Setting Up an External Mail Server (SMTP/Gmail)

Article Topics: Emails, Customization, Members, Affiliates

Setting Up an SMTP Server in NATS

Using NATS, you can send out mail from an external mail server. A list of General Settings for setting up your email can be viewed in the following article: Configuration Emails.

This article will provide you with a step-by-step guide on setting up an external mail server in NATS.

Using Gmail Workspace

Please Note: In this example, we will be using Gmail but the process is similar regardless of email domain provider.

Before setting up in NATS, you must set up your own SMTP server. The following article provided by google is a perfect resource for setting up your Google SMTP settings: Send email with the Gmail SMTP server.

Once this is complete, you will be given the following information:

• Gmail SMTP server name

• Gmail SMTP username

• Gmail SMTP password

• SMTP Port Number using the following numbers depending on the settings

  • 465 for SSL

  • 587 for TLS

To learn more about Google Workspace email aliases, please see the following About Google Workspace Email Aliases article.

NATS Configuration

To configure NATS with your external mail server, obtain the necessary details from your mail server and insert this information into the NATS configuration with the following steps:

1) Navigate to the Configuration Admin and select the Emails tab.

2) Set the "Email From Default" and "Email Reply Default" settings to your Gmail workspace email address.

Please Note: You can additionally set the nice name for both "Email Reply" and "Email From" in the respective "Email From Nice Default" and "Email Reply Nice Default" settings.

3) Set the "Email Send Method Default" setting to Custom SMTP.

4) Set the "Email SMTP Server Default" setting to the Gmail SMTP Server hostname, smtp.gmail.com.

5) Set the Email SMTP Username and the Email SMTP Password to your mail server username and password.

6) Set the Email SMTP Secure Default to SSL or TLS depending on your Gmail workspace settings.

7) Set the Email SMTP Port Default to 465 for SSL or 587 for TLS depending on your "Email SMTP Secure Default" setting.

Testing the External Email

Once you have configured these settings, navigate to the Mass Mailing admin and create a new Mailer by clicking the "Add New Mailing."

Set the subject and mail target, as well as the "Send On" setting, ensuring it is set to "Never."

Edit the message body and select the "Send Test" button at the top of the page to send your test.

Please Note: This test email will be sent to the email address tied to the admin account you are currently logged into.

If the Mail Target is set to Members, ensure that an example member that meets the Rule conditions of the test email is set in the "Test Member Mailing" setting in the Email section of the Configuration Admin.

To verify your test, go back to Gmail and see if you have received the test message. Once you have verified that the email has been sent, you are all set!

Troubleshooting

If your Google SMTP credentials are correct when you attempt to log in via the web, but emails fail to send, this could be due to a Google Workspace default settings where "less secure apps" is disabled.

The following is an error message that has been manually logged:

SMTP ERROR: Password command failed: 535-5.7.8 Username and Password not accepted. 
Learn more at https://support.google.com/mail/?p=BadCredentials.

To resolve this issue, you will need to enable "Less Secure Apps." You can do this by following the method provided by google on the Control Access to less secure apps, How to enable less secure application access, and Allow less secure apps for individual accounts articles.