Create an email address in Plesk: step by step

A dedicated email address on your own domain, such as info@yourcompany.com, looks professional and keeps your business post separate from your personal inbox. At LJPc hosting you set this up yourself. You can create an email address in Plesk, the control panel behind your hosting, or more quickly through the customer portal. This article explains step by step how to create and manage email addresses: changing the password, setting up aliases and forwarding rules, switching on an out-of-office reply, configuring a catch-all address and deleting an address again.

Two ways: the customer portal or Plesk

You manage email in two places, and both work on exactly the same mailboxes. You can switch between them freely.

• The customer portal is the quickest route for the basics: creating an address, changing its password and deleting an address.
• Plesk adds the more advanced options, such as aliases, forwarding, an out-of-office reply and a catch-all address.

The table below shows which task you can carry out where.

Create an email address through the customer portal

For a new address this is the easiest route. You do not need any technical knowledge.

1. Log in to the customer portal.
2. Go to Services and then to Hosting and domain names.
3. Click the website or domain you want to create an email address for.
4. Find the Email addresses block and click Add email address.
5. Enter the username, which is the part before the @ sign. The domain is added automatically.
6. Choose a password of at least 8 characters and repeat it to confirm.
7. Save. The address is ready to use straight away.

Choose a strong password and do not include any part of the email address in it, otherwise the server will reject it. Cannot see the Email addresses block? Then email for this domain does not yet run through LJPc. In that case, please contact support.

Create an email address in Plesk

If you also want to set up aliases or forwarding rules right away, create the email address in Plesk. You can open Plesk from the customer portal in a couple of clicks.

1. In the customer portal, open your website's detail page and click Log in to Plesk. You are signed in automatically, so you do not need a separate Plesk password.
2. Go to the Mail tab.
3. Click Create Email Address.
4. Type the part before the @ sign and, if you have several domains, select the right one.
5. Set a password and confirm it.
6. Leave the Mailbox option switched on. You can leave the mailbox size at its default: LJPc does not set a fixed limit per mailbox.
7. Click OK.

Change the password of an email address

You cannot view an existing password, only set a new one. Do this straight away if you suspect someone else is using the address.

• In the customer portal: open the Email addresses block, click the key icon (Change password) next to the address, enter a new password of at least 8 characters and confirm it.
• In Plesk: go to Mail, click the email address, enter a new password in the Password field and click OK.

After you change the password, update it in your mail program and in the webmail as well, otherwise you will get an error when you log in.

Set up aliases, forwarding and an out-of-office reply

You set up these three options in Plesk. First open the Mail tab and click the email address you want to change.

Add an alias

An alias is an extra address that arrives in the same mailbox. It is handy if you want to receive, say, info@ and accounts@ in one and the same inbox without managing a second mailbox.

1. Open the Email Aliases tab.
2. Type the alias address, so just the part before the @ sign.
3. Click OK. Mail sent to the alias now arrives at this address.

Forward mail

With forwarding you automatically send incoming mail on to another address, for example to a colleague or to a shared address.

1. Open the Forwarding tab.
2. Tick the Switch on mail forwarding checkbox.
3. Enter one or more destination addresses.
4. Click OK.

If you do not want to keep a copy in the original mailbox, switch off the Mailbox option for the address. It then works purely as a forwarding address.

Set an out-of-office reply

An automatic reply (auto-responder) sends a fixed message back to every incoming email. Ideal while you are on holiday or away.

1. Open the Auto-Reply tab.
2. Tick the Switch on auto-reply checkbox.
3. Enter the subject and the message text.
4. Optionally set a start and end date so the message stops on its own.
5. Click OK.

Set up a catch-all address

A catch-all collects all mail sent to non-existent addresses on your domain, so a message to a mistyped address is not lost. This is a domain-level setting and can only be done in Plesk, not in the customer portal.

1. In Plesk, go to Websites & Domains and open your domain.
2. Click the Mail tab and then Mail Settings.
3. Under Mail for non-existent users, choose Forward to address and enter the catch-all address.
4. Save the setting.

Please note: a catch-all often attracts a lot of spam, because mail to any made-up address is accepted too. It is usually tidier to create separate addresses or aliases for the names you actually use.

Delete an email address

When you delete an address, the mail in that mailbox is lost as well. First back up any important messages, for example by keeping them in your mail program.

• In the customer portal: in the Email addresses block, click the bin icon next to the address and confirm. This cannot be undone.
• In Plesk: go to Mail, tick the address, click Remove and confirm.

Using your new email address

As soon as an address is created, you can send and receive mail right away. Log in to the webmail at ljpc.email with your full email address and password, or set the address up in your own mail program.

The key settings are: incoming mail via IMAP on ljpc.email port 993 (SSL), outgoing mail via SMTP on ljpc.email port 465 or 587, using your full email address as the username. A complete step-by-step guide for Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird and Gmail is available in the article on setting up your email.

For reliable delivery it is important that your domain is set up correctly with SPF and DKIM. For domains that run at LJPc, those settings are correct by default. If you want to know what they do, read what is an SPF record and what is DKIM.

Storage: how many email addresses can you create?

You can create an unlimited number of email addresses on your domain. There is no fixed limit per mailbox. All your mailboxes, your website and your databases do share the storage of your hosting package: 5 GB, 20 GB or 50 GB.

If the space runs out, clear old mail and large attachments, or move to a larger package. That keeps both your website and your email running without interruption.

Cannot work it out? Please feel free to contact support and we will be glad to help.