Email client configuration overview

Add the email address to the panel

You can create a new email address on the Manage Email page. View the Add an email address article for instructions.

Locate your username and password

Once you create an email address, you will have your Username and Password.

Username: This is the part before your domain. For example username@example.com. Your email client may require the full email address to connect, but very often, only the username part is needed.

Password: The password for the user is what you chose when creating the address. The password can be changed at any time on the Manage Email page. View the Change password article for instructions and Passwords article for help choosing a strong password.

Choose POP or IMAP to connect

POP and IMAP are different connection protocols that mail clients use to retrieve email from a server. The following table provides an overview of the differences between these protocols.

Which should I choose?

IMAP is recommended because email is available from any device you choose to connect with and is safely stored on the server.

POP is not recommended because it downloads emails to your local computer, so it's possible they could be lost if something happens to your device.

Configure your incoming hostname and port

Based on your decision to use POP or IMAP, choose the corresponding incoming hostname and port number below.

Back up email if changing from POP to IMAP

Proceed with the following steps if you previously configured your email address in your client to use POP and want to change to IMAP:

1. In your email client, update your hostname and port number to IMAP values.
2. Quit and restart your client.
3. Check your hostname and port settings to confirm IMAP values are now being used.
• If your client updated the hostname and port, you have successfully changed to IMAP and can now view email from any device.
• If your client did not update the hostname and port to IMAP, you'll need to proceed with the following steps.
4. Back up all emails your POP client downloaded to your local computer. Consult your email client's documentation for steps on this process.

   This is important since (depending on the mail client) it's possible any mail previously downloaded to your computer via POP will be deleted after removing the address.

5. After the email is backed up, delete the current POP address from your client.
6. Re-add the address using the IMAP hostname and port.
7. Use the instructions in this article to upload the backed-up emails on your computer to your IMAP account. This is necessary if your old POP configuration did not enable the setting to save the emails on the server.

You have successfully changed to IMAP and can now view email from any device.

Email client errors

If you do not use one of the hostnames above, your client will fail to connect. You may see the following errors:

• Certificate mismatch
• This identity cannot be verified

You should only use the hostnames above to avoid these errors. View this article for further details.

Configure your outgoing hostname and port

Both POP and IMAP use the same outgoing hostname and ports.

Which port should I choose?

Port 465 with SSL is recommended, however some email clients are unable to use this port. If you are unable to use port 465, the next best option is port 587 using STARTTLS.

What is the STARTTLS connection type?

The STARTTLS method connects to the regular SMTP/IMAP/POP port and then upgrades the connection to TLS by sending a STARTTLS request.