This is a tutorial that will help you become familiar with our new Webmail service.  Webmail is a free program that allows people to check their e-mail through an Internet browser-- from anywhere in the world. You can use Webmail to check your e-mail while you are on the road, at a friend’s house, or to check your home email from your office.  Our Webmail is easy to use, works well with all known operating systems, and is fast and reliable.

Login instructions
To log in to your Webmail, open a web browser, such as Internet Explorer, and type the URL into the address bar. The correct address is webmail.santel.net. Click Enter and when the page opens you will be greeted by the login screen for Webmail.  You can also access this login by going to www.santel.net and clicking on the Santel Webmail icon located on the right side of the homepage. You may wish to bookmark this log in page to your Favorites for later use.  Type your full email address into the field labeled E-Mail, and type your password into the Password field, then click the Connect button. (Be sure your email address and password are all lowercase letters.)

Basic configuration & Using your inbox
Your Webmail opens with a view of your Inbox.  The inbox is where all of your incoming messages are downloaded to.  The Webmail inbox has a similar look to Outlook Express, or Outlook.  Your folder list is on the left and the tools section is just below the folder list.  The tool bar containing the buttons that let you take various actions is located across the top the Webmail page, just below your browser’s tool bars. 

You will want to begin by configuring some basic settings.  Locate the Tools in the lower left corner of the screen and click on Preferences.  Notice this page has tabs and it has opened to the General tab.  Here you will be able to customize your personal information.  Fill in the field with the name and email address you wish to have displayed when replying to a message.  Click the drop down and find and click to choose your correct time.  This will ensure that incoming messages display the correct time of arrival.  Empty trash when logging off is checked by default. This means that if you delete mail here in your Webmail, it is removed from the server so that when you log in to the email program you use on your local computer you do not download messages that you don’t want or need a second time.  When you have filled in your information here, click Save Preferences to save your settings.

Next, click the Reading tab to personalize the way you read your messages.  You will see two check boxes here that are checked by default.  Block message external content means that if a message contains embedded links to an outside source on the Internet, it will not load the content of that source into the Webmail message.  This is a recommended setting and helps to prevent unwanted and unsafe content from reaching your inbox.  The check mark in the Show attached images box means that if you receive a message with pictures attached, you will be able to see and open the attachments.

The number of messages to display per page in your message list is defaulted to 20 – click the pull down here to increase or decrease this number.

The option to get new messages is defaulted to 10 minutes.  This means that the Webmail program will check to see if you have new messages every 10 minutes and display them in your inbox.  Click the pull down to change the setting.  We recommend this be set to no less than 5 minutes.

The next statement allows you to choose where your cursor is taken once you have moved or deleted a message.  By defaulted it will move your cursor to the next message in the list.  Click the pull down to choose another possible action.

The Sort Message By option allows you to choose how your message list is arranged. Click the pull down to choose from the list of possibilities.

The Save a Copy of deleted message option by default is set to not save any message that you delete.  If you wish to save the deleted messages temporarily, you may wish to create a folder called Trash or Deleted Items which we will explain how to do later, and then return to the Reading tab here in Preferences and click the pull down to choose the folder you have created.  Some people like the safety net of a Trash folder in case they delete a message by accident and wish to recover it.  It is still a wise move to leave the setting on the General tab to Empty Trash when logging off.  Click Save Preferences to save your settings.

Click Compose to personalize the way you send your messages.  If you wish to change either of the first two options here, you will need to create more folders which we will discuss shortly.  If you wish to save a copy of each email that you send, you will need to create a folder titled Sent Items or something of that nature, and that will appear in this pull down so you can select it. The Save Drafts option will save a copy of email that you are composing so you can modify or complete it later.  If you wish to use this option, you will want to create a folder called Drafts, which will appear in this pull down so that you can select it here.  The Select Editor feature allows you to choose HTML or plain text to use for composing email.  To create a signature, type your signature into the dialogue box to the right.  You can choose to have your signature added automatically to all outgoing mail by checking the box below.  Click Save Preferences to save your settings.

