Using Webmail Settings Menu

The Settings menu in Exact Hosting Webmail is where you personalize how Webmail looks and behaves, manage your password and recovery options, set up signatures and autoresponders, build filters and spam lists, and find the configuration details for external mail clients. This article walks you through every Settings section and the most common tasks.

How Settings fits into Webmail

Settings controls preferences for every other Webmail component -- Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Files, and RSS. Anything you configure here (signatures, default folders, filters, spam lists, two-factor authentication) shapes how the rest of Webmail behaves. For an overview of all components, see The Complete Exact Hosting Webmail Guide.

Before you begin

• A working Exact Hosting Enhanced Email mailbox. You must be signed in to Webmail.
• Your current password. Required for password and two-factor changes.
• Optional: a backup phone number or email address. Useful for password recovery.

Settings sections at a glance

Preferences

The Preferences section is grouped by area. Use the table below as a quick map.

Folders

The Folders section lets you control which mailbox folders are visible and create, rename, or delete personal (non-system) folders.

Identities

The Identities section sets what recipients see on the messages you send:

• The display name on outgoing messages
• The organization name
• The reply-to address
• The signature appended to outgoing messages

Responses

The Responses section lets you create and save reusable text snippets you can drop into replies -- handy for FAQs or boilerplate answers.

Other accounts

The Other accounts section lets you add additional email accounts so messages from them appear in your Webmail inbox.

Password

The Password section is where you change your mailbox password and set up additional security like two-factor authentication and app-specific passwords (if enabled on your account). See Enabling Two-Factor Authentication on Enhanced Email and Creating App-Specific Passwords for Email.

Autoresponder

The Autoresponder section is where you create a message sent automatically in reply to all incoming mail during a chosen interval -- for example, a vacation or out-of-office reply.

Spam settings

The Spam settings section is where you build lists of allowed and blocked senders. See Setting an allowed or blocked senders list below for the full steps.

Mail forwarding

When mail forwarding is enabled, incoming messages are forwarded to the recipients you list in this section.

Note: Effective September 18, 2025, the Forward Opt-In feature was introduced for Enhanced Email to improve security and reduce abuse. It requires recipients to approve forwards before they receive any forwarded content. See Forward Opt-In for Enhanced Email for details.

Password recovery

The Password recovery section lets you set up a backup phone number and email address so you can recover your password by email or SMS.

Filters

The Filters section defines how incoming mail is handled automatically. See Working with mail filters below for full details.

External access

The External access section provides every connection detail you need to sync your email, contacts, or calendar to an external client such as Apple Mail, Microsoft Outlook, or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Changing your password

1. In Settings, click Password.
2. Type your current password in the Current password field.
3. Type your new password in the New password field.
4. Re-type the new password in the New password (again) field.
5. Click Save.

Enabling or disabling a vacation or out-of-office alert

A vacation or out-of-office alert is set up as an autoresponder message.

Enable an autoresponder

1. In Settings, click Autoresponder.
2. In the Autoresponse text field, type the message you want sent automatically.
3. Select the Enabled check box.
4. In the Interval field, enter the number of days before the same recipient gets another auto-response. The default is one day.
5. Click in the End date field and choose the date the autoresponder should stop.
6. Click Save.

Disable an autoresponder

1. In Settings, click Autoresponder.
2. Clear the Enabled check box.
3. Click Save.

Enabling or disabling your email signature

Enable a signature

1. In Settings, click Identities.
2. Select your email account, or click Create to add a new identity.
3. In the Signature field, enter the signature you want appended to outgoing messages.
4. Click Save.

Tip: If you mostly send formatted (HTML) messages, enable the HTML option so you can format your signature.

Disable a signature

1. In Settings, click Identities.
2. Select your account.
3. Delete the text in the Signature field.
4. Click Save.

Working with mail filters {#mail-filters}

A filter is a set of conditions you define so Webmail handles incoming mail automatically. You can sort incoming mail into folders, delete unwanted messages, or forward messages to other accounts. When the rules you set match, the action you defined runs.

