How to point UniversitySite to an internal SMTP server to generate mail from within the firm

Since you have been using UniversitySite, a cloud based web application, to send emails to your customers or employees, you may have noticed that some email clients mark your messages as "external" or "untrusted". This can affect your email deliverability and reputation, as well as the security and privacy of your recipients.

Why change SMTP server for UniversitySite?

There are several benefits of changing your SMTP server such as:

• Improved email deliverability and reputation: By using your own domain name and SSL certificate, you can avoid being marked as spam or phishing by the email clients. You can also monitor and troubleshoot any issues with your email delivery using tools like MX Toolbox or Mail Tester.
• Enhanced security and privacy: By using authentication and encryption, you can prevent unauthorized access or interception of your emails. You can also comply with any regulations or policies that require you to use an internal SMTP server for sending emails.
• Greater control and flexibility: By using an internal SMTP server, you can customize and optimize your email settings according to your needs and preferences. You can also integrate with other services or applications that require an SMTP server, such as newsletters, notifications or alerts.

One way to improve this situation is to change your SMTP server from the default one specified in SMTP Settings in Global Settings to an internal one that you control and manage. This way, you can configure your own domain name, authentication, encryption and other settings to ensure that your emails are properly recognized and trusted by the email clients.

These settings are inside the Advanced Settings section within the SMTP Settings page.

NOTE: We are assuming you already have an SMTP server setup in your network for this article's purposes.

Step 1: Create a DNS record for your SMTP server

The next step is to create a DNS record for your SMTP server, so that it can be resolved by the email clients. You will need to create an A record for your domain name (mail.yourdomain.com) that points to the IP address of your Windows Server 2016 machine. You will also need to create an MX record for your domain name (yourdomain.com) that points to your SMTP server (mail.yourdomain.com).

You can use any DNS service provider of