Stands for Post Office Protocol. This allows you to create and setup numerous email accounts whose addresses will read something like any_name@your_domain_name.com

Depending on the web hosting deal you get, you may be offered anywhere from 1 email account (find another web host) to 750 email accounts (pretty good) or more.

A good web host should also offer support for email aliases, email forwarding, autoresponders and a catch all email account.

•An email alias is a nickname that you can apply to multiple email accounts. For example, if you had ten people in your sales department all with their own email accounts, you could apply the email alias "sales" to all their accounts. Hence if someone sent an email to sales@your_domain_name.com, everyone in your sales department would receive a copy of that email.

•Email forwarding allows you to have a copy of an email that is sent to a particular email address automatically sent along or forwarded to another email address of your choosing.

•Autoresponders allow you to set up an automated email response whenever email is sent to a particular address.

•A "catch all" email account is a special email account that will receive email addressed to any_name@your_domain_name.com where any_name refers to just that, any name, even non-existent email names.

So let's say your domain name is monkeysonrollerskates.com and the only email address you have configured is:

[email protected]

...and someone mistakenly sends an email to:

[email protected]

Your catch all email account will actually receive this email.

Although catch all email accounts tend to receive alot of spam, they can also be used to filter out spam and can ensure that you will receive all legitimate misaddressed email.