Email Policy and Limitations

[NormanR]

I found an old thread on this question last posted to on 10-13-2009 and started back in 2005. It looks very old, dead, and I didn't want posters from years ago getting notifications on my post, so I thought I would start a new one.

I am looking for a new host. I was very pleased with the reviews I read about HostGator. That is until I read this old Email Policy & Limitations thread and looked up the email policy.

I currently have an old static site that I plan to redo and therefore it seemed like a good time to look for a new host. I haven’t had any issues with web hosting from my current host, but I have email issues. Their email server is down once or twice a month and have we hit their 200 emails an hour limit about 4 times in the past 3 years.

This happened when things were very busy and the volume of emails was high, combined with the fact that the majority of our emails are cced to 4 to 5 people. Thus, the email problems are the main reason I am looking into switching hosts before redoing our site. Our site space and bandwidth requirements are very low. We use Constant Contact for a newsletter.

HostGator’s 500 emails an hour is more than enough for us and very generous. However, I’m not sure I understand the checks policy below:

“Many of our servers have a limit of 30 POP3/IMAP checks per hour per IP address. If you go over this you're likely to get a wrong password error message or an error stating "login incorrect". If this occurs, please wait an hour and it will automatically unblock you. To prevent this from happening again, please make sure to disable auto checking or at least set it to something higher such as once every 10 minutes.”

We use Outlook. I believe most of us have it set to check email once every 5 to 10 mins. However, we have Outlook set to immediately send new emails. Do I understand that this policy means that if we have 5 people on email and Outlook checks every 10 mins that we hit the limit in an hour without any sends? And if one of us hits the send and receive button we are toast the first hour we are up?

The policy says per IP, not per POP account.

It seems to me you can’t have more than one or two people using POP email on anything other then a dedicated plan even though unlimited POP email accounts is advertised. And I understand that unlimited does really mean 50 or 100 accounts.

Does anyone using HostGator and using several POP emails accounts know how this works? I just keep thinking I must be misunderstanding the policy.

Thank you for your feedback. I was ready to switch today.

[eLIANT]

Your understanding is correct, but get an official answer regarding the limits per POP account v. IP by sending your question to sales @ hostgator.com

[NormanR]

For those that are interested, Sales Support did get back to me on the above:

Hello,

Yes that is correct. It will all hit from the same IP address. But, if there are multiple IP connecting to the mail accounts for the same user it will also prevent some connections if the limit is reached.


Thus, it seems no matter what the email limit is per hour, anything but a dedicated server doesn't work anyone with more then one or two people on POP email. I think that three people with their email client set to send immediately, would most likely top the limit of 30 hits an hour.

This is unfortunate, as I like what I read about HostGator, but I don't feel like replacing what currently costs me $112 a year with something that is $174 a month just to be able to check POP email.

All the best.

[EarlyOut]

You could just use Google Apps for your email, with your own domain name, at no cost, and have no such limitations.

[NormanR]

Thanks you. I know Gmail of course, but how do I use Google Apps with my domain name?

I must have missed something somewhere.

[EarlyOut]

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

It's just a matter of changing the MX records on your domain registration.

[NormanR]

Thanks so much EarlyOut. I will study up on the features I didn't know Gmail had, as well as Gmail with Outlook. This may work for me.

For those of you who also didn't know this about Gmail:

"Assuming that you have already registered your domain name, here’s what you do:

Go to your domain registrar control panel and create an email forwarding account for your domain (most registrars, like Godaddy, offer this feature for free with your domain registration).

Decide what your branded email address will be (for example, john@johnsmith.com) and forward it to your Gmail address. You do this by filling up two fields in your domain registrar’s email forwarding control panel:

In the “Add Forward” field, type in the left portion of your branded email address, in this example john.

In the “Forward Mail To” field, type in your current Gmail address: johnsmith@gmail.com.

If this is not very clear and you’re using Godaddy, this page will give you more details on how to implement email forwarding.

Log on to Gmail.
Click on Settings (you’ll find the link in the top right corner).
Click on Accounts.
Click on Add Another Email Address.
Add your new, branded address: john@johnsmith.com
Click on the Next Steps button.
Click on the Send Verification button. Gmail will now send you a message with a link that you must click to verify that in fact you own your branded domain. Since in step 2 you have already forwarded your branded address to your Gmail address, the verification email will be automatically forwarded to your regular Gmail address.
Open the verification email and click on the verification link. You’re almost done.
Go back to the Accounts tab of the Settings menu (see 4 and 5). You should see your new branded email address already listed there.
Click on the link that says ‘make default’ next to your branded address.
Check the radio button next to “always reply from my default address”.
That’s all. You should now be ready to use Gmail with your own branded email address. If you want more details, you can visit Gmail’s custom domain help page."

[EarlyOut]

Here's the full rundown from HG (it's not the same as just forwarding email to a Gmail account - doing it this way takes HG out of the loop):

http://support.hostgator.com/article...il-walkthrough

[NormanR]

Thanks again EarlyOut. You're the best. Now I have some homework to do.

Do you use Google Apps for you email set-up?

[EarlyOut]

No, I just go through HG on the incoming side, and through my own ISP's SMTP server for outgoing. But my email volume is really low, and I get almost no spam at all, so I don't need anything fancier.

[mrintech]

Google Apps is awesome, I have been using it for more than 1 Year

Also there are Tons of Apps which you can add to Google Apps from here: http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/

Some Free Apps are here: http://www.google.com/enterprise/mar...ing&query=free