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Q: How to setup a gmail POP account for new business venture ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: How to setup a gmail POP account for new business venture
Category: Computers
Asked by: ivorystraws-ga
List Price: $21.00
Posted: 12 Sep 2005 09:57 PDT
Expires: 12 Oct 2005 09:57 PDT
Question ID: 567173
Hi,

I would like to use my gmail account to receive all emails from the
business email addresses which I have setup. My first online business
is www.irishwaterwheels.com and I have registered the following email
addresses;
- enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com;
- sales@irishwaterwheels.com
- accounts@irishwaterwheels.com
- feedback@iriahwaterwheels.com
- support@irishwaterwheels.com
- orders@irishwaerwheels.com
- alan.morley@irishwaterwheels.com
- returns@irishwaterwheels.com

I need for anyone that sends an email to any of the above addresses
that I can view, manage and reply to them via gmail. When I reply, I
would like it to seem as if the reply comes from that specific email
alias. How do I do this?

I hope to have other online businesses setup and would like to know
how to do the same with them and the best way in which to manage them.

Any thoughts suggestions or help?

Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 12 Sep 2005 11:44 PDT
Howdy Alan,

If you take a few steps, you can accomplish your task.  I am going to post
this as a clarification request as there is sometimes a disconnect between
what people envision and the actual process that is obtainable.

First, you will need to either set up, or have your web hosting company or
Internet Service Provider (ISP) set your web site email so that it is all
forwarded to your Gmail account.

You could then set up labels for each source of email, such as "sales."
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6578

"Labels are like email folders, only better. You can add multiple labels
to a conversation (instead of being forced to choose only one folder) and
you can search for messages by label name."

You then can set up filters so that the "sales" email are labeled "sales."
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6579

"You can create up to 20 filters to manage the flow of incoming messages.
Use filters so that certain messages bypass the inbox, are automatically
labeled, or both." 

Gmail has just introduced a new feature that alloaws to set up multiple
"From" addresses.  Here are the links on how to set this up, and how to
use this feature.

"How do I customize the 'From:' address on outgoing mail?"
http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=20616

"If you'd like your outgoing Gmail messages to display another one of
your email addresses in the 'From:' field (instead of your Gmail address),
just follow these easy steps ..."

"How do I change my 'From:' address when composing a message?"
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=22376

"If you're composing a message that you'd like to send using a 'From:'
address other than your default, follow these steps ..."

You could set up multiple Gmail accounts, one for each company, and then
manage each eamil account separately.  Here is a discusssion how to manage
multiple Gmail accounts.
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/21284

The above message thread mentions the PopTray Mail Notifier.
http://www.poptray.org/

"After years of refinement PopTray 3.0 has now become a full-featured,
customizable, e-mail notifier, but keeping it's ease of use."

If the above addresses your question, please tell me so I can then post
it as an answer.  Thanks!

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Clarification of Question by ivorystraws-ga on 13 Sep 2005 01:45 PDT
Thanks denco-ga for your comments but I don't think your answer is
detailed enough or covers exactly the steps that are involved. I have
completed the following;
- set up my web site email
- set up labels for each source of email
- set up filters (so that the "sales" email are labeled "sales.")

But from there it is unclear how these website emails are obtained...
how do I configure Gmail to get my website email and is there an
alternative to setting up multiple gmail accounts (one for each
business)??

Regards.

Clarification of Question by ivorystraws-ga on 13 Sep 2005 05:37 PDT
Sorry, but to be more specific, how do I do all of the above with the
following information;

Example: sales@irishwaterwheels.com

- sales@irishwaterwheels.com

account name - sales@irishwaterwheels.com
password - *****

I just need the specific steps and details with the above info.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 13 Sep 2005 11:14 PDT
Not a problem Alan.

As Gmail can't retrieve your irishwaterwheels.com email with a username
and password, you will need to configure your irishwaterwheels.com
email to be forwarded, so it is automatically sent to your Gmail
account, that is:

sales@irishwaterwheels.com >>> ***********@gmail.com
enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com >>> ***********@gmail.com
...

Once it is there, Gmail will label and filter the email.

The above is not an unusual configuration to be set up for a web site,
and since it appears that you have a configuration panel, and as it
also appears that it is cPanel, the option is there to set up forwards
and a default address.  If you don't have cPanel, please tell me what
configuration panel you have, if any, and I will advise.

First, you will want to set up your default address.  The cPanel web
site has instruction on how to do this.
http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/Changing_your_default_email_address.htm

"...
1  To access the Mail Menu, click on the icon above the word Mail on
the main screen of your cPanel interface. 
2  Click on default address.
3  To change your default address, click on Set Default Address.
4  Enter the new default email address in the blank field next to your
domain name.
5  Click on Change to change the default email address.
..."

You can set the above so that any unforwarded email can be discarded,
or sent your Gmail account.  If you set it the first way, it can get
rid of garbage (SPAM) for you, that is, heyyou@irishwaterwheels.com
gets thrown away.  If you set it the second way, then if someone sends
email to inquiries@irishwaterwheels.com it reaches you instead of
sitting on the web mail page never getting read or thrown away.

