Hosted email service has an important feature called "catchall". It's provided by almost every email solution. Once you have enabled this feature to your email account, it will route all incoming mails to the specific address in case it's sending to some non-existing addresses. It's extremely helpful for those big business groups who heavily rely on email communication. But how will it help with personal webmaster? What would be the pros and cons to have catchall email enabled?

Pros of catchall email

Never loose a single email

Catchall is absolutely one of the smartest design of email. With a single address you can receive all incoming mails that's sent to non-existing addresses. You won't loose a single email if someone mistyped your contact mail address thus your potential business will be saved. Catchall is simple your email guard to ensure all your messages can be received.

Easy management

You might have to create multiple email addresses for different departments and people. However, maybe one person is in charge of multiple positions but you do have the need to show different contact email addresses for professionality. For this case, you just need to enable catchall for your main email account then provide any address on your website or business card, all incoming messages will be routed to your main address. In this way you don't have to login to different accounts to check new messages. You can manage all from the central account.

Less Costs

Most business email services are provided by the number of accounts. For example you might pay $10 per 5 addresses and some day you need one more account for different purpose. You have two options, purcasing new service from provider or simply enable catch all to one of your address. With catchall you pay nothing to service provider, it's absolutely good solution to reduce cost.

Cons of catchall email

Heavy spam is expected

The primary consideration for catchall address is spam. Since it will route all messages no matter if the receipient address exists or not, it's normall to see high traffic on this catchall address. If most emails are tagged as spam, you will have to find out the healthy messages in hard time. Unless you have good spam control system, catchall is not suggested for use. You must configure proper spam and content filters in order to make sure your catchall address will be working in right way.

Large storage is required

Because of the high traffic for catchall account, your inbox might be full in short time and you always have to clear out some old messages. It's not good solution if you want to keep all messages in same place. Unless you have lots of email storage and you can allocate by your own, catchall feature is not recommended to turn on. If you are on business trip for some time and forget to check emails, once the inbox is full, no incoming mails will be received. That means you have to check your chatchall address regularly to make sure your box storage is not flooded.

How to enable Catchall Email?

Different email programs may have different configuration guidance. Most email softwares provide this function from admin email accounts like smartermail. You just enable/disable the feature directly from user center. Since most users are cpanel based, here're the steps to enable email catchall from cpanel center.

• Step1. Loggin to cpanel control panel and scroll to "Email" section then click on the Default Address icon.
• Step2. From the drop-down menu select the (sub)domain for which you would like to set up a default address.
• Step3. Here you have several options, please select option 2 "Forward to email address" and enter the address you would to receive catchall mails.
• Step4. Click "Change" to apply the changes you have made.

Based all above explanation, please use catchall feature carefully and make sure to check the inbox often. Because you will receive lots of wanted/unwanted mails and they will eat up the storage quickly.

When there's some sensitive data needs to be protected through your website, SSL would be the most affordable choice beside any other security configuration. SSL will encrypt your data before sending out to internet, so even the transer is hajacked by somebody, they will only get unreadable characters. Your data is still kept in safe place. Most web hosting providers offer SSL registration and almost every hosting company provides free shared ssl for your hosting account. Should you purchas your own dedicated SSL certificate or make use of the free shared one?

About dedicated SSL certificate

A dedicated ssl is registered through a specific domain which you're going to install it on and you can only use it under the exact domain URL. There're two types dedicated certificates – single domain and wildcard domain certificate. The single domain ssl only works on the specific URL you entered when sending out the signing request. For example you have entered www.domain.com or domain.com(without www) then your ssl can only be installed on the specific address. Basically if you installed SSL on www.domain.com then you can view the secured url via https://www.domain.com but not https://domain.com, the vice versa. If you would like to use https on both urls you need to purchase wildcard version. Actually, once your have wildcard ssl installed you can use https for any sub domain site like https://*.domain.com.

The process to order SSL certificate

• Generate CSR(certificate signing request) from your hosting provider. Here you need to enter the domain name you need for ssl, your company name & GEO location and contact email address.
• Send CSR to your SSL provider. they will verify your provided information and sometimes they will call you directly to verify your domain ownership. Once they confirmed your request, they will assign the SSL certificate and send it to your contact email. Some leading ssl providers like versign and rapidssl will handle your order pretty fast.
• Contact hosting provider for installation. They will install the certificate based the previous CSR and your provided ssl information. Please note, a dedicated IP address is needed for ssl installation so if your hosting package doesn't offer free dedicated ip service, you will have to purchase it separately.

