Cerberus Mail - Webmail User Guide
- Cerberus Networks Support (Unlicensed)
Download Guide as PDF
Before you start
This guide assumes that:
You have your Username, e.g. 'random@example.com', and Password, e.g. Pass28Word, to hand.
You have access to a functioning web browser, connected to the internet (e.g. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari etc).
Accessing your Cerberus Mail Webmail
Open up your favourite web browser, e.g. Firefox or Internet Explorer, and in the address bar at the top, type in: http://webmail.cerberusmail.co.uk – and then press Enter.
You will be presented with the following page:
You should already have been given your username and password details before receiving this guide. Typically, your username is the same as your email address, e.g. 'random@example.com'.
Type in your username into the Username box, and your password into the Password box. Feel free to tick the Remember Username box if you are going to be accessing your Cerberus Mail often from this particular computer – it will save you having to type in your username details every time.
Overview of Email Section
The E-Mail Section is split into 3 major areas:
Folder List – this is where you can see all the folders within your mailbox, e.g. your Inbox, Sent Items, Spam.
Message List – this is where you can see all the messages within the folder you are viewing. In the screenshot above, you can see that the Inbox is selected, and that it is currently empty.
Preview Pane – this is where you can read messages that you have selected from the Message List.
At the top of the screen, you can see two rows of buttons – the Shortcut Toolbar and the Actions Toolbar – please note that the labels corresponding to these toolbars have been added to the picture above for clarity, but will not be present in your own mailbox.
The Shortcut Toolbar allows you to easily navigate to the three different sections of your mailbox – the E-Mail section, Address Book section and the Control Panel section. It also has a fourth shortcut, Logout, which when clicked, will log you out of your mailbox. The Shortcut Toolbar is present regardless of which section of your mailbox you are currently in.
The Actions Toolbar changes depending on which section of your mailbox you are currently in. In the E-Mail section, pictured above, there are seven Actions that can be performed.
From left to right, these actions are: Check for New Messages; Create a New Message; Reply to the Message; Reply to All (sender and all recipients); Forward the Message; Move Message to Trash; and Print this Message.
Creating a new message
Click on Create a new message on the Actions Toolbar. You will then be presented with the following screen:
There are five major areas in the message creation screen:
Sender – this will automatically be filled with your mailbox’s default e-mail address.
Recipient – this is where you type in the e-mail addresses of the people you are sending your message to. On the right hand side of this area are two small buttons – Cc and Bcc – which can be used to Carbon Copy and Blind Carbon Copy your message to different people.
Subject – the subject line of your message.
Message Box – this is where you type the main body of your e-mail message.
Attachments – click on the plus-sign icon to find and attach files to your message.
As you can see, the Message Box includes a number of formatting options in a toolbar similar to that found in most e-mail and word processing programs, e.g. changing font and font size, bold/italic/underline etc.
When you are done with your message, click on Send the message Now, which can be found just underneath the Message Box. Or, of course, you can click Cancel if you wish to cancel your message.
Messages you send are automatically stored in your Sent Items folder in your mailbox, and can be perused from the main E-mail Section.
Control Panel
Click on Control Panel on the Shortcut Toolbar. You will then be presented with the following screen:
The Control Panel Section is split into 4 major areas:
WebMail – this is where you can see the general settings for your account, e.g. Language, Time Zone, Rows Per Page (how many emails you see per page in the E-Mail Section).
Mailbox – this is where the majority of your account settings can be configured, e.g. Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, Whitelists, Autoreply.
Folders – this is where you can create new folders within which to organise your mail.
Identities – this is where you can change certain settings for your outgoing mail, e.g. your Display Name, Signature
The WebMail tab contains a number of options pertaining to user preferences, such as the language that the webmail service will be displayed in. There will generally be no need to alter any of these options.
The Mailbox and Folders tabs will be explained in the following sections.
Control Panel – Mailbox – Protection Section
Click on Control Panel on the Shortcut Toolbar. Then, from the tab menu, click on Mailbox, and then on Protection in the secondary tab menu. You will be presented with the following screen:
This section allows you to configure your anti-spam and antivirus settings.
