This is the Websavers mail settings reference. It describes everything you need to access your email accounts hosted with Websavers. This is not a step-by-step guide for your mail application, but it does provide you with the settings to enter in your mail app. If you need a detailed guide to walk you through setting up your mail app, please see our guides page.
Things you will need
- An email account: you must create your email account in your hosting control panel (ex: Plesk) prior to entering in these details in your email app. Note that if you have transferred hosting to Websavers, you will still need to create the email accounts that you previously had set up with the old hosting company in your new hosting panel (unless we have done this for you and provided you with usernames and passwords for email accounts).
- Confirmed access: Ensure you can access your email account using webmail before proceeding with the configuration of your mail program.
- A secure Internet connection: Be sure not to initially configure any email accounts on an untrusted connection such as a public WiFi hotspot. It is safe to access email from an open hotspot once configured for TLS, but it is not safe to initially configure an email account using an open WiFi hotspot.
- An updated mail app and Operating System: Our servers support only the latest in security standards (TLSv1.2+ as of Jan 2022). You must be using the latest version of your mail application to work with this tech. Here is a list of known compatible operating systems and mail apps:
- Apple Mail for Mac [Guide]: Update your Operating System to at least El Capitan - macOS 10.12 - before attempting to configure your mail accounts.
- Apple Mail iPhone/iPad/iPod [Guide]: iOS 11+
- Outlook for Windows* [Guide]: 2013 or newer.
- Outlook for Mac [Guide]: 2011 / macOS 10.12+
- Android Gmail [Guide]: Android 5+
- Thunderbird for Mac/Windows*/Linux [Guide]: 45.6+
*Only Windows 10 or newer is supported. If you are using Windows 7 or 8, this trick might work for you, but is not guaranteed.
Incoming & Outgoing Mail Settings
The following settings are the same for both incoming (IMAP or POP) and outgoing (SMTP) configurations:
- Server or Hostname: If your website is also hosted with us, you can use your domain name. If your website is not hosted with us, you must use your server hostname for this field - see under Options & Alternative Configurations below to learn how to find your server hostname.
- Username: Enter your full email address. For example, if your email address is john@redlightbulbs.com, you would use john@redlightbulbs.com as the username, not just 'john'. Your mail app may enter just the first part for you rather than the full address - make sure you correct that by providing the entire email address.
- Password: Enter your email account password. Note that this password is not your Client Centre or Plesk password, it is unique to the email address as you (or someone else) configured it in Plesk. If you don't know the email account password you can reset it by following the directions found here.
- Authentication: Password, MD5-Challenge-Response (CRAM-MD5), or (Thunderbird only) Encrypted Password. If you see a Cleartext option or simply 'none' this will definitely not work.
Incoming Mail Settings
- IMAP Port: 993 with SSL enabled. You may alternatively use 143 with StartTLS enabled (sometimes just called TLS).
- POP Port: 995 with SSL enabled. You may alternatively use 110 with StartTLS enabled (sometimes just called TLS).
- NEVER try the POP port options unless you are 100% certain that you have selected a POP type connection
- IMAP Additional: Look for an option called "IMAP Path Prefix" (often found under an 'advanced' section in your mail app) and set it to the following in all capital letters: INBOX
- Note: this does not affect connectivity, it only affects the way mail folders appear in your app.
Outgoing Mail Settings
- Port: 587 with SSL, TLS, or StartTLS enabled.
Options & Alternative Configurations
These are a list of other settings you might see in your mail app or alternative configurations. They may be for incoming or outgoing settings or both. These are not common to all mail apps.
- Server Name / Hostname Alternative: You can find the server hostname to use in the Client Centre by logging in, and choosing "Settings" beside the matching hosting plan. Here you will see "Server Name" and, in parenthesies, you will find the hostname to use.
- Automatically manage connection settings: do not enable it. Unfortunately this feature has not proven to be reliable and may change your settings unexpectedly when they should not be changed.
- Secure Password Authentication: do not enable it. The entire connection is secure when using TLS or SSL and so this feature is no longer necessary.
- Use the same username and password as Incoming: go ahead and enable it! This way you won't have to enter your email address and password twice. Or you can enter your username and password for outgoing settings separately.
Troubleshooting
Connection issues with hostnames / server name
For both incoming and outgoing you can use your domain name, but do not use any subdomains (examples: do not use mail.<domain>. Do not use smtp.<domain>. Do not use imap.<domain>).
If you are unable to delete messages
Be sure you have set the IMAP Path Prefix as shown above.
If you are unable to send email
Be absolutely sure that your application is configured to send using the details above over port 587 and that you have authentication enabled such that your full email address and password are provided in the Outgoing Settings.
If you enabled the option "Use the same username and password as Incoming", please try disabling it and entering the username/email and password separately for outgoing settings -- occasionally this option does weird things that it shouldn't do.
Do not use your Internet provider's servers for sending messages. Try quitting and re-opening your email app as well as restarting your computer. If you are still unable to send email, please open a support ticket with the exact error your email application is presenting. Attach a screenshot showing your outgoing email configuration.