If you're cpanel based, the above process can be simplified and can be fully handled by yourself by following this cpanel guide.

About Shared SSL

Shared SSL is just a relative term. It's actually working the same as dedicated certificate. Shared SSL is installed on server names which is well known as "temp URL". Because a shared server might host tens or hundreds of hosting accounts, all of them can ultilize the same temp URL via secured https address, that's how we call it shared ssl. Technically speaking, a shared ssl is actually wildcard ssl certificate that's used by lots of clients. Shared ssl is always provided for free to existing clients because it doesn't require any additional configuration.

Shared SSL vs Dedicated certificate

You might run into this question easily when you got the need to secure your store. Which one should you use? They're both good choice depends your different requirements, but there's some slight difference between the two. Let's go ahead and read below.

Price consideration. Shared ssl is 100% free to use while you have to pay tens or hundreds dollars for a dedicated ssl certificate. You need to evaluate carefully about which one to integrate with. Unless you are running a large store that come with big amount transactions, shared ssl is good enough for security protection purpose.

Level of Security. There're multiple versions ssl certificates from providers. 128bit is cheap but some part outdated. 256bit is good but more expensive. However, most shared ssl doesn't have such issues because it's always configured with the highest version in wildcard format.

Ease of use. If you have used single domain certificate, you might have to deal with both www address and no www address in programming. You need to do local testing before put it alive. But such issue doesn't exist on shared ssl because there's just a unique address provided.

Branding. Dedicated certificate would be good choice if you're promoting your brand. Since shared ssl is configured on hosting server domain instead of yours, it might bring negative effect to your site authority. Dedicated certificate is 100% assigned to your own domain so above issue doesn't exist. When your site is gaining more popularity, it's crucial to get your own certificate instead using the shared one.

Conclusion

If you're promoting a small shopping cart site with less online transaction, shared ssl is good enough for security protection and easy integration. But if you're promoting your site to a big online platform, a wildcard dedicated ssl is your best choice for any side consideration.

A good web hosting service might be easy to pick up by following our user guidance. But what if you have very limited online payment choice? For example sometimes you can only pay via check, credit card or bank transfer etc because that's the only choice from hosting website. You might have to search for another service provider untill they meet your technical and payment requirements. In this article we'll discuss the importance of paypal support for web hosting service and compare the leading payment solutions.

All leading web hosting providers are trying to simplify the order process and enable fast paying to save customers as more as possible. A complicated order process with less payment choice will simply drive your customer away. The most popular payment options from hosting providers include credit card, bank transfer, check, google checkout and paypal etc. Among all those solutions, paypal would be the most popular choice from user end for its great advantages over all other methods. Below is a compiled list of paypal advantages over credit card, check, bank transfer and other choice.

Easy and fast
It's easy to use paypal to accept payment online. No matter if you're business group or personal retailer, you have full access to its merchant service to configure the gateway. It's pretty fast to accept payment online via paypal. You don't have to play with lots of coding stuff for a full functional payment system. Just few clicks away to send your payment. It's crucial point to save your customer on website.

Widely used
Paypal is supported in most countries and districts in the world. You can create payapl account 100% for free to add or send funds. Paypal has lots of local support in different areas so you can always get local language support in case English is not officially used in your district. Paypal also has the longest history in auto payment solution which is recognized for reliable and secure.

Buyer protection
No matter if you have purchased the right service/products. Once there's problem in using it, you can chargeback directly and funds will be sent back to your account once paypal verified your request. The process is pretty straight so you don't have to worry about your money security. In case you run into problem with your hosting provider some day and no better solution but to cancel account, paypal is the best tunnel to get your money back. You don't have to check with your bank account service like credit card or check, all transaction on paypal is almost instant.

Easy integration
Paypal is probably the most easy gateway service to support an online store. You can use paypal gateway to support various payment methods including credit card(visa, master card, express etc). However, if you need to integrate credit card payment system separately, you have to deal with lots of technical stuff and most probably you will need a developer to make sure everything is properly setup. On the other side, you just need to fill out a form and copy over the codes to your website then it will be functional as expected.

