Email settings explained
We understand that some of the labels in our integrated settings may seem a little bit daunting if you are unfamiliar with them.
So in this article, we wanted to give you some further insight into these areas. Most importantly we wanted to help point you in the right direction to find the correct details for your email set up.
(Step by step instructions regarding the integrated email set up are explained here for account administrators and here for non-admin users.)
Mail hosts (incoming and outgoing) and Ports
These might look a little scary if you're not familiar with these terms, but actually they're fairly easy to work with once you know where to look. Inputting the correct details is far more important than understanding what they do or mean. The good news is you can usually find them easily, without needing to know anything more than where to look.
In short, these represent the gateways that allow your email to be securely sent and returned through any third party mail client, such Thunderbird, Macmail, a mobile mail app, or of course our integrated email system.
If you want to understand more about these email protocols, a quick google search will return many articles like this one which explain things in more detail.
Where can I find the correct details?
If you are working in a larger business with an IT department, or if you use an outsourced IT service, then contacting them for the correct details is probably your best course of action. This will ensure the details you are using are absolutely correct (in case of any bespoke settings that are in place).
Otherwise, you can usually find your 'mail host' (IMAP for incoming and SMTP for outgoing) and respective 'Port' numbers by looking directly in your email settings. If not displayed directly, there will probably be a link to further support information regarding this.
Failing that, again an internet search is probably your best friend here. With so many providers out there, it's challenging to say the least for us to provide an exhaustive list. However, here are a couple of links for the two providers we encounter most frequently:
If you are not using Outlook.com/Office 365 or Gmail, then you can find the correct settings for your provider with a few simple web searches.
Here are some search phrases to try:
"What are the IMAP settings for [insert your provider, e.g. Gmail]"
"What are the SMTP settings for [your provider]"
For example, at time of writing using the above IMAP search phrase for Gmail, actually produced a top result covering all options including SSL settings:
Note above that the typical format for your mail host will look something like 'mail.example.com' or 'imap.example.com'. Also, just check that the information is provided by a reliable source. If in doubt, a page linking to the support service of your email provider is the best option.
Important
Regarding IMAP: You need to ensure that IMAP is enabled inside your email settings. If not, even with the correct information inserted into the idibu integrated emails settings, the application will not work.
Outgoing authentication
Whether outgoing authentication will be required may depend on your provider, although this can often be controlled within your email settings. A Google search will most likely answer this question for. Alternatively, you can check with your IT department or IT service provider if applicable.
If outgoing authentication is required but not selected, then this error will appear when using the integrated email tool. Selecting outgoing authentication will easily resolve this issue.
Tip
If you are the account administrator, having successfully set up your integrated email we would recommend distributing details of the correct mail host, port and SSL/outgoing auth settings to your users. This may sound obvious, but it will help them greatly in setting up their own integrated email details and reduce the number of queries that come back to you.