Setting up SMTP in Outlook

Outlook can send outgoing mail through 2Mail as soon as you point the outgoing server (SMTP) of your account at our relay. You need three things from your 2mail account: the server name, an SMTP login and its password. Your incoming mail stays exactly where it is.

What to have ready

• the server name shown in your 2mail account
• an SMTP login created in the dashboard for this application — use a separate login for Outlook, so you can revoke it later without stopping your web shop or CRM
• the sender address you want to use; its domain must be added as a sending domain in your account

Step 1: open the account

Open the account settings in Outlook and pick the email account whose outgoing mail should go through 2Mail. Choose a manual or advanced setup: automatic detection will not find our relay, because it is not tied to any mailbox domain.

Step 2: fill in the outgoing server

In the outgoing server (SMTP) field, enter the server name from your 2mail account. Set the port to 587 and the encryption to STARTTLS. If your Outlook does not offer that combination, update it: 2Mail sends over port 587 with STARTTLS only. Never use a connection without encryption.

Step 3: sign in to the outgoing server

Tick that the outgoing server requires authentication and choose to enter a separate username and password. Fill in the SMTP login and password from your 2mail account here — not your mailbox credentials. This is the step most often missed: Outlook then tries to sign in to our relay with your mailbox password, and that is refused.

Step 4: test

Save the settings and send a test message to an address outside your own domain, for instance a private address. Then look in the 2Mail dashboard: the message shows up within seconds in the delivery log with the status returned by the receiving server. That tells you at once whether the connection works and whether the message was accepted.

If the message does not leave

• Authentication failed — check that you are using the SMTP login and not your mailbox details, and that the login has not been revoked.
• Sender rejected — the domain of your sender address is not yet added as a sending domain, or the SPF and DKIM records are not in place yet. See SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
• Timeout — a firewall or antivirus is blocking port 587. Have that port opened on your network.

How the relay works behind the scenes is explained on how an SMTP relay works.

Still stuck?

Send us a screenshot of the error and the time of your test via contact. We look in the log with you and tell you exactly what is missing.