/webmail asks users for "username" not "email address"... why?

[ryno267]

When you or a client of yours goes to http://theirdomain.com/webmail

You'll get a popup asking for a USERNAME and a password... Now us as computer people understand you need to enter the FULL EMAIL address as your username. But what most people don't understand is that "full email address" == "username" (at least in this case).

So my question is this...

Why doesn't Cpanel change that "Username" to "Email Address" in the code... and if they can't can I?

It just comes down to a usability issue. Make it easier for normal people...

thoughts?

 

[-jdk-]

Your main account you would enter just your username and password. For any addon email accounts the username is the full email address.

 

[ryno267]

yes... this I understand...

I'm just asking why cpanel didn't make an individual login for /cp and one for /webmail that would incorporate different form information for better "client understanding". Not all hosted clients get the fact that 'username' (in the case of /webmail) is the same thing as "enter your email address". Other than having an FAQ for the same damn question it would be nice to change that, but since they use one unified login box - that would be hard.

like a small want for a future release if anything.

 

[sparek-3]

This really has more to do with your browser and its interpretation of the data sent back to it.

When you try to access /webmail this is a restricted area. You must validate yourself, prove to the server that you should access this area, by providing a matching username and password. It just so happens that the username in this case is the e-mail address you are wanting to check.

This is just like password protected a directory. You can't change it to where it asks for something other than a username and password. There's just nothing that can be done to change this. In order to change this, an entirely new response code would have to be implemented into HTTP and browsers would have to be rewritten to respond to this code differently. Its just not worth it, not for just one use.

The plain and simple of it is that you need to inform your end users how to log into webmail. If your end users are unwilling to read or comprehend your instructions, then there's just not a whole lot you can do. You need to tell your end users to use the complete e-mail address as the username when logging in via webmail. It is then up to them to log in correctly if they want to check their e-mail.

 

[ryno267]

doh

Well I guess there is always the method of rerouting /webmail to the squirrelmail location and editing the squirrelmail login page...

 

[electric]

Yes, I do not believe you can change the "username" text... as it is dependent on the browser. The only thing you can change is the "login message".

 

[Marty]

You could use WHM tweak settings to use cookie based login. Will that affect the webmail login? I don't know. But even if you change it from username to email address, then what happens when the client wants to login to his default email address? He will get a login box that asks for his email address when he should only enter the username.

 

[casey]

You can't change the words "username" or "password", but you should be able to change the resource name. In other words, you could change the name of "WebMail" at the top to say, "WebMail - Enter your full e-mail address in the username field"

I have no idea where this code lies, though.

 

[casey]

You could use WHM tweak settings to use cookie based login.

That will work.

 

[SageBrian]

either way, you can't program for everybody's laziness or incompetence.

If you say enter 'email', then those using the main account will be confused.
And, remember that it may be case sensitive. Do they use CapLock? oops

Though I respect that not everyone is a geek and understands following directions, I prefer the option of 'forcing' a little knowledge on the user. This is not learning PHP or HTML, or even understanding what POP3 is.

Imagine if this same attitude of not 'wanting' to learn how to login started back when they were learning to tie their shoes or wipe their butt. A quick lesson, and wow, they can do things themselves.