Email Hosting

It's likely that you've been sending and receiving email for years. If not, this is a great place to learn all about email! Email is an abbreviation for electronic mail. Email are messages that are sent via an electronic device (generally a computer or mobile device) to another user's electronic device through a network. It offers a fast, affordable and easy way to communicate with users across the globe. Email is very easy-to-use, but there are some complicated tasks that happen behind the scenes to make it happen. While you don't need to know the ins and outs of the technology, we've outlined it below for you!

When you send your email, its first destination it to an outgoing mail server called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). SMTP checks to see where the destination of the email message should be from the To, Cc (carbon copy) and Bcc (blind carbon copy). SMTP doesn't understand what a domain name is for an email address. That means the email address needs to be converted to an IP address that SMTP can understand. To do this, SMTP reaches out to a DNS server, which is essentially the internet's phone book. The email address ([email protected] for example) is converted to an IP address (something that looks similar to 12.345.67).

Once SMTP has all of the information necessary, the message is sent to the email recipient's Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) server. The MTA server determines whether the recipient is using a webmail solution, POP3 or IMAP to access their email. If the recipient is using webmail, the email remains there until the recipient logs into their software to retrieve the email. With the POP3 option, your email is downloaded from your server to your computer's email program (i.e Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, etc.). The email message is then deleted from the server. POP3 is a great way to save space on your server. With IMAP, your email remains stored on your email hosting account's server. This allows you to access your email even when moving between computers. You can also more easily recover your email whenever necessary.

Yes! Email is included for free with your Web Hosting account! You don't need two separate accounts. That means you get email addresses, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, webmail, spam protection and so much more for free included with your Web Hosting account! Best of all, your email is all managed within the easy-to-use cPanel control panel. You'll love how simple it is to create, edit and delete email accounts.

Each of the Web Hosting accounts available at A2 Hosting are loaded with free email resources. These free email hosting solutions can be found and managed within the award-winning cPanel control panel under the Email heading. These features include:

• Email Hosting Accounts - The Email Accounts area found in cPanel is used for general administration to help you host email of your own. This is where you will:
  • Create email accounts
  • Delete email accounts
  • Set or reset passwords
  • Set mailbox space quotas
  • Set password reset security questions
  • Configure IMAP or POP3 settings
• Webmail - Webmail is the place in cPanel where you can read, send and manage your web hosting account’s email. You will be able to access your email at http://webmail.yourdomain.com with the login information created in the Email Accounts area of cPanel. A2 Hosting accounts include Horde and RoundCube as webmail solutions.
• Email Delivery Route - Email Delivery Route shows you the route that an email server will use to send a message to a specific email address.
• SpamAssassin - SpamAssassin is an automated spam filtering system that identifies spam based on the content of the email. SpamAssassin allows you to set a custom spam filtering score of 1-10 so that the higher the score, the stricter the filtering. SpamAssassin also allows you to set specific email addresses that you would like to block.
• Email Authentication - Email Authentication offers tools to prevent a spammer’s forged email from going in and out of your web server. This can occur when a spammer alters an email to make it appear that their sent message came from an email address that you host. Email authentication also helps prevent unwanted emails and bounces that might occur from this “spoofing” practice. Email authentication can be performed through cPanel via DomainKeys and Sender Policy Framework (SPF). DomainKeys checks incoming emails against the server it was sent from to verify that the email was not modified and is actually from the listed sender. DomainKeys also makes it easier to track abusive email messages. SPF specifies what machines are allowed to send email from your domain. Only the email sent via the specified server(s) will appear as valid through SPF records when messages are sent.
• Email Forwarders - Email Forwarders allow you to send a copy of all email from one account and have it automatically sent to another account. An email forwarder is a great tool for users who have changed, or have more than one email address and only want to check one account.
• MX Entry - MX Entry is used to deliver your email for a particular domain to a different server than the one your website is hosted on.
• Auto Responders - An autoresponder will automatically message back anyone who sends an email to a specific email account with a customized message. This is a great resource when you will be away from your email for a long period of time. The auto-response will let anyone contacting you know when they can expect a response to their email.
• Mailing Lists - The Mailing List tool is a great time-saving solution. Mailing lists are used to simplify the process of sending the same email message to a group of people. A mailing list organizes email addresses and allows you to avoid typing in those addresses each time an email needs to be sent to that group.
• Email Filtering - Filtering allows you to create and manage email rules to improve the organization for specific accounts. A sample filter would be configuring email from your colleagues to go into your work-related email folder and email from your family being directed into a family-related email folder.
• Global Email Filters - A powerful filtering option that makes it easier to manage messages for all of your email accounts. A few optional filters include:
  • Automatically deleting specific messages
  • Redirecting the emails to a different address
  • Deliver email to a specific folder
• Global Level Filtering - Account Level Filtering is much like User Level Filtering. The difference is that Account Level Filtering creates email rules that apply to every email account that you host.
• Email Routing - Configure the route of your email message so they're sent to a specific server.
• Encryption - Encrypt your messages to help prevent them from being viewed by unintended readers.
• Email Disk Usage - Need more space on your account? Delete older messages to gain additional disk space!
• Contacts - Use the CardDAV address book client to share and access contact information for your account.

