What’s in a mailbox?

Besides your email, mailboxes can be set up with different behaviours to work with you in the way you feel most convenient.

Standard: This is the normal “you@yourdomain” mailbox that you set up to log in with your preferred mail client such as Eudora, Mail, Outlook. Your mail is received by, and held on our mail servers and you ‘download’ your email from the server to your own machine.

Aliased: This is not a true mailbox in that it does not ‘store’ your email. This address is set up to forward any incoming mail for this address to a destination mailbox on the same server. For example, you have a small business where you wish to offer separate email contacts such as ‘info@yourdomain’ or ‘sales@yourdomain’ but you wish to maintain only one account on your computer.

Forwarded: This type of mailbox is like an alias because it does not hold mail either. It is set up to receive and then forward all your incoming mail for an address to a mail server outside our network. For example, you have a number of addresses for your own domain but you use your ISPs mailbox as your primary method of email communication: ie. yourid@saltspring.com but wish to represent your business with professionally by having a complement of addresses such as ‘service@yourdomain’, ‘bookings@yourdomain’

IMAP: (Internet Mail Access Protocol) This is technically not a type of mailbox, but a way to access your mail from your mailbox. The common name for this service is ‘webmail.’ Much like a yahoo! or Hotmail account, you can view your mail from any web browser or IMAP capable mail client that is connected to the internet. But our webmail service is more than just reading your mail on a web browser. Because our IMAP server is an integrated part of our network, it also means that you can compose, or reply to email you receive, and send it as an account in your domain. For travelling business people, this is a way to project a professional image for your company whether your are at the office/home or on the road at an internet café. No more having to send a message to a prospective client coming from ‘bobmary2003hooha@yahoo.com’ while you are away from your own computer.