What if my password doesn't work?

If your password isn't working, the best solution is to change it. To change your password, click the "Sign In" link on the top navigation bar and then follow these steps:

• From the sign in options page, click "request a new password."



• Enter the exact email address you originally entered to create your Mailshell account.



• Click the "Request New Password" button.



• If you specified a Secret Question for verification, you will need to answer it now and then click the "Request New Password" button again.



• A new password will be created and emailed to you. You should sign in and change your password as soon as you can.

If you are still unable to sign in, please contact the Mailshell Support Desk. Your question should be answered within two business days.

If I'm having trouble signing in. What do I do?

First, check the caps lock on your keyboard--passwords are case-sensitive. Otherwise, the easiest way to resolve most sign-in problems is to request a new password. A new password will be generated for your account and emailed to you.

With usernames, remember that you must enter the entire email address (e.g., "joe@domain.com"), not just the name (e.g., "joe"), and check that you are using the email address you used to sign up for the service. (If you aren't sure which email address that is, you can simply try all the ones you may have used or check your accounts for the welcome email you received after signing up.) If you still can't sign in with an email address, try using your personal domain (e.g., joe.com) or Mailshell subdomain (e.g., joe.mailshell.com) instead.

If you are a Premium user, please note that if your personal domain is set to forward to Mailshell, you cannot sign in by going to your personal domain. (If you do so, Mailshell will return a cookie error.)

You may also experience problems if cookies are not fully enabled in your browser. Different browsers control cookies in different ways, but here's how to check your cookie settings in three of the most common browsers:

• In Internet Explorer 5, go to Tools > Internet Options, click the "Security" tab, and click the "Custom Level" button. Scroll down and make sure that both cookies stored on your computer and per-session cookies are enabled.



• In Netscape 6, go to Edit > Preferences, double-click on "Advanced," and click on "Cookies." Make sure that "Enable all cookies" is selected.



• In AOL 6.0, go to Settings > Preferences, click "Internet Properties," click the "Security" tab, and click the "Custom Level" button. Scroll down and make sure that both cookies stored on your computer and per-session cookies are enabled.

If you are still having trouble, contact the Mailshell Support Desk. Your question should be answered within two business days.

Why don't the links work in my welcome letter?

If you are an AOL or Juno user, because of the special email formatting those services use, you may not be able to click on the links in the welcome letter you receive after signing up with Mailshell. The easiest solution is to copy the URLs directly into your browser.

What do I do if I forgot my password?

If you have forgotten your password, or your password is not working, you can easily get a new one.

• From the sign in page, click the "request a new password" link.



• Enter the exact email address you originally entered to create your Mailshell account.



• Click the "Request New Password" button.



• If you specified a Secret Question for verification, you will need to answer it now and then click the "Request New Password" button again.



• A new password will be created and emailed to you. You should sign in and change your password as soon as you can.

If you are still unable to sign in, please contact the Mailshell Support Desk. Your question should be answered within two business days.

How can I change which email address password changes are sent to?

If you have the basic service, all password changes made to your account (including requests for new passwords), will be sent to your active forwarding address. You can change this address from the Options page by clicking the "Forwarding Addresses" link. Use the radio buttons to select the address you would like to use and click the "Save Settings" button. If you would like to use a new address that isn't listed, simply add and verify it, then select.

What do I do if I forgot my email address?

If you have forgotten your password, or your password is not working, you can easily get a new one.

• From the sign in options page, click the "request a new password" link.



• Enter the exact email address you originally entered to create your Mailshell account.



• Click the "Request New Password" button.



• If you specified a Secret Question for verification, you will need to answer it now and then click the "Request New Password" button again.



• A new password will be created and emailed to you. You should sign in and change your password as soon as you can.



• If you are still unable to sign in, please contact the Mailshell Support Desk. Your question should be answered within 2 business days.

How do I change my sign-in name once I've registered?

Unfortunately, you cannot change your sign-in name, even if you stop forwarding email there. If you do not wish to use this address to sign in, you do have the option of using your personal domain or Mailshell subdomain name. Be sure to type the entire domain name: joe.com, bill.org, jane.mailshell.com.

How do I change my domain name once I've registered?

Unfortunately, you cannot change a domain name once you've registered it.

If you have a subdomain you wish to change you can upgrade to Mailshell's Premium Service and get your own registered personal domain (e.g., "yourname".com) along with many other features. Another option is to delete your account and create a new one with the subdomain you would like to use. By deleting your account, all of your existing addresses and emails will also be deleted. This process cannot be reversed.

My email address has changed, and I want to get my messages at my new address. What do I do?

All you need to do is change your forwarding address. If you have the basic service, here's what to do:

• Click the "Forwarding Addresses" link on the gray navigation bar in the Address Book section of My Mailshell.



