Something like Hotmail or gmail...

[Klaas Koopman]

Hey Everyone,


I am currently working on a project and we are looking to get something like this:

People can register their own emailadres, which is like blablabla@dikkop.com. We currently have the domain dikkop.com. Also we would like them to be able to login through our site to check their inbox!

Is something like this do-able and if yes, how?

Thanks in advance,


Klaas Koopman

[John Scott]

A lot of people have free email services. Maybe hire a coder to install a free email script?

[megamoose]

You could even do something really simple like use a cPanel email option and then manually approve each request. Or you could make it automatic but you'd have to know a little PHP or get someone else who does.

Mark

[DuncanM]

Several companies provide such services; they allow you to put code on your site such that users can sign up for e-mail addresses based on your domain. Even Google offers a service like this, which would give users an interface similar to the Gmail interface:

Gmail for Your Domain

If you don't want to subject users to advertising, or would like to retain control of the service (avoid having to change e-mail settings, etc.), other companies sell software for installation on your server. For example, Alt-N Technologies sells software, based on the number of users, that looks like an online version of Outlook (called LookOut).

There are many other such services available, that offer a variety of appealing domains themed around hobbies, careers, interests, etc.

I am curious, do you anticipate a lot of demand from people who find a dikkop e-mail address appealing?


-- Duncan

[Klaas Koopman]

Originally Posted by DuncanM

Several companies provide such services; they allow you to put code on your site such that users can sign up for e-mail addresses based on your domain. Even Google offers a service like this, which would give users an interface similar to the Gmail interface:

Gmail for Your Domain

If you don't want to subject users to advertising, or would like to retain control of the service (avoid having to change e-mail settings, etc.), other companies sell software for installation on your server. For example, Alt-N Technologies sells software, based on the number of users, that looks like an online version of Outlook (called LookOut).

There are many other such services available, that offer a variety of appealing domains themed around hobbies, careers, interests, etc.

I am curious, do you anticipate a lot of demand from people who find a dikkop e-mail address appealing?


-- Duncan

Actually yeah, I do have a lot of people who are interested in such a domain name. It's probably because it's a funny word in the netherlands.


I've heard on another thread that it's possible to use the cpanel email services like squirrelmail etc to do this. Is this possible, if yes how?

[DuncanM]

Originally Posted by Klaas Koopman

I've heard on another thread that it's possible to use the cpanel email services like squirrelmail etc to do this. Is this possible, if yes how?

One of the companies hosting one of my websites provided a squirrelmail interface by which people could log in from the Internet to check their e-mail, thereby avoiding the need to access e-mail from their home computer with a POP client. However, the e-mail accounts first had to be created by the administrator. I am not aware of the ability of new users to create their own e-mail account directly through the squirrelmail interface. (Perhaps somebody with more experience on this matter could confirm)

Another issue: are you willing to pay the extra fees on behalf of your users for providing this service? One of my hosts only gives me one e-mail account and a certain amount of bandwidth. More e-mail accounts are available for an extra fee. I assume the case would be similar for you. Say you can sign up 50 users. Do you really want to pay the extra fee for these additional e-mail accounts AND the extra bandwidth these users might take up on your account? Or are you going to charge users somehow?


-- Duncan

[Klaas Koopman]

well to be honest, yes I am interested in paying extra for this. I have just talked it over with the rest of the team and we will only be giving the emails to people who actually help out at the site! So no need for registration, just logging in... now let's see how we do this!