[tlug] GMail: Free Secure SMTP Server

["Jim Maricondo" <jimbocho@example.com>]

I was sharing this with Alain and Mark offline and they suggested that I post it to the TLUG list...

 

Did you know you can use GMail as a free secure SMTP server?  It's a bit tricky, you have to use these settings for SSL/SMTP/Gmail.

 

http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/et010605.htm

• SMTP server: smtp.gmail.com.
• Port: 465.
• Require SSL/STARTTLS: Yes.
• Require SMTP authentication: Yes.
• User name: your Gmail email address.
• Password: your Gmail password.

By default the from address has to be your gmail email address.  However if you log into GMail, go to SETTINGS then ACCOUNTS then register your other email accounts.  After you've verified your other accounts (GMail sends a message to them which you have to click on a link in the message to verify that you are the owner of the account), you can use google's secure SMTP server to send email with the FROM address set to your other account's address.  I am using it too now because my ISP's mail server is blocked by a lot of people for Spam reasons. (and their customer service doesn't seem to care or be able to fix the problem..)

 

Then if you set your from address to an address which you have added and verified using the procedure below, it will let you use a from address other than your gmail address.

 

Here is how the headers appear when I send email using Gmail SMTP (gmail address: example@example.com) and From overridden to somethingelse@example.com...  It is somewhat of a strange mixture of headers

 

Return-Path: <example@example.com>
X-Mail-from: example@example.com

From: "Jim Maricondo" <somethingelse@example.com>
Sender: Jim Maricondo <example@example.com>

 

It is somewhat of a strange mixture of headers which displays a bit strangely in some email clients.  For instance, when my one friend using X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5.7226.0 replies to my email with the original included in the message, it shows up like this:

 

From: Jim Maricondo [mailto:example@example.com] On Behalf Of Jim Maricondo
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 6:31 PM

 

However when he hits SEND, it still replies back to somethingelse@example.com.  So functionally it works fine, but it just looks a bit weird.  In Outlook Express though it looks normal and functions normal (i.e. the user normally doesn't see example@example.com when they view or reply to a message)

 

Thoughts, comments?

 

 -Jim