Ultratron FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions. This section is updated frequently, so feel free to check back often for helpful hints and tips. If you have a question which is not answered here, please let us know.
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Forward to Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE or SPAM)
e-mail, or electronic mail, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. e-mail is a method to send messages to people next door or on the other side of the planet, using your computer and the internet.
e-mail is generally used via an e-mail client, such as Netscape Mail, Eudora, Outlook Express or Pegasus Mail. After you compose a message, your client then forwards your message to your ISP's mail server. This server then determines the destination of the message based upon the domain name listed in the To: field of the message, and forwards it accordingly.
e-mail is not an efficient method of transferring files on the internet. e-mail was designed to handle text files, usually fairly small in size. While most e-mail servers can handle binary attachments (.wav files, your business presentation, the scanned picture of your new baby boy), it puts a lot of unnecessary load upon said servers.
Whenever possible, please try to use protocols that are better designed for file transfer, such as FTP or HTTP (web).
As with everything else in the computing industry, the world of electronic mail is riddled with cryptic acronyms. Listed below are some of the more common ones, and what they stand for.
IMAP: Internet Mail Access Protocol. The newer type of Internet mail server. It allows connected stations to first view message headers and choose which, of the messages for them, they wish to receive. (The others remain stored on the mail server.)
MX: In DNS, MX stands for Mail eXchange, and is the flag which determines what hosts will accept mail for a given domain.
POP: Post Office Protocol. A type of internet mail server. POP downloads all mail to a user's local system as soon as the user connects to the mail server.
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The protocol used in TCP/IP networks for transferring electronic mail messages between end user computers and mail servers.
UBE / UCE : Unsolicited Bulk E-mail / Unsolicited Commercial E-mail. Otherwise known as spam, these are all the message that you get offering to sell you something, or telling you to go to a web page, or spreading the latest and greatest chain letter, from people you don't know about things you don't care about.
Incoming (POP/POP3) Server: mail.YourDomain.com Where YourDomain.com should be replaced by your domain name.
Outgoing (SMTP) Server: Determined by your Internet Access ISP Most ISPs require that mail leaving their network be relayed through their mail servers to prevent spam abuse. Thus, you need to contact the ISP who provides your Internet connectivity to get the host name to use for your outgoing mail server. Typically this will be smtp.yourisp.com or mail.yourisp.com.
When "Leave Mail on Server" is selected, your mail client does not issue the commands to our mail server to delete the messages once they are downloaded. This means your mailbox will never decrease in size. If this happens over an extended period of time (or a fairly short period of time, if you receive a number of messages, or messages with binary attachments), you will eventually hit the drive space quota allowed for your account.
The answer for this question varies from mail client to mail client. Below are the instructions for some of the most popular e-mail clients out there.
- Netscape Navigator
- In Netscape Navigator, click Options | Mail and News Preferences.
- Click on the Server Tab.
- Under "Messages are copied from the server to local disk", then: check the "Removed from server" option.
- Netscape Communicator
- In Netscape Communicator, click on Edit | Preferences
- Click on the + to the left of Mail & Groups
- Click on Mail Server
- Uncheck Leave messages on server after retrieval
- Netscape Communicator 4.5
- In Netscape Communicator, click on Edit | Preferences
- Click on the + to the left of Mail & Newsgroups
- Click on Mail Server
- Click on Edit
- Click on the POP tab
- Uncheck Leave messages on server
- Internet Mail
- In Internet Explorer 3.02, click on Mail | Read Mail
- Click on Mail | Options
- Click on the Server Tab
- Click on the Advanced Settings button on the bottom of the page
- In the Delivery section, make sure the box labeled "Leave a copy of messages on server" is NOT checked.
- Outlook Express
- Open Outlook Express
- Click on Tools | Accounts
- Click on the Mail tab
- Highlight your mail account and click on Properties
- Click on Advanced
- In the Delivery section, make sure the box labeled "Leave a copy of messages on server" is NOT checked.
- Outlook 97 Outlook 97 works differently than all other programs when it comes to removing mail from the server. The Help file says this: "When you download, messages are placed on your local computer only. When you copy, a copy of the message is left on the server, and a copy is placed on your local computer. When you delete, the message is removed from both your local computer and the server."
