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One of the many features of Volusion's e-commerce solution is the inclusion of a hosted e-mail system to accompany your online store. Each Volusion store is allotted a number of e-mail addresses that merchants can configure and use to help manage their online business. Volusion's e-mail system can be accessed through any standard POP client interface (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) as well as through a standard web mail interface (simply enter mail.yourdomainname.com into your browser and log in using your e-mail account credentials).

Some merchants however may have pre-existing, 3rd party e-mail addresses or systems they wish to use in conjunction with their Volusion store instead of those provided through Volusion's e-mail system. Volusion provides users the flexibility to do so if they wish. Configuring your Volusion store to utilize a 3rd party e-mail system is simple. This article will demonstrate how to accomplish this.

Getting Started:

To host your Volusion store's e-mail with a 3rd party simply requires you to obtain the MX records from your choice of 3rd party e-mail hosts and forward them to Volusion. Once Volusion updates your store account with this information, you can use your 3rd party e-mail system as the primary e-mail component for your online store.

What's an MX Record?:

An MX record is simply a specific, network name for any standard, e-mail system that defines the actual location and identity of that system on the Internet. Depending on the e-mail system in question there may be 1 or more MX records you will have to forward to Volusion to use your chosen 3rd party e-mail host.

Note that this method can apply to any, standard, e-mail system available - from other domain hosting systems like godaddy.com to web mail systems like Hotmail and Gmail. For example, Google's Gmail service relies on 7 MX records. Please note that any set of MX records comes with a specific priority number for each individual record:

Please note that the location and listing of an e-mail system's MX record(s) differ from system to system. In most cases, you will be able to retrieve the MX Records from your e-mail host by logging into any web-based account their service provides or by contacting the hosting organization's technical support.

For more in-depth information on configuring domains for use with Gmail and other Google apps, please visit some of Google's online tutorials located here

Sending MX Records to Volusion

To have your Volusion store's e-mail system configured to use your chosen 3rd party e-mail host, simply log into your account at my.volusion.com and create a support ticket. In the ticket, Provide your name, your store domain (if you have more than one store or domain hosted through Volusion), the 3rd party system's MX records and a simple request to have your Volusion hosted e-mail migrated to your chosen 3rd party host.

Once a Volusion support team member has received your ticket, your request will be processed shortly thereafter. You should receive a ticket confirming your store account's MX record update. Please note that as modifying MX records affects a hosted domain, you should allow at least 24 hours to pass before any MX record update can take full effect.

Once this has occurred, you will be able to use your 3rd party e-mail account(s) with your Volusion store.

If you have any further questions or technical issues regarding Volusion's hosted e-mail features, please see Volusion's online Knowledge Base for further assistance or contact Volusion's 24 hour technical support at 1-800-646-3517 or through your account at my.volusion.com