Custom SMTP setup

Updated March 12, 2024 20:26

The information provided in this article was accurate as of its writing. While unlikely, your email provider may have changed their settings requirements. If you find that the settings above don’t work for you, please contact your AM and we’ll do our best to identify the new settings and update this article with that information.

CHAPTERS

Video
Email Settings FAQ
SMTP disconnected
Detailed Custom SMTP descriptions
Email Auto Sync / IMAP Sync

Video

The email address displayed in the email messages you send through Avionté will be your real email address, not notifications@myavionte.com. One reason to use Custom SMTP is to allow you to send more than fifty messages at a time when performing email marketing campaigns.

Before you start, make sure that an Admin of your Avionté build has enabled the feature for you. Next, log in to Avionté and go to Utilities > Custom SMTP Settings. This is where you’ll enter the settings for your email service provider’s SMTP server.

You’ll need to read, understand, and accept the Disclaimer about using Custom SMTP.

Next, enter the required values for your email service provider.

Note: If you’re not sure what values to enter, contact your email service provider and they’ll be able to provide them for you.

Last, click on the Update SMTP Settings button to finalize the process and enable Custom SMTP.

You’ll receive an email message from yourself that confirms that Custom SMTP is working. From now on, email messages you send through Avionté will come from your email address, and you’ll be able to send more than fifty at a time.

If you’re having difficulty setting up the Custom SMTP feature, try reading the following FAQ before contacting your Customer Success Manager. The settings for the most common email service providers we’ve come across are presented here. As always, if this FAQ doesn’t help or if you prefer to have someone walk you through the setup steps, feel free to contact your AM.

Email Settings FAQ

Gmail

Gmail/Bold Email Integration Using Modern Authentication

SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 587
User Name: your full email address
Password: Gmail Account Password
Email Address: your full email address
Send Limitation: Avionté recommends 1500 per day (Gmail’s total daily limit is 2000 and setting the limit to 1500 leaves you plenty of room for the other email tasks you perform each day)

Gmail’s policies on bulk emailing.

Note: Google has removed the ability to "Allow less secure apps" in Gmail. Generating an App Password and activating 2-step authentication is required when using Gmail integration. Please see the following article: Using IMAP Autosync with Gmail's 2-Step Verification – Avionte Bold for instructions.

By using Custom SMTP, your e-mail security is based on your e-mail provider (i.e. Gmail); Avionté does not apply security. Your security settings are just as secure as Gmail.

Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Outlook 365 (Modern Auth)

Office 365’s policies on bulk emailing

Intermedia Exchange

SMTP Server: Found in Intermedia’s HostPilot® Control Panel at Mail Server > Mail Server Settings
Port: 465 or 587
User Name: your full email address
Password: your email password
Email Address: your full email address
Send Limitation: Avionté recommends 450 per hour (Intermedia’s total limit per hour is 500 and setting the limit to 450 leaves you plenty of room for the other email tasks you perform each day)

Intermedia Exchange’s policies on bulk emailing

Rackspace Hosting

SMTP Server: secure.emailsrvr.com
Port: 587
User Name: your full email address
Password: your email password
Email Address: your full email address
Send Limitation: Avionté recommends 500 per hour (Rackspace’s bulk email policy is simply “Customers may not send email of similar content to more than 250 recipients” so we chose a conservative setting for this)

Rackspace’s policies on bulk emailing

FatCow

FatCow uses a self-signed SSL certificate, which is not supported by Custom SMTP. You'll need to check the box to disable SSL.

SMTP Server: smtp.fatcow.com
Port: 587 or 25 (both are non-SSL)
User Name: your full email address
Password: your email password
Email Address: your full email address
Send Limitation: Avionté recommends 500 per day (FatCow's total limit per day is 600 and setting the limit to 500 leaves you plenty of room for the other email tasks you perform each day)

FatCow’s policies on bulk emailing

SMTP disconnected

Users will receive an email notification if their SMTP becomes disabled. This could be due to a number of reasons, like updating your email password.

Avionté will automatically shut off your SMTP setting should you become disconnected. Any email sent from the system while not connected will be sent from notifications@myavionte.com.

Users will need to reconnect before they can take advantage of their email server.

Detailed Custom SMTP descriptions

What is Custom SMTP?

Custom SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer protocol) within AviontéBOLD allows a user to use their own email servers as an email SMTP relay when sending emails through the BOLD platform. If the option is turned on, it will bypass Avionté's email servers (Sendgrid) and send emails through the user's email server directly.

If Custom SMTP is turned off, then emails sent from the application will use Avionte's Sendgrid Account.

Why use Custom SMTP?

Without custom SMTP activated there may be some restrictions around mass emails (how many can be sent at a time) and other attachment restrictions.
Custom SMTP will ensure that emails sent from the application will be organically from the user.
- This will potentially increase deliverability and decrease the chance that emails are marked as spam or as being dangerous.
Emails sent from the system with custom SMTP (Gmail & O365) turned on will be automatically placed in their Sent Items folder in their personal email client.

Restrictions with Custom SMTP

Custom SMTP, as the name suggests, uses a direct SMTP connection to the users' email servers. This currently uses basic authentication, consisting of a username & password.
- Each time it connects to their email server, it sends these credentials.
Many modern implementations of email providers (O365 & Gmail) have implemented Multifactor Authentication. This requires that the user, upon entering credentials, to respond to a challenge question such as a code sent to another device to complete the authentication process.
- The authentication process within BOLD does not currently support this.

What happens if I don't use Custom SMTP?

If custom SMTP is NOT activated within BOLD, you can still send emails from the system. The emails will still be from you. Replies to those emails will still come to your email. BOLD will simply use Avionte's default email provider (Sendgrid) to send those emails, and certain Mass Email restrictions will apply.

Email Auto Sync / IMAP Sync

What is "Email Auto Sync / IMAP Sync"?

IMAP Sync (Internet Message Access Protocol), called "Auto Email Sync" in BOLD uses an IMAP protocol to log in to the user's email server and scan emails to sync to the BOLD system as activities. For example:

I sent an email to Jack Smith 10 minutes ago through Microsoft Outlook.
On a regular basis, BOLD's Email Auto Sync process will log into the user's server and scan for new items.
BOLD will find that email to Jack Smith.
BOLD will match Jack Smith to an Applicant profile from within the BOLD system.
BOLD will write an 'Email Sent' activity under Jack's profile.

Why use Auto Sync?

Auto sync will automatically bring Email Sent and Email Received actions as activities into BOLD for those senders and recipients that match profiles from within the system.

Restrictions with IMAP Sync

IMAP is an older protocol and has been deprecated or disallowed by certain providers and IT organizations as it has certain inherent security concerns. IMAP through BOLD also does not support Multifactor Authentication. So, users would need to deactivate that security step in order to use Autosync currently.

What are other options to sync emails to BOLD without Autosync?

Users can install the Outlook add-in and manually sync emails from within their Outlook client.
Users can use BCC sync. When sending emails to someone, and they would like to sync that sent email to the system, they can include mail@myavionte.com as a BCC recipient.
BOLD monitors that email address and will match items to profiles within the system and write the appropriate "email sent" activity.

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