SMTP

What Is SMTP?

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the protocol used by clients to send mail to servers to deliver to recipients. It is also used between servers to transfer mail from one server to another.

How To Use SMTP

Configure your mail client to send mail through the departmental SMTP server, which is mail.ece.ubc.ca. The port number, authentication, and encryption settings depend on where you connect from.

Clients Within the ECE Network

If your mail client always connects to the mail server from within the ECE network, authentication is not required. Use the following settings (which are usually the default):

• Port: 25
• Encryption: none
• Authentication: none

Laptops that sometimes connect from the ECE network and sometimes from the Internet should be configured as external/roaming clients.

External/Roaming Clients

If your mail client sends mail through the ECE mail server from outside the ECE network, the ECE mail server requires your username and password. (This authentication requirement, which is standard practice, protects the mail server from being used as a spam relay by external parties.) Furthermore, to avoid transmitting cleartext passwords, TLS or SSL encryption is required.

Use the following settings:

• Port: 587
• Encryption: TLS (or STARTTLS)
• Authentication: PLAIN

Outlook Express, which does not support the TLS standard for securing SMTP connections, requires these settings instead:

• Port: 465
• Encryption: SSL

See also

• IMAPS
• How To Configure Your Email Client