Knowledgebase

These are basic setup instructions for using mail clients with Smiz hosting. These instructions assume your are comfortable configuring your email yourself but just need a little help putting it all together.

Before you start

You must have an email account already setup on the mail server, and you must know the password for the email account. If you do not know your password contact your office administrator or submit a support ticket for password assistance.

If you are a new hosting customer and have not yet setup your email accounts, please see the Knowledgebase notes for cPanel for instructions on setting up email accounts.

What is a mail client?

A mail client is a program on your computer used to send, receive and organize email. Generally users prefer to use a mail client on their primary computer(s) and use webmail to access email when away from their computer. Common mail clients are Microsoft Outlook, Entourage, Mac Mail, Eudora, Mozilla Thunderbird and several others. Some people prefer to use only web based email. If that's you please see the Webmail section of the Knowledgebase.

POP vs. IMAP

POP and IMAP are the two methods available for receiving email with a mail client. POP is generally used if you only check email from one computer or prefer to use one computer to manage and organize all of your email. IMAP is preferred if you check email from multiple computers and devices such as smart phones and PDA's.

With POP the mail client downloads all new email messages from the mail servers inbox and generally puts new messages in your main inbox in your mail client. Once messages are downloaded from the server they are only available from that mail client. When using POP users can create folders within the mail client to file and organize email. *

With IMAP the mail client reads the messages from the mail server and allows you to organize all of your messages in folders that reside on the mail server. Typically the mail client will download the first part of the message so you can see what it is and downloads the rest upon request. This can save on bandwidth but always requires an internet connection to access messages. The big advantage to this is you can have several computers and mobile devices using IMAP they will all sync to the server so they all know what is new, read, unread and deleted. **

* POP can be configured to leave messages on the server. This is okay as long as you have set your mail client to delete those messages within a certain time frame of deletion. If you need to leave messages on the server, you should look into IMAP.

** Webmail also uses IMAP. So if you use IMAP across multiple computers you can see the same messages and folders in all of your mail clients and webmail.

What is SMTP?

SMTP is for sending mail (outgoing). Smiz SMTP servers use port 25 (standard port for SMTP) as well as port 587*. Smiz servers require password authentication for sending. We also support SMTPS (secure SSL) on it's standard port 465. Our SSL Certificate is self signed, causing most email programs to throw an alert asking you to confirm you want to use the server. You are safe to permanently accept this certificate.

* Use this port if your ISP is blocking port 25. See Ports below for more information.

Your settings

Here's a quick summary of what your mail settings should be followed by a more complete explanation below. Note: ALL CAPS are used for items you must replace with your information (i.e. your domain name and your email address).

Username: EMAIL@YOURDOMAIN.COM
Password: PASSWORD
Incoming Mail Server: mail.YOURDOMAINNAME.COM
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.YOURDOMAINNAME.COM
SMTP Authentication: Required
SMTP Authentication Type: Password
SSL: Optional (WE RECOMMEND YES)

Username: You must always use your complete email address for email usernames. example: jondoe@mydomain.com. Simply using jondoe will not work.

Password: If you don't have your password please contact your office administrator or Smiz technical support and we can reset your password. Users can also change their email passwords by logging into webmail.

Incoming POP or IMAP server: This is simply your domain name with 'mail.' in front of it. So if your domain name is yourdomain.com then your mail server would be mail.yourdomain.com (Do not put 'http://' in front of your mail server address or any trailing backslashes or periods, the address should simply be the mail server name).

Outgoing SMTP server: this is the same mail server as your POP/IMAP server.

SMTP Authentication: You must enable this with password authentication to send email through Smiz. In most mail clients this option is either in the advanced sending/SMTP options or in the advanced mail settings section of your setup window. Some mail clients have an option that allows you to use the same settings as receiving mail. You can use that instead of retyping the username and password. If you can receive but can not send this setting is what you messed up!

SSL Encryption: This setting is optional, it does not require any additional settings beyond turning it on. If SSL is enabled all communication between the server and your mail client are encrypted for added security.*

* This is advised if you wish to secure your communication to and from the mail server. It does not encrypt the message itself, only it's transit to and from the mail client and server. When the messages are sent across the internet from one mail server to another the message is in clear text. The main purpose of this feature is to protect usernames and password going across the network, and to prevent mail traffic from being readable while being sent by you (perhaps behind a corporate firewall). If you are interested in encrypting the messages themselves google around for 'Pretty Good Privacy' or PGP. This is a free and very strong encryption systems that can be used for encrypting email.

Ports

In most cases you will not have to adjust these settings. If you continue to have problems sending and/or receiving you can try forcing your ports to their appropriate assignments. Some Internet Service Providers (ISP's) block port 25 in an effort to stop spammers from using non-Commerical internet connections. We have had a small number of Comcast and Qwest DSL customers with port 25 blocked. It is also common for Air Ports, Internet Cafe's and sometimes Hotels will block email port 25. As a work around you can configure your mail program to use SSL over port 465. Smiz also provides the standard Alternate SMTP port 587. If you use port 587 make sure SSL is disabled. If you use port 465 SSL must be enabled.

Below is a list of all email ports supported by Smiz.

Please contact technical support if you need help with any of your settings.

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