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Important Note: ActivatorMail SMTP Setup - ActivatorMail requires SMTP authentication setup in Outlook, Eudora, Netscape, and common email readers. Click Here for More Info

Introduction:- Welcome to the ActivatorMail(tm) webmail system. This help manual will provide a walk through of the system and help better familiarize yourself with the interface and the functions. Keep in mind that the mail system is kept on a different computer from your own, which allows you to access your mail from anywhere in the world. This mail system is rich in features. Although many people may be familiar with other web based email programs such as Hotmail and Yahoo, this mail system offers features that are not only unique, but ones that are actually built around business and the online community. R. Lee Heath, owners of the ActivatorMail(tm) mail site, offer training and login logo customization to match your website. Contact the mail administrator by emailing support@activatormail.com for more details.

Logging Into Your WebMail: - When you get ready to enter your mailbox, you will be asked for 2 items. The first is a User Id. This is first part of address, such as user@activatormail.com, then the id is “user”. Your password will also be needed. After filling in the two text boxes with this information, click the Logon button and you will be sent to your mailbox, provided that the information you gave was correct. If you repeatedly are having problems with not being allowed into your mail box, email the Mail Administrator with your information. Note that logins are case sensitive.

Conventional Email Readers - You may use popular email readers like Eudora, Outlook, Netscape, etc. with this server as well as the web based email. When setting up these readers simply use 'activatormail.com' as both POP3(Receiving server) and SMTP (Sending Server) settings. With these readers you may download email for reading directly onto your PC or for offline reading and writing as well. This produces a powerful combination as you may download your mail when at home or the office, then use the web based email while, 'on-the-road' using anyone elses internet connection. Many of these email clients are free. For more information about them click: Email Readers The most popular of these is Eudora Light, which is highly recommended and FREE! The best email reader, in our opinion, is The Bat which is sold as sharware.

Side Bar Option Buttons:

• Logoff: Logs you off the mail server. This option is available on many pages of your mail box, and should be used for security purposes. Not logging off your mailbox could possibly leave your mailbox open, although not likely. If you do not log off, the server will time out your connection in a short period of time. This will mean that you must login again to access your mail.
• Compose: Allows you to send an email message. For more information see the section below on composing new message.
• Read Mail: Allows you to read new mail in main mailbox.
• Options: Scrolls your screen down to the options found under the mailbox summary. This is useful if you have many mailboxes and the options are off the bottom of the screen.

Main Screen Options:

• Main: Opens your main mailbox. This is where your new mail will show up unless you have used options to route mail elsewhere. Other mailboxes may be added in the options. Then those mailboxes will show up below the Main mailbox.
• How to Read Summary: - There are 4 columns in the mailbox summary.
• Mailbox: Name of mailbox.
• Size: Amount of disk space being used to house the mail in that mail box. New users of free email accounts have up to 2 mb of space (approximately 2 million bytes) or 50 messages maximum. Users may purchase larger space for their company’s or individual mailboxes by using the Upgrade link on the ActivatorMail home web page.
• Message Count: Amount of messages in the mailbox, and amount that have not been read. For example if your count reads 8/3 then there are 8 email messages in that mailbox, 3 of which have not been opened.
• Last Modified: Date that the mailbox summary was last modified, such as receiving mail.
• Top: The link marked Top will take you to the top of the page. This is useful if you have scrolled many pages down in a document.
• Options: - There are many options which allow a user the chance to customize their mail to their needs.

Options Listed Under 'Personal':

Remember: MANY of the options require you to go to another screen and make entries. After the entries are made, most will require you to save in order for the changes to go into effect. If you do not save, your changes will not be made.

