Mailboxes

1. What is a mailbox?
2. Checking your mailbox

Aliases

1. What are aliases?
2. How to add an alias

Redirects

1. What is a redirect?
2. How to add a redirect

Mailing Lists

1. What is a mailing list?
2. How to add a mailing list

'Catch All' Addresses

1. What is a 'Catch All' address?
2. How to add a 'Catch All' address

Using your email software with mailboxes

1. Setting up Outlook Express to collect mail from your new mailbox

Mailboxes

1. What is a mailbox?
When you signup for a PlusNet account you automatically get a default mailbox. This is a place on our mail server where we store any emails which are sent to you. You can then log into your mailbox through Manage My Mail to read and reply to these if you want to.

Your default mailbox will look like - forename@username.plus.com. However, older accounts will have a default mailbox which looks like username@username.plus.com.

(Please note: it may take up to 4 hours for your mail service to start working).

Important:

• An email sent to a mailbox which doesn't exist, but on a username that does exist will be blackholed.
• An email sent to a mailbox which doesn't exist, on a username which also doesn't exist will result in a 'bounced' message. This is delivered to the sender.

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2. Checking your mailbox
You can check a mailbox by going to Manage My Mail and using your mailbox login details. (These are different from the login details you use to log into the Member Centre).

Your mailbox username is made up of your username and the name of the mailbox you are logging into:

E.g. username+mailbox_name.

Your mailbox password is whatever you selected when you created the mailbox. E.g. If your PlusNet username is smith and you've created an additional mailbox from this called jon, your username for accessing this mailbox is smith+jon. The big benefit of this is that it lets you give different people (e.g. family members or work colleagues) secure mailboxes, without having to give them your PlusNet username and password.

EXAMPLE

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Aliases

1. What are aliases?
An alias is an additional email address which automatically redirects mail to another email account. The main alias for your default mailbox is your forename - the one you entered during signup. You can then add different aliases to your default mailbox, or new mailboxes you add.

E.g. If you create the alias jon@username.plus.com which points to the mailbox 'jon', every email sent to jon@username.plus.com will automatically be collected by the 'jon' mailbox.

How many aliases you’re able to add depends on the type of account you have:

Subscription accounts - unlimited aliases per mailbox

Free accounts - maximum of 5 per mailbox

When emails are sent to any of the aliases you’ve setup on a mailbox these will all be delivered to the same mailbox.

EXAMPLE

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2. How to add an alias'
To add an alias to a mailbox:

1. Log into the Member Centre.
2. Click Email Settings (under My Account on the left-hand menu).
3. Click Manage My Mail.
4. Click the Aliases tab.
5. Click Add new alias.
6. Enter the name for your alias and which mailbox to add this to.

Please note: Your default mailbox automatically has an alias set up to receive Postmaster mail from PlusNet. You can’t change this, but you can redirect your Postmaster emails to another address if you like.
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Redirects

1. What is a redirect
This is a way of moving an email from one address (e.g. a PlusNet mailbox) so that this can be read by logging into another external address (e.g. like a personal Hotmail or Yahoo! account). If you are going away or just want your mail sending to another address for convenience, this is the easiest way to do it.

(Please note: redirecting email is different to forwarding email. Redirecting does not change the content of an email or leave behind a copy, the original information is simply passed on to a new address. Forwarding usually involves passing on an email which has been changed or edited, leaving behind a copy).

EXAMPLE

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2. How to add a redirect
To add a redirect:

1. Log into the Member Centre.
2. Click Email Settings (under My Account on the left-hand menu).
3. Click Manage My Mail.
4. Click the Redirects tab.
5. Click Add new redirect.
6. Enter the name for your redirect and the address you want to send this to. E.g. if you wanted Mark's mail sending to his Hotmail account you would need to enter Mark in the 'name' field and mark@hotmail.com in the 'redirection to' field.

Important: You can't have a mailbox and a redirect with the same name!
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Mailing Lists

1. What is a mailing list?
A mailing list is a type of online discussion group that anyone can subscribe to, to receive messages that you send out. You can setup and manage your own mailing list, adding or removing subscribers whenever you need to.
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2. How to add a mailing list?
To add a mailing list:

1. Log into the Member Centre.
2. Click Email Settings (under My Account on the left-hand menu).
3. Click Manage My Mail.
4. Click the Mailing lists tab.
5. Click Add new mailing list.
6. Enter the name for your mailing list and confirming the list settings.

Find out more about mailing lists and how to manage them by reading our Mailing Lists guide.

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'Catch All' addresses

1. What is a 'Catch All' address?
The 'Catch All' address is a feature which you can switch on or off for any of the mailboxes you use. Turned on the 'Catch All' collects any email sent to any address which ends in your @username.plus.com extension. However, this does mean you're more likely to get sent more junk mail. Spammers often target random addresses in the hope that messages will get delivered. (E.g. a spammer could email sales@username.plus.com and info@username.plus.com and your 'Catch All' would collect these). Having your 'Catch All' switched off means you'll only receive email sent to the mailboxes you've setup (e.g. lenny@username.plus.com , mark@username.plus.com or claire@username.plus.com ).

EXAMPLE

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2. How to add a 'Catch All' address

You can switch the 'Catch All' on or off by:

1. Logging into the Member Centre.
2. Clicking My Account > Email Settings.
3. Clicking Manage My Mail.
4. Clicking the Catch All tab.
   

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Using your email software with mailboxes

1. Setting up Outlook Express to collect mail from your new mailbox
You can set up Outlook Express to collect email delivered to an additional mailbox. Your incoming mail server will remain the same (mail.plus.net), but you will need to change your Account name from the default username to username+mailbox and use the password you chose when you created the mailbox.

Important: Remember to type the '+' symbol separating the default account name from the newly created mailbox name.

If you want to setup Outlook Express to collect email addressed to one of your new POP3 mailboxes, here's how you do it. (Note: these instructions can be applied to other email software, not just Outlook Express).

1. Open Outlook Express.
2. From the menu at the top of the screen click Tools > Accounts > Add Mail.
3. Enter your name (e.g.John Smith, or simply John).
4. Click Next.
5. Enter your new email address and click Next. Note: the 'alias' (in front of the @ sign) is your mailbox name: mailbox@username.plus.com (or, if you've registered and hosted a domain of your PlusNet account, mailbox@yourdomain.co.uk).
6. Make sure that my incoming mail server is set to POP3. Enter the mail server names below:
   
   • Incoming mail server name: mail.plus.net
   • Outgoing mail server name: relay.plus.net


7. Click Next.
8. Enter your account name (e.g. your username, a + sign and your new mailbox name). This should look like username+mailbox.
9. Enter your password. This is the password you chose when you set up the mailbox. (This might be different from your default mailbox / user login password).
10. Click Next.
11. Click Finish. You can now collect emails from your new mailbox.

After about 10 minutes any new mailbox you've setup should work. However, because the mail server has to update its database delays can occasionally happen. Until your mailbox becomes active it will continue to behave as a default alias.
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