• Enter your new email address in the field at the bottom of the page and click the "Add" button.



• Verify the address.



• Once it is verified, use the buttons on the left side of your forwarding addresses list to select the address you wish to forward messages to.



• Click the "Select" button.

All forwarded messages, including password changes and new message alerts, will now be sent to the selected address. If you have the Premium Service, you can select a different forwarding address for each disposable Mailshell address. Here's what to do:

• Follow the steps above to add and verify your new address.



• Once it is verified, it will appear in the "Deliver to" drop-down menu for each Mailshell address.



• To change the forwarding address for a specific Mailshell address, simply go to the "Manage Domain" section of My Mailshell and use the drop-down menu for that address to select the forwarding address you would like to use. Click the "Save Settings" button when you are done.

If I reply to a message I have received at a forwarding address, will my address still be protected?

Yes, unless you are a Premium user and have turned off the Email Address Redirection feature. As long as that feature is turned on, Mailshell automatically formats the sender's address so that when they receive your reply, it appears to come from the appropriate Mailshell address. For example, if you receive an email at your Yahoo account that has been forwarded through amazon@yourdomain.com and you then reply to that email, the recipient will see the message as coming from amazon@yourdomain.com rather than the Yahoo address.

Please note that your email address will not be protected if you include it in the body of your email and in certain other cases, such as with Outlook read receipts--the best policy is not to include your real email address within the message body and be aware of whether you have any automatic signatures or features that include the address in the header in places other than the "From" field.

How can I stop spam that was coming to my email address prior to joining Mailshell?

You can easily take advantage of Mailshell's Intelligent Email filtering for your current email. There are two ways to do this:

• Forward your current email address to a Mailshell address. For example, if you want to forward your Yahoo email you could create a yahoo@yourdomain.com email address, then set your Yahoo email to forward to yahoo@yourdomain.com. (Many ISPs and email services allow you to forward email to a different address, although some do not.) Use the Address Options for yahoo@yourdomain.com to set the Block Spam and other levels to whatever you want. You will now receive all of your Yahoo email at Mailshell and have all the benefits of Mailshell filtering.
  
  
• If you are a Premium user, you have the additional option of downloading messages directly from other email accounts to one of your Mailshell addresses in order to use Mailshell filtering.

Why am I getting spam at one of my Mailshell addresses? You said I wouldn't get any!

Whenever you give out an email address--even a Mailshell address--spammers can find ways to get it and send you unwanted email. Fortunately, by using Mailshell addresses, your private email address has remained safe, and you can easily increase the Block Spam setting on the address receiving the unwanted email or delete the address entirely without interrupting any of your other email.

What should I do if I start getting spam?

If you begin receiving spam at one of your Mailshell addresses, you can do three things:

• If the unwanted email is coming from one sender, you can simply block the sender. Most spammers use different email addresses for different mailings, however, so if you are on a spammer's list, this will probably not stop the spam.



• You can increase the spam filter to a more aggressive level in the "Address Options" page. This can reduce the amount of spam you receive, but may also block legitimate email messages. (If you expect to receive email at that address from only one source--or example, you've used an amazon@your-name.com to sign up with Amazon and only want messages from them--the "Only allow the following senders" option is particularly useful.)



• You can delete that individual Mailshell address. All email coming to the address will then be blocked. If you have used the address to sign up with a website and want to continue receiving mailings from that site, you will need to either change the address associated with your account at that site or sign up for an entirely new account at that site using a new address.

If you wish, you can also use a service like SpamCop to automatically report your spam to the appropriate network administrators, who can often shut down accounts that are sending spam.

Why are legitimate messages being filtered as junk?

Depending on your Block Spam setting, some legitimate messages may occasionally be filtered as junk even though they aren't. This is especially true of newsletters and other commercial email, which often share many characteristics with true spam.

If you have this problem, there are several things you can do:



• Decrease your Block Spam setting. This may mean that fewer legitimate messages are caught, but more spam may be allowed through.
  
  
• Go to the Junk folder, select the non-spam messages, and click the "Not Junk" button. They will be moved to your Inbox and the sender(s) will be added to your Allowed Addresses list.
  
  
• Add the senders to either your Allowed Addresses list or your Address Book contacts. This will ensure that future messages from those senders are not filtered as junk.

How do I block unwanted senders?

You can block mail from unwanted senders by clicking the "Blocked/Allowed Addresses" link on the gray navigation bar in the Address Book section of My Mailshell. From this page, you can see all the senders you are currently blocking and add or remove senders from that list.



• To block a new sender, type the email address in the field provided under the "Blocked Email Addresses" bar and click the "Add" button.



• To unblock a sender, select the email address from the list in the "Blocked Email Addresses" box and click the "Delete" button.