• Change Finger Information: Finger is a internet protocol that allows people to gather more information about another person on the internet. It can be used somewhat like a rolodex card. Put information in this option such as full name and contact information. Keep in mind that the downside to this is very few people actually use the finger protocol and so you may never be viewed. It also takes special software not distributed with Windows and Mac OS to actually request a finger of a user. Currently we have disabled the finger server due to lack of use of this protocol.
• Change Password: Allows you to change your mail password. Be careful, as the mail administrator does not have access to recall your password if you forget it. Make sure to use a password that is easy to remember for you or write it down in a safe place. Suggestion: use a combination of letters and numbers. This makes it harder for other people to guess your password when illegally trying to access your mail.
• Change Mail Forwarding Information: - This allows you to have your email forwarded to another email account. If you have many email accounts (business, personal, family etc.) then you could have all the accounts forwarded to one account for an easier time getting all your mail. If you are using this system for company email, remember to change the reply to address on whatever system you use (Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc.) to your company email address to avoid confusion among the recipients. (Too many email addresses may confuse your clients.)
• Change User Information: - This changes information about you, such as name, reply to address and more. Much of this information will not show up on or in your email. Rather it is for a part of the server called a LDAP, which in short is a listing service. We do not actively use this service, but have plans in the future as our users grow. A listing service is for users to get information on other users on the same mail system or if the system is large enough, the listings can be published to a web site. This is primarily used when large corporations want a “phone book” of their employees. Fill in as much information as you feel comfortable with here.
• Change Vacation Message: - This allows you to set up a message that will be mailed once to each person that sends mail to you. After the first time, that person will not receive a vacation message again until you change your vacation message. This is extremely useful to send out a message to users while you are on vacation to let them know the dates you will be out of the office and who is handling your email for the time you are out. This is not meant for use weekly to let people know when you are out of the office and hours you will be working.
• Change Processing Rules: - Allows you to set up rules of how to file incoming messages to certain mailboxes depending on the information in the subject line. For example you could set up a rule to send all mail from a newsletter or daily news service to a NEWS mailbox that you have created. There is not extensive documentation here about how to do this, and this should be noted as an advanced option of the mailbox. If you are interested in this feature, and have attempted to use it and not received the results you had hoped for, contact your Mail Administrator. For an hourly rate, the mail administrator can set up mailboxes and rules and customize your mail box in any way that is possible within the limits of the system.
• Address Book: - Allows you to add and modify a list of common used addresses. We do not promote using this as a contact manager, but rather as a just a listing of commonly used addresses. Remember: Always keep a back up of all information you keep in your web based mail account. Even though a back up is performed regularly, there is never a guarantee with any computer that information is 100% safe from deletion by the software, user or server.
• Manage Mailboxes: - Allows you to create, rename or delete mailboxes. Many users create mailboxes to sort their mail. For example, you could use 3 separate mailboxes to store family, business and personal emails. Some users keep separate mail boxes for each client that they receive a lot of email from.
• Auto Response: - Allows a user to automatically respond to all emails with a form letter or message. It then allows you to forward incoming emails to another UserID on the system. For example: If you have a special email for support, a message could be sent to anybody that emails that address with a note that explains that the email was received and lists contact phone numbers for your company. Then the person’s email could be forwarded to a technician that would actually handle the support issue. You can have an auto response set up for different mailboxes. This in turn used with the Processing Rules allows users to have different auto responses sent depending on the subject line. Please read our note concerning SPAM (page 3) before using the auto response system for unsolicited emailings.
• Preferences: - These options allow a user to customize how their mailbox looks and sorts messages. These options are cosmetic and will not harm your mail box to change. Use these settings to customize your mailbox and messages to your needs.
• Change Signature: - A signature is a message that will be sent at the bottom of all emails you send from your mailbox. Many people use this to put repetitive information such as full name, position, company name and contact information (phone, pager etc.). When composing a new message, you will have the option of including your signature with that email. For more information see the section on composing new messages.

Composing and Sending New Messages - When you click the COMPOSE button you are taken to a new page to write your email. On this page you will find many text boxes.

