Choosing the email service that's right for you
What types of email services are available?
Email forwarding
This is a simple method whereby all email to a specific address is forwarded to another. For example all email to your web sites catchall address could be directed to your home email.
POP3 and SMTP
POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol and SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. That said what do they actually do for you.
A POP3 mail box should be viewed in the same way as a PO Box. It's a container that accepts all email to a specific email address. You then log into it with a user name and password to collect that email. How do you know where it is on the internet? In your email client you will need to enter the mail server where your POP3 box resides. For example pop3.your-domain.co.uk or mail.your-domain.co.uk
SMTP is the method for sending email through your domain name. When you set up your email client you need to add a SMTP address such as smtp.your-domain.co.uk or mail.your-domain.co.uk
The benefits of a POP3 box over forwarding is you are keeping emails to different accounts separate. A POP3 account totally bypasses any home email address so you are not relying on your home account to send and receive mail.
You can get instructions on setting up email accounts in Outlook and Outlook Express here.
Web mail
All ATNET customers receive a web mail account so they can view their POP3 mailbox from any internet connection. With webmail you can view, sent, create address books, forward, reply, etc in the same way as you can on your PC. Do bear in mind though that there is no record of sent email on our web based mail service so you wont have an audit trail. If you're out and about a lot call us for advice on remote email and PC management, we have all the same problems as you and have implemented some simple, cheap and effective solutions.
