Basic SMTP settings for sending mail

[coolemail]

Please could someone clarify something. When setting up online forms, it is asking for SMTP Hostname, SMTP Username, SMTP password, SMTP Port.

Our server's hostname is plesk2.hostdomain.com

The client's domain is clientdomain.com.

So is the hostname plesk2.hostdomain.com or mail.clientdomain.com? The username and password must be the mailbox's email address and password. For the port, should we put 25 or 587?

And our server is configured for mail authentication but this has not been requested.

Can someone clarify this for me please?

[mikeshinn]

If you are connecting to your own server just use "localhost", on ports if you are doing authenticated SMTP use port 587.

[coolemail]

the site is built on a remote e-commerce company, so not local. What settings should we use in that case?

[mikeshinn]

SMTP server should point to any SMTP server that can send mail out for you. Best practice is to send the mail to the server that is authoritative for the domain you intend to use in the From: line, which will make it easier to setup reverse MX records, SPF and other antispam DNS records.

[coolemail]

thanks Mike. So if on POP3 they set the ougoing SMTP mail server as mail.clientdomain.com, then they should use mail.clientdomain.com as the server, and together with port 587 and both username and password given, that should all work with the authentication? thanks for your patience.

[mikeshinn]

Yep, that should work fine.

[coolemail]

THANK YOU, as ever, for your help.

[mikeshinn]

My pleasure.