Add an email address

One of the best things about having your own domain is that you get to have any personal address you like for that domain, which looks more professional than a generic mail address, such as @gmail.com.

Adding a fully hosted email address takes only a few simple steps, which this article explains. However, if you need further details on other aspects of an email address, please review the Email Client Configuration article.

A fully hosted email address is an address that has an active mailbox that you can log into to send and receive messages. Fully-hosted email users can access their own mailbox and use the Webmail and the Mailboxes you do not wish to access through the Webmail interface.

1. Navigate to the Manage Email page.
2. Click the Create Email button.
3. Select your domain from the Select a domain dropdown under Email Address.
4. Enter the name of your new email address in the text box that appears.
5. Select Fully Hosted Email under Mailbox Type and click the Continue button.
6. Enter a mailbox name (this can be your name or something to describe the purpose of the mailbox).
7. Click the Generate strong password button to generate a password (or enter one of your own choosing if you prefer).
8. Click the Create Email button at the bottom of the page to save the new information.

   A success message is displayed.

You're now ready to configure your email client and start sending and receiving mail.

By default, your domain is not set up with MX (mail hosting) records with DreamHost when the domain is set to be hosted. The MX records and all other mail hosting records are applied to the domain once the first email address is created.

If this is the first email user created for the domain, the domain will need some time for the mail record DNS to propagate, which can take up to 6 hours for each record. Because of this, the user will not be accessible until the DNS has finished updating.

If your domain is already configured with the records for mail hosting, the newly created user should be fully active within 15 minutes of it being created.

There are two ways to log into your email address.

• Webmail
• Email client

Webmail

Webmail is the easiest option to log into your your email address. Just visit the following link to log in.

• https://webmail.dreamhost.com

You can read more about webmail at the following link:

• Webmail overview

Email client

An email client (Mac Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, iPhone, Android) offers you more control over managing your email but requires you to first configure it manually. The following articles guide you through the general configuration process.

• Email client configuration overview
• Email client protocols and port numbers

View the following section for a list of the most common email clients:

• Email clients

The steps above assume your DNS is hosted with DreamHost. If you have custom MX records in place for a domain, you will not be able to create new addresses. This is because if you are using Gmail, (or another alternative mail provider), you must create new email addresses at that provider.

Another issue to be aware of is that sometimes when you have a large number of addresses already created, you get an error message that says:

“Your account cannot create additional e-mail addresses at this time. 

This is usually a temporary situation and should be resolved within 24 hours.

Please contact Support if you have any questions.”

In the event you get this message, please contact support.

• Changing the type of email address

To delete an email address in the panel:

1. Navigate to the Manage Email page.
2. Click the Manage button to the right of your email address.
3. Click the red Delete button, then click it once more to confirm the deletion request.

The following records are configured when the first user is created:

• _domainkey (dkim)
• _autodiscover (srv)
• mail. (A)
• mail. (MX)
• mail. (MX)
• mailboxes. (A)
• www.mailboxes. (A)
• webmail. (A)
• www.webmail. (A)

There are two MX records for the domain’s mail hosting along with the records for the subdomains for Mailboxes and Webmail. Each record can resolve at different times, so one service may be active while another has yet to update.

During this time, messages sent to your user will be rejected with a bounce notification containing the following error:

Recipient Address Rejected

Until the DNS resolves, the messages sent to your user will continue to be rejected. However, your user should be able to send messages even when the DNS has yet to resolve. This often causes confusion about why a user can send but cannot receive emails. Give the DNS a bit more time to resolve before the new user can receive incoming mail.

Internet standards specify that you create the following specific email addresses, which every domain should have and use for the following purposes: