FAQsDomain Email (name@yourname.com)
Webmail
SPAM and email anti-virus protection
What is a custom domain? A custom domain is one that is specifically named and registered by you. It enables you to have an Internet address (also known as a URL) with your name specified, such as www.mycompany.com instead of www.covad.net/mycompany. You can also have custom email, such as joe@mycompany.com instead of joe@covad.net. top What is EasyMail? EasyMail is the interface for managing your hosted email. In EasyMail you can, create/delete email accounts, change passwords, set email forwards, establish email aliases (up to 10), set autoresponder messages, view usage, set your SPAM filters, and manage PersonalMail settings. top How can I access EasyMail? EasyMail can be accessed directly by clicking on the Manage My Email link under the Your Hosting Services section in My Covad Account. A separate window will open with the EasyMail application viewable in the center of your screen. top How do I initially set up my email addresses? You can set up custom domain email accounts in My Covad Account. 1. Click on the Manage My Email link in My Covad Account. 2. Select the Accounts tab in EasyMail 3. Click on the Create button 4. Enter your username and password and click Apply. 5. Repeat steps 1-4 until all accounts are created and then click OK when finished creating all accounts. top How can I change my email account usernames and passwords? 1. Click on the Manage My Email link in My Covad Account. 2. Select the Accounts tab in EasyMail. 3. Highlight the email account you wish to manage. 4. Enter your username and password and click Apply. 5. Repeat steps 1-4 until all accounts are updated and then click OK when finished updating all accounts. top Can I purchase additional mailboxes from Covad? Each Covad hosting plan comes with a specified number of mailboxes. If you need more, you can purchase them directly in My Covad Account on the Hosting Add-Ons page for $2 per box per month. On this page, enter the number of additional boxes you wish to purchase and click on the addBox button. top Can I see how much of my mailbox quota I have used so far? Yes. Click on the Manage My Email link in My Covad Account, then the Usage tab in EasyMail. There you can see the amount of space used by email account. The percentage is not a total of the box space for that account but rather a percentage of all the accounts combined. These stats are not live and are only a snapshot taken every night at approximately midnight EST. top If I use email at my custom domain, what should my email settings be? For customers with their own domain hosted by Covad, use the settings noted above or you can also use following server settings in your email client: • Outgoing (SMTP): smtp.covadmail.net or smtp.yourdomain.com • Incoming (POP): pop3.covadmail.net or pop.yourdomain.com • You may also use mail.covadmail.net as another option for both outgoing and incoming settings. • For detailed email setup please go to http://support.covad.net/onlinesupportcenter/setup/ • Webmail: webmail.covadhosting.biz. Yourdomain.com would be your specific domain name. top I use Netscape email. Why won't it work with my email address as the username? Depending on your version of Netscape, you may need to replace the "@" in your email address with either "." (a period) or a "%". Some Macintosh users may need to do this as well depending on their mail client and version. top What is the storage capacity for my email boxes? The current limit for email capacity is 250MB of storage space for domain email and 100MB for covad.net email. top What is the maximum size message I can send or receive via email? Currently, Covad limits the maximum message size, incoming or outgoing, and including attachments, to 10MB. Messages exceeding that threshold will not be sent from or deposited into your email mailbag. top Is there a limit to the number of email addresses I can send any one message to? Each email message can have up to 100 recipients. top Does Covad provide mail-backup or mail-bagging capabilities? At this time, Covad does not provide these services, although we are constantly looking into ways to improve our services and expect to offer this in the future. top Can I set up an alias to an email account? Yes, Covad enables you to establish up to 15 email aliases at no additional charge. Click on the Manage My Email link in My Covad Account, then click on the Aliases tab in EasyMail. Click the Create button and enter the email alias you wish to have and the targeted mailbox. Click Apply. Click OK when you have added all the aliases. You may also access and set up an alias via Covad's Webmail platform. top Does Covad support auto-forwarding of my email to another address? Yes, you can forward your email messages to another single email address or to a specified distribution list. To do this, click on the Manage My Email link in My Covad Account, then click on the Accounts tab in EasyMail. Highlight the email address you wish to set up a forward for. In the field called "Forward To", enter the email address to which you wish to forward email. If you wish to leave a copy of the forwarded email in your email account, select the box. Click Apply. Click OK when you have added all forwards. You may also access and set up forwards via Covad's Webmail platform. top What is a catchall account? A catchall account is the main or default email address for your custom domain. For example, if someone emails to joe@mycompany.com and joe is no longer a valid email account, the message would be routed to the catchall account. To create a catchall address, click Manage My Email from My Covad Account. When EasyMail setup launches, click the tab Catch-All. In the field, type in an existing email address that has been created for your domain to act as the catchall address for your domain. top If I remove my email account accidentally, can Covad restore it? Maybe. Please contact support at 1-888-642-2823 to open a ticket to attempt retrieval of the email account and content. Covad does make some backups of the server for emergency restoration purposes of the server, but does not guarantee restoration of content and messages for individual email addresses. Lost web content, however, can usually be restored within 72 hours of deletion. top What is an autoresponder? An autoresponder message is a unique message you can set up to notify those that send email to you that you are traveling or away from the office. top How can I set up an Auto-responder message? Click on the Manage My Email link in My Covad Account, then click on the Autoresponders tab in EasyMail. Select the email address for which you wish to set up an autoresponder message. Click on the Add button. Name the responder message and specifiy the condition, if any, that would generate the autoresponder message. Then draft your message and click Apply. When you are finished setting up all Auto-responders click OK. You may also access and set up Auto-responders via Covad's Webmail platform. top Can I relay email through Covad servers (SMTP Relay)? Although Covad's servers will allow SMTP Relay, it is not advised. A valid covad.net email account must be set up in the SMTP setup of the mail client. Because covad.net email