What is a real email account
A real email account is a mailbox with its own username, password and storage on the server. It can receive, store and send mail using a specific identity.
Reviewed:
A mailbox with its own storage
A real email account is a complete mailbox. It has an address, a password, server storage and access through webmail or mail applications such as Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Outlook or a mobile mail app.
For example, anna@example.com may be a real account. The user can receive messages, keep folders, send mail and read the mailbox from several devices when using IMAP.
How it differs from forwarding
A forwarding address does not keep a mailbox. It receives a message and passes it to another address.
A real account keeps its own mailbox. It is useful when you need to:
- read mail through webmail;
- keep folders and history;
- send mail from that identity;
- configure the account on a phone or computer;
- preserve mail even if forwarding rules change.
When to create a real account
A real account is usually the right choice for people or functions that must read and reply to mail directly.
Examples include:
name@company.comfor one person;admin@company.comwhen an archive is needed;support@company.comwhen several people check one IMAP mailbox.
If the address only needs to pass mail elsewhere, a forwarding rule or group may be better.
How PRIMARI handles it
At PRIMARI.NET, real accounts are managed from the domain email service. Each account has an address, password and access configuration.
When configuring the account in a mail application, the username is written with % instead of @.
For example:
Address: info@example.com
Username: info%example.comThis matters for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP login.
When to contact PRIMARI.NET
Contact PRIMARI.NET if you are unsure whether you need a real mailbox, a forwarding address or a group. We can also check whether the account exists, whether the password is correct and whether the issue is in the device configuration.