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Before you start

  • Your mailbox exists, and you can log in to webmail with it. If not, first set up your mailbox.
  • You have your mailbox password. This is different from your Hosting Panel password.

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Your email settings

Use IMAP when you add your mailbox to an email app. IMAP keeps your messages on the mail server, so you can access the same mailbox from your phone, computer, and webmail. Use these settings: Replace example.com with your own domain.
Those are the settings we recommend. If an app needs something different, these are all the options:Some internet providers block port 25 to cut down on spam. If outgoing mail will not send on port 25, use 2525.
Use your full email address as the username. For example, use [email protected], not you. Outgoing authentication must be enabled. Some email apps show the outgoing username and password as optional. Enter them anyway, or choose the option to use the same credentials as the incoming server. Otherwise, you may be able to receive email but not send it. If it is off, sending fails with a 550 error saying the address is not permitted to relay without authentication. That error means this setting and nothing else. Leave Secure Password Authentication (SPA) unchecked. Outlook offers it, but our servers do not support it — your connection is already encrypted by the SSL/TLS port you chose.

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If you get a certificate warning

If your email app shows a certificate warning because the server name does not match mail.example.com, use your server name instead. You can find your server name in the Hosting Panel under Products & Services → Hosting & Servers → Manage. Look for it in the General section. Add your mailbox Most modern email apps can detect the correct settings automatically.
  1. Open your email app and start adding an account.
  2. Enter your full email address and mailbox password.
  3. Let the app search for the email settings.
  4. If the account is added successfully, continue to check if it works. If the app asks for server details or the automatic setup fails, enter the settings manually.

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Enter the settings manually

The names of the options vary between email apps, but the settings are the same.
  1. Choose IMAP as the account type. Some apps call this Other, Manual setup, or Advanced.
  2. For incoming mail, enter mail.example.com, port 993, with SSL/TLS security.
  3. Enter your full email address and mailbox password as the incoming username and password.
  4. For outgoing mail, enter mail.example.com, port 465, with SSL/TLS security.
  5. Turn on outgoing authentication. Depending on the app, this may be called My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication, Outgoing server requires authentication, Requires authentication, or Require sign-in.
  6. Enter your full email address and mailbox password for outgoing mail, or choose the option to reuse the incoming credentials.
  7. Finish the account setup.

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Apple iPhone or iPad

  1. Open Settings → Mail → Accounts → Add Account → Other.
  2. Under Mail, tap Add Mail Account.
  3. Enter your Name, Email, Password, and Description, then tap Next.
  4. Select IMAP.
  5. Under Incoming Mail Server, enter mail.example.com as the Host Name. Enter your full email address as the User Name and your mailbox password as the Password.
  6. Under Outgoing Mail Server, enter the same server, username, and password. iOS labels the username and password as Optional, but enter them anyway.
  7. Tap Next, make sure Mail is turned on, then tap Save.

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Where to start in common email apps

Third-party apps change their menus often, so we do not keep a separate page for each one. The settings above are the same whatever the app calls them — look for IMAP, manual setup, or advanced settings, and the words in the table will map onto the fields it asks for.

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Gmail on the web

Gmail on the web works differently from email apps. It can collect messages from another mailbox using POP rather than IMAP. If you want to send messages from your hosting.com address, Gmail also requires you to confirm the address. Check it worked
  1. Make sure the app finishes the setup without an error and downloads your existing messages. If the mailbox is new, an empty inbox is fine.
  2. Send a message from the app to an address outside hosting.com.
  3. Reply to that message from the external address and confirm that the reply arrives in your email app.
Sending is a common part of the setup that can fail even when receiving works, so make sure you test both.

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If it still does not work

First, test in webmail using the same address and mailbox password. That tells you which side the problem is on:
  • Webmail sends and receives fine — the problem is your app’s settings, not the mailbox
  • Webmail fails too — the problem is the mailbox or the server. See Troubleshooting email accounts
Three settings account for almost every failure: a username that is not the full email address, outgoing authentication left off, and a port that does not match the security setting.
Just migrated to us and Outlook keeps asking for your password? Reset the mailbox password in your control panel and enter the new one in the app. Credentials carried over from a previous host often do not survive the move.
Still waiting for DNS to propagate? Use your server’s IP address as the incoming and outgoing server name to get working immediately, then switch to mail.example.com once the domain resolves.

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