Email

This information only pertains to Hurricane Electric's Shared Web Hosting package. There may be different information in our other categories.

Email Access

One of the many features you get when you're a Hurricane Electric Webhosting customer is email hosting associated with your domain. This means, if your website's domain name is example.com, you can setup luke@example.com, jessica@example.com, and anyone else associated with your organization.

Your users can access the mailboxes via webmail or any standard mail software, including Outlook and Thunderbird, or with any web-capable device, like a smartphone.

Creating Email Boxes

You can setup email boxes at Hurricane Electric's admin page, using the "Add Mailbox" command.

The following are the entry fields on the "Add Mailbox" page, and what you should fill them with:

• Mailbox Name: Fill in the 'user' part here, i.e., the part before the '@'. Ex: For the mailbox clint@example.com, simply type in clint.
• Password: This field will contain a random password that has been generated for you by the webpage. Handy! You can use this, or one of your own choosing. It must be eight characters long and contain at least one numeral. Ex: qexu0rx6 (strong) or barton1 (weak).
• Mail Info To: If you put in someone else's email address, we will email them the username and password you're creating, as well as some basic instructions for email software setup.

Email Settings

Our email servers support a few different connection methods. The following is our current recommendation for modern email clients:

• IMAP/SMTP Mail Server (a.k.a. "Host"): Your website's server's name (e.g. alpha.he.net). You can find this by logging in to https://admin.he.net and looking for "Server" under your contact information.
• Security Type: STARTTLS
• IMAP/SMTP Authentication Method: "Password" or "Normal Password" (or check "My outgoing server requires authentication")
• IMAP (incoming) Port: 143
• SMTP (outgoing) Port: 587
• IMAP/SMTP User Name: your email address (ex: peter@example.com)
• IMAP/SMTP Password: the password for that email address

Some email clients, notably some versions of Microsoft Outlook, do not support STARTTLS but do support SSL/TLS. In that case, change the following:

• Security Type: "SSL/TLS" or "TLS" or "SSL". Sometimes this is a checkbox or toggle simply marked "Use SSL".
• IMAP (incoming) Port: 993
• SMTP (outgoing) Port: 465

For older email clients, or customers on our older servers (version 1 or 2, pre-2009), make the following changes:

• SMTP/POP3/IMAP Mail Server: your website's domain name (ex: example.com)
• Security Type: None
• IMAP Authentication Method: "Password" or "Normal Password"
• SMTP Authentication Method: "None" (or uncheck "My outgoing server requires authentication").
• Do not enter an SMTP username or password. This method uses POP/IMAP-authenticated SMTP (see below).
• IMAP (incoming) Port: 143 or POP (incoming) Port: 110
• SMTP (outgoing) Port: 587

Email Quotas/Storage Limits

There is no hard set limit, but keeping very large amounts of mail on the server may cause performance issues when using POP or Webmail.

We count your email storage against your overall account storage. As long as your overall storage is within the allowed amount for your account type, there will not be any overage charges.

POP3 Authenticated SMTP

POP3 Authenticated SMTP is included with all web accounts. This feature allows you to use the server your account is on for outgoing mail (SMTP) simply by checking your POP3 mailbox before sending mail. By checking your email using POP3 you enable the SMTP server for outgoing mail from your IP address for the next several hours.

Many customers have asked for an SMTP gateway they could use for outgoing mail because some dialup ISPs either don't offer one or restrict the outgoing email addresses to be from their domain name only. ISPs restrict access because spammers scan the net looking for open mail servers. When they find one they send millions of emails through it. By implementing POP3 Authenticated SMTP we can allow you access to the SMTP server which is already on the web server your account is on without the risk of it getting co-opted by a spammer.

Use your domain name (recommended in most cases) or the name of the server your account is on and simply check your email with POP3 or IMAP once to enable the SMTP server for your IP address for several hours.

"Not Authorized" or "Relay Denied" Errors

The best solution is to use SMTP authentication (our default setup).

If you use POP/IMAP-authenticated SMTP, you need to make sure that you have your email software (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) set to check for new mail first. Each email client has a different way of doing this, so you will need to check your software help files for specific information on the method. The reason for this is HE's servers are set to validate that a person trying to send email has authorized use of the server. Checking email accomplishes this.

Forwarding Email

You may use the "Set Forwarding" function at https://admin.he.net on a per mailbox basis. For security and anti-spam reasons, we recommend you not forward email to an address outside of your site hosted with us.

Many mail providers do not distinguish between legitimate forwarded email and spam, which can cause problems for your offsite email addresses. We recommend you use the remote service to "pull" the mail from your Hurricane Electric mailbox. Most email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail offer this as part of their webmail client services and would be configured as most normal email clients are done.

Another, powerful option is to use Procmail. You can set up SpamAssassin to capture spam before using one or more Procmail recipes to forward the email that remains. Procmail looks intimidating at first, but is no harder than editing a web page and can be an extremely useful tool.

File Attachments

Yes, you can use attachments, up to a maximum size of approximately 50 MB (megabytes). Please keep in mind that files larger than 20 MB are difficult to send out and frequently difficult for people to receive. Anything larger than that should be uploaded to your webspace for people download via a web browser.

Unable to send Email?

There can be several reasons for this problem. The first, and easiest to check for, is your outgoing (SMTP) mail port setting. Many DSL and cable internet providers have begun blocking port 25 for SMTP traffic in order to curb problems with spam mailers. We offer the alternate port of 587 for SMTP for our clients, and this port is, at this point in time, being left open by those providers blocking port 25.

Though it is beyond the scope of this FAQ to be a tutorial on where to find it in all email clients, it is generally found in the Advanced settings under your Email account options. If you are unsure where to find the advanced settings or where to edit the mail port, you can call and ask us here at he.net or you can check your mail client vendor's help files or online help for this.

How do I change my mail program (Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird, etc) from POP3 to IMAP?

Please see this page for more information about IMAP and POP3, including how to make this important transition without losing any saved email!

People are sending me email, but they're getting the emails returned to them.

This is usually a result of having some older anti-spam measures turned on. We currently recommend SpamAssassin to cut down on spam, but we still have some of the older methods available for those who want them. Unfortunately, these are more likely to return "false positives." To check these, go to https://(your server name).he.net/cgi-bin/email-config.cgi and log in with your email address and email password. Anything except "When sending email, add the recipient to friends list" could result in emails to you being returned to the sender. You can also add individual users or domains to the friends list (or to the foes list, if you want to block them) available on the same page.

Problems emailing Yahoo! customers

Unfortunately, you're not alone if you are having this issue. Many of our customers are receiving bounce back messages from Yahoo! mail, as well as delays in sending to Yahoo! After much investigation, many legitimate mail providers are experiencing this issue, and it appears there's not much that can be done.

We've contacted Yahoo! on multiple occasions, and their solution is:

"We suggest that you ask your users to set up a filter in Yahoo! Mail to ensure that they get your email messages in their Inbox.

Yahoo! Mail users may find more information regarding filters at http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/classic/mailplus/otherinfo/otherinfo-01.html