How do I configure email autoresponders?

Autoresponders are complicated and powertool mail tools. An autoresponder is an e-mail address that when e-mailed bounces back a text message to the person that e-mailed the autoresponder. A good example is a newsletter. You could set up an autoresponding alias like 'newsletter@whatever.com' and upload your newsletter in the autoresponder area. When someone emails 'newsletter@whatever.com' they receive the newsletter in their e-mail account (the newsletter e-mail account, auto-responded with the newsletter as the e-mail back to the original e-mailer). Here is how to do so:

1. From the control panel, click the "Configure Autoresponding Aliases" link.

2. You will be prompted with a number of form fields requiring information for the autoresponder. The form can be complicated, however we have made it as simple as possible here. The information is as follows:

• Enter Name: this is the name of the autoresponder alias (ie. 'newsletter') that activates the autoresponder when e-mailed


• Enter final recipient: you can specify where the e-mail that was sent from the original e-mailer gets sent to (ie. 'webmaster@yourdomain.com' would receive the email request that activated the autoresponder)


• Enter sender's address: you can specify where the autoresponder says it was e-mailed from (or the Reply to: field) (ie. you can set it to show 'webmaster@yourdomain.com' so that if they reply to the autoresponder message it goes to webmaster rather than newsletter)


• Enter filename of response message: specify the name of the text file you want autoresponded (text file needs to be uploaded into the '/usr/local/etc/responses/' directory)


• Enter subject of response message: you can specify what the Subject line of the autoresponder message says (ie. 'NEWSLETTER VOL. I', 'Thanks for e-mailing us', etc..). One of the most common mistakes is to put an apostrophe or double quote in the subject. Do not do this. This will render the alias unusable and may cause all email to stop functioning properly.


• You must upload the autoresponder text file into the '/usr/local/etc/responses/' directory otherwise the autoresponder will create a generic message if it can't find the autoresponder text file you specify.