Steve Galloway - Comstat | Ruthin, North Wales

Email migration from cPanel to Microsoft 365

by Steve Galloway | Jul 13, 2025

Step-by-step guide

Use our workflow in this article to prepare for email migration from cPanel to Microsoft 365. This workflow explains how to migrate one account. If you have multiple email accounts, we recommend migrating one account at a time. It is possible to migrate an entire email resource, but this is complex and is not recommended unless you have expert in-house IT skillsets. Be advised that this is professional-level work. Your data could be at risk and if you are not confident, please contact us for help.

Click on the headers below to follow our migration workflow. Click on inmages to view at full-sized resolution.

Email migration - overview

Preparation: Gather necessary information and prepare your environment
Backup Emails: Ensure all emails are backed up
Set Up Microsoft 365: Configure your Microsoft 365 environment
Migrate Emails: Transfer emails from cPanel to Microsoft 365
Update DNS Records: Point your domain to Microsoft 365
Verify and Test: Ensure everything is working correctly

Preparatory Steps

1. Gather information:

Delete junk email and deleted items from cPanel email accounts
List and assess email accounts/data volumes to be migrated
Assess broadband to calculate projected download/upload times
Login credentials for cPanel and Microsoft 365 admin accounts
Login credentials for your domain name registrar, or wherever your authoritative domain name’s zone record is managed. In some case this might be handled by your Microsoft 365 tenancy.

2. Backup emails:

cPanel does not have an email migration tool. Instead, use either:

Outlook desktop to download a .pst file of your email account
A paid solution like EML to PST Converter Wizard to export email accounts

3. Setup or review your Microsoft 365 tenancy

Ensure you have the necessary Microsoft 365 licenses
Use the Email Accounts tool to download emails as .mbox or .pst files

Email migration Process

1. Log into cPanel dashboard with your admin credentials

2. Export your emails

Navigate to the Email section
Use the <Email Accounts> tool to download emails as .mbox or .pst files
You may have to use Outlook desktop or a paid third party tool e.g. Bitrecover

3. Log in to Microsoft 365 Admin Center with your global admin credentials

4. Set Up your 365 Migration Endpoint

Go to the Exchange admin center
Navigate to Recipients > Migration > More > Migration endpoints
Create a new migration endpoint using the IMAP server details from cPanel

5. Create a Migration batch

In the Exchange admin center, go to Recipients > Migration
Click on “+” and select “Migrate to Exchange Online”
Choose “IMAP migration” and follow the prompts to create a migration batch

6. Start the migration

Start the migration batch and monitor progress
Once the migration is complete, verify that all emails have been transferred

Update DNS Records

1. Log into your domain name registrar

Access your domain registrar’s dashboard with your credentials

2. Update MX records

Replace the existing MX records with those provided by Microsoft 365
This ensures that new emails are delivered to Microsoft 365

3. Update other DNS records

Update SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records as recommended by Microsoft 365
Review rDNS and edit as necessary

Verify and Test

1. Check Email Delivery

Send test emails to and from the migrated accounts to ensure proper delivery

2. Verify new 365 account settings

Ensure that all email settings and folders are correctly configured in Microsoft 365

3. Monitor for Issues

Keep an eye on the accounts for any issues over the next few day

Summary

These steps will migrate accounts from cPanel to Microsoft 365. Unless you are expert, you should migrate one email account at a time. This affords better scope for stepping back if you encounter issues, and also migration of accounts in bulk require practiced experience.

Large email accounts backups can take a lot of time to download especially with poor broadband, and uploading content can take even longer. Be prepared for some hours of outage if you have large backups and poor bandwidth.

Bear in mind that IMAP is an older technology and it is possible when migrating to Microsoft’s more modern ActiveSync environment, it accounts with large folder may appear corrupted. In this case, creating a new folder and copying content (rather than moving) usually resolves the problem.

If you encounter any issues, Microsoft’s support resources are well documented for additional help.

About ComStat.uk: Internet Service Provider Comstat provides IT support, web hosting, and media services including web design, Microsoft 365 setup, and audio/video production, serving businesses across Denbighshire, North Wales and Wirral from Ruthin, and Lancashire and the Northwest from Bolton.

How to manage a web site contact form

by Steve Galloway | Jul 10, 2025

Contact forms - understand your risk

Website contact forms are a convenient way for visitors to get in touch with you. However, they introduce potentially catastrophic risks that you should be aware of.

Validating form fields helps reduce risk of malicious injection which could hijack or destroy your web site.

Browse this article to explore inherent contact form risks and how to manage them, especially if you are a “self-serve customer. If you do not rely on our optional support, there may be charges for support requests.