• From: Shows your address, as it is in the 'Reply to' option in the Change User Options menu.
• To: Type in the name of the user you want to send the message to. This must be in the normal email form (example: user@domain.com ). If you are sending to another user on your domain then generally you don’t need the domain in the TO section. (example: if you are sending to another user on 'yourdomain.com' system then you can just put in their USERID rather than their whole email address).
• CC: This is the Carbon Copy section, which allows you to send a copy of this email to another user other than the recipient named in the TO box.
• BCC: Blind Carbon Copy. Allows a user to send a copy to another user with out that user being named in the message.
• Subject: The subject of your email. Even if you are sending a short message you should still use a subject.
• Add all recipients to address book: Takes all recipients in the TO, CC and BCC fields and adds them to your address book if checked. (To check, click once in the box next to the option).
• Save message in Sent folder: If you check this, a copy of your message is kept in a mailbox (called SENT) for you keep for review or later use.
• Include Signature: When checked, your signature that you set up in the Change Signature option is added to your email message at the bottom of the message.
• Large Textbox: Under the options listed above is an empty text box that you can use to write your email message.
• Addresses: If you have names and emails in your address book, you can highlight the name in the box on the right of this section and then click the appropriate button on the left. For example, if I am sending a letter to the sales department, I would click the name sales that I put in my address book once, and then click the TO button to the left of the list. This would add the address of SALES to my TO box. You can add recipients to your CC and BCC section the same way. You can select multiple recipients from your address book to include in any of the fields (TO, CC or BCC)
• Attachments: You can attach a file to a email message using this feature. First you would use the browse button to find the file on your system you wish to attach, then click the ATTACH button which will add it to your list of attached files. If you wish to remove a file, you can highlight it by clicking on it once in the attachments list and then clicking the REMOVE button. Under your attachments list is a total of files and file sizes. Remember if you are connected to the internet on a slower connection (28.8 modem or even a 56k modem) you may notice long delays while sending a file. Your recipient(s) also will experience a delay depending on their speed. It is good etiquette to ask a user before sending a large file that will tie up their connection for a long time. Many users use this function to send Word documents, or spreadsheets and pictures to other users. Email attachments can contain highly destructive viruses or trojan horses. For more information on avoiding these see details on that subject below.
• Top: takes you to the top of the page.
• Send: On the bottom of the message entry area is the SEND button. Only push this once, and only push it after you have completely filled out all the information you wish to send. After it sends it will take you to a page that will tell you that your message has been sent successfully. If you find this annoying or do not wish to receive this message, it can be turned off in the options menu under Preferences. Your mailbox will then load after the message is sent rather than the success message.

Mailbox Message Read Operations - Once in a mailbox (such as MAIN), you have the option to read your email, file your email to another mailbox or delete messages. In the mailbox there are 5 columns:

• Selection: This is an empty checkbox. If you check a message or multiple messages then you can use the delete or file features on those marked messages.
• From: Sender of the email message.
• Subject: Subject of the email message.
• Date: Date of the email.
• Lines: Amount of lines in the email.
• You can click on any of the headings (from, subject, date or lines) and your mailbox will sort the messages by your selection. For example, if you want to sort your email by the sender, you would just click on the header FROM and the emails in that mailbox will sort the senders from A to Z.
• Select All Displayed Messages: Selects all the messages in your current mailbox. Once selected you can delete them or file them.
• Delete: Deletes any messages with a check in it’s selection box (first column).
• Move To: Allows you to select another mailbox to store messages in. By clicking the MOVE TO button, any messages selected (selection box, first column) will be moved to the mailbox that is in the drop down menu to the right of the MOVE TO button. To change the mailbox you are filing to, drop down the menu by clicking on the arrow to the right of the selection box and then clicking on the mailbox of your choice. See options section for more info on creating new mailboxes.

Avoiding email Viruses or Trojan Horses

Email Viruses - While it is impossible to get a virus simply by reading an email message, it is very possible to get one through an attachment. Some email programs will automatically open certain attachments with the appropriate program. This is a nice touch and can make reading attachments a bit quicker, but it's also a potential virus nightmare. Disable this function in your email program, then scan any attachments you receive before you open them. This is especially important if it is an attachment from some one you do not know well.

