Binkster".) Mail sent to either of those addresses would be accepted by his email account, and delivered according to how the account is configured. It's important to note that all email messages accepted by an account are treated the same way, regardless of which incoming address was used. If Binky wants email sent to binky@domain.com to be sent to a POP box, and email sent to bink@domain.com to be fowarded to another account, he must create two different email accounts.

Still with us? If you understood the last few paragraphs you're in excellent shape. Most email confusion is caused by misunderstanding those basic concepts.

Basic Delivery Options

A forwarding address is most basic way that email can be delivered. When an email account is configured to forward email messages to another email addresses, the email account simply accepts the email, and passes it along. For example, let's say Binky normally checks his mail at AOL. Because of this, he just wants all of his email to go to his AOL account. To do this, all he has to do is configure his email account to foward email to his AOL address.

A POP mailbox is an electronic mailbox where email can be delivered to. POP boxes are also known as POP accounts. Each pop box has its own username and password, which means that each mailbox has its own set of keys. This means that if Binky wanted to, he could create email accounts at his domain for each of his friends, giving them each their own pop box with unique usernames and passwords.

Fun with Real-Life Examples

Looking at accounts makes understanding them easier. To look at your email accounts, go to the Email Services Menu and select "View an overview of your email account(s)." You will be shown a table displaying all of your email accounts and their current configurations. If you're reading this, you probably don't have a lot of accounts, so let's look at Binky's account:

This is the account that the folks at jackal.org set up for Binky. The first column shows the name of the email account. This is also a link. Clicking on an account name link will bring up a form that lets you modify that email account. The second column shows all the incoming addresses that this account will accept email for. If you send email to binky@jackal.org or bink@jackal.org the email will be received by this account. All of the other boxes to the right are delivery options. The way this this account is set up, all email sent to binky@jackal.org or bink@jackal.org will be accepted, and three things will happen: 1) A copy of the email will be held in the POP mailbox, 2) A copy of the email will be forwarded to Binky's AOL account, and 3) a copy of the email will be forwarded to Binky's hotmail account.

You're now done with our introduction to WebCom Email Account. Now it's time for you to get started on your own. You can either login to the Email Services Menu and start playing around, or read our page on Creating New Email Accounts.