This guide will help company administrators define new email servers and edit or delete existing email servers. To receive emails the Contact system periodically queries an IMAP server. Outbound emails are sent via a SMTP server.
Administrators can define, edit and delete email servers. They can also copy an existing email server which is useful if you want to add a server similar to one you’ve already created and just make slight changes to it.
Set up an Email Server – video guide #
To get started here’s a handy video on managing email servers:
IMAP and SMTP Server #
If you want to send email replies from the same email account that inbound emails are sent to you will need to set up an SMTP server for each IMAP server and ensure the same User setting has been specified for both. See examples:
- Email account is example@test.com. IMAP and SMTP server set up so that when an email arrives via the IMAP server the reply via the SMTP server would also be from example@test.com
- Email account is example@test.com. Set up one SMTP server with email allreplies@test.com for multiple IMAP servers so that when an email arrives via the IMAP server the reply via the SMTP server would be from allreplies@test.com
| Note: For information on the recommended settings to use when configuring an email server, see Email Server recommended settings. |
Storage Folder #
The storage folder is the folder used to store both inbound and outbound emails. When an email server is enabled or modified, the system checks that a storage folder exists. Therefore you need to create the storage folder before configuring the email server settings. The name of the folder you create should be specified in the Storage Folder field when configuring a server.
If you create a server without creating the storage folder when you attempt to save the changes the system will check if the folder exists and display an error if it does not.
| Note: The name of the storage folder must be different to the name specified for the Folder. The default name is ContactStorage. |
How to add a new email server #
For each IMAP server that you set up, make sure that you set up an SMTP server with the same email account (as specified in the User field).
- In the menu bar click Email → Email Servers
- Click Add to view the New Email Server configuration page
- (Mandatory) Select the Server Type from the dropdown
- For inbound email, select IMAP
- For inbound email, emails are retrieved from the IMAP server every 60 seconds. Once processed, the retrieved emails are marked as “read” in the email account on the email server
- POP3 is no longer supported
- For outbound email, select STMP
- For inbound email, select IMAP
- (Mandatory) Enter the Name (up to 200 characters) of the email server
- (Mandatory) Enter the Short Name (up to250 characters) of the email server
- The short name is used to identify where an email is stored. If a company wants to move its stored emails to a different email account, create an email server with the new account details and set the short name to that of the old email account
- Enter a brief description (up to 250 characters) for the email server
- (Mandatory) Enter the host name or IP address (up to 70 characters) for the email server
- For example: smtp-mail.outlook.com
- Specify the port number that is used by the email server
- If you do not specify a port number, the default value is used
- Tick the TLS checkbox to apply Transport Layer Security (TLS) to the connection to the email server
- If this checkbox is not ticked, the email server may automatically switch the connection to a secure mode after the initial connection is made.
- For User, enter the username (up to 225 characters) that is used to log in to the email account on the email server. This is usually an email address
- For inbound email (IMAP servers), this is the destination username/email address that is used to select the appropriate queue.
- For some outbound email (SMTP servers), this will be used as the originating email address
- (Basic authentication only.) Enter the Password that is associated with the email server (up to 255 characters).
- This authorisation method requires a user to enter this password before access is gained to their email account on the email server
- (OAuth2 authentication only.) To reauthenticate a user using OAuth2, tick the Reauthenticate On Save checkbox
- This authorisation method requires the OAuth2 server at the email server to authenticate a user and the user to grant the Contact system access to their email account
- The OAuth2 server sends a URL to the user’s web browser, which opens a web page on the email server’s authentication system. This directly asks the user for their email username and password and requests permission from the user for the Contact system to access their email account on the email server
- If Reauthenticate On Save is enabled (ticked), the authentication step is forced to be carried out again (the user is required to enter their email login details and grant third-party access again) when you make any changes on the Email Server page and then click Save Changes
- For inbound email, enter the Folder for the inbox (up to 255 characters)
- The name of the folder must be different to the name specified for the Storage Folder.
