Unable to connect to Ability outbound server with Outlook

[skeating]

Hello

I am using Ability mail server version 2.53. If I setup IMAP or POP3 in Outlook 2010, I can connect to the Inbound server, but cannot connect to the outbound server, even though both are the same server. The message is cannot connect to the outbound server, contact your ISP. In effect, that is me. I have gone into the More Settings button, checked the "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication", I have tried both the "Use same settings as my incoming mail server" and the "log on using" fields. In Advanced I have set the Outgoing server(SMTP) to 25 and 587. None of these seem to work. I can telnet to the server with port 25, but not 587. Is there something I need to do to make 587 usable if 25 will not do? Is there a preferred version of Outlook, for my version of Ability?

[Code Crafters]

Ability Mail Server 4 adds the ability to bind to multiple ports (e.g. 25;587) but this is not possible directly in Ability Mail Server 2. You can often forward both ports from your router to Ability Mail Server internally. The error you are describing sounds like Outlook cannot connect to the SMTP server on the host / port provided and probably not even getting as far as the credentials under More Settings -> Outgoing Server.

If you email us at info@codecrafters.com with screenshots / details of your Outlook settings and some credentials for a test account etc we'll test these connections and settings for you.

[skeating]

Email sent

[Code Crafters]

We managed to log in to your account with the latest credentials you emailed. Let us know if this fixed the issue.

[skeating]

I know what I am about to ask is networking stuff, but I thought maybe you might have seen something like it and could point me in the right direction. Using my Verizon hotspot, I can connect to the outgoing Ability mail server, and send email. But when I connect the same computer via cable to my Cox Communications router, I cannot connect to the outgoing Ability mail server. I get the same message as before. I have put the IP of the DNS into the Outgoing mail section of the configuration, but that made no change. Again, I know this is a network question, not Ability mail, but do you have any ideas?

Thank you for all your help.

Stephen Keating

[Code Crafters]

If you are connecting using a local DNS server you should add the host name of your mail server (e.g. mail.domain.com) to your local DNS as a forward lookup zone pointing to the LAN IP for the server so that you can use that domain to access the mail server from inside the network.

Use telnet client (add or remove Windows features) to test the connections from each machine too.

[skeating]

I am not using a local DNS, I am trying to access the mail server through an ISP. I can access the outgoing server through one ISP (Verizon), but cannot access the outgoing server through another ISP (Cox Communications). I guess I need to find a way to get Cox to list the server on their routers/dns.

[skeating]

A side issue, and if need be I can start another question, but since I have several domain names/customers on the Ability server, if I were to get SSL certs for them how do I put them in for each domain?

[Code Crafters]

In the latest version, you can only specify one SSL certificate per service. However, because servers will connect using your MX record, as long as you set the SSL certificate common name to your MX record domain (e.g. mail.domain.com) then this will work fine for emails on any domains. We hope to add more domain level settings in a future version but there are massive consequences to restructuring the software for this so it would likely be a major version some time from now.

[skeating]

I've read the Help page on certificates, but how do I generate a CSR to get a SSL cert? Which page or console do I go to to create the CSR? Also, is there a limit on the size of the cert, since I have Ability 2.53?

[Code Crafters]

You can create a self signed certificate with the SSL Certificates page of the settings using the Create button. This will create a Private Key (.key), Certificate (.crt) and Certificate Signing Request (.csr). You can use the CSR to get a Certificate Authority (CA) like Verisign or Thawte to create you an SSL certificate. Usually, you can just fill in the details on their site though too.

Make sure you get an X509 Base64 Encoded RSA certificate and private key and that your common name matches your mail server domain (e.g. mail.yourdomain.com) too. Ability Mail Server 2.72 supports 2048 bit SSL but I'm not sure about 2.53. You can see when you click create what the maximum supported size is.