Macro Viruses via Email - These viruses affect the template (in PCs, usually the normal.dot file) used to create documents or spreadsheets. Once a template is infected, every single document or spreadsheet opened with the program is also corrupted. Because they infect common office applications and can spread between platforms, macro viruses have recently become widespread. The most common is Word macro based viruses or trojan horses. Again simply scan the file first with your virus software before loading it and running the macro within it.

Virus Scanning Software - If you do not have virus scanning software , you my go to these websites for the most popular software for this purpose; Norton AntiVirus Center, McAfee AntiVirus, Trend Micro, F-Protect, More...

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Avoiding email Spam

What is Spam? - Spam is unsolicited email sent in mass quantities (it is also some sort of food, but we are not targeting that with this program). Often spam email is for commercial purposes, advertising or direct marketing a specific product or service. Spam email is often offensive and graphic in nature as well. It has become a source of aggravation and rising blood pressure for Internet users and administrators worldwide.

Filtering Spam - Because of many repeated customer requests, ActivatorMail(tm) has implemented the filtering out of a significant portion of unsolicited email. A list of well known spam creators reported to abuse departments (approximately 7000 total ) determine which mail should be filtered and this mail is never delivered on our servers. If you wish to receive email from a particular spammer, please write to support@activatormail.com. We may configure this filter off for any user, although we have not had any one yet make this request to receive more spam. Our policies specifically prohibit any methods of sending mass mail on our system. For more information please view our Terms of Service.

More Information About Spam - If you desire to learn more about spam and efforts to limit its use go to the following links. Spam Abuse Net, Cauce, EuroCauce.

Avoiding Webmail Spam - You may create your very own spam filter by using the 'Change Processing Rules' listed above under 'Personal Options'. Simply ask the mail server to search arriving email for a specific email address or content in the header or the body of an incoming message and set it to delete the message automatically. Then you will never see an email from this spammer again!

Eudora Light 3.x can be configured to sort your email as it comes into your In box. You can use this feature to place email from certain people, or containing certain words, into specific mailboxes. The feature is especially useful for filtering out unwanted email. To do this, you will need to identify the email address of the unwanted email's sender, then have Eudora Light filter all messages containing this email address to the trash. To automatically send unwanted email to the Trash

1. Select Filters from the Tools menu.
2. Click the New button. An Untitled filter will appear in the left window, its settings to the right.
3. Select <<Any Header>> from the drop-down list next to Header:
4. Next to contains, type the email address whose mail you wish to filter. You may type the whole address, or just the domain (xxx.com). Be aware that if you type a domain, you will be filtering email from everyone in that domain. For instance, if you typed activatormail, you would filter email from anyone at activatormail.com.
5. Below Actions, select Transfer To from the drop-down list which reads None. A button with a mailbox name will appear next to Transfer To.
6. Click the button next to Transfer To, and select Trash.
7. Close the Filters window. You will be prompted to save the changes you have made. Your filter entry will be named automatically.

The next time you check your email, the headers of each message will be searched for the text you entered in step 4. If this text is found anywhere within the headers, the message will be moved to the Trash. You may wish to look through your Trash for a few days to make sure that you are not filtering wanted email.

Outlook Express can be configured to sort your email as it comes into your Inbox. You can use this feature to place email containing a specific email address into a separate folder. This feature is especially useful for filtering out unwanted email. You will first need to identify the email address of the person who sent the unwanted mail. The email address of the sender is normally listed in the From field near the top of a message.

To automatically send unwanted email to the Deleted Items folder

1. Select Inbox Assistant from the Tools menu.
2. Click the Add button. The Properties window will appear.
3. In the From field, type the email address of the sender whose mail you wish to filter.
4. Check the Move To box in the Perform the following action section.
5. Click the Folder button.
6. Highlight the Deleted Items folder and click OK.
7. Click OK on the Properties window.
8. Click OK on the Inbox Assistant window.

The next time you check your email, each message will be searched to see if it contains the address you entered in step 3. If this email address is found, the message will be sent directly to the Deleted Items folder. You may wish to look through your Deleted Items folder for a few days to make sure that you are not filtering email you wish to keep.

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