- Click Inbox .
- On the Tools menu, point to Remote Mail, and then click Remote Tools.
- Select the messages you want to download, and then click Mark to Retrieve.
- Select the messages you want to copy and download, and then click Mark to Retrieve a Copy .
- Select the messages you want to delete, and then click Delete .
- Note To unmark all messages, click Unmark All
- Outlook 98
- Open Outlook 98
- Click on Tools | Accounts
- Click on the Mail tab
- Highlight your mail account and click on Properties
- Click on Advanced
- In the Delivery section, make sure the box labeled "Leave a copy of messages on server" is NOT checked.
- Eudora
- First way using Eudora
- If there is a Tools option in the toolbar click on that and select Options.
- In the Checking Mail section, make sure the box labeled "Leave mail on server" is NOT checked.
- Second way using Eudora:
- Click on Special in the toolbar and select Settings.
- In the Checking Mail section, make sure the box labeled "Leave mail on server" is NOT checked.
Since e-mail was never designed to handle binary attachments, it doesn't do it very well. Large messages tend to put a lot of unnecessary load on the servers. We do not currently limit the size of messages which can be transmitted or received, however we may change this policy in the future if it is being abused.
If you try to send a message that is larger than 10M, or someone attempts to send you a message that is larger than 10M, some Internet mail servers will likely block the message. In this event, an error will be generated that states: "552 Message exceeds maximum fixed size."
No, but mail stored on the mail servers does count toward the overall disk quota on your account. If you will need to store large amounts of mail for an extended time which will use more than your quota, it would be more cost effective for you to upgrade your account plan.
No. Once you have downloaded the messages from our mail servers (assuming you have "Leave Mail on Server" disabled), the messages are stored locally on your computer. At that point, it is up to you to decide how much disk space you want to dedicate to storing your mail.
Please note that if using our webmail service, the mail DOES stay on our mail servers.
Nothing. We do not reject mail that puts your account over it's disk allowance. You may use as much disk space as you need, and will never be limited by the server. If your usage occasionally exceeds your allowance this is fine, however if it continually exceeds the allowance you will be invoiced for the overage.
Yes. Through our secure control panel, a feature available to our customers to give control over their accounts, you can check your current account disk usage. It's a good idea to check this periodically to ensure that you are staying within the space allowed under your current plan.
Yes, we have installed virus screening to our mail server. All email sent or received through our mail server is screened for viruses. When a virus is detected, an email notification is sent to both the intended recipient and the originator letting them know, and the message is quaranteened. The virus signatures are automatically updated daily, so nearly all viruses should be stopped by this system.
Yes. We access a realtime list of sites that are not allowed to connect to our servers. These IP address are added only when the administrators of the machines in that space have proven to be unwilling to take measures to educate or cancel abusive users. Please see the Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE or SPAM) FAQ for more details.
By default, unless you gave us specific instructions how to configure your mail, we configured a catch-all email forwarder (see later in this FAQ for definitions of these) to send any mail for your domain to the email address you provided on your application. To customize your mail settings, you may use our automated control panel or send instructions to us at support@ultratron.net.
If you already have an existing email account, such as bob@yourlocalisp.net, and would like mail which is sent to bob@yourcompany.com to be automatically sent to your existing bob@yourlocalisp.net account, you could request an email forwarder. Your customers would know you as bob@yourcompany.com, but you would only have to check your mail at one place.
A POP3 (Short for Post Office Protocol 3) account is a full-blown mailbox, complete with it's own username and password, which holds your mail on a mail server until you download it. To access your mail from a POP3 account, you must use an email client program such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Netscape Communicator, Eudora, Pine, etc. The procedure for configuring each program is different, but in general you'll need to configure this client software with the name of your POP3 server (eg. mail.yourcompany.com), your name (eg. Bob Smith), your email address (eg. bob@yourcompany.com), your POP3 username (eg. iambob), your POP3 password (eg. Im2C00L), and your SMTP Gateway where outgoing mail will be sent (this is provided by your local ISP that you use to connect to the Internet eg. mail.yourlocalisp.net). Normally when you login using your email client (which requires a username and password), your mail is downloaded from the server and placed on the hard drive of your computer.