Now let’s create the folders we talked about to use in our preferences settings.  Click Folders here in the Tools section.  To create a new folder, type your folder name in the dialogue box and click the Create Folder button.  The folders default to being placed as part of the root folder and will appear alphabetically in your folder list.  Let’s make folders for Drafts, Trash, and Sent Items.  Note that the folders are listed here as you create them, and they also appear to the left in the Folders section of the page.  The column to the right of the folder list here shows you how many total emails are in each folder and how many of them have been read.  If you are working in this folder, you can click the Update Folders button on the top or bottom of this page to refresh the totals.  The Calculate size will also update the folder list.  The check boxes on the left in the folder list allow you to delete folders you have created.  You are not able to delete the inbox.  Now that we’ve created, we can go back to set preferences for Trash, Drafts and Sent Items.  Click Preferences, Click the Reading tab.  Click the drop down beside Save copy of deleted messages in and choose the Trash folder from the list.  Click Save Preferences.  Now click the Composing tab.  Click the drop down beside “Save a Copy of sent message In” and choose the Sent Items folder from the list. Click the drop down beside “Save Drafts In” and choose the Drafts folder from the list.  Click to Save preferences.

The Contacts button here in the Tools section opens your address book.  To add a contact, click the New Contact button.  Note: there are tabs near the top of this page that allow you to fill in basic data, plus Business data, home address, and business address.  Fill in name and email address and as much further information as you wish; click the Save button.  Your new contact is listed.  Click on this contact to open and modify or add further information, always clicking save when finished.  To send a message to a contact from this list, click the check box beside the contact and then click the Send Message button.  A new browser window opens with a page allowing you to compose a new message.  If you wish to delete a contact, click the check box beside the contact you wish to delete and click the Delete Contacts button.  A dialogue box will open asking if you are sure you want to completely remove this contact.  Click OK and the contact will be removed.  You can create contact groups that will allow you to send an email to everyone in your group.  At the bottom of the page, type a name for your group and click OK.  Your group will appear in the drop down box to the left.  To add contacts to your group, choose the group name from the pull down and follow the previous directions to add a contact to your group.  You can add and delete from this group, or delete the entire group, using the buttons at the bottom of the page. When you compose a new message, you will be able to choose your group name from the address book and your message will be sent to each individual you have set up in that group.  You will be able to export contacts from your address book.  Check the boxes beside each contact you wish to export, or check the upper most check box to select all contacts from a list or group.  At the bottom of the page, choose Export CSV.  A dialogue box will open and you will choose which fields you wish to include in your export by checking or un-checking the appropriate boxes, then clicking Confirm.  Another dialogue box will open and you will choose to open the file, or click save and choose where on your local machine you would like to save the file.  This will export a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with the data you have chosen.  The Import function is not active at this time.

Let’s take a closer look at the Inbox:

The Checkbox is the first column and is for message selection and actions. By clicking one of the checkboxes, a small Checkmark will appear in the box beside a message. Clicking it again removes the checkmark. By clicking the checkbox utmost to the top, all of the checkboxes below it will be filled in, checking the top box again will remove the check from every box. This tool is for performing actions on selected messages. We will discuss these actions later in this tutorial.

The From column tells you who the message is from. The envelopes that precede the senders name in the From column represents the status of the message. The golden, closed envelope specifies that the message has not been read. Notice that the text in those messages is bolded. If the envelope is white and opened, it means that you have read that message. When you click to read a new message, the envelope turns from closed and golden, to open and white, and the text is no longer bold.

The Subject column shows the topic which the sender had specified. This gives you a brief synopsis of what the message is about. By clicking the Subject of the message, you will be redirected to that message.

The Date column tells when you received the e-mail. The date format, in this case, is MM/DD/YY It also tells you the time at which you received the message. 

The Size column tells you the size of the message.  This is the amount of space that the message takes up on the server. This is reported in kilobytes .

