Email: POP3 vs. Email alias and/or Email forwarding

There are two different ways that you can receive your E-mail through Acme - using a POP3 Account or using an E-mail Alias.   Each of them is explained in depth here including answers to the most common questions we receive regarding e-mail services.

POP3 Login Account / POP3 Mailbox
A POP3 Account is a mail box that resides on Acme's mail server.  A POP3 Account can be set up to receive e-mail for one or more e-mail addresses.  Your e-mail is held in your account on our mail server until you login with a username and password to retrieve it.  Using a POP3 Account is one way that you can have e-mail delivered to you.

E-mail Aliases / E-mail Forwarding
An e-mail alias is another term for an "e-mail address" (ex. john@acmeinternet.com).  E-mail aliases can be delivered to your POP3 Account, or forwarded to any address on the Internet that you designate.  Acme's web hosting packages allow for multiple configurable email aliases/addresses.

Delivery methods explained in detail: POP3 Accounts vs. E-mail Forwarding

A POP3 account is simply a delivery method for your e-mail. It requires you to log into our server via username/password to collect your mail. You will need to configure your e-mail client software to do this. Examples of E-mail client software include: Eudora, Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Mail, Pegasus and many others.  You do not need to dial into Acme's network to access your POP3 Account.   You can retrieve your mail on our mail server using your existing dialup connection to your ISP.

E-mail Forwarding allows us to automatically route your e-mail to anywhere on the Internet that you designate. Usually this is the existing e-mail account that is provided by your dialup ISP.  This can be used to simplify managing your incoming email.  Using email forwarding allows you to have all of your email addresses forwarded to one mailbox, thus eliminating the extra work of logging into multiple accounts.

If you have an E-mail alias that you have configured for forwarding to your existing email box, no changes to the settings in your E-mail software are necessary.  However, you may want to change your "REPLY-TO" address in your E-mail software OPTIONS/PREFERENCES to reflect your domain name e-mail address provided by Acme.

If you change dialup ISP's, you can update your email forwarding address by logging into your WebMail account at http://imail.acmeinfo.com:8383 and changing the mail settings for your domain.

Regardless of which delivery method you choose, your e-mail address and the speed at which your mail is delivered are exactly the same.  Also, since we don't offer dialup ISP access, our mail servers carry less of a load and run faster than most dialup ISP's.

For information on prices on additional POP3 Accounts beyond the limit of your web hosting package, or as an "ala carte" service, visit our services page.

[ Return to FAQ ]