Send and Read Your Email

You have added your domain, your records are green, and you have created a mailbox. Now for the part everyone actually wants: reading and sending mail. This guide covers where your inbox lives, how to get it on your phone and computer, and the everyday questions that come up in the first week.

What you'll learn:

1. Where to read your mail right now
2. How to connect Outlook, Apple Mail, or your phone
3. How sending works and how to look professional doing it
4. The common first-week questions

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Where is my inbox?

Once a mailbox exists, mail sent to that address is already being delivered and stored. You have two ways to read it.

Webmail (nothing to install). MailAfiniti includes webmail you can open in any browser, right from the customer portal: go to the Email Accounts page, find the row for your mailbox, and click Open Inbox. That drops you straight into the inbox for that address, ready to send and receive. It is the fastest way to confirm everything works: send yourself a test message from another account and watch it arrive. Webmail is always available and needs no setup, which makes it the right tool for a quick check or for reading mail on a computer that is not yours.

A mail app (the everyday choice). Most people prefer their own app: Outlook or Apple Mail on a computer, or the Mail app on a phone. This is where the Email Client Setup page comes in. It gives you step-by-step instructions for each app, and every app uses the same connection settings.

Connect your mail app

Open Email Client Setup in the portal (also linked from the Help page) and pick your app. Whatever you choose, the settings are always the same:

• Incoming (IMAP): server imap.mailafiniti.io, port 993, SSL/TLS on.
• Outgoing (SMTP): server smtp.mailafiniti.io, port 587, STARTTLS on.
• Username: your full email address (for example info@acme.com).
• Password: the mailbox password you set when you created it.

A couple of pointers that save time:

• Choose IMAP, never POP. IMAP keeps your mail in sync across every device, so a message you read on your phone shows as read on your laptop. POP downloads and removes mail from the server, which causes messages to go missing from your other devices.
• The username is the whole email address, not just the part before the @.
• Setup on a phone takes two to three minutes. Add it as a generic IMAP account if your phone does not have a MailAfiniti option, using the settings above.

Sending mail, and looking professional

Sending works as soon as your app is connected. A few things worth setting up early so your mail lands well and looks the part:

• Set a display name. In your mail app's account settings, set the name recipients see (for example "Jane at Acme") so your messages do not just show a bare address.
• Add a signature. A short signature with your name, role, and company reads as professional and is set in your mail app, not in MailAfiniti.
• Send from the right address. If you have several mailboxes or aliases, make sure your app is sending from the address you intend. Replies from an alias should generally go out as the alias, which most apps let you configure.

Your outgoing mail is automatically signed with DKIM and backed by your SPF and DMARC records, so as long as your domain shows green on the Domains page, receiving servers will trust your mail.

Getting mail on your phone

This is the most-asked question, so to be explicit: yes, your MailAfiniti mail works on any phone. Open your phone's Mail settings, add a new account, choose "Other" or a manual/IMAP option, and enter the IMAP and SMTP settings above with your full email address and password. Once added, mail pushes to your phone like any other account. The Email Client Setup page has screenshots for iPhone and Android.

Common first-week questions

I sent a test but nothing arrived. Check the Domains page shows green. If a record is amber or red, delivery may not be fully live yet. See our verification troubleshooting guide.

My mail is landing in the recipient's spam. Early on this can happen while your domain builds reputation. Our Staying out of spam guide covers the habits that fix it.

Can I add more addresses? Yes. Create more mailboxes for people who need real inboxes, or free aliases for extra addresses that funnel into an existing mailbox. See Mailbox or alias.

How do I back up my mail? Because you connect over standard IMAP, any desktop client (Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail) can download a full local copy. Just connect and let it sync.

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Next steps

• Email Client Setup for step-by-step app instructions.
• Staying out of spam to keep your mail in the inbox.
• Mailbox or alias, which do I need? to add more addresses the right way.

Need a hand? Email support@mailafiniti.io any time.