Precisium Logo
PRECISIUM
Pricing      Policies      Support/FAQ      Contact      Payments      Webmail
Phone:   +61 2 9966 8228
Fax:   +61 2 9901 3027
Email:   info@precisium.com.au

Email Service Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction:

This FAQ is meant to provide some insight into the email services offered under Precisium's
hosting services (junctionworld.com / 11email.com) - although there are some points which may apply more broadly to all email services - it is not a general email FAQ.

For information on other aspects of Precisium's hosting services, see the main FAQ.
As is the case with the main FAQ, this list is a fairly loose interpretation of the phrase "frequently asked questions" -
It's just a list of hopefully useful pieces of information.

Send any further questions to support@precisium.com.au



Email Problems


  •   Sending Problems
    •  "Authentication required" or "user not local and relaying not permitted" error.
      If when trying to send mail you receive such an error then this indicates you do not have smtp authentication enabled for the account you are trying to send with. The Precisium mailserver(s) require you to log on to send mail.
      Outlook Express and Outlook 2000; Outlook XP instructions
    •  Server not found or timing out when trying to send (SMTP port 25 blocked)
      The first thing to check is your internet connection, but if you're able to view this page then that's probably ok.
      The main cause of problems connecting to the Precisium SMTP server is ISPs blocking port 25 traffic. Port 25 is the standard email delivery port for server to server use. In the past, port 25 was also the most common port to use for clients to submit messages for delivery.

      With increasing levels of spam, more and more isps (Telstra, Optus, iiNet etc.) are blocking outgoing port 25 connections so that customers can connect to the ISP's SMTP systems on this port, but not other networks. Reserving port 25 for server to server communication, and encouraging users to submit their messages with a username and password on another port is part of the effort to reduce the amount of spam and number of viruses being propagated.
      Port 587 is now a very common standard for password-protected mail submission (SMTP AUTH).
      The net result of this is that if you use an isp that blocks port 25 and will not open it up for you then you cannot send mail via our smtp server using port 25. There are several ways to get around this problem.
      • Change your mail program settings to use Authentication and the Mail Submission Port 587 instead of 25.
        This is the recommended way to get your email delivered.

        Outlook Express and Outlook 2000; Outlook XP instructions.
      • Change your *Outgoing* Mail Server only to use your ISPs systems.
        This can cause delivery problems if your Domain uses certain spam mitigation technologies such as SPF.
        In general it is recommended that you submit your mail using systems belonging to the same provider which handles your incoming mail. (ie your MX provider)

        For Telstra Bigpond see this notice. You must disable smtp authentication using this method.
        Outlook Express and Outlook 2000; Outlook XP instructions
      • Ask your ISP to make an individual exception and reopen port 25 for you.
        e.g Optus Technical Support has in the past accepted such requests on 133 937
        This option should generally be reserved for the situation where you are running your own email server and you are not using an SMTP 'smart host' to inject emails into the wider internet.
  •   Receiving Problems

  •   What methods are available for retrieving mail?
        b) Direct IMAP (allows multiple folders and custom 'sieve' filters)
        b) Direct POP3
        c) Browser based Webmail system - webmail.11email.com
        d) Via redirection to existing mailbox(es) at your ISP
        e) SMTP for those who are running their own mailserver.


    POP3 and IMAP can be used to collect mail from our servers, no matter which ISP you use for your internet connection.
    • a) Direct IMAP

      IMAP is a more modern and more flexible protocol than POP3. It has advantages particularly for use in mobile devices.
      The settings are the same as for POP3 below - just select 'IMAP' as the type of account when setting it up.

    • b) Direct POP3
      POP3 is the plain workhorse of email retrieval.
      It is suitable for users who are connecting from a single location and device.

      You will be given four main pieces of information to configure in your mail client program:
      - USERNAME: Always starts with your AccountID and a dot e.g myaccountid.fred.
      This is completely independant of your email address. i.e even though you may login as myaccountid.fred your email addresses might be joe@somewhereorother123.com and info@someplacexyz.com etc.
      - PASSWORD: Lowercase mixture of numbers and letters only. Minimum length four, maximum ten.
      - POP3 server: This is the server that your mail program connects to retrieve mail.
      It will usually be something like:
       mail.youraccountid.junctionworld.com
      - SMTP server: Your mail program sends mail by connecting to this server.
      It will usually be something like:
       smtp.youraccountid.junctionworld.com
      NOTE: Precisium's SMTP server requires authentication. Basically what this means is that you need to log onto the mailserver to send mail. The username and password needed for SMTP are the same as POP3. Most modern email clients support SMTP authentication. If client one you are using does not then Precisium recommends you upgrade to a newer version as the one you have is potentially quite old and may well have security holes.

      Why are you using SMTP authentication?
      Quite simple: to stop unauthorised use of our mailserver.
    • c) Browser based Webmail System
      - This system allows you to easily read and send mail from almost any computer with an internet connection (e.g Internet cafes ) without having to specially configure the computer with your email settings. You just logon and use it.
      It could be used as your main way of emailing, but is probably most useful as a means of using email whilst travelling or away from your main computer.

