What's General Process for Setting Up Email with Hosting Service?

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What's General Process for Setting Up Email with Hosting Service?

email

Let's say I own the example.com domain and I want to create an email address admin@example.com plus some aliases like support@example.com and info@example.com. I don't want to run my own mail servers. Is what I need what is called an "IMAP hosting service" such as Google Apps, Godaddy, or FastMail? This Linode article ~~[https://www.linode.com/docs/email/using-google-apps-for-email" target="_blank">](https://www.linode.com/docs/email/using … -for-email">https://www.linode.com/docs/email/using-google-apps-for-email]( suggests this is the case. Would such a service provide me with the names of their email servers and I would create MX records in my domain's DNS Manager that points at their servers? If so, would the aliases be created via their UI or the Linode DNS Manager? I've been talking with people at transactional emails services such as SendGrid and Sendinblue and they say that I need to have my email address operating properly before I use their service. I'm just not clear on how to begin.

Thanks.

2 Replies

sleddog · Answer 1 · Aug. 30, 2016, 7:16 a.m.

sleddog 8 years, 2 months ago

The service you're looking for is generally called "hosted email" or something similar. It includes the components you need for mail service:

Mail storage
IMAP/POP service for users to interact with their email accounts
SMTP service for sending/receiving mail

Google Apps is an example of such a service. Another is Office 365 by Microsoft. Look around and you'll find others. Once you're setup with such a service you'll have an administrative web interface for managing your email accounts.

Transactional mail services like SendGrid provide only SMTP service. They don't provide IMAP/POP or mail storage. They are intended only for sending mail. You might use such a service to manage a newsletter, or to send mail generated on your website (for example, mail from a web forum).

forum:rlfprog · Answer 2 · Aug. 30, 2016, 10:30 a.m.

forum:rlfprog 8 years, 2 months ago

Thanks sleddog. I continued researching this question after posting it and discovered that all you said is true. I think I've identified a mail hosting company to use. Thanks again.

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What's General Process for Setting Up Email with Hosting Service?

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