Click on the headers below to find out how to find out more about contact form issues. Click on images to view at full-sized resolution.

Malicious infiltration, abuse, and DNS

Web site forms are problematic. It should be easy to display a form that asks for a name, email address, phone number, and message. It is easy to make the form look attractive. However each field in a contact form is an open invitation for a hacker to destroy your web site or orchestrate a bulk email of thousands of emails that you end up bearing the cost of. Without concerted attention, it is a matter of time before a hacker finds a vulnerable contact form.

Contact form problems fall into two areas:

Malicious infiltration and abuse

Contact forms are a significant target for malicious activity. Hackers look for vulnerable contact forms to inject harmful code into your website. Statistically, small businesses are the most frequently exploited victims. Malicious infiltration causes catastrophic trouble like data breaches or site crashes. Common attacks include SQL injection (aka vector attack) or cross-site scripting (XSS). Additionally, spammers might flood your form with junk messages, making it hard to find genuine inquiries.

DNS Issues and Email Validation

When someone submits a contact form message at your web site, the information is often sent to an external email address. If there are issues with your Domain Name System (DNS) settings, these emails will probably be dropped without notice to anyone. Since contact form abuse is such a significant target for abuse, email gateway servers are especially sensitive to improperly validated email headers. This means your email server has to be correctly configured with your web site’s IP address using SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC.

Usually, resolving your DNS for contact form validation needs expert attention and may be beyond the scope of a web designer or in-house expertise. This does not mean web designers do not know their job. Intead, DNS is its own skillset, requires specialised knowledge,and also needs to take account of broader IT processes in your organization.

How to secure your contact form

Here are the three most important things you can do to secure your contact form:

Validate form fields

If you do not restrict the size and content of a form field, anyone can inject source code (an executable program), click <send> and your web server will execute the code which could mean web site destruction or hijacking your identity. Either eventuality is catastrophic and it is easier to do than reading this article.

Therefore, validate fields to limit the length of text. For instance,

<name> fields could be restricted to 20-30 characters
numerical composition of a phone number might have to comply with a special formatting, like aaaaa bbb ccc
email addresses might need to contain “@”, include a valid domain extension like “.co.uk”, and be limited to 40-50 characters
“message” field could be restricted to 150, 250, 350 characters

This is all “client-side” operation. All of these seriously curtail options for hackers.

DNS

DNS is especially problematic. For instance, your email might be handled by your domain name registrar, or Microsoft 365, and your contact form has nothing to do with your organisation’s usual email server.

Usually, your domain name needs to be customised to include the location and characterisitcs of your contact form. This is “server-side”, and actually not even that because often these modifications might need scripting at a domain name registrar. This is what is called DNS, and it is one of the most difficult technologies to handle – even most web designers rely on upstream support for help with DNS.

Regular testing

Test your contact forms regularly. Keeping spam out of email Inboxes is a moving battlefield. The web server itself is not the problem – when instructed, it acts, and in some ways that is part of the problem – it does not know how to discriminate between good and bad content without form validation.

Hackers are creative, and organizations like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo spend billions to keep up with evolving threats. In so doing, new security may render the source code you rely on for your contact form irrelevant, and the contact form programmer might not even know their source code is now outdated. Large organisation pay full time salaries just for someone to manage a contact form – daily. Moving to text-based chat bots is not designed to annoy customers – it is an attempt to avoid contact forms in the first place.

Summary and alternatives

Contact forms require constant owner-maintenance and are subject to ever-changing security threats. Also, because your form is programmed on “client-side” (e.g. in WordPress), owners assume responsibility for secure operation of their contact form.

Even if you undertake the overheads of managing your contact form, your contact form should only be one way for customers to contact you. For example, alternate channels like those below move direct risk away from your web server:

Social media contact options like WhatsApp for Business, Facebook, Insta, etc.
Microsoft 365 Forms or Google Forms, which can be embedded on your web site

Professional DNS annual support available

If you purchased your domain before you began using our servers and you want us to manage your domain for you, we can administer your domain name records (DNS) annually for £75, including periodic updates as they are required. Use the PayPal QR code on our home page for payment, or contact us to arrange invoicing for our DNS service. This is included in optional support arrangements that you may already subscribe to.

Configure SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC for email

by Steve Galloway | Jul 5, 2025

Introduction

Sending and receiving email should be straightforward, but a lot of background checks happen before your organization’s email is delivered reliably and securely. Use this article to activate SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC to make sure your email reaches recipients, and protects your email server from crippling outcomes like dropped email and public blacklisting.

“Undeliverable”: What cost a lost email that you never know a recipient has not seen?