You can also block senders from within a folder or message:

• From within a folder, check the box next to the name of the sender you wish to block, then click the "Block Sender(s)" button.



• From within a message, just click the "Block Sender" link next to the "From" field.

When I reply to an email from outside of Mailshell, how do I protect my real email address?

You can reply to emails you receive through Mailshell at your forwarding address or through POP or IMAP without compromising your privacy. Your actual email address is stripped from the "From" field and replaced with the appropriate disposable Mailshell address. For example, if you receive an email at your Yahoo account that has been forwarded through a disposable Mailshell address and then reply to that email, the recipient will see the message as coming from the disposable Mailshell address rather than the Yahoo address.

How do I protect myself from viruses, hidden tracking devices, pornographic images and other unwanted material in my emails?

If you're a Premium user, you can use the Virus Protection setting to protect your email from viruses, tracking devices, unwanted images, and other security problems. When this feature is turned on, Mailshell will remove all images, attachments, java, and javascript from messages you receive through Mailshell. Please note that if you wish to receive attachments from friends or colleagues at a specific email address, you will need to turn off this setting for that email address. You should never download unexpected attachments, especially ones from unknown senders.

You can change the Strict Security setting for an individual address using Address Options. You can also change the default setting for all new subscriptions and unapproved addresses by going to the Options page and clicking the "Delivery Method" link.

I tried using the "Check All" links, but nothing happens. What's going on?

The "Check All" links use JavaScript; if you do not have JavaScript enabled in your browser, the link will not function properly. Different browsers use JavaScript in different ways, but here's how to check your JavaScript settings in three of the most common browsers:

• In Internet Explorer 5, go to Tools > Internet Options, click the "Security" tab, and click the "Custom Level" button. Scroll down and make sure "Active Scripting" is enabled.



• In Netscape 6, go to Edit > Preferences and double-click on "Advanced." Make sure that "Enable JavaScript for Navigator" is selected.



• In AOL 6.0, go to Settings > Preferences, click "Internet Properties," click the "Security" tab, and click the "Custom Level" button. Scroll down and make sure "Active Scripting" is enabled.

I tried renaming a folder on the Folders page, but nothing happens. What's going on?

The "Rename" function uses JavaScript; if you do not have JavaScript enabled in your browser, the button will not function properly. Different browsers use JavaScript in different ways, but here's how to check your JavaScript settings in three of the most common browsers:



• In Internet Explorer 5, go to Tools > Internet Options, click the "Security" tab, and click the "Custom Level" button. Scroll down and make sure "Active Scripting" is enabled.



• In Netscape 6, go to Edit > Preferences and double-click on "Advanced." Make sure that "Enable JavaScript for Navigator" is selected.



• In AOL 6.0, go to Settings > Preferences, click "Internet Properties," click the "Security" tab, and click the "Custom Level" button. Scroll down and make sure "Active Scripting" is enabled.

I've run out of storage space. How do I get more?

If you would like more than 10 MB of storage space, you can easily sign up for the Premium Service to get 50 MB. Users cannot have more than 50 MB of storage space.

What should I do if the site appears to be down?

Mailshell may periodically take the site down when necessary to add new features or capacity. This should happen infrequently and the length of down time should be minimal. Mailshell has redundant systems in place to ensure that no email is lost during routine site maintenance or in the event of a server failure; if a server crashes, email delivery may be slowed, but no messages should be lost.

If you cannot reach our site at all for an extended period of time, please notify us by email at help@mailshell.com and try the site again later.

If your system is down, will I still get my email?

Mailshell has redundant systems in place to ensure that no email is lost in the event of a server failure or routine site maintenance; if a server crashes, email delivery may be slowed, but no messages should be lost.

How do I delete my Mailshell account?

If you do not wish to continue using the Mailshell service, we recommend that you simply delete all of the addresses in your account and set your default delivery method for pending addresses to "Delete". This way, you can keep your account active in case you decide to resume using Mailshell in the future.

If you are sure you want to cancel your account, you can do so by clicking here. Your account, along with all email addresses and messages there, will be deleted. If you had a Mailshell subdomain, you will permanently lose access to it and it will never be usable again, even if you choose to create another account in the future. If you have a registered domain it will continue to be registered for the current term (one year after the registration or last renewal) but will not be renewed; no refunds will be given. This process cannot be reversed.

What happens to email sent to my domain if I delete my account?

If you delete your account, email sent to any address at your domain will bounce back to the sender as undeliverable.

How can I make suggestions to improve Mailshell?

We're always looking to improve our service! There are two ways you can help us: by taking our survey or sending us general comments. Just answer the questions and click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page.

What if I have a question that isn't answered here?

Contact the Mailshell Support Desk. Your question should be answered within two business days.