accounts are consumer accounts and are designed for general home consumer use, many customers using SMTP relay for their business needs may violate Covad's Acceptable Usage Policy, which we advise you to review. Covad does not block port 25 in through the network. It is advised that instead of using SMTP relay, customers use their provider's SMTP server for sending third party hosted mail. Webmail top What is Webmail? Webmail allows you to check your email messages over the Internet when you are away from the office. It is completely Internet-based, meaning that there is no software to install on your machine. top How do I access Webmail? You can access Webmail by going to My Covad Account. On the My Covad Account page, you will find the link for Webmail. In addition, users can access Webmail directly by typing one of the following URLs into the address bar of their browser: 1) Covad.net users: http://webmail.covad.net 2) Custom domain users: http://webmail.covadhosting.biz. top What is the size limit of email attachments that I can send or receive? The maximum email attachment size is 10MB. top Do you support multiple POP boxes retrieval from Webmail? At this time, Covad Webmail does not support retrieving email from multiple POP3 servers. top Using Webmail, can I add names directly to the address book from an email? Yes. From your inbox, double click on the email message to pull it up in a separate window. Then click on the little book icon showing next to the senders email address. This will add the sender to your address book. top Does Covad Webmail support HTML emails? Yes. This is an option under preferences. top What Webmail interface should I use? Covad offers three different Webmail interfaces, based on your personal preference. For most Internet browsers, the standard Webmail interface is set to Advanced. Covad recommends that you use this interface option as it has the most features and is easiest to use, because it has a very similar look and feel to Microsoft Outlook. All features previously managed using PersonalMail (spam filtering, auto-responders, forwards, etc.) are now manageable via the Webmail platform. top SPAM and email anti-virus protection top What is spam? Spam is another word for junk mail sent to your email account. top What is Covad doing to stop spam? Stopping SPAM is a top priority for Covad. We have configured our mail servers to automatically notify our mail administrators whenever certain patterns are recognized in any large number of incoming or outgoing mail messages. For example, a large number of messages with substantially the same subject header, or of the same length, or numerous groups of messages all sent to the same number of recipients. These are flagged as potential spam and are either accepted or rejected based on their content. By allowing the server to watch for such patterns, we are able to stop a good deal of unwanted email from reaching our customers. We are also able to stop Covad's servers from becoming a haven for spammers. top Why am I getting email not addressed to me? Blind carbon copying or "Bcc" can be useful if you are creating a mailing list, and you wish to ensure that the address of each of your recipients is kept private from the others. So a mailer can set the "To" header to be anything he or she wishes. He or she can then silently tell the mail server, by using the "Bcc," who the actual recipients are. Unfortunately, this feature can also be used by spammers for illegitimate purposes. top Can you block all messages not addressed to me? Conceivably, Covad could prevent any mail without a legitimate "To" header from reaching our customers. However, the downside of this plan is that there is a potential for legitimate mail (e.g. mailing list messages addressed to "mailing list recipients" rather than a specific covad.net address) being blocked. Furthermore, to program our mail servers to scan through every incoming mail message and verify that its "To" header matches that of its intended recipient would significantly degrade the overall performance of those servers. Our top priority is that none of our customers' legitimate mail be bounced and that we deliver quality service. top Where did the spammer get my email address? Does Covad sell my email address? In the interest of ensuring your privacy, Covad does not, in any way, publicize your email address or any other subscriber information. All such data is kept strictly confidential. This is not only our own internal policy, but a requirement of federal law as well. top What should I do if I am getting a lot of SPAM? Does Covad allow me to set my SPAM filtering settings? Covad gives you full control to manage your own SPAM settings. SPAM Blocker, located in the EasyMail tab, allows you to set a variety of SPAM settings including filtering strength, delivery options, languages, and Always Allow and Block lists. You may also access and set up your SPAM filter settings via Covad's Webmail platform. top What can I do if I believe that a significant amount of legitimate email messages are being blocked? By default, Covad sets all users' SPAM settings to Off. You have full control to enable SPAM filtering and modify these settings to your preference, including having your email tagged and delivered to your email account or quarantining it for further review. If the quarantine feature is used, the quarantined mail is saved in the "Junk" folder in Webmail. Note that you cannot view the quarantined mail using a POP email client and this mail will build up and count towards your quota. To view quarantined mail using a mail client, an IMAP client must be set up and the SPAM folder made visible. top Can I have email quarantined? Where can I review quarantined email? In the Advanced settings of SPAM Blocker, you can select the option to have SPAM quarantined. Any email quarantined will be viewable directly in SPAM Blocker or in the Junk mail folder in Webmail. You may also view this folder by setting up an IMAP client. Please note that until this email is deleted, it counts toward your email box limit. top How frequently does Covad scan email messages for viruses? All email messages are scanned for viruses when they arrive at the Covad server. Also, any messages sent by any Covad email user will be scanned for viruses before the email is sent to a recipient. top How frequently is the Covad anti-virus software updated? The anti-virus software checks for updates twice a day. This helps to continuously maintain the anti-virus software and keep the data files up to date. top What happens when an email virus is detected in an attachment? If Covad detects a virus in an email attachment, it will be removed and you will be notified via email that the attachment was deleted because of a detected virus. top Can I get my email attachment back if it is deleted? Once the email attachment is removed from a message you cannot get the attachment back. You will need to notify the sender about the infected attachment and request that it be re-sent after it is disinfected. top Do I have the option of not selecting anti-virus protection? By default, the anti-virus software is active and helps protect all Covad email customers. We cannot turn this feature off for select customers at this time. |