Click open the headers below to learn about email deiverability and “trust”. Please read through this entire article before starting to engage individual modifications to your email server. Changes you make are done so at your risk so be sure to contact us for general advice if you are in doubt. Support options are available for professional assistance. Click on images to view at full-sized resolution.

Why do these protocols matter?

If you do not put a postage stamp on a letter, it probably will not reach its destination, and without a return address you will certainly never know what happened to the letter.

Similarly, without SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC, email that you send will be erratic and unpredictable. This is because industry tools to assess “trust” are not operational. These protocols are like postage stamps. You may think “it has never been a problem before”. Partly this is because when email does not reach a recipient, you know you sent it but the recipient does not know it was supposed to be received.

Everyone has sent an email that has never reached its target. These protocols are why most failures happen, and in business communications…. it matters. The protocols we cover in this article enable your suppliers’ and customers’ email servers to “trust” your email and its “brand”.

“Postage stamps” for email

The one question we are posed by clients in 25 years of IT support more than anything else is the plaintive “why aren’t my emails getting through?”. Hopefully, it is only because of a badly spelled email address. Often, though, the answer is that outgoing email is not sending adequately “stamped” emails with “return addresses”.

Protecting your identity – “trust”

Protocols like SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC are email’s a little bit like postage stamps. When the bar code on a postage stamp is recognized as authentic, the envelope is sent to its destination. Similarly, protocols enable receiving email servers to measure and “trust” the authenticity of your communication. Put another way, these protocols protect your email from being measured as spam or malicious email.

Self serve guides for implementing email protocols

Your web server is optimised for delivering your web pages. If email is included in your package, we have made sure that an email server is enabled with necessary email tools. However, like flat-pack furniture, your email server is minimally configured and the protocols described here need to be aligned with your domain name.

These domain name modifications can only be manually configured by you or your agent. If we look after your domain name, we would configure these modifications within your ongoing support. If we do not have admin privileges for your domain name’s “zone record”, and you have elected against support, then you need to configure your domain name’s zone record.

If you do not have expert in-house IT skills, consider our DNS configuration service and ongoing support plans.

DNS Configuration – Professional support

DNS is awkward technology, even for IT pros. If you purchased your domain before you began using our servers and you want us to manage your domain name records for you, we can still administer your domain name records (DNS) annually for £75, including periodic updates as they are required. Use the PayPal QR code at the bottom of our home page for to send us payment, or contact us to arrange invoicing for our DNS service. This is included in optional support arrangements that you may already subscribe to.

DNS Configuration – self-service option

Use our “self-serve” guides linked below to implement SPF, rDNS, DKIM, and DMARC. There are a few ways to deal with these modifications, and it really depends on how your domain name, and your authoritative nameservers are configured. Read more about deciding where to manage your authoritative nameserver here. So these articles might not be exactly on point for your situations. Again, ask us for advice. Implement the protocols in the order listed:

Tips and tricks

some protocols may take up to 24-72 hours to resolve
read through each guide before starting
monitor email for a week or so before enabling the next protocol
do not make DNS modifications during heavy traffic/important projects
document what you do (e.g. screen shots) so that you have a note of “last known” working state

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, rDNS, 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 called Horde. Access Horde Webmail by pointing their web browsers to the URL detailed in your web server info sheet. Click here to find out more about Horde Webmail/calender.

Your web server provides utilities to auto-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 managing and sharing 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.

Create file links for email

Today, organizations send file attachments using links. Email file attachment links:

reduces email storage costs
reduces bandwidth usage
helps control file version problems
reduces the risk of emails being rejected by recipients who restrict file attachment sizes.

As email users and storage increase over time, organizations of all sizes have to deal with bloat. So it is important to establish a policy to address this looming problem. There are options to do this with Webdisk and add-on software.

Enable file sharing permissions individually

To grant an email recipient access to a linked file, access Webdisk using cPanel File manager, right clicking on a file and changing permissions to 644 and finally right clicking on the file to get a direct link to paste into your email. This is less tricky than it sounds. However, making files publicly accessible over time poses problems over time and may not be suitable for GDPR compliance.

Enable file-sharing permissions at directory level

Files for email attachment can also be stored in a public directory which can be created with 755 permissions. This kind of directory could be called “email attachments” or “shared with everyone. Since sharing permissions are already established, it only remains for a user to get the file link to include in an email. Also, directory contents can be reviewed over time to deal with compliance issues.

Third party add-ons and Webdisk customization

You can use third party apps like Cyberduck to extend Webdisk’s finctionality to include more streamlined file links and more. Also, link expiration policies can be set at server level to control data loss or leakage. Please contact us for help with Webdisk customizations.

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.

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