cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Trying to understand email hosting.

knightgkla
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎25-02-2016

Trying to understand email hosting.

Hi I'm trying to understand email hosting.

I have a registered domain. If it isn't hosted anywhere ( i.e. I don't pay anyone to host it) and I use Plusnet email service with my domain address for email, does that mean Plusnet will host my domain email rather than paying an email hosting site?

I normally use an email client ( Mailbird ) so the reported email problems should not be a problem.

Tags (2)
5 REPLIES 5
MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,586
Thanks: 5,415
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Trying to understand email hosting.

does that mean Plusnet will host my domain email rather than paying an email hosting site?

@knightgkla I'm afraid not!. Whilst sending email with your domain address via the PlusNet servers will work (mostly) , they will not receive email addressed to your domain. In order to receive email, you need two things setup:-

1) an MX record for the domain which defines the servers to which mail destined for your domain should be sent

2) those servers need to be configured to accept email for your domain.

1 - is achieved using the DNS configuration for your domain (wherever that's registered or hosted).

2 - is achieved by having your domain hosted somewhere for email i.e an email hosting service

There's a couple of recent threads that might be worth you reading..

https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/email-hosting/td-p/1748748

https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/Cheap-recommendations-for-domain-hosting-email-basic-w...

 

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Marksfish
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 1,078
Thanks: 281
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎22-11-2014

Re: Trying to understand email hosting.

Years ago, you used to be able to point the nameservers at the Plusnet servers, but you need to check with staff to see if that is still possible. if you have the domain with one of the registers such as 123-reg, 34sp.com, etc, there is a facility to do that. DNS then takes a day or so to propagate.

The register sites also usually allow a forwarding facility so email addressed to your domain can be sent to your isp email address. In your mail client, you can set up the "return to" address to be your domain, so it will look like you are using your own address.

Mark

MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,586
Thanks: 5,415
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Trying to understand email hosting.

Years ago, you used to be able to point the nameservers at the Plusnet servers, but you need to check with staff to see if that is still possible.

I don't believe the PlusNet mail servers will accept email for a domain unless that domain is hosted by PlusNet. It used to be possible to request that a domain is transferred to PlusNet  'for hosting only' , leaving the registration with the existing provider.

Whilst this MAY still be possible with older accounts (assuming you can find someone at PN who still knows about it!), it's not been available to new accounts since Dec 2017 https://www.plus.net/help/archive/broadband/domain-costs-and-hosting-allowances/

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Marksfish
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 1,078
Thanks: 281
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎22-11-2014

Re: Trying to understand email hosting.

That's my idea up the suwannee then 🙁

Baldrick1
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11,631
Thanks: 5,168
Fixes: 416
Registered: ‎30-06-2016

Re: Trying to understand email hosting.

My domain name is registered throgh nameso. They give you a free 100MB mailbox with up to 5 addresses.

I use this with a POP3 client on my PC that is set to leave the emails on the namesco server for a couple of weeks before deleting, I update my PC to a NAS every week so they are kept safe.

I send emails through Plusnet but have set the sender as my domain email address in the 'from' box.  

This works for me with no additional costs.

 

Moderator and Customer
If this helped - select the Thumb
If it fixed it,  help others - select 'This Fixed My Problem'