There are quite a few options within this section, and a brief explanation follows:
Filter Sensitivity – This setting determines how stringent the spam filter will be. A Low setting will probably let a lot of actual spam through to your inbox, while catching some obvious spam. A setting of Extreme will let through very little spam. However, there is a small chance that valid emails will be caught at this level. Play with the settings until your you find the level right for you.
Handling Detected Spam – You can handle spam in three ways:
a. Spam Folder will move messages into a spam folder that you can access via webmail or IMAP (if enabled on your account).
b. Inbox with header X-Spam: Yes will deliver the message as normal to you but with an extra message 'header'. Headers contain content about the message but are not normally visible to the end user. This method allows you to use your mail client’s filtering rules (e.g. Outlook Rules) to download the message and move it to a local folder.
c. Inbox with [SPAM] at the start of the subject will deliver the messages as normal with [SPAM] in front of the subject. It also includes the extra header detailed above.Spam Deletion – If you find yourself checking a large spam folder for 'false positives', you can have us automatically delete spam that is caught at a lower sensitivity. So, if you set this option to Delete Spam That is Detected by the ‘Low’ sensitivity filter, and have your standard filter setting set to ‘Extreme’, all messages detected by the ‘Low’ filter will be automatically deleted, leaving a much smaller number of messages to check in your spam folder.
Anti-Virus Settings – When antivirus is enabled, all inbound and outbound messages will be checked for viruses. Upon detection of a virus, we will handle the alert according to one of the following options:
Send me a Notification will send a short email to you, alerting you to the fact that a message was infected. A repair will be attempted, but cannot be guaranteed.
Treat notifications as spam will handle the notification sent to you by the virus scanner as if it were spam, e.g. if you have your spam set to automatically go to your spam folder, then virus notifications will automatically go into your spam folder.
Do not send me any Notifications will cause the virus scanner to operate silently – detecting and attempting to repair viruses, but not notifying you in any way that a virus has been detected or dealt with.
Control Panel – Mailbox – Security Section
Click on Control Panel on the Shortcut Toolbar. Then, from the tab menu, click on Mailbox, and then on Security in the secondary tab menu. You will be presented with the following screen:
If you are sending your email through our servers, the Auto Whitelist feature will automatically add every recipient of your emails to your Whitelist. This means when they reply, they avoid our anti-spam filtering which means less chance of a 'false positive' (when a genuine email is caught as spam).
If you find that a particular contact keeps ending up in your spam folder, you can add them to your Whitelist. Doing so will cause all email from the contact to bypass the spam filter, regardless of content or origin, guaranteeing delivery to your inbox.
Conversely, if you find that a particular address keeps sending you spam that is not being blocked by the system, you can add it to your Blacklist. Doing so will cause all email from that address to be deleted.
Control Panel – Mailbox – Autoreply Section
Click on Control Panel on the Shortcut Toolbar. Then, from the tab menu, click on Mailbox, and then on Autoreply in the secondary tab menu. You will be presented with the following screen:
Autoreply can respond to messages on your behalf. This feature is commonly referred to as Out of Office Autoreply.
To enable Autoreply, you need to specify:
Your Name – Not your email address, but your regular personal or business name, as you would like to appear to people who receive autoreplies, e.g. Mr Random Person.
Your Email – The email address you would like your autoreplies to come from, which would typically be your standard email address, e.g. random@example.com.
Subject – The subject of the email, e.g. ‘I am currently out of the office’.
Message – A short message, e.g. ‘I’m currently out of the office. I will be back in the office in 10 days time.’
Please bear the following three things in mind when using the Autoreply feature:
Autoreply will respond once to each unique sender.
A list of people who have received an autoreply will be shown on this page under Last Known Activity.
Every time you disable Autoreply, this history is cleared.
Control Panel – Folders Section
Click on Control Panel on the Shortcut Toolbar. Then, from the tab menu, click on Folders. You will be presented with the following screen:
In the Folders section, you can create and delete folders within your mailbox. You cannot delete the standard folders (Inbox, Drafts etc).
You can subscribe to these folders if your mailbox has been IMAP enabled. Otherwise, they will only show on your Webmail interface.