Free email services like Hotmail and Gmail are useful, and easy to use. But having an email account associated with your own website can be important when trying to present yourself credibly and professionally. Most web hosting services offer the tools you need to set up your email free of charge.
Getting Started
If you do not have a domain name registered yet, take some time to research available names using a service like Whois.net. When you find one you like, register it with a domain and web hosting service. I have tried several and personally recommend Dreamhost for domain and website hosting. I find the fees reasonable, service excellent, and the tools I most often use are available in one-click installations (like Joomla, Squirrel Mail, and WordPress).
Setting Up Your Email
Select the name you want to use for your email address. Most people use their first name, or their first and last names separated with a period, underscore or dash.
You will want to set up two additional email accounts. These are “info” and “postmaster”. You will need these. Because there are so many people in the world setting up email accounts to use for spamming purposes, many email services will not accept any emails from a website that does not have a postmaster or info email address associated with the domain. Have both of these email addresses forwarded to your main email account so you don’t have to worry about checking three accounts all the time.
Setting up Email on Your Computer
After registering with your web service, they will provide you with the instructions you need to set up your email. You will be using their mail server (a large computer to store, send and receive email) and you will need to set up your computer in a way that makes sense to that server.
Open Outlook, Outlook Express, Mail, Entourage, or any other email program you plan to use on your computer. Select “New Account” from the file menu. This will launch a wizard that will guide you through the process of adding your new email address. You will need to configure settings to receive email as well as to send it.
For incoming mail you will use IMAP, HTTP, or POP3, depending on which is used by your web host’s mail server. For sending email, you will most likely be using SMTP. You will need your password to connect to the mail server. You may also have to check the “Secure Password Authentication” option, depending on the instructions sent by your web host.
Your web host may also send you instructions on which port to use. (Basically a numbered door into the mail server.) If they do not specify a port, use the default settings recommended by the installation wizard.
WebMail
Many web hosting services, like Dreamhost, offer a free WebMail service that is accessible from your web browser, from any computer, much the same way Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail are. Take a few minutes to activate this from your web host control panel. Even if you use a laptop, you never know when you may be without your computer, or, God forbid, your laptop crashes when you need to get an important message out.
