WEBMAIL FAQ

All email accounts automatically have access to our web based email feature (webmail).  We recommend this feature for when you do not have access to the main computer you use at your office.  We do not recommend that you use this feature in place of downloading your email to your computer.

Table of Contents

Webmail Questions

How do I get an account?
Where do I log in to Webmail?
Webmail won't let me login
What is my email address?
How do I apply a signature?
Can I do Secure Webmail?
How do I change my password?
How do I add or remove a folder?
What do "new" and "recent" mean at the top of the webmail display?
What does the plus sign ("+") or the image of face in the message index mean?
In mailbox view, webmail occasionally shows the recipient, instead of the sender, of the message.
How do I get rid of deleted mail?
How do I send mail to more than one person?
How can I quickly access the entries in my Contacts List?
How do I store more than one email address in a Contacts List entry?
How do I attach a file to a message I've composed?
How can I view a message's full headers?
How can I filter, forward, block, or automatically respond to mail?
After spellcheck, how do I find out the correct spelling of misspelled words?
How can I request a return receipt or delivery notification?
How can I have webmail notify me when new messages arrive?
Can I undelete messages?
How do I print the content of an email message?

How do I store more than one email address in a single address book entry?
How do I list all the entries in my address book?
How are the entries in my address book alphabetized?
Why don't I see the address book icon after header email addresses in webmail?
Can my web address book use shared address books?
How can I delete all my contacts and start over?

Does my web calendar have "shared" calendar support?
Can my web calendar sync with my Palm Pilot?
How do "alarms" work?

webmail questions

How do I get an account?

To get an account on HomeSurf USA's webmail system, you will need to contact the support staff.

Where do I log in to Webmail?

You can log in to webmail from www.HomeSurfUSA.com. Click on the 'webmail' link (upper left of this page). Remember when logging in to use your full email address.

If you are unable to login to webmail, please contact our support staff.

You should have been assigned an email address when our staff set your site up.  If you don't know what it is, please contact our support staff.

How do I apply a signature to my emails?

[details]

Can I do Secure Webmail?

Yes, you can change the URL from http:// to https://

Click here

How do I add or remove a folder?

From your inbox, click on 'folders' in the top menu. Check the folder you want to add the new folder under. Select 'create folder' from the "select action" box at the top of the page.

To remove a folder select it and select 'delete folder' from the "select action" box at the top of the page.

In webmail's status bar, above the mailbox index or message body part of the display, "new" refers to messages which have not been read since they arrived, while "recent" refers to messages that have arrived since the last time you looked at the mailbox's index.

A plus sign ("+") or image of a face in the left-hand column of an entry in the mailbox index view means that that message was sent directly to you, and not only Cc'd to you or sent via a mailing list. In other words, your address appears in the To: header.

webmail's mailbox view shows the recipient in the From column on messages for which you are the sender. (In other words, since you sent it, you know who the sender is, so webmail tells you who you sent it to.) This is particularly useful for the sent-mail and drafts folders.

When you tell webmail to delete one or more messages (by clicking Delete in the message view, or by selecting the check box to the left of the message in the mailbox index view and then clicking Delete), the mail is only marked as deleted, and is not immediately removed from your mailbox, giving you the opportunity to decide to undelete it. If you are certain you will not need the deleted message(s), click on Purge Deleted in the mailbox index view. If you only wish to make webmail stop displaying the deleted messages, without permanently removing them, click Hide Deleted from the mailbox index view.

Webmail can work in two modes: marking mail as deleted, and moving deleted messages to a Trash folder.

If you are using the Trash folder feature, it acts somewhat differently. When you tell webmail to delete one or more messages (by clicking Delete in the message view, or by selecting the check box to the left of the message in the mailbox index view and then clicking Delete), the mail is moved to a Trash folder, giving you the opportunity to decide to undelete it (remove it from the trash) later. If you are certain you will not need the deleted message(s), click on Empty Trash folder in the mailbox index view. In addition, you can have webmail schedule to automatically empty your trash folder at various intervals via the "Maintenance Operations" section of Options.

NOTE: Leaving mail on the server will eventually lead to a full email box.  You are allowed 25 MB of space on the mail server per email address.  If you want to save email messages for long periods of time you should use a PC based email application.

To send mail to more than one person, separate their email addresses in the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: header (or a combination of all three) with commas (","). Do not use semicolons (";") to separate lists of email addresses.

Instead of opening the Address book window, you can save time when sending mail to people in your Address book by typing their name, or part of their name, in the appropriate header field in the Compose window itself and the using the Compose window's Expand Names button to expand the name to the full address. If multiple Address book entries match, you will be given a selection list of all the matching entries from which you may select the desired address.

Each Contacts List entry can only contain a single email address.

