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SMTP SERVICE FOR GWI HOSTED DOMAINS

SMTP Service allows you to run your own mail server for your Domain Name. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transport Protocol, and it is how email is delivered from computer to computer.

Note: If you are looking for information about how to set up your email program to send mail through GWI's SMTP server, please see our Email Support section.

What You Will Need:
  • A domain hosted by GWI - In order to sign up for SMTP service with GWI, you must have a domain name that is hosted with GWI. We cannot provide SMTP Service if the domain is not hosted with us, or if you do not have your own domain name.

  • A static IP address - Your mail server has to be connected to the Internet in such a way that it has a static IP address. Please note that your server may be connected to the Internet through an ISP other than GWI. If you wish to run your server on a GWI dial-up connection, and do not already have a static IP, we will assign you one.

    NOTE: You may not have a static IP in conjunction with a GWI Net-Unlimited account. If you have a GWI Net-Unlimited account, you will need to switch to an account type that allows for static IPs. Please see our Dial-up Plans and Pricing page for details about what accounts are available.

  • A Mail Server - You will need to install and configure a mail server program on your mail server. The details of this configuration are up to you, and GWI will not be able to help walk you through the configuration of your server. There are far too many choices of mail server programs for us to be able to reliably assist our customers in their configuration. As part of configuring your mail server, please keep in mind that your users will need a method to retreive mail waiting for them on your server, and that it will be your job to set up accounts for these users.
GWI Policy and Warnings:
  • GWI does not allow customer-maintained mail servers to relay mail via our outbound mail server. You will need to configure your server to send all outbound messages directly to other hosts on the Internet.

  • The biggest sources of UCE (Unsolicited Commericial Email or SPAM) on the Internet are mail servers that are incorrectly configured as Open Relays. An Open Relay is a mail server that will accept a message for any destination, from any source. Spammers use these servers to send thousands of messages a day, and once a server is used this way, it can be blocked immediately from sending to many destinations. GWI urges anyone who runs their own mail server to make sure that their server is not configured as an Open Relay. A great resource for this can be found at mail-abuse.org's website at http://www.mail-abuse.org/tsi/.
How SMTP Service With GWI Works:
  • GWI updates your domain name's MX records to alter how mail is delivered for your domain. The primary MX record is set to point to the static IP of your mail server, if you have one or more backup mail servers, GWI can point secondary MX records to them as well.

    Note: Any IP based spam blocking needs to be in place on all mail servers to be effective. Otherwise, spammers can and will utilize your secondary mail server(s) to send you mail, bypassing filters on your primary.

  • GWI's standard incoming mail server has all aliases removed for your domain.

After the above changes are made, mail for your domain is delivered first to your primary mail server. If it is unavailable, the sending server will try your secondary server (if you have one). If no servers are available, the sending server will typically hold onto the message for several hours, sometimes more than a day, periodically attempting to deliver until it times out or your server is available again.

If your Server is on a Dial-up Connection:

Running a primary mail server on dialup is likely to cause lost mail. This is due to the fact that sending mail servers don't try to deliver messages at a known regular schedule. If you need your own mail server and are on dialup, there are two solutions:

  • Co-locate a mail server in our datacenter.

  • Utilize a queueing server on a dedicated connection as your primary mail server. It should support the ETRN command, and hold mail for your delivery server on your dialup connection. When your dialup connection is established, your delivery server can instruct the queueing server using an ETRN command to deliver any queued mail.

If you are interested in setting up SMTP Mail Delivery, proceed to our SMTP Request Form!