Paypal supported Web Hosting

Paypal is supported by all leading hosting companies to meet up different user requirements. Some popular hosting like www.arvixe.com and webhostinghub etc are 100% paypal friendly. However, some hosting providers refuse to support paypal because they want to avoid the transaction fee. Just take a quick view on popular web hosting forums you will know that many providers do not have this option no matter how good their service is from advertising.

Our suggestion is, avoid such hosting service and protect yourself from unauthorized charges. Many hosting services have auto renew configured and most of them are default choice if you don't configure it manually. That means when your account due, their system will auto charge based your existing payment details. There's no problem at all if you're going to use the hosting for the next one or two years. But what if you don't want to use it anymore? You might have to waste lots of time to request money back. If you used paypal to pay the service, they can not auto charge at all because you have to approve it before the fund is sent out.

Conclusion

Paypal should be your primary consideration if you have the choice. It will protect your funds as much as possible and simplify your experience in using hosting service. In case you have to deal with money back issue, it will save your time too. You don't have to go out office or call your banks to verify anything, all you need to do is logging into your paypal account and keep your sight on it.

When you configure email service you probably have noticed there're two options, POP3 and IMAP. In normal case, both solutions will work properly unless your email service provider got something wrong. What would be their difference? Should you choose POP3 or IMAP on your email client? Here we have compared the two options side by side and help you find the best email service provider.

POP3 Introduction

Post Office Protocol (POP) is basic internet protocol for email transition. POP3 is the third and most current version that's supported by all email service providers. This protocol supports simple download-and-delete requirements for access to remote mailboxes. Means once emails downloaded to client end storage, server end copy will be deleted. POP3 protocol works on port 110. More explanation of pop3 could be found on this wiki page.

Pros of POP3

Inbox storage saving. Once you have configured your email account via POP3 from outlook or any other email client, it will start downloading all emails to local device and delete the copy on server end. Thus you don't have to worry about your inbox size allocation and any incoming message will be received. Senders won't encounter some common issues like "user inbox full, message failed".

Secure choice. Because all your messages will be downloaded to local device, your server end box will be empty. In case there's some security issue for your email server, hackers will get nothing about your sensitive data. Your busiess communication is kept in safe hand.

Cons of POP3

The only cons of pop3 service would be it's inconvenience if you have to use different computers to access your email box. Since all messages have been downloaded to local storage, you have to use the same computer to check your email box for any period message view. Once you have configured pop3 account from another device, it will download all incoming mails to that device. It's absolutely inconvenient to get all information together.

IMAP Introduction

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It is an Application Layer Internet protocol that allows an e-mail client to access e-mail on a remote mail server. It will just copy over messages from server to local storage but not to delete the original ones. IMAP has the most current version 4 and works on port 143. More details of IMAP can be found on this wiki page.

Pros of IMAP

Easy access. You can configure imap account anywhere as long as you have internet access. It will download all messages to your local device no matter if you have downloaded before. Thus you can always read the email history and check how things going.Especially when you have to read some critical business mails from different locations, imap is the perfect solution.

Synchronization. Unlike pop3 account, imap will synchronize all your email folders but not just inbox. Just in case you have an important business mail got into junk folder you won't find it hard to track down.

Cons of IMAP

As we learnt from above, imap will not delete messages on email server. If you have large size emails and you don't clear often from server end, once the inbox size limit exceeded, you won't get any new incoming mails and senders will get bounced notice. It's highly suggested backup your online messages often and clear out the inbox to ensure all incoming mails can be received. Also, since imap protocol will synchronize all folders to local drive, it might take long time to download the data depends your internet connection speed. It might not be good choice if you have bad internet access.

POP3 vs IMAP, which is better?

Based above side by side comparison, we know it really depends your actual needs for email service. When you don't have to check emails from different devices, pop3 is good enough and it will ensure you have sufficient inbox storage to accept new incoming messages. But if you do business trip often with frequent email communication, imap will be perfect choice since it will leave a copy on server end. But you just need to remember to check server end box size and make sure it's not full.

What if I don't use either option? Well, we highly recommend webmail option in case you don't use any email client. Webmail is the origional and most powerful email interface where you have full access to all mail functions. Smartermail is the best choice if you're in need of high performance and reliable webmail solution.