You will want to read the above referenced instruction page in detail,
especially if you want to configure it to discard any "invalid" emails,
also known as a "blackhole" configuration.

It is up to you to decide which route you want to go on the default
address, but if you are going to pick up your irishwaterwheels.com
email only through Gmail, you should set it up one way or the other.

The cPanel web site also has instruction on how to set up forwards.
http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/Forwarders.htm

"...
1  To access the Mail Menu, click on the icon above the word Mail on
the main screen of your cPanel interface.
2  Click on Forwarders to access the Forwarding Maintenance menu.
3  To add a forwarder, click on Add Forwarder.
4  Put the name of the email address you wish to forward from in the
first blank field. For example: for name@domain.com, put name in the
first blank field.
5  Place the email address you wish the email to be forwarded to in
the blank field next to the >>>
6  Click on Add Forwarder to add the forwarder.
..."

The above is where you set up the email addresses that you want to
forward and where you want to forward them.  In your case, you
will make an entry for each of the addresses that you want, and set
them each, as you create them, to be forwarded to your Gmail address.

After the above is done, email sent to sales@irishwaterwheels.com
will "just" show up in your Gmail account and then that email will be
labeled with "sales" or whatever label you have applied to it.

If it is not working, then make sure you have typed your Gmail address
correctly in the "Forwards" and make sure it is not going into your
Gmail "SPAM" folder as well.

As for alternatives to using multiple Gmail accounts, one for each
business, you can use your one Gmail account and set up business
specific labels and filters, so you have "iwwsales" and "biz2sales"
labels and filters, etc.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Clarification of Question by ivorystraws-ga on 14 Sep 2005 03:20 PDT
Excellent clarification, thanks. Just one more thing. My configuration
panel is cPanel but how do I configure specific labels and filters on
my Gmail account so that mails from "*@irishwaterwheels.com" get
labelled accordingly and go into one specific folder and mails from
"*@autoquote.ie" get labelled accordingly and go into another specific
folder?

Cheers.

Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 14 Sep 2005 13:53 PDT
Howdy Alan,

If you are talking about the "wildcard" default email from the domains, you
can't set a filter/label for them, as Gmail can't do "wildcards" filters at
this point.

But we can pull off a fun trick!  Set up your default email to go to your
Gmail account, but with a slight modification.  Make it something such as:

***********+iwwmisc@gmail.com (note the: +iwwmisc appended to the Gname)

Then make a filter/label wherein the filter looks for the To: field to be:

***********+iwwmisc@gmail.com

and the label is something such as: iwwmisc

If you are talking about the specific emails, such as:

enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com

You can do the same thing, if you want.  Set a forward for:

enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com >>> ***********+iwwenq@gmail.com

Filter for: To: ***********+iwwenq@gmail.com

Label the results: iwwenq

For the autoquote.ie email, set a forward for:

enquiries@autoquote.ie >>> ***********+aqenq@gmail.com

Filter for: To: ***********+aqenq@gmail.com

Label the results: iwwaq

Bob's your uncle!

Keep in mind that Gmail is currently limited to 20 filters, so multiple
Gmail accounts might be needed after two web sites are set up.


Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 14 Sep 2005 14:19 PDT
Of course, towards the end, it should have read:

Filter for: To: ***********+aqenq@gmail.com

Label the results: aqenq

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Clarification of Question by ivorystraws-ga on 15 Sep 2005 02:33 PDT
Thanks, that's brilliant and is a definite workaround for my issue but
do I actually have to place asterisks in as you have stated as I
thought gmail couldn't deal with wildcards? For the
enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com example, do I actually setup the
forward as you have shown i.e.

enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com >>> ***********+iwwenq@gmail.com

There are 11 asterisks there so could you just please clarify and you
will have answered my question then, thanks. Sorry if it seems that
I'm asking something stupid or trivial.

Regards,
Alan.

Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 15 Sep 2005 11:36 PDT
Ahhh, not a problem Alan!  Apologies on being obtuse.

You will fill in the stars with your Gmail username, and add the +iwwenq
part to it.  Gmail ignores, but keeps in the +iwwenq part, so you can use
it for filtering.  The brilliance is on the part of Gmail.

enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com >>> user.name+iwwenq@gmail.com

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher
Answer  
Subject: Re: How to setup a gmail POP account for new business venture
Answered By: denco-ga on 15 Sep 2005 15:14 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Appreciate you accepting this as an answer, Alan.

As Gmail can't retrieve your irishwaterwheels.com email with a username
and password, you will need to configure your irishwaterwheels.com email
to be forwarded so it is automatically sent to your Gmail account, that
is:

sales@irishwaterwheels.com >>> user.name+iwwsales@gmail.com
enquiries@irishwaterwheels.com >>> user.name+iwwenquiries@gmail.com

Fill in "user.name" in all of the examples with your Gmail username,
and there is more on the "+" addendums shown above, later on.

To set the above using the cPanel configutation panel, you will want to
do the following.

