There’s something about having your own email address that can’t be matched.

More than just that feeling of when you got that Hotmail name you wanted, it’s having your own name or business – something that matches your website and tells people you contact who you are or what you do.

You already understand that it has a value greater than any free web-based email could. But you have some questions.

Luckily, we’ve dug out your Top 5 most commonly asked questions about email and email hosting and are here to save the day. Read on!

1. What is email hosting?

If you have standard web hosting, you may not realise that you already have email hosting, and up to 100 email addresses for your website! These can be [email protected], [email protected] sales, marketing, or just about anything you can think of.

With email hosting, you can manage and create emails for any mail client you choose to use.

2. Can I receive emails sent to names other than the ones I’ve specified?

You’ve got email addresses for marketing, sales, or finance. But you’re worried you might miss emails sent to names you’ve not thought of. What if someone emails [email protected]?

Normally, if an email is sent to an unknown address on your domain name, the sender will receive a bounce back.

With a catch-all address, any email sent to an unknown account at your domain name gets automatically rerouted to your catch-all email account. All accounts are automatically assigned a default email address: [email protected] which you can change. Note this can increase the volume of spam you receive. So use it with caution!

3. What’s the difference between POP and IMAP? Why should I care?

You’ve seen the terms POP and IMAP used with regards to your email, but don’t know what they are, or even why you should care about the difference.

In simple terms, POP is a mail protocol that downloads your emails to a specific computer – be that your desktop, laptop or tablet – while IMAP keeps them saved on a remote server and allows you to access them from anywhere.

The added benefit of using IMAP is that it lets you use Webmail to view your sent and received mail, wherever in the world you are.

4. Why can’t I receive my emails?

There’s a few things that could be wrong and stopping the mail from getting through. First, do the obvious. Check your internet connection. Sound silly? You’d be surprised how often it’s overlooked.

Next, if you’ve confirmed you can get online, check your email settings. Here’s a quick guide that might help:

Some ISPs can block the normal sendmail port 25. So the easiest way to check this is to contact them and ask for the Outgoing Server SMTP setting which you will then replace (Outgoing Server: mail.yourdomain.com) with the above info. For more information, check this.

5. What can I do about the amount of spam I receive?

We discussed above catch-all email accounts. If you have seen an increase in spam, you might want to consider using email forwarding instead for catching things like a common misspelling of your name.

You might also want to consider domain privacy which, depending on your country, can make your personal details (including email and telephone number) private. Or check out Automatic Spam and Virus Protection.

Wrapping Things Up

People are nine times more likely to give their business to companies that represent themselves with professional email addresses. It creates a trustworthy impression and shows that you really mean business.

Got more questions? Get in touch via email, live chat, telephone or social media, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.