How to set up email hosting on Alibaba Cloud?

Alibaba Cloud offers a comprehensive and reliable web hosting solution for your website. Alibaba Cloud also offers enterprise email services. 

Once your website is fully operational, and your web hosting is configured, you definitely should set up your email hosting as well. This enables you to send and receive emails using your domain name as the recipient address. You can create an unlimited number of email accounts or mailboxes. Additionally, you may configure distinct identities and passwords, allowing different team members or employees to access their company email accounts without exposing them to the public.

So, if you’re planning to set up an email hosting on Alibaba Cloud, scroll down to read the full article.

Let’s get started…

Prerequisites 

Alibaba Cloud account. If you do not already have one, create one at www.alibabacloud.com.

1. A domain name.
2. A server that hosts the content.
3. A DNS entry that connects the two. 

Step-by-step Guide to Setup An Email Hosting On Alibaba Cloud

We will learn to set up email hosting on Alibaba Cloud using hmailserver. 

Here we go…

Step 1: Connect to the server using a browser or Remote Desktop. Open a web browser, navigate to www.hmailserver.com, and download the most recent version. Double click to begin the installation. 

Step 2: As you go through the installation screens, accept the default options. 

Step 3: Select to install the server in addition to the administration tools.

You can use the built-in database. It may be preferable to use an external database engine already installed on the mail server or elsewhere in a production setting. You could also utilize Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB RDS. 

Step 4: Create an administration password for hMailServer. 

Step 5: After the installation is complete, start hMailServer Administrator. 

Step 6: You will be prompted to select a database to connect to. Select the only option available, then click Connect.

Step 7: You will be directed to the mail server’s administration interface. 

Step 8: To begin, click “Add domain” at the top of the page. 

Step 9: Enter your registered domain (For example, xyz-companyname.com) and click Save.

Step 10: Click Accounts and then Add on the left-hand side of the page, beneath the domain name.

It’s now time to create an email address, for example, [email protected], and set its Password to “strOngPa$$w0rd” in the general tab. 

Step 11: Set the user’s first and last names on the advanced tab, for example, Avril Thomas. After that, click Save.

Step 12: Send a message to [email protected] using your standard email software or website.

Install the latest version of Thunderbird at www.thunderbird.net. Double-click it to begin the installation, and then launch it. 

Step 13: Click Add Mail Account from the Settings menu’s Account Actions submenu.

Step 14: Enter your name, email address ([email protected]), and password for your mailbox (“strOngPa$$w0rd”). 

Thunderbird properly deduces that email retrieval requires a connection to mail.xyz-companyname.com. To complete the setup process for your incoming email service, click “Done” and then “OK.”

Create a SendGrid account and then tweak hMailServer’s account settings so that it knows to use your account for outgoing mail.

You can begin sending an email using the SMTP relay by selecting the appropriate option.

For the setup method, select SMTP Relay.

Give the Key a name and click Create Key.

You can now view the required setup parameters for sending email via SendGrid, all ready to be typed into hMailServer.

Keep the API key (indicated as Password) secure by copying it to the clipboard or another document file. 

SendGrid will not display it to you again for security reasons. If you lose it, you can always create another and make the necessary changes to your hMailServer setup. 

Log out of SendGrid’s website and log into your Windows server. Go to the hMailServer administration panel.

Select Protocols and then SMTP from the Settings menu. Select the “Email Delivery” tab.

Enter xyz-companyname.com as the local hostname. 

Set the remote TCP/IP port to 587. SendGrid allows incoming connections to its SMTP service on port 587. 

Check the “server authentication is required.” 

As advised by SendGrid, create a username of the API key and a password of the complete API key. 

Leave the connection security set to “None” if your server does not currently use an encryption certificate.

Lastly, click the “Save” button. 

That’s all; you’re done!