Clarahost Frequently Asked Questions - Email

How can I check my email?

You can check your email account either using a mail client, such as Outlook, or through our website. If you would like to use a mail client, we have provided guides on setting up your mail using the most popular software.

How big is my email inbox?

Theoretically, we do not impose a limit on the size of your mailbox. However, if your mailbox expands to a size that we feel reduces the functionality of our servers, then we reserve the right to request that you reduce the amount of data you are holding. We will never delete any of your files without contacting you first. For this reason, please be sure that we always have up-to-date contact information on your account. If you would like to update your details,please email us at: support@clara.net.

How can I redirect my email to another account?How do I create an automatic reply to emails while I am on holiday?

Using the mail filters located here, you can redirect mail from your Claranet email address to another address, or create an automatic reply to emails while you are away. However, email accounts will be temporarily suspended if they are not accessed for 120 days. If you choose to redirect your mail to another address, please be sure to login to your account occasionally in order to keep it active.

Do you provide any spam filters?

Claranet provides filters which scan your email for spam messages before it is retrieved by your email client. Please visit our mail filters configuration page to enable this feature. You can choose to either immediately delete spam, or have it redirected to a different email address. We also offer an extensive anti-spam service called Border Scout. For further information on this service, please contact our sales team on 0845 355 2000.

I seem to be receiving email that is not addressed to me, why is this?

When you receive an email, you can see who it is from, the date it was sent and the address it was sent to. However, the "to" and "from" fields that you see are just for display purposes. An email is actually made up of a dozen or so different parts (you may see this referred to as the "full headers" of an email), and the genuine "to" and "from" fields are included within this. This is why, if ever an email is BCC'd (Blind Carbon Copied) to you, or if you are a member of a mailing list, you will see that the "to" email address is different from your own.

Unfortunately, spammers use this functionality to trick people into believing that their account is broken, or has been hi-jacked. If you ever see an email in your inbox that appears to have been sent to someone else, there is nothing to worry about. It is possible to set up a mail filter to delete any email that is not addressed to you, but this will also stop mail being BCC'd to you, and will delete many emails from mailing lists.

Why have I suddenly started to receive lotsof "message delivery failed" emails?

These types of message are called bouncebacks, and they occur when an email is sent to an address that either does not exist, or is unreachable. If you are unexpectedly receiving an influx of these messages, there are two plausible explanations. One possibility is that your email address is being spoofed by a spammer, in the manner mentioned above. If this is the case, sadly there is little you can do to stop this, though you may be able to find the source of the email from the full headers of the message.

The second, and more likely reason is that you have a worm or virus on your machine that is using your computer to send out multiple unsolicited emails. Please be sure that you are running up-to-date firewall and anti-virus software.

How can I view the full headers of an email?

There is a detailed guide outlining how to extract email headers with various mail clients on Spamcop's website. Spamcop maintain one of the many open source databases that we use to check spam, so it is worth considering reporting any spam you receive to Spamcop.

Will my email account close if I do not use it?

Claranet email addresses will be temporarily suspended if they are not accessed within a period of 120 days. This process is instigated to prevent spam from accumulating on our servers. An email address can be re-activated by logging into our webmail facility. When an account is suspended, email sent to that address will not be accepted. Upon re-activation, we will automatically email you instructions on how to retrieve email that was stored on our servers prior to the suspension.

I am having difficulty sending email - why is this?

If you connected with Claranet, you are welcome to use our outgoing mail server (also known as an SMTP server), relay.clara.net to send email. If you are not, you will need to also set your mail client to authenticate on our outgoing mail server, using your full e-mail address and password.