Setting up email on your computer and phone

Create a mailbox, read it in webmail, and connect Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird or a phone with the right settings.

Every mailbox you create works in webmail straight away. Mail apps such as Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird or the mail app on your phone connect with the settings below. This article also covers what the server lets a mailbox send, and where suspected spam goes.

Mail apps can connect only once your host has opened the server's mail to the internet. If webmail works but no app can connect at all, ask your host whether mail is open yet.

Create a mailbox

Open Hosting → Email accounts and open Create Email Account.
Enter the Username, the part before the @. Letters, numbers, dots, underscores and hyphens are allowed.
Choose the Domain. Only domains with mail hosting turned on are listed.
Enter a Password of 8 to 72 characters.
Set the Mailbox size (MB). The default, 1024, is 1 GB. Your plan may limit the total size of all your mailboxes, and the form says so if you go over it.
Press Create Account.

The mailbox is ready when the line above the list says "Mail configuration applied and checked." The Size column shows how full each mailbox is.

When a mailbox passes 85% and again 95% of its size, a short notice arrives in the mailbox itself. Once it's full, new mail to it is refused and returned to the sender, so delete or archive old mail before that happens.

Read mail in webmail

Webmail needs no setup, and it works even before mail apps can connect.

On Hosting → Email accounts, press Roundcube or SnappyMail at the top of the page (whichever your host offers), or Webmail next to a mailbox. Sign in with the full email address, such as you@example.com, and the mailbox's password. Bookmark the webmail page to go straight there next time.

Settings for mail apps

	Incoming mail (IMAP)	Outgoing mail (SMTP)
Server	mail.example.com, or your host's mail server name	The same as incoming
Port	993	587
Encryption	SSL/TLS	STARTTLS
User name	Your full email address	Your full email address
Password	The mailbox's password	The mailbox's password

The outgoing server needs a sign-in too. Turn on authentication for it and use the same user name and password.
If your app prefers it, outgoing mail also works on port 465 with SSL/TLS.
POP3 works on port 995 with SSL/TLS. Choose IMAP unless you have a reason not to: it keeps mail on the server, so your phone and computer show the same folders, and it's what teaches the spam filter (see the Junk folder).
Unencrypted connections, including ports 143 and 110, don't work. Signing in always needs encryption.

Which server name to use. Your host's mail server name always works; ask them for it if you don't have it. Your own mail.example.com works too once the server has a certificate for that name. If your app warns that the certificate doesn't match the server name, don't accept the warning: switch to your host's mail server name instead.

Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and phones

Most apps try to work out the settings from your email address. If that fails, or picks something other than the table above, choose manual setup and enter the settings yourself.

Outlook: add an account with your email address, then choose to set it up manually and pick IMAP as the account type.
Apple Mail on a Mac, iPhone or iPad: add an account of type Other, then a mail account. Choose IMAP when asked and enter the servers.
Thunderbird: enter your name, address and password, then choose to configure manually and check each field against the table.
Android: in your mail app, add an account of type Other or Personal (IMAP) and enter the settings.

You can send only as your own address

A mailbox can send only as its own address, or a plus form of it such as you+news@example.com. Mail sent as any other address is refused, in webmail too. To send as another mailbox, add that mailbox to your app as its own account and sign in with its password.

Sending limits

Each mailbox may send to a limited number of recipients an hour and a day. Your host sets the numbers; unless they've changed them, it's 100 an hour and 500 a day. A message to 10 people counts as 10.

A message that would go over the limit is refused, and your app shows "Sending limit reached for this mailbox; try again later". Nothing is sent and nothing is lost: the message stays in your app, and you can send it again later. If you regularly need more, ask your host. They can raise the limit for one mailbox.

A message can be up to 50 MB, attachments included. Attachments grow by about a third when they're sent, so a 25 MB file fits comfortably.

The Junk folder

When your host has turned on spam protection, suspected spam goes into a folder named Junk instead of your inbox. Nothing is deleted or bounced, so check Junk now and then for mail you wanted.

You can teach the filter:

Spam in your inbox? Move it into Junk.
Wanted mail in Junk? Move it back to Inbox.

Deleting a message or moving it to Trash doesn't teach the filter. If your app has its own junk folder, set it to use the server's folder named Junk. If one sender you trust keeps landing in Junk, ask your host to allow that sender for your mailbox.

Wrong password, then nothing works. After five failed sign-ins in ten minutes, the server stops accepting mail connections from your internet address for an hour. Webmail keeps working in the meantime. A common cause is an old phone or laptop still trying an old password: fix or remove that account, then wait an hour or ask your host to lift the block.
The user name. It's always the full email address, not only the part before the @.
Port and encryption don't match. Port 587 needs STARTTLS. Ports 465, 993 and 995 need SSL/TLS.
A certificate warning. Use your host's mail server name, as described in Settings for mail apps.
No connection at all, on any port. Mail may not be open to the internet yet. Use webmail and ask your host.