Forum Moderators: phranque
I would like to include an option for site members to set up their email address at my site.
so if I have mysite.com, Fred could go to a page on the site, create Fred@mysite.com, could set his own user/pass, and would be given a disc quota (and instructions on setting up his mail client).
Unfortunately I lack the knowledge even to figure out what to search for to figure out how to do this!
Can anyone give me a pointer?
Thanks
Unfortunately I lack the knowledge even to figure out what to search for to figure out how to do this!
Then you probably shouldn't be doing this!
Have you thought-out all of the implications of this? For example, how are you going to deal with spam? Do you realize that the amount of spam received by all these accounts could bring your server (if your not web host) to it's knees, if not properly handled?
Are you prepared to handle abuse complaints if your users send spam or other abusive email using their return addresses at your domain? (Not hosting an SMTP server for them doesn't solve this problem...)
Are you prepared to answer subpeoneas or discovery if your users are under a criminal or cival investigation?
As for HOW to do this - it varies widely depending on the mail server you are using. Unfortunately, nobody is going to be able to give you step-by-step instructions. You first will have to find out what is available, possible and allowable with your host.
Unfortunately I lack the knowledge even to figure out what to search for to figure out how to do this!
Then you probably shouldn't be doing this!
The comment that if I don't know how to do something I shouldn't try to find out, is ridiculous. Everything I know how to do, I didn't know before I found out. (The secret is to bash those rocks together, guys!)
does anyone have any helpful information on my original question, which is a pointer or clue in the direction of how this can be achieved?
does anyone have any helpful information on my original question, which is a pointer or clue in the direction of how this can be achieved?
We'd need more information. What control panel do you have? What email software is installed on the server? What OS?
Frankly, you're asking US to bash rocks together for you. We at least need to know what kind of rocks you have available. :)
For a handful of users, the most practical thing would be for you to just add these email accounts in your control panel, and/or manually add them to the email system's configuration files.
For more users, you could write some software (or obtain pre-built software) to get information from the user via web forms and then modify the configuration files to set-up the accounts. If this is only for a subset of your users, you will need to add a flag to your user database (or create a seperate database or configuration file) where you can indicate which users are allowed to do this.