      - Use a reasonably late model web-browser such as Netscape, Internet Explorer or Opera to go to the site http://webmail.11email.com

      - You need to realise that if your main home or office computer is always on and collecting email it may remove messages from the server system and store them on your computer - thus while you are out and about using webmail, you might find that messages have passed through and landed on your main machine where you can't reach them via webmail.
      To make sure the messages remain available to be read in webmail, either ensure that your mail program is configured using IMAP, or that your mail program on your home/office machine is not automatically collecting mail while you are away.. or set your home/office mail program to 'leave a copy of messages on the server'. This is a setting you'll find somewhere in your mail program.. perhaps under 'advanced' or 'options'.
      WARNING: if you do set your main machine to 'leave a copy on the server', you may potentially build up a large number of messages on the servers here. If you are using POP3, in time this will slow down your message retrieval - sometimes severely. Make sure you go into webmail occasionally and delete some messages from the server if they are building up or if your mail program allows it, set it to automatically delete messages after a certain number of days. This last option is ;generally the most convenient method.

      The most webmail-compatible option is to configure your desktop system to use the more modern IMAP protocol for retrieving email. This is supported by nearly all mail programs and allows you to synchronize your email reading amongst multiple devices as well as the folders in webmail.
    • d) Redirection to a mailbox at your ISP.
      - When email arrives destined for your something@yourdomainname address - you can have it automatically redirected to another email address; perhaps to a mailbox you already collect mail from at your ISP, or perhaps to a hotmail address.
      - There are two ways of having your redirection setup
      a) copy redirect:
         The messages are automatically sent to the nominated redirection address but remains on our systems either for direct pop retrieval or webmail access (see above).
      b) move redirect:
         The messages are automatically sent to the nominated redirection address, but no copy remains on the system here.

      Redirections are configured at the 'mailbox' level, i.e you specify a redirection for a mailbox, not for a specific email address.  If the redirection is only meant to occur for one specific email address you may need to move the address to a separate mailbox.
      See the item below for clarification on the concept of a 'mailbox' at Precisium.
    • e) Running your own mailserver.

      If you're running your own server such as Microsoft Exchange, your domain email can be configured to go directly to and from your exchange server, or it can be configured in a hybrid manner if you'd like to use our SMTP smart host or additional mail routing features.
      Precisium can act as a front-end mailserver to provide an extra layer of spam filtering and protection.
      Our systems can deliver mail to shadow-mailboxes on our systems, as well as to the corresponding mailbox on your exchange server.
      This can be useful as a backup mail-store accessible using webmail and IMAP, or even to add extra email addresses for users who don't require full Exchange mailboxes.
      (saves Exchange user licenses)

  • What is the relationship between a mailbox & an email address on Precisium's systems?

    - The concept of a 'mailbox' is centred around the user or more accurately each mailbox is a particular 'pathway' for messages to follow.

     The user can logon to a mailbox (either using pop3 or webmail) and collect and send email for any of the addresses that this mailbox is configured to accept.
    - A single mailbox can have multiple addresses (up to ten per box for a total of fifty addresses included on the Standard Hosting Plan).

    An example for accountID 'xyz' with the domain name example.com :
    					MessageBox : box1 
    					Username : xyz.fred 
    					Password : blah123x
    					Addresses : 
    						fred@example.com 
    						freddy@example.com 
    						fred.smith@example.com 
    						info@example.com
    						marketing@example.com
    						admin@example.com
    								 
    					MessageBox : box2 
    					Username : xyz.andy
    					Password : ax34bzt 
    					Addresses : 
    						andrew@example.com
    						sales@example.com
    								
    					MessageBox : box3 
    					Username : xyz.support
    					Password : 8pqwrt 
    					Addresses : 
    						support@example.com
    					Forward to (move) : 
    						fred@example.com
    						andrew@example.com
    						xyz123blah@hotmail.com
    					        
    Note how the xyz.andy mailbox doesn't necessarily have an address that matches this username. i.e there is no xyz.andy@example.com or andy@example.com.
    This means you can completely change your email addresses without having to reconfigure the username & password on all your email-reading devices.
    Also, even though only three mailboxes are in use, there are nine email addresses on the example.com domain.

    Box3 is configured to redirect all mail for support@example.com to three people who need to receive these messages. The list of addresses that are forwarded can include a mixture of local and remote addresses. In this case the support emails do not remain in box3, but if it was configured as a 'copy redirect' they would remain there for direct access via webmail etc.

    An email address can only be configured on one mailbox at a time but this still allows any conceivable combination of forwarding/redirection etc.  Contact support@precisium.com.au if you are unsure about how this works.

    Back to the paragraph above where I mentioned that a mailbox is a 'pathway' for messages to follow:
    This means that for a particular box, all messages for any of the box's addresses will be treated in the same fashion. In the example above, messages to andrew@ and sales@ will follow the same pathway so if a redirection were placed on box2 it will apply to both addresses.  To treat one of the addresses separately, it would have to be moved to a different box.