- For inbound email, specify the SNI Server name (up to 225 characters) of the TLS server
- The Server Name Indication (SNI) allows the server to safely host multiple TLS certificates for multiple sites under a single IP address. This is only required if the Host is an IP address, but is optional if the Host is a host name
- (IMAP Servers Only) Tick the Disable Compression check box to ensure the correct algorithm is used for data compression
- This ensures the IMAP client does not try to use the deflate algorithm for data compression (the COMPRESS=DEFLATE extension is not used)
- For inbound email, specify the Storage Folder to associate with this email server.
- This will be the name of the folder used to store emails and must have been created before this stage. Please see more information about the Storage Folder at the bottom of this article
- For inbound email, select the Email Flow to associate with this email server
- For outbound email, you can specify additional Email From Addresses
- More information on additional emails can be found at the bottom of this article
- Tick the enabled checkbox to activate a connection to the email server
- For a connection to be valid, not only must there be a working connection to the email server but also an email flow must be associated with the email server
- If this checkbox is ticked, after you click Add (or Save Changes), the system will immediately try to connect to the email server using these settings
- If the connection succeeds, the message “Connection succeeded” is displayed
- If the connection fails, the message “Connection failed” is displayed, along with an error reason. You can choose either to save your current configuration settings as an inactive connection or cancel your current settings and reconfigure them
- Select the role of the email server, this can either be:
- Agent Email Server – The email server will be used to deliver agent emails
- Template Email Server – The email server will be used to deliver templated emails. These are company-level emails that use a pre-defined template, such as emails for password resets, authentication tokens, and warnings
- Click Add and the new email server will be added
- It may take up to a minute for the system to start using the new email server
| Note: To learn more about how authentication works please visit the How email servers and authentication work article. |
Tips for setting up email servers #
- When an email comes into an email server, the reply to an email will be the email address it was sent to
- If you are using app passwords, basic authentication should be used
- You must ensure your email server (email settings) are enabled to use IMAP and SMTP
Specify which server is used to deliver outbound templated emails #
To change which email server is used to deliver outbound templated emails select the checkbox for the relevant SMTP email server in the Template Serber column of the Email Servers list.
All templated emails from your company, such as password resets and reports, will now be delivered through this SMTP email server, under either the originating email address for the User parameter or one of the Additional Email From Addresses if specified. If no email server is specified to deliver templated emails, the default email server for the system will be used.
| Note: If no email server is specified to deliver templated emails, the default email server for the system will be used. |
Edit or Delete an email server #
To delete an email server:
- Select the appropriate email server in the list
- Click Delete
- Confirm that you want to delete the email server
- The server will be deleted
To edit an email server:
- Select the appropriate email server in the list
- Reconfigure the parameters as appropriate
- Click Save Changes
- The server will be updated
View the status of active email servers #
To view the current status of an active email server, click Status. You will then see a list of the active email servers with their current status displayed.
You can also check the status via the command and status bar at the top of your screen. For more information please see Viewing the email servers’ status.
Additional email addresses for outbound emails #
When an agent needs to send an email, they can select the From Email Address from a dropdown list of the email addresses that you specify during the configuration process. Additional email From addresses are necessary if your company uses multiple SMTP servers (multiple email accounts) for outbound emails to ensure that Contact knows which one to use.
Contact looks for an SMTP server that matches the From address that the email is to be sent from. If the agent does not select an email From address, the username used to log in to the email account on the email server is used, if it is in the format of an email address.
You do not need to specify additional From addresses if your company only has one email account (SMTP server) and the login username for the email server account is an email address from which emails can be sent. If the email account login username is not in the format of an email address, you need to specify an additional From address. However, even with just one email account, you might want to specify multiple From addresses that can be selected by agents for different purposes, for example, one From address to send emails that accept replies from customers and another From address to send emails that do not accept replies (a “noreply@…” email address).
Definitions #
- Server Type: The type of email server. One of: IMAP (inbound email) or SMTP (outbound email).
- For inbound email, emails are retrieved from the IMAP server every 60 seconds. Once processed, the retrieved emails are marked as “read” in the email account on the email server.
- Note: For each IMAP server, there should be an SMTP server with the same email (User) account.
- Name: The name of the email server.
- Short Name: The short name of the email server.
- The short name is used by the Contact system to identify where an email is stored. This will usually be the same email account that initially received the email.
