cPanel

[technodup]

I suppose this comes under 'computers'...

I have a guy who 'manages' an email account. By manages I mean does absolutely nothing except pay the bill and increase the capacity when we get full. By having that admin role does he have access to our emails? And if so is it as simple as changing the pw or with the admin role can he see that too?

I used to semi work in this field but I'm hopeless with this stuff.

[mw88]

If hen has access to the cPanel account, he has access to your emails.

He won't know your password if you change it, but in cPanel there's a button to check email which will log you into Webmail without the password.

Below is a screenshot from one of my servers.

Edited by mw88 on Wednesday 6th January 16:58

[brman]

it might depend how it is set up but on my account yes. I can change passwords for other users, also read the raw text of emails on their account (via the file manager).
I just checked....

[brman]

mw88 said:

Yup - If hen has access to the cPanel account, he has access to your emails.

He won't know your password if you change it, but in cPanel there's a button to check email which will log you into Webmail without the password.

Below is a screenshot from one of my servers.

Oh yes, I forgot about that one. So direct access to everyones webmail.

[technodup]

Thanks, I thought as much.

So in future how do we protect against it?

[brman]

I read some comments that said there was a cpanel settings (something to do with tweeks?) but I cannot find it in my cpanel. It might be worth asking your provider?
Although it does depend on whether your admin is tech savy or not. If they are they probably already know they can read emails via the file browser anyway. I am not sure there is much you can do about that. (although I could be wrong)

[mw88]

It depends on how much control you want - If you just don't trust this guy, move your email to Office365 or Gmail, but they could probably still read your email if they wanted to (Although they probably have better policies in place for employees than some bloke with a cPanel box)

Or get yourself a dedicated server so only you have access to it.

[technodup]

Another question while I'm onto this... essentially the issue is a full mailbox. I wanted to export old emails to archive them but it only allows one at a time, which is worse than useless. It's Roundcube webmail fwiw.

If I was to switch to Gmail or 365 wouldn't I need to export/import existing emails (if I wanted to still access them)?

[brman]

I think you want to use something better than webmail to do that. Something like thunderbird will let you move emails around and store an achive of old emails locally.

eta: I don't know how gmail (we use google mail for business which I think is slightly different) and 365 deal with imap/stmp but I assume they do?

[technodup]

I used to use Thunderbird years ago and had some issue and I think went backwards... last q- am I able to shift over to another client of some type without this guy knowing? Or would I need him to do it for me?

[brman]

Client? eg as in thunderbird instead of webmail? Yes, as long as you know your servers imap/stmp addresses AND you use thunderbird to move the emails to your local machine so they are no longer on the server. Otherwise he can still read them via webmail as he can now.
Also, he can still read your emails in your inbox if he gets to them before you do and move them.

[brman]

btw, I don't know if this is clear to you but webmail is just an email client that is used via a browser. Not really any different to thunderbird in that respect.
Emails are stored on your server (normally using IMAP protocol for access) unless you specifically remove them.
So, in normal use, any client will just display emails (that are on the server) and send mails via that server (sent emails (ie your sent folder) also being stored on the server). Even if you put emails in folders, they still stay on the server unless you specify otherwise.
So whether you use thunderbird, webmail, gmail client etc makes not difference, any emails on the server can still be accessed by another client. ie your guy with webmail via cpanel.
I suggested a local client like thunderbird purely because it allows you to move the emails to a local folder which webmail (or any other client) will not have access to.It also gives you an easy way to archive them - just backup the local folder.

Sorry, if this is teaching you to suck eggs, just wanted to be sure we were on the same page

[bmwmike]

mw88 said:

It depends on how much control you want - If you just don't trust this guy, move your email to Office365 or Gmail, but they could probably still read your email if they wanted to (Although they probably have better policies in place for employees than some bloke with a cPanel box)

Or get yourself a dedicated server so only you have access to it.

They may still read your email but at least they fess up to that in the privacy policy haha.

[buggalugs]

365 admin can still read everyones emails if they want to although there is more auditing on that platform. Ultimately you need to be able to trust your IT admins.

[HantsRat]

The server admin will mostly always be able to ready emails. I would suggest you setup your email on MS365 yourself then only you can access this (And Microsoft if they wanted to)

[HantsRat]

technodup said:

Another question while I'm onto this... essentially the issue is a full mailbox. I wanted to export old emails to archive them but it only allows one at a time, which is worse than useless. It's Roundcube webmail fwiw.

If I was to switch to Gmail or 365 wouldn't I need to export/import existing emails (if I wanted to still access them)?

This is easy to do. Simplest way is the following:
- Setup your email account using Outlook
- Download all email
- Export as PST
- Set up new email address on new system (MS365)
- Change MX records
- Setup new blank email account in Outlook
- Import from PST
- Wait for sync to server

Job done

[NGRhodes]

HantsRat said:

technodup said:

Another question while I'm onto this... essentially the issue is a full mailbox. I wanted to export old emails to archive them but it only allows one at a time, which is worse than useless. It's Roundcube webmail fwiw.

If I was to switch to Gmail or 365 wouldn't I need to export/import existing emails (if I wanted to still access them)?

This is easy to do. Simplest way is the following:
- Setup your email account using Outlook
- Download all email
- Export as PST
- Set up new email address on new system (MS365)
- Change MX records
- Setup new blank email account in Outlook
- Import from PST
- Wait for sync to server

Job done

Better to use the web interfaces of an existing account of Gmail/Office 365, both Gmail and Office 365 allow connections to pop/imap accounts and can slurp all the emails off directly.

[technodup]

NGRhodes said:

HantsRat said:

technodup said:

Another question while I'm onto this... essentially the issue is a full mailbox. I wanted to export old emails to archive them but it only allows one at a time, which is worse than useless. It's Roundcube webmail fwiw.

If I was to switch to Gmail or 365 wouldn't I need to export/import existing emails (if I wanted to still access them)?

This is easy to do. Simplest way is the following:
- Setup your email account using Outlook
- Download all email
- Export as PST
- Set up new email address on new system (MS365)
- Change MX records
- Setup new blank email account in Outlook
- Import from PST
- Wait for sync to server

Job done

Better to use the web interfaces of an existing account of Gmail/Office 365, both Gmail and Office 365 allow connections to pop/imap accounts and can slurp all the emails off directly.

That sounds like a plan, because Roundcube doesn't allow me to dl any email in bulk, or at least nowhere I can find. It's one at a time only.

Thanks for all the suggestions above.