Virtual Mail Controller

1.   What is the Virtual Mail Controller?

The Virtual Mail Controller is an online utility that will allow you to create and manage your own mail accounts and mail forwarders.

2.   How do I access the Virtual Mail Controller?

To access the Virtual Mail Controller you simply visit the Account Utilities section of our support site and select the "Account Controller" link. After entering your domain you will find, among other things, a link to the Virtual Mail Controller.

When you first open up the Virtual Mail Controller you will be asked to enter your username, password, and the domain you wish to administer. The username and password are the same username and password used to access the STATS area of your web site.

3.   What is an email forwarder and how do I create one?

An email forwarder is a virtual email address that has any mail sent to it automatically forwarded to another email address.

As an example, let's suppose that you have a hotmail account (my_account@hotmail.com) and you would like to have any mail sent to "sales@my_domain.com" forwarded to your hotmail account. To do this you would open up the Virtual Email Controller and log in. Scroll down until you come to an empty row. In the first column (the "Virtual Email Address" column) you would enter "sales". In the second column (the "Forwarding Address" column) you would enter "my_account@hotmail.com". Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Submit" and you're done.

4.   What is a mailbox and how do I set one up?

A mailbox is very similar to a mail forwarder; the biggest difference being that the actual mail is stored on the Silicon Valley Web Hosting mail server instead of being forwarded to another email address elsewhere.

When you log into the Virtual Mail Controller you are presented with a list of unused mailboxes. Creating a new mailbox is the same process as creating a new mail forwarder. Let's suppose you want to create a "sales" mailbox. To do this you would scroll down the page until you come to an empty row. In the first column (the "Virtual Email Address" column) you would enter "sales". In the second column (the "Forwarding Address" column) you would enter the unused mailbox you chose to use.

Each account starts off with ten unused mailboxes. If you've used up all of your mailboxes just drop an email to support and request that they set you up with more mailboxes.

5.   How do I retrieve mail from my mailbox?

Mail can be retrieved by using either the POP3 or IMAP protocols. In the preferences of your mail reader there will be a section for your "username", the "POP Server" (sometimes called the "incoming mail server"), and the "SMTP Server (sometimes called the "outgoing mail server").

The "username" setting should be set to the name of the mailbox (ie. "a0000_a0"). The "POP Server" should be set to "mail.your_domain.com". The "SMTP Server" should be set to whatever your ISP recommends.

6.   What is the "Wildcard Address"?

At the bottom of the Virtual Mail Controller window you have the option of enabling the "Wildcard Address". If this is enabled, all mail sent to your domain that does not have a specific entry in the Virtual Mail Controller will be forwarded to the address you specify.

For example, let's suppose that you've set up mail forwarders for "sales", "support", and "webmaster". If somebody were to send mail to "bob@your_domain.com" the mail server would normally return the mail with a "no such user" error. If wildcard addressing is enabled then that mail would instead be forwarded to the address you specify.

By default all domains have wildcard addressing enabled.

7.   Why do I get a "Relaying Denied." error when sending mail?

If you are not getting your actual Internet access from Silicon Valley Web Hosting (ie. we're not providing you with dial-up access) then you cannot use our server to send mail. Instead you must use the "SMTP" server of your ISP.