- If a company wants to move its stored emails to a different email account, an email server can be created with the new account details and the short name set to that of the old email account. The Contact system will then look for stored emails in the new email account.
- Description: A brief description of the email server.
- Host: The host name or IP address of the email server.
- Port: The port number that is used by the email server.
- TLS: Whether or not Transport Layer Security (TLS) is applied to the connection to the email server.
- If this checkbox is not ticked, the email server may automatically switch the connection to a secure mode after the initial connection is made.
- Authentication Type: The type of authentication: either Basic or OAuth2.
- User: The username that is used to log in to the email account on the email server. This is usually an email address.
- For inbound email (IMAP), this is the destination username/email address that is used to select the appropriate Contact queue.
- For some outbound email (SMTP), this will be used as the originating email address.
- To ensure that email replies are from the same email account to which the original email was sent, the User setting must be the same for both the IMAP server (inbound email) and the corresponding SMTP server (outbound email).
- Password: (Basic authentication only.) The password that is associated with the email server.
- This authorization method requires a user to enter this password before access is gained to their email account on the email server.
- Reauthenticate On Save: (OAuth2 authentication only.) Whether or not the user is reauthenticated using OAuth2.
- This authorization method requires the OAuth2 server at the email server to authenticate a user and the user to grant the Contact system access to their email account. The OAuth2 server sends a URL to the user’s web browser, which opens a web page on the email server’s authentication system. This directly asks the user for their email username and password (the Contact system never sees these details) and requests permission from the user for the Contact system to access their email account on the email server.
- If Reauthenticate On Save is enabled (ticked), the authentication step is forced to be carried out again (the user is required to enter their email login details and grant third-party access again) when you make any changes on the Email Server page and then click Save Changes.
- Folder: (IMAP servers only.) The folder for the inbox.
- Note: The names for Folder and Storage Folder must be different from each other.
- SNI Server Name: (IMAP servers only.) The Server Name Indication (SNI) of the TLS server.
- It allows the server to safely host multiple TLS certificates for multiple sites, all under a single IP address. It is only required if the Host is an IP address, but is optional if the Host is a host name.
- Disable Compression: (IMAP servers only.) Whether or not the IMAP client uses the deflate algorithm for data compression. If the checkbox is ticked, the COMPRESS=DEFLATE extension is not used.
- Storage Folder: (IMAP servers only.) The name of the folder that will be used to store emails for this email server.
- Both inbound emails and outbound emails that are sent by agents in reply to inbound emails are stored in the storage folder.
- The default name is ContactStorage.
- Note: When an email server is enabled or modified, the Contact system checks that a storage folder exists. For this reason, you need to create the storage folder in the email account before configuring the email server settings on this page, and then specify the name of this folder in the Storage Folder field. When you save these changes, the system checks that the folder exists and displays an error if it does not.
- Email Flow: (IMAP servers only.) The email flow to associate with this email server.
- Additional Email From Addresses: (SMTP servers only.) Additional email From addresses that an agent can select from a dropdown list when they need to send an email.
- Additional email From addresses are necessary if your company uses multiple SMTP servers (multiple email accounts) for outbound emails to ensure that the Contact knows which one to use. The Contact looks for an SMTP server that matches the From address that the email is to be sent from. If the agent does not select an email From address, the username used to log in to the email account on the email server is used, if it is in the format of an email address (see the User parameter above).
- Additional From addresses are not necessary if your company only has one email account (SMTP server) and the login username for the email server account is an email address from which emails can be sent.
- Additional From addresses are required if:
- The email account login username is not in the format of an email address
- Or if your company only uses one SMTP server (email account), but you want to specify multiple From addresses that can be selected by agents for different purposes, for example, one From address to send emails that accept replies from customers and another From address to send emails that do not accept replies (a “noreply@…” email address).
- Enabled: Whether or not a connection to the email server should be active.
- If this checkbox is ticked, the system attempts to connect to the email server using these settings and then shows any responses from the email server. This allows company administrators to know immediately if they have entered invalid settings and provides an idea of what may be wrong.
- Note: (IMAP servers only.) For a connection to be valid, not only must there be a working connection to the email server but also an email flow must be associated with the email server.