First, you will want to set up your default address.  The cPanel web
site has instruction on how to do this.  The default address will handle
any email sent to irishwaterwheels.com that is not specifically defined,
such as: heyyou@irishwaterwheels.com
http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/Changing_your_default_email_address.htm

"...
1  To access the Mail Menu, click on the icon above the word Mail on
the main screen of your cPanel interface.
2  Click on default address.
3  To change your default address, click on Set Default Address.
4  Enter the new default email address in the blank field next to your
domain name.
5  Click on Change to change the default email address.
..."

You might want to have the above email go to something such as:

user.name+miscellaneous@gmail.com

You will want to read the above referenced instruction page in detail,
especially if you want to configure it to discard any "invalid" emails,
also known as a "blackhole" configuration, instead.

It is up to you to decide which route you want to go on the default
address, but if you are going to pick up your irishwaterwheels.com
email only through Gmail, you should set it up one way or the other,
instead having the default email end up on the irishwaterwheels.com
web mail page.

The cPanel web site also has instruction on how to set up forwards,
for handling your directed email such as: sales@irishwaterwheels.com
http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/Forwarders.htm

"...
1  To access the Mail Menu, click on the icon above the word Mail on
the main screen of your cPanel interface.
2  Click on Forwarders to access the Forwarding Maintenance menu.
3  To add a forwarder, click on Add Forwarder.
4  Put the name of the email address you wish to forward from in the
first blank field. For example: for name@domain.com, put name in the
first blank field.
5  Place the email address you wish the email to be forwarded to in
the blank field next to the >>>
6  Click on Add Forwarder to add the forwarder.
..."

The above is where you set up the email addresses that you want to
forward and where you want to forward them.  Gmail has a really neat
feature in that you can add on a plus sign (+) to the end of your username,
and then add a keyword or such to that, such as: user.name+sales@gmail.com

When email is sent to a Gmail address such as the above example, Gmail
will accept it just fine, and you can then filter that Gmail, based on
the addendum that is placed there.  You can use this to sort/label
newsletters, or "intentional" SPAM, etc. within your Gmail account.

In your case, you will make an entry for each of the irishwaterwheels.com
addresses (sales) that you want, and set them, as you create them, to be
forwarded to your Gmail address, with the "+" filter (+iwwsales) addendums.

The next step is to set your Gmail to filter and label the email that
is forwarded from your web site.  This can be done in a series of steps,
as part of the process of creating a filter, setting it so that "sales"
email is labeled "sales" and so on.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6579

"You can create up to 20 filters to manage the flow of incoming messages.
Use filters so that certain messages bypass the inbox, are automatically
labeled, or both."

At the top of your Gmail page, once you have logged on, you will want to
click on the "Create a filter" link.

Once there, you will want to fill the "To:" box with the email address that
you want to filter, such as:

user.name+iwwsales@gmail.com

Click on the "Next Step" button to proceed.

Select the "Apply the label:" box.

In the "Choose label..." dropdown, select "New label..." from the list.

A "popup" should appear so you can enter the new label name.  Use a label
such as: iwwsales and click on the "OK" button.  The new label will appear
in the "Choose label" box.

Click the "Create Filter" button.

Repeat as needed to create all the filters/labels you need.  You can click
on the "Show current filters" link to see what you have done, and edit/delete
those as needed.

To complete the process, you want to be able to send email from your Gmail
account, so it appears it is from sales@irishwaterwheels.com and so on.
Gmail has just introduced a new feature that allows the set up of multiple
"From" addresses, which is how you will accomplish the last step.  Here are
the links on how to set up use this feature.

"How do I customize the 'From:' address on outgoing mail?"
http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=20616

"If you'd like your outgoing Gmail messages to display another one of
your email addresses in the 'From:' field (instead of your Gmail address),
just follow these easy steps ..."

"How do I change my 'From:' address when composing a message?"
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=22376

"If you're composing a message that you'd like to send using a 'From:'
address other than your default, follow these steps ..."

After the above is done, email sent to sales@irishwaterwheels.com
will "just" show up in your Gmail account and then that email will be
labeled with "sales" or whatever label you have applied to it.

You can then sort, find the "sales" messages and reply to them with
your sales@irishwaterwheels.com identity.

As for alternatives to using multiple Gmail accounts, one for each
business, you can use your one Gmail account and set up business
specific labels and filters, so you have "iwwsales" and "aqsales"
labels and filters, etc.  Keep in mind the 20 filter limit.

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Seach strategy:

Researched the cPanel and Gmail "Help" web site areas, and tested various
Gmail configurations.

cPanel - http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/
Gmail - http://mail.google.com/support/

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher
ivorystraws-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars and gave an additional tip of: $3.00
Excellent answer, excellent clarifications and an excellent
researcher. I would definitely recommend and definitely use again.

Comments  
Subject: Re: How to setup a gmail POP account for new business venture
From: denco-ga on 19 Sep 2005 10:20 PDT
 
Greatly appreciate the kind comments, 5 star rating and nice tip, Alan!

Truly a pleasure.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

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