Full support for multiple addresses is still being implemented. But, in most cases you can store multiple addresses in a single Address book entry manually by listing all the email addresses in the Address book Email field separated by commas. Do not use semicolons (";") to separate lists of email addresses.

Note that the number of addresses that fit in a single entry may be limited.

Due to the nature of Web-based mail, attaching a file to a message you are about to send is slightly different than what you may be accustomed to in conventional mail programs. Attaching a file requires two steps. While composing the message:

1. Type the filename in the Attachment field, or press the Browse button to use a dialog box to choose the file to attach.
2. Press the Attach button to attach the selected file. This may take a moment as the file is copied from your computer to the server on which you access webmail.

Please note that for large files and/or slower Internet connections, the process of uploading and attaching your file to the email may take a while. Please be patient and do not click on other things while you are waiting.

To see the entire message header, click the Message Source link in the Parts section of the message view. This will show you the raw mail message in the mailbox, including full headers and any attachments in encoded form.

Limited support for filtering and blocking of messages within webmail is supported. We do not currently support automatic replies in webmail.

If you want to filter future messages from the same person as the message you are currently using, use the Blacklist link when in the message view. This will add a rule to filter out that sender, and take you to the Filter Rules Options page.

For more general filtering, select the Options menu item in webmail, and then select Filters from the Mail Management section.

Note that creating a rule does not filter any messages! You must click the Apply All Rules button on the Filter Rules page or the "Apply Filters" icon next to the INBOX name in the mailbox view to filter all undeleted messages according to the specified rules.

You can also create, remove, or arrange the order of rules from the Filters Rules page. Note that rules are applied once per message, hence rule order is significant. Make sure you have the most important rules first.

NOTE: These rules do not affect the mail if it is later downloaded to your computer.

Webmail will suggest replacements for misspelled words automatically.

webmail does have support for return receipts. You can request a return receipt by clicking the "Request a Return Receipt" checkbox in the message composition screen.

Whether or not you will get a confirmation back depends on many factors outside of webmail's control. For example, some mail servers will remove return receipt requests from mail before it reaches the recipient, and some mail clients will allow the user to select if return receipts should be honored. Because of these and other factors, you should not depend on return receipts being honored by all recipients.

You can configure this via the Options link in the webmail menu bar. From Options select New Mail (from the "Other Options" area), then check the checkbox labeled "Display pop-up notification of new mail." This only works when you are logged into your webmail account.

You can undelete messages any time up until you click on the Empty Trash or Purge Deleted buttons, or until any automated emptying of the trash occurs if you have set up such an option. To undelete messages (marked as deleted) from the inbox listing, check the checkbox to the left of the messages you wish to keep, then press the Undelete link at the top or bottom left of the page. When you are viewing a message marked for deletion, there will be a link at the start and end of the message to undelete that message.

If you are using a Trash folder, you can undelete the messages by moving them out of the Trash folder into another folder.

When viewing a message, you can easily print the contents of the message using the Print link in the menu bar that appears above and below the message. You should print the message this way rather than using the browser print function, as the browser's print function will print the entire web page rather than just the message contents.

When you click the Prink link, the message will open in a new window so you may print it. Depending on the web browser and operating system you use, your browser's print dialog box may automatically open for you. If it does not, pull down the browser's File menu and choose Print.

Address book Questions

Invalid address book error.

Before you start you must select your default address book in webmail. In webmail, use the Options button to access your preference. Select Address books, then select your address book under Choose the address book to use when adding addresses.

How do I store more than one email address in a single address book entry?

To store multiple addresses in a single address book entry you must create a "list". You start by creating single entries for each address you want in the list, just as you normally would do for any other entry. Then, from the browse view, list those entries and click the checkbox to the left to each name you want in your list. Next, select New List from the selection box in the upper right corner of the browser window, and click the Add to button. You will be presented with a window asking for the name of the distribution list to create. Type the list name, and click on the OK button, and you list should be created.

To add addresses to an existing list, proceed as above but select the existing list new instead of New List from the list selection box.

NOTE: There are several reasons that mailing customers this way is not a good idea.  You might want to look into our mailing list software for regular mass mailings to customers.

Click on the Browse icon in the top menu bar. Then select the address book you want to browse, and click on the Show button. In some large address books, the number of entries returned may be limited.

How are the entries in my address book alphabetized?

Address book entries are sorted by last name. If you enter the name like LAST, FIRST the system displays it as FIRST LAST but sorts it by LAST.

You probably have not selected your default address book in webmail. In webmail, use the Options button to access your preference. Select Address books, then select your address book under Choose the address book to use when adding addresses.

You must delete them one by one.

No, not at this time. You should use a PC based email solution like Outlook.

Currently alarms display a message when the calendar is viewed.