A catchall email account can either be a forwarder or POP3 account such that all mail for your domain (or all mail that isn't specifically set to go elsewhere) will be sent to that account. For example, if your domain name is mydomain.com, you could have a catchall email account that would collect ALL mail regardless of whether it was destined for sales@mydomain.com, marketing@mydomain.com, or IJustMadeThisUp@mydomain.com. If you don't have a catch-all account defined, then mail sent to an address on your domain which doesn't exist will be rejected as an unknown account.
An email autoresponder is an email address which will automatically send a pre-determined response to people when they send mail to a specific address. For example, if you want to make general information known to your customers, you might decide to setup an email address such as info@yourcompany.com. When someone sends email to info@yourcompany.com, our system will automatically send a response back to the sender with information about your products or services.
A mailing list allows you to send email to one address (eg. customers@yourcompany.com) which will then be sent to every email address which is configured in your list.
This can be helpful if you want to periodically notify your customers of important news, sales, etc. This would be an example of a "moderated" list where only authorized personel within your organization are allowed to send mail to the list.
Other companies use mailing lists for discussion purposes where the subscribers all share a common interest and everyone on the list may post mail to the discussion group.
Most good mailing list programs contain the ability to have people automatically subscribe or unsubscribe themselves from the list, create digests and archives, setup rules determining who can send mail to the list, etc.
For an additional one-time setup fee, we will configure a powerful Majordomo mailing list for your use. Majordomo is arguably the most popular and full-featured mailing list software available today. Feel free to use our online signup form to request this service. Or, if you prefer, you may install a mailing list package, such as listproc or Berolist in your account at no additional cost.
By default, if someone sends mail to something like bogus@yourcompany.com and this email address hasn't been configured, the mail will be rejected and returned to the sender as undeliverable. If you would like all mail sent to unconfigured email addresses within your domain to go to a particular address (either an existing POP3 account or forwarded to another email address) you can configure a "default" or "catch-all" address via our automated control panel. This is a special case default email forwarder. For example, let's say you have a POP3 account for bob@yourcompany.com, a forwarder for susan@yourcompany.com, a mailing list of customers@yourcompany.com, and an autoresponder at info@yourcompany.com, and you configure your default email address as bob@yourcompany.com. If someone sends mail to sales@yourcompany.com, it wouldn't match any of your configured email addresses so it would be sent to your default email address: bob@yourcompany.com.
Absolutely! You can mix and match POP3 accounts, forwarders, autoresponders, and mailing lists within your domain as you see fit. For your convenience you may add, delete, or modify your POP3 accounts and forwarders via our automated control panel.
Normally you will send mail from a different mail server than you receive mail from. We can assist you with retrieving mail from our mail servers (such as with a POP3 account), however sending mail is another matter. Most Internet access ISPs force you to send all outbound mail through one of their mail servers (often referred to as an SMTP gateway) as a measure to prevent their subscribers from sending UCE (SPAM) through their network. Many ISPs use the naming convention smtp.yourlocalisp.net or mail.yourlocalisp.net which you enter into your email client configuration under "SMTP gateway" or "Outgoing Mail Server". We can offer suggestions to try to help with outgoing mail, but difficult problems will ultimately need to be resolved with the ISP whose server you are attempting to send mail through.
Yes. You will need a telnet client that allows you to specify destination port. You will then need to do the following: [Note: examples are given with the ultratron.net domain. You can substitute your domain name where necessary.]
These steps will have deleted the large message from your mailbox. If you are not comfortable or able to perform these steps, please contact us at support@ultratron.net and we will be happy to remove the offending message for you.
- telnet mail.ultratron.net 110
- user <username>
- pass <password>
- list (At this point, you will receive a list of all the messages in your mailbox, a number associated with each message, and the size of file associated with each message. Find the large file in question, and note the number associated with it.)
- dele <number from previous step>
- quit
Any questions? Email support@ultratron.net.