Steve Galloway - Comstat | Ruthin, North Wales

Why Email Protocols Matter: SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC

by Steve Galloway | Jul 5, 2025

Introduction

Sending and receiving email should be straightforward, but a lot happens behind the scenes to ensure that you and your organizations emails are delivered correctly and securely. This article explains why email protocols like SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC are essential for protecting your online identity, reputation, and ensuring smooth mail flow.

Protocols help identify emails that did not reach destinations. What cost a lost email that you never know a recipient has not seen?

This article is aimed primarily at our cPanel clients, but Microsoft 365 users will find this useful because some of these protocols need actioning in your 365 tenancy. Click open the headers below to browse this article. Click on images to view at full-sized resolution.

Why do these protocols matter?

Without these protocols, email that you send is prone to being rejected because it does not pass stringent tests to make sure that the right email ends up in people’s Inboxes. Business users are more susceptible because many of their contacts already rely on higher levels of security than residential users.

The biggest single question we are posed by clients in 25 years of support is “why aren’t my emails getting through?”. Apart from a badly spelled email address, the answer is that their email service is not providing adequate security. Protocols like SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC help to get your emails to someone’s Inbox. Without these protocols, more of your outging email ends up in a recipients spam folder. Worse, an important email might be dropped before reaching a recipient, and you would not know the email has failed. This is disastrous in business.

Self serve guides for implementing email protocols

Your web server has been optimised for delivering your web pages. If email is included in your package, we have made sure that an email server is enabled. However, like flat pack furniture, your email server is minimally configured.

So, you need to make modifications to your domain name which only you can do as owner, unless you have paid us for email configuration or ongoing support. All of these protocols are enabled on your server. However, since they require manual edits to your domain name’s zone records they cannot be implemented automatically.

If you do not have expert in-house IT skills, consider our email configuration service and ongoing support plans. We are glad to quote on request.

Configuration guides

Use the “self-serve” guides linked below to implement SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC. Implement the protocols in the order listed:

Tips and tricks

some protocols may take up to 24 hours to resolve
read through each guide before starting
monitor email for a week or so before enabling the next protocol
document what you do with screen shots

Bear in mind that changes made to domain names happen in real time, and errors can cause web site and email outages that could take up to 72 hours to restore. If in doubt, contact us first.

Summary

Email is vulnerable to malicious attacks that pose risks to your online identity, reputation, and hijack. Implementing SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC helps to ensure that your outgoing email reaches recipients.

Implementing these kinds of services is challenging without experience. If you do not have expert in-house IT skills, consider our email configuration service and ongoing support plans. We are glad to quote on request.

Create a new email address with cPanel

by Steve Galloway | Jul 2, 2025

Set up a new email account

Set up email accounts using cPanel’s email module. You can create new email accounts and manage multiple users with cPanel’s extensive utililties.

See our other articles about email to plan email storage quotas, ongoing management, and security implementation like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. For advice, we can help you design policies and procedures.

Click on the headers below to learn how to create an email account. Click on images to view at full resolution.

Create a new email account

Log into your cPanel web server home page

open your web browser
navigate to the URL in your web server info sheet
enter your credentials and click <Enter>

Navigate to cPanel’s Email module

look for the <Email> section on the cPanel home page
click on <Email Accounts>

cPanel’s email module features tools for implementing your email policies.

Create your new email account

In your Email Account menu, click <Create> to add a new account

Important Note: when your server is built, it is programmed with a system account. This is for admin use and should not be used for daily email activity. For instance, your System email account is necessary for establishing a centralised address book, shared calendar, and system functions.

Fill in the following fields:

Username: Enter the part of the email address before the @ symbol (e.g. info for info@your-domain.com)
Domain: Select the domain for the email address if you have multiple domains
Password: Enter a strong password or use the “Generate” button to create one
Storage Space: Set the mailbox quota (default is 1GB)
Click <Create> to set up the email account

Using a new email account

cPanel provides a fully featured Webmail utility. Users can access this by pointing their web browsers to the URL detailed in your web server info sheet.

Your web server provides utilities to configure devices to user’s email accounts. Users should configure email using IMAP to permit multi-device access.

Your web server provides email auto-configuration files for popular email clients. Users can download the files to execute from their Webmail preference pages.

Summary

cPanel provides a complete suite of tools to create email accounts and a webmail service for users to manage their email with.Also, the system email account can be used to create a centralised contact list which is an important GDPR consideration. The system account can create shared calendars too.

Email does not look after itself and ever changing threats require ongoing attention to protect you from email storage overruns and risks like blacklisting which could prevent you and your users sending email.

Read this article for more guidance on email management

For expert help about email policies and fully supported management, please contact us for help.

How to use cPanel Web Disk

by Steve Galloway | Jun 22, 2025

cPanel Webdisk

Use cPanel Web Disk as a Cloud storage facility for your documents and files. Create Web Disk accounts in cPanel and save connections in your devices as network drives to provide access on your local devices.

Click on the headers below to find out how to use cPanel’s Web Disk module. Click on images to see in full resolution.