With Shared Web Hosting & Managed WordPress plans you are allowed 15GB per email account created.

For Reseller plans the storage is limited to the overall package storage space. 

For VPS and Dedicated plans your email storage is combined with the overall storage limits of the server. If you need more you can either increase your plan level or for dedicated add additional storage hardware.

At A2 Hosting, we know you depend on your email! That's why your email hosting account features our 99.9% Uptime Commitment. That way you know you can depend on ultra-reliable performance. You won’t have to worry about whether or not your emails are being properly sent to your recipients and being received. Of course, if you ever have any questions along the way, our friendly and knowledgeable 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support staff is here to help. Just contact us via live chat, phone or email.

From speed to affordability to ease-of-use, there are a number of advantages to using email compared to other communication methods.

• Cost-Effective - Aside from the minimal cost of paying your email host or ISP to be able to send and access email, the cost of using email is practically nothing.
• International Reach - Since email is an international communication method, email users can contact each other across the globe.
• Speed - Depending on the size of the message and the distance to the recipient, an email can reach its intended target almost instantaneously
• Environmental Footprint - Since email messages don't use paper or non-re-usable materials, they are environmentally friendly.
• File Delivery - Send text documents, music files, videos and more in your email messages!
• Historical Records - When you make a phone call, there generally is no record of what you discussed. If there are a lot of action items and critical information that needs to be shared, email can be a more effective communication method. You can reference an email at any time, which isn't possible with a phone call.

Your email can be accessed through free webmail software found in your web hosting control panel (Plesk or cPanel). We offer simple to use webmail solutions including Horde and RoundCube. Prefer to use your favorite email client? Great! Just follow our comprehensive IMAP and POP3 email setup instructions to get your email accounts set up and running fast!.

With POP3, your email is downloaded from your server to your computer. It is then deleted from the server. IMAP on the otherhand, allows you to access your email stored on your server from multiple computers. This allows you to access your email even when moving between computers. IMAP is generally the preferred option.

Your account comes loaded with the most popular email features (IMAP, POP3, SMTP, spam protection, filters and more) combined with our blazing fast and ultra-reliable servers backed by our 99.9% Uptime Commitment. When you choose A2 Hosting, wondering whether you're receiving your important emails or if your sent emails are being delivered properly is a worry of the past. Whether this is your first time signing up for an email hosting account, or you're an old-time email hosting pro, you'll love how easy it is to manage all of your email accounts and features within your cPanel control panel. 

Along with all the other free resources included with your email account, we also offer SpamAssassin protection with your account. SpamAssassin is an automated solution that allows you to set a custom spam filtering score of 1-10. The higher you set this filtering score, the more strict your email spam filtering will be. You can also choose specific email addresses that you would like to block from sending to you.

You can also get advanced Barracuda Spam Filtering. When subscribing to Barracuda, each of your incoming emails will be evaluated before being delivered to you. If Barracuda determines that there's a high likelihood that an email is spam, If it's determined that an email is likely a spam message, Barracuda will prevent that email from being delivered. Each day, you will receive a list of all emails that weren't delivered. You can then determine whether or not you want to have that email sent. You can also whitelist specific email addresses so future emails are delivered to you without an issue.

Within your A2 Hosting cPanel account, you get direct access to your email messages with webmail solutions like Horde and RoundCube. However, you can also use an email client to access and send your emails. Email clients are software solutions you can use on your computer or mobile device to read, send and manage your email. You will just need to set up your email client using your account's SMTP and POP3 or IMAP settings. Some of the most popularly used email clients include:

• Thunderbird
• Mailspring
• Sylpheed
• Mailbird
• eM Client
• Opera Mail