The From, Subject, Date, and Size column headings can be used to sort your message list.  If you click the From column heading, the messages will be sorted alphabetically according to the senders name from A- Z, click the From column heading again, and they are sorted Z-A.  Click the Subject column heading and the messages will be sorted alphabetically by subject, A-Z.  Click the Subject heading again and they will sort Z-A. Click the Date column heading, and the messages will be sorted according to date and time, earliest to latest.  Click the Date heading again and it will sort latest to earliest.  Click the Size column heading and messages are sorted according to size, smallest to largest.  Click the Size heading again and it will sort largest to smallest.  This feature allows for ease in searching for a particular message. 

As your messages arrive, they will be listed in the large top pane.  Click the subject line of message to preview the contents in the large pane just below.  There are tools buttons here allowing you take many actions and a button that allows you to view the full header of the message.  You can also double click the message to open it in another browser window.

Let’s discuss the features included in the Tool Bar that is located at the top of the Webmail page.  There are certain actions you might wish to take on a particular message.  Click to select that message.  If you’ve read a message and wish to send a reply, there is more than one way to do this.  You can click Reply on the tool bar above the message list. A new browser window opens allowing you to compose and send a message.  You can achieve the same results by clicking the reply button on the original message in the preview pane below.   A third method is to double click to open the original message, when the new browser window opens with the message, click the reply button on this page.  All three methods will also work for the Reply All function – which you would use when you wish to reply to the sender and any additional recipients of the original message. The same three methods work for the Forward function.  To Delete a message, use any one of the following methods: click the check box beside the message you wish to delete, then click the delete button in the tool bar above; click on the message you wish to delete in the list and then click the delete button on the preview pane below; or you can double click to open and view the message in a new browser window, then click the delete button.  Although your Webmail will automatically check for new messages at the interval you have set in the preferences, you can also do a manual send & receive by clicking the Send/Receive button in the tool bar above the message list. This will pull in any messages that you’ve been sent since the last time the system automatically checked.

Click the Search button on the top tool bar to search for a specific message.  Type key words or an email address you wish to search for. You can also click the pull down to narrow your search to a specific folder.  Choose the fields you wish to search by (From and Subject are default fields as is the Check Subfolders function) and click the Search button.  The messages that match your criteria will be returned to this list including the folder in which they are located.  Click the message to view or take actions on it.

Now let’s look at the Compose Mail page. Click Compose to open a new browser window to create a new message.  This works much like composing in Outlook Express or Outlook.  Type the complete email address for your recipient in the To line, or click To in order to choose the recipient from the contact list you have created.  The second line allows you to type another address to ‘carbon copy’ or ‘cc’ this message to.  The third line is the ‘blind carbon copy’ or ‘BCC’ feature which lets you send to several recipients but each will not see who else you have sent this message to. This is a very good privacy feature to use if you send to multiple parties, so that you are not inadvertently sharing other people’s email addresses. Once you have completed the address section of the message, type an appropriate subject in the Subject line.  Use the editing features to choose style, font size, font color and page alignment.  Type your message.  If you wish to send an attachment with your message, click the New Attachment button at the top of the page. You will see the line below your subject line drop down and notice a button there that will let you browse to find the file of your choice on your local machine.  Once you locate the file and click to highlight it in the dialogue box, click Open to attach it to your message.  You will see the maximum size for an attachment to a message is 2MB and the maximum message size, including the attachment is 8MB.   It’s a good idea to proofread your message at this point, including the recipient email addresses and subject line.  Click the Send Message button in the upper left corner of the page. 

There is one last function we need to point out before we are finished.  Click the email Filter button.  This is where you can manage your spam filter settings such as level of aggressiveness and accepted or blocked senders. Detailed instructions for managing your filter can be found in our Spam Filter Tutorial.

To log out of your Webmail session, click the Log Out button in the Tool Bar on the top right of the page.  It is important to log out before closing your web browser, as simply closing the browser will not immediately log you out of the email session.

This concludes our tutorial for Webmail. Please feel free to contact Santel’s Internet team with any questions you may have. Thank you for choosing Santel Communications.