Plan a Web Disk folder structure

Web disk is a useful resource for saving files for access from computers and mobile devices that have been configured to connect to Web Disk user profile. Some organizations use the utility for off-site file backup.

Create a folder structure with user accounts

First, plan a folder structure (directory in Linux parlance) that can scale as your needs grow and change. For instance, you might create a user account for Accounting, and a user account for Marketing. This way, you can control how staff connect to the right files. Web Disk may be a useful mechanism for backing up local files, too.

Next, create a “sandbox” account to test account creation and connectivity. Then, you ca establish user accounts in cPanel and download connection scripts which can be installed on desired devices.

Your server can generate cconnection scripts that you can install on devices to create a permanent connection to files from computers and mobile devices.

Secure data transfer

Connections between your web server and connected devices leverage your web server’s SSL certificate. This means that your connected computer can connect to a Web Disk drive so that the Web Disk location appears in Windows File Explorer or Mac OS Finder. If you need to connect to multiple Web Disk accounts, download a script for each account you have privileges to connect to.

File sharing

Modern approaches to file sharing reduce the risk of duplication and version problems that have plagued workgroups in the past. Solutions like Microsoft 365 provide GDPR-compliant utilities to control versions and multi-user editing in real time. Web Disk does not include these kinds of tools.

There are third party add-on solutions that expand file sharing options for Web Disk to emulate Microsoft 365’s capabilities. Be aware that Web Disk may not be a suitable for you if your organization relies on version control and simultaneous multi user editing.

Create a new Web Disk account

Only the web site owner can create Web Disk Accounts. Log into cPanel using the data sheet we have provided you with and navigate to Files > Web Disk. Click open the utility.

Leave your primary user account alone

When you open Web Disk, you will see that a user account is already established. Leave this primary account alone. Your primary Web Disk account has access to all directories on your web server, including your web site pages and database. Sharing credentials for the primary accounts which poses a catastrophic risks if shared.

Instead, adding accounts makes it is easier to manage and revoke access for individual users without affecting the primary account. Also, creating a hierarcy of accounts helps you track/change/remove users and privileges.

Add an account

Scroll down the Web Disk page and click open Create an Additional Web Disk Account
Fill in the fields, including user name and permissions
Use the recomended directory location
Enable <Digest Authentication> (for Windows users)
Review the account privileges and click <Create>

Edit new and existing accounts under the <Manage Additional Web Disk Accounts> heading

Download and install connection script

Once your account is created you can edit properties, change passwords, and download connection scripts for that account. Distribute connection scripts to users or devices that need connecting to the account.

To install the installation script, click on the downloaded file and follow the prompts. When you enter your login credentials you will need to enter the full syntax for the account (e.g. marketing@my-server-name, not “marketing”). This will connect you to your web disk account on your web server. In future, you will find a link to your Web Disk account in File Manager or Finder.

Your server can generate connection scripts that you can install on devices to create a permanent connection to files from computers and mobile devices.

If you are connecting to multiple folders, download a script for each account. Also, if you are the web site owner, you have automatic privileges to all directories on your server.

Summary

Web Disk provides a simple centralised file management system. Using Linux “user” privileges, you can create a directory hierarchy to manage user or device access to “departmental” files.

Web Disk does not natively provide multi-user real time editing or document version options. You can use add-on software to improve functionality. You may need to develop an in-house system to notify workgroup users when a file they may want to edit is already being edited by another user. As files become more widely shared and/or users need to collaboratively edit documents, consider Microsoft 365 to address workgroup needs.

Web disk might be a good way to back up files stored on premises. However, if Web Disk is your primary file location, be aware that backup remains your responsibility and you should implement a workflow within your GDPR documentation to manage backups.

For expert help about Webdisk, and fully supported management please contact us.

How to back up your web server with cPanel

by Steve Galloway | Jun 17, 2025

Backup vs Backup Wizard

Use our cPanel utilities to backup and restore web site data content, databases, and other data on your web server.

cPanel backup utility provides workflows for backing up and restoring web site and email content

Using cPanel’s Backup utility, you can select from data sets we have already backed up and download the files to your local drives for safekeeping.

Using cPanel’s Backup Wizard utility, you can design your own backups. You can backup some or all or your content. Also, you can backup incremental backups which are useful when you only need to backup minor changes since your last full backup. You can store your files locally, restore them to your server, and you can use the content when migrating to a new server.

Click on the headers below to find out how to use cPanel Backup and Backup Wizard. Click on images to view full size.

Download Backups using cPanel Backup

og into your web server’s control panel – we call it cPanel. You can find how to log into your services from the web server data sheet we have provided you with.

At your cPanel dashboard, either search for Backup or scroll to the section called Files and click on the optin called Backup.

About cPanel Backup

cPanel BAckup lists backups that are already made and stored on your web server. These are available in a pulldown list, including full and partial backups, that you can download. The list includes backups that we have executed as we deal with daily mantenance. You can download these backups,

Export backup from server

We recommend that you download backups to your local drives, and you can find help for copying backups at datacneter speeds to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. Also, to conserve space and improve web page delivery speeds, not that we rotate backups so that (at time of writing we only maintain the two latest backups.