Webmail can analyze the following message header fields: Subject, From, To, size, and a wildcard field you define. Each field can be tested with the conditions: does/does not contain, is/is not equal to, does/does not exist, and does/does not match expression.

Plus sign tagging and filters

Plus sign tagging lets you tag an email address you give out so you can recognize and filter incoming mail aimed at that tag. To use it, add a plus sign (+) after your name but before the @ symbol, followed by tag text -- for example, yourname+newsletters@example.com. Then set up a filter rule that recognizes the tagged address and routes it to the right folder.

Tip: Plus sign tagging also helps you spot when an email address has been sold. If you start receiving spam at yourname+vendorx@example.com, you know vendor X leaked or sold your address, and you can create a filter that deletes any mail sent to that tagged address.

Add a mail filter

1. In Settings, click Filters.
2. Click Create in the toolbar.
3. In the Filter name field, enter a name.

4. Under Scope, choose when the filter should run:

   • Matching all of the following rules
   • Matching any of the following rules
   • All messages

5. Specify the Rules:

   1. From the first drop-down, choose the message area to evaluate (From, Subject, To, etc.).
   2. From the next drop-down, choose the condition (contains, does not contain, etc.).
   3. Type the value to test against.
6. Click the + icon to add more rules, the gear icon to set modifiers, or the trash icon to remove a rule.

7. In the Actions section, choose what to do with matching messages:

   • Move message to
   • Redirect message to
   • Discard with message
   • Delete message
   • Keep message in Inbox
   • Stop evaluating rules
8. Click the + icon to add more actions or the trash icon to remove one.
9. Click Save.

Remove a filter

1. In Settings, click Filters.
2. In the existing filters list, select the filter you want to remove.
3. Click the Actions icon and choose Delete.

Disable a filter without deleting it

1. In Settings, click Filters.
2. In the existing filters list, click the filter to select it.
3. Click the Actions gear icon and choose Enable/disable filter set. You can also toggle on Filter disabled in the filter definition pane and click Save.

The filter appears greyed out in the list and stops running. You can re-enable it later.

Adding or removing another email account

1. In Settings, select Other accounts.
2. Click Add.
3. Enter the email address, username, password, server address, server port, and SSL setting based on the information from your other email provider.
4. Select Leave a copy of the message on the server if you want read messages to remain on the other server.
5. From the Default folder drop-down, choose where retrieved messages should be saved.
6. Select Test connection on save if you want Webmail to test the connection when you save.
7. Select Import old messages to bring in existing messages. Otherwise only new, unread messages are imported.
8. Click Submit.

Tip: The Other accounts import is also the self-serve way to bring mail in from a previous provider. See Migrating Email from Another Provider to Exact Hosting.

Setting an allowed or blocked senders list {#set-allowed-blocked}

The allowed and blocked senders lists let you either bypass the spam filter for specific senders or block them from your inbox entirely.

• Addresses in your Contacts are treated as allowed senders, even though they are not displayed in the allowed list.
• If an address is in both your contacts and your blocked list, the blocked list wins.
• The star (*) acts as a wildcard, so you can allow or block whole domains.
• You can add up to 1,000 entries each in the allowed and blocked lists.

Warning: Use wildcards carefully. Blocking *@gmail.com, for example, blocks every Gmail address.

Update the allowed or blocked list

1. In Settings, click Spam settings.
2. In the Allowed senders or Blocked senders field, add or remove one address per line. Use * before the @ sign to wildcard an entire domain.
3. Click Save.

Next steps

• Apply your new settings to email. Read Using Webmail Mail at Exact Hosting to put filters, signatures, and spam settings to work.
• Build out your address book. Read Using Webmail Contacts at Exact Hosting for adding and grouping contacts.
• Sync to a desktop client. Use the External access section to set up Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird.
• Tour the whole app. Read The Complete Exact Hosting Webmail Guide for an overview of every Webmail component.

Questions? Contact Exact Hosting Support.