Setting Up Your Sender Email Addresses

Article Topics: Emails, Customization

Why This Matters

Out of the box, NATS ships with placeholder values in the "Email From Default" and "Email Reply Default" settings, such as [e-mail]. These placeholders are not valid sending addresses and should be replaced before your site goes live.

If you leave the defaults in place:

• Automated emails to members, affiliates, owners, account representatives, and site partners (join confirmations, rebill notices, password resets, etc.) may be rejected or land in spam, since [e-mail] isn't a domain you control and can't pass sender authentication checks.

• Replies from members or affiliates to those automated emails will go nowhere, since the reply-to address is also a placeholder.

• Mass mailings sent through the Mass Mailing Admin will inherit the same invalid sender information unless overridden per category.

This is one of the first things to fix after a fresh NATS install, before you rely on any automated or mass emails going out.

Where to Change It

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

2. Under General Settings, update the following fields:

   • Email From Default – the address automated NATS emails are sent from. Replace the placeholder with a real address on a domain you control (e.g. [e-mail]).

   • Email From Nice Default – the display name shown alongside the From address (e.g. "Your Site Support").

   • Email Reply Default – the address replies should go to. This can match the From address or point somewhere else, such as a support inbox.

   • Email Reply Nice Default – the display name shown alongside the Reply-To address.

3. Save your changes.

Please Note: NATS lets you set these fields individually per recipient category (Members, Affiliates, Owners, Account Representatives, Site Partners) under Sending to Settings in the same Emails configuration tab. Most sites only need the General Settings above, but if you want different sender addresses for different audiences — for example, a billing@ address for member emails and a partners@ address for affiliate emails — set those overrides there. See the Emails Configuration article for the full list of fields.

Sending Method

Replacing the placeholder addresses controls who the email appears to be from. It does not, by itself, configure how the email is delivered. NATS can send mail using the server's default PHP mail method, or through a Custom SMTP server you provide.

If you want to send through an external SMTP provider (recommended for deliverability at scale), see Setting Up an External Mail Server (SMTP/Gmail).

Related Articles

EmailsSetting Up an External Mail Server (SMTP/Gmail)