About Restore

In cPanel Backup, there is an option to restore backups. If you are resroting full and partial backups, be aware that you should restore data sets in date order, starting with the earliest date stamp.

Create backups and restore with Backup Wizard

Use cPanel Backup Wizard to create and download backups. Also, you can restore backups using this option.

Backup Wizard – more options

Backup Wizard offiers more granularity, giving you the option to select individual data sets, like your WordPress site, or your MySQL database which attaches to your WordPress site, or your email. Also, you can execute partial backups if changes that you have made to your web site are minimal.

Using Backup Wizard you can create your own backup profile. Downloading files that we have created may limit what you are able to do.

Summary

cPanel’s backup utilities have proven to be reliable, however a lot of things can go wrong with backups. Your server might backup files accurately, but the data could be corrupted as it is saved because of a power brownout. Or, data might be damaged in transit as the data set is transferred elsewhere. So, although we take “snapshots” of your web site, they are not guaranteed, and we only keep update that are current over the last 2-4 weeks.

Therefore, you should only rely on our working backups as part of your risk management. Professionals use an array of tools to provide duplication and/or availability. In some case, professionals mirror two or more geographically remote servers to cover a primary server failure. In some cases, this is economical and we can implement these kinds of services.

You can protect against a single point of failure failure by developing a strategy which covers two or more methods to secure data. For instance, your web designer may keep backups. Usually these conserve work in progress so that there is a “last known working state”. You might need to maintain a longer history of backups.

Your web designer will be glad to discuss backup strategies with you because you might mutually and economically share utilities and avoid extra cost. Also, we are always glad to help if you do not have a professional developer but need advise about strategy and products.

Microsoft Outlook Categories

by Steve Galloway | May 28, 2025

Microsoft Outlook's "Categories" Feature

Use Microsoft 365 Categories to organize and manage your Outlook email, calendar, contacts, and tasks.

Tag your Outlook content with Categories to visually distinguish projects and priorities with colour-coded tags to visually differentiate content at-a-glance.

Find things fast with Categories

Categories help you visually target important content in your ever-growing email folders, calendars, and more. Also, you can search across Outlook for emails, events, and tasks that are tagged with the same category. Used in a well planned scheme, you can use categories to filter an Inbox to create virtual folders on demand. This avoids duplicated content in unwieldy folder structures which leads to broken email threads and lost attachments.

Click on the headers below to find out how to create and customize your categories. Click or tap on images to see in full screen.

What are categories for?

Outlook Categories help you organize and manage email, contacts, calendar events, and tasks. For instance, instead of moving or copying emails to folders, you can keep emails in your Inbox and tag emails with categories. This way, you can filter your Inbox on demand to show one or more categories.

Categories reduce confusion

In situations where an email is saved in two folders which might lead to multiple email threads for the same message, it is more efficient to keep the original email in your Inbox and assign two categories to that email.

Using tags you can:

create category names and colours
tag and group related emails
organize your calendar events by type, such as meetings, personal appointments, or deadlines
group your contacts as family, friends, colleagues, or clients
organize your tasks by project, priority, or status

Enter the name of a category you want to filter in “search” and turn your Inbox into a dynamically generated folder which lists activty associated with the tag. e.g all items tagged with “Brian” in this screenshot.

Categories are usually used at an individual level. However A shared email account would rely on categories established for that account. Uniform categories can be established at an organizational level. This requires adminstrator-level knowledge.

How to create and manage tags

Use this workflow to start creating and customizing your tags:

create a new email in Outlook
click open the <Categories> dropdown list.

Outlook always lists a few categories. These are intended as a starting point. In the illustration below notice that there are user-defined categories instead of the defaults. This means Outlook’s original categories have been customized, and new categories added to the user’s library. Notice towards towards the bottom of the list the options for creating, edit, and showing categories. Click on <New category> to create a new category.

Use <all categories> to view categories. You can use the <search> field at the top of the dropdown box to pinpoint categories. Once you create a category, the same tag can be used in Email, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks.

Editing and managing categories

You can edit existing tags to change names and colours. In any email composition and calendar event windows, pull down the <categories> dropdown menu and click open <Manage categories>. Her you can “fave” categories, and you can click on the pencil icon to edit category properties. In the image below, clicking on the pencil in the DNS/web row would open the properties for that category.

Planning Categories

Exit strategies matter. Plan a structure for your categories to avoid duplication and confusion. Unchecked, category libraries can become so large that users forget what categories they already have.

For instance, if you are tagging customers, it might makes sense to have a category for “customer”, but also a drill-down or sub-heading category called “customer”-“customer surname-initials”. For example, a <heading>-<sub-heading> category might look like:

customer-smith-a

This way “customer” is a global header, and the other fields are sub heading. Organising a strategy for categories helps you manage your list as it grows. This can be likened to departments, which is a common feature in charts of accounts.

Summary

Outlook Categories add a flexible and visual way to keep your Outlook items organized, making it easier to manage and search your communications and schedules as your database grows.

Categories are intended for individual use, but organizations might opt to have individual users follow a common colour-coding theme and defined list defined by a manager to adopt in their own instance of Outlook. Categories can be established at organizational level. This requires administrator level implementation.

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