Various guides explaining the mode of functioning of the most common e-mail clients (Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook Express) assume that you will be using your domain name as the name of your mail server via CNAME records, as explained in "Step 1" of the Gandi Mail set up. In most cases, it isn't necessary to use these settings. In fact, Gandi Mail accounts being "aliases" of our servers, you may even encounter problems by using such settings.

Grouped here is some information about the various "standard" settings recommended to set up your e-mail clients, regardless of the client or the operating system you use.

• The POP account enables you to "download" messages from a server to a computer. This is the simplest and most common setting for an e-mail client.
• The IMAP account enables you to access messages directly on the server, just as if you were going to mail.gandi.net. We recommend the use of POP for the very simple reason that, if you do not maintain your IMAP account, the server will eventually fill up and you risk loosing e-mails.
• TLS/SSL: TLS is a more recent secure protocol than SSL. Nevertheless, it appears as though (at least some) e-mail clients have trouble managing TLS, so we recommend SSL.
• Yourdomain.tld: when you see this expression, replace it by your own domain name (as in example.com). For your information, TLD means and represents your domain's extension (.com, .net, .org, .fr, .eu, .co.uk, …).
• The GandiMail "Forwarding" option cannot be configured on an e-mail client, as opposed to your mailboxes, for the very simple reason that they forward e-mails to a real mailbox (the e-mail you have with your Internet service provider, or a hotmail or yahoo account, for example).

• Server name : mail.gandi.net
• Port : leave the default setting (110 for POP, 143 for IMAP, 995 for POP SSL, or 993 for IMAP SSL).
• TLS or SSL : Yes
• Username : your full e-mail address (including @yourdomain.tld)
• Password : provide the password you had defined when creating your e-mail account

• Name server : mail.gandi.net
• Port : 25, 465 (with SSL) or 587 (try one or the other)
• TLS or SSL : yes
• SMTP Authentication : yes, using the same settings as for the POP / IMAP account

If none of these settings work, or if it works but you suddenly encounter an error, please contact our dedicated customer support via http://www.gandi.net/faq/form_contact_support/.

In this case, we ask, as always, that you try to be as precise as possible in your message. Give us as much info as possible in your first e-mail:

• e-mail client used (if applicable), or whether the question is about Webmail
• settings of the e-mail client you use
• operating system used
• POP / IMAP?
• circumstances / context of the problem
• error message encountered? if so, what does it say?

This will help us provide you with a precise answer, but will also improve the response time in itself. In any case, avoid sending several questions regarding the same problem, as our response time will be that much longer.