Frequently Asked Questions

Email

• How do I setup my email account?
  
  A: 

  In the email client you are using, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, use the following information to setup your email account.

  POP3 Server: mail.grcmc.org
  SMTP Server: mail.grcmc.org
  User Name: Your full email address, ex: you@yourdomain.org
  Password: Your email account password

  Since our servers use SMTP authentication, you will need to enable this under your SMTP settings. If you don't enable SMTP authentication, you will not be able to send out email via our mail server. Your SMTP authentication username and password are your email address and password.

  
  
  
• How do I setup an auto response or vacation message?
  
  A: 

  To create an auto response or vacation message for your email account, go to http://mail.grcmc.org/emailadmin. In the User Account field, put in the part of your email address before the @. In domain name, put in part of your email address after the @ and be sure not to include the @. In the Password field, enter your email password then click Login. Once your logged in, click on the box next to Send Vacation Auto-Response, type in a subject in the Vacation Subject field and then put in your auto response or vacation message in the Vacation Message field. Once your done, click on Modify User and your all set.

  When you want to remove your auto response or vacation message, log back in and uncheck the Send Vacation Auto-Response box and click Modify User and it will be removed.

  
  
  
• Can I access my email via the web?
  
  A: 

  Yes. You can access your email account via the web by going to https://mail.grcmc.org. Login using your full email address and password. If you are also using a POP3 client like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, only new email messages will show up in the webmail interface.

  
  
  
• Do you provide secure POP3 & SMTP access?
  
  A: 

  Yes. We provide secure pop3 connections on port 995 and secure smtp connections via TLS on port 587.

  
  
  
• Do you scan email messages for viruses?
  
  A: 

  Yes. All email that goes in out and out of our mail server is scanned for viruses using an open source program called ClamAV. The software checks for new virus definitions 12 times a day to provide the latest virus protection for our clients.

  
  
  
• Do you provide spam filtering and if so, how do I customize it?
  
  A: 

  Yes. All email messages are scanned by an open source program called SpamAssassin to determine if the email message is spam or ham (non-spam). By default, any email message receiving a score of 5 or higher is tagged as spam. It will still show up in your Inbox with a message added on to the email saying that the mail server has determined the email to be spam and why. If you are using an email client such as Mozilla Thunderbird, you can tell it to trust SpamAssassin headers so that these email messages will be put in your Junk folder instead of ending up in your Inbox.

  If you are receiving alot of spam and the mail server is not tagging it as spam, you can lower your SpamAssassin score. To do this, go to https://mail.grcmc.org and login with your email address and password. Once logged in, go to Options then choose Spam Filters. Scroll down to the bottom where it says Spam Score and set this to a score lower than 5 and then click Save Settings. We recommend you not choose a score lower than 2 as it's very possible that legitimate emails will get tagged as spam.

  If you are using the webmail interface at https://mail.grcmc.org to send and receive email, you will need to turn on spam detection if you want spam email to go into a Spam folder and not your Inbox. To do this, go to https://mail.grcmc.org/emailadmin and login with your email address and password. Once logged in, scroll down to the bottom and check the box that says Spam Detection, click Modify User and then click Log Out. The first time you receive a spam email after doing this, a Spam folder will be created for you and will show up under the Inbox. All messages in the Spam folder are automatically purged after they are 14 days old.

  
  
  
• How do I tag email from a specific email address as spam or non-spam?
  
  A: 

  Go to https://mail.grcmc.org and log in using your email address and password. Once logged in, click on Options and then click on Spam Filters. If you want to tag email from an email address as non-spam, under Add New Address, enter the email address and then choose Whitelist From and then click Add New Address. If you want to tag email from an email address as spam, under Add New Address, enter the email address and then choose Blacklist From and then click Add New Address.

  
  
  

Web Hosting

• How do I update my website that is hosted with you?
  
  A: 

  The CMC gives ftp access to all of our website clients. To update your website via ftp, you will need an ftp account. If you don't already have one, please use our Contact page to request an ftp account. Once you have your ftp username and password, you can access your website with an ftp program such as FileZilla. Another program that the CMC recommends and uses is a text/HTML editor and integrated FTP client called EditPlus. After you have installed the program, enter your host (which is your website domain name), username and password. Once you are logged in, you will see a listing of your website files on our web server. From here you can download/edit these files. Remember, any changes you make to these files will be reflected on your website immediately. It's a good idea to make a backup of these files onto your local computer in the event that you accidentally erase or mess up a file on your website.

  If we designed your website, it's very possible that you have the ability to update various sections of your website with our custom made web-based program called dbEditor. This program allows anyone with no knowledge of HTML to update their website from any computer with an Internet connection using any web browswer. To use the dbEditor, go to http://client.grcmc.org/editor and log in with the username and password that was given to you. If you are interested in being able to update your website with the dbEditor, please contact us using our online form.

  
  
  
• How do I view statistics for my website?
  
  A: 

  You can view monthly statistics for your website by going to client.grcmc.org/awstats/awstats.pl?config=www.yourdomainname.org, substituting yourdomainname.org with your websites domain name. New website statistics are available on the 1st of each month.

  
  
  

Domain Names

• How do I register a domain name for my website?
  
  A: 

  Clients can either let us register a domain name for them (preferred) or register their own domain name with any registrar. We use Dotster which charges $15.45/year for domain name registrations. We also automatically renew your domain name for you every year. If you choose to register your own domain name, you will need to use your registrar's DNS servers and setup A & MX records for your domain name to point to our web and email servers if we will be hosting your website or email.

  
  
  
• How do I transfer a domain name to you?
  
  A: 

  If you would like to have the CMC manage your domain name, you will need to transfer the domain to our Dotster account. CMC will initiate the transfer from Dotster and an email will be sent to the administrative contact for your domain name asking for approval of the domain transfer. It is very important that the administrative contact for your domain name is a valid email address that you have access to. If it is not a valid email address or one that you do not have access to, you will need to update this email address with your current registrar before we can initiate the transfer. If the domain you want to transfer is a .com, .net or .org, you will need to obtain an authorization code from your current registrar. We will need this in order to submit the transfer request.

  Once you have approved the transfer request, it can take up to 10 days for the domain to be transfered to our Dotster account. If your domain name is about to expire, we highly recommend you renew it with your current registrar to prevent you from possibly losing the domain name. Some registrars will not approve domain transfers if the domain is going to expire soon.

  
  
  

Web Design and Development

• What should my organization bring to an initial meeting about developing a website?
  
  A: 

  For an initial meeting, we recommend that clients think about what they would like to have on their website before they meet with us, as this makes the meeting more productive both for your organization and the CMC. The nonprofit clients we work with frequently include recent news, newsletters, staff and board of directors lists, upcoming events, forms that are needed to access the organization’s services, a list services provided, and other such content. It is generally helpful if you put together a rough outline of how you want the site to be structured and where you would like content to be located, as it allows us to better estimate the development cost.

  It is helpful if you get high-resolution copies of your organization’s logo so that we can use them when developing the site. These can be provided either via email (preferred) or on a CDR. Similarly, many clients consider what type of color scheme they would like (for example blues if you organization has blue in its logo).

  
  
  
• Can our organization maintain its own website?
  
  A: 

  The CMC encourages clients to maintain their own websites and we can facilitate this by moving sections of your website into MySQL databases that are editable via the CMC's web-based database editor, the dbEditor. This works particularly well for things such as event calendars, news sections, press releases, or anything else where content is presented in a standardized way with consistent formatting.

  We also can provide FTP accounts to organizations if there are people on staff who are familiar and/or comfortable with editing HTML directly.

  
  
  
• How can we optimize our search engine visibility to help constituents find our site?
  
  A: 

  While there is not one "sure" way to increase your organizations search engine visibility, there are number of things that can improve your ranking in Google and other search engines:

  Use of web standards - Properly structured code where the content is separated from the presentational aspects of the code will help improve search engine visibility.
  

  Properly titled documents - Does your site feature 20 pages that are all titled "Your Organization: Grand Rapids, MI"? It will help if the pages are re-titled to reflect the contents contained on the page.

  Well-Written content - The most important thing you can do to improve search engine rankings is to provide well-written and relevant content. Content should be structured hierarchically with headings, sub-headings, and lists as needed.

  
  
  
• Do you support Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver?
  
  A: 

  The CMC does not directly support either of these tools. While we can provide you with the FTP information required to use these programs, we cannot provide support with product features or configurations.

  The CMC does not support Microsoft FrontPage server extensions.

  
  
  

Mailing Lists

• How do I send an email to the mailing list?
  
  A: 

  To send an email to a mailing list, make the To: address the name of the mailing list, which is just like an email address. Depending on how the list is setup, your email will either go right out to the list or will be sent to a moderator to approve the email message.

  
  
  
• My email message is not being sent to the mailing list. Why is this?
  
  A: 

  There are a couple of reasons why this might happen. If the list is setup so that only subscribers can post to the mailing list and the email address you are sending the message from is not on the list, it will bounce back to you. Also, if the list is moderated and the moderator never approved your message, it will not be sent to the list.

  
  
  
• How do I find out what mailing list options are available to me?
  
  A: 

  If you send a blank email to name_of_your_mailing_list-help@your_domain_name.org, an email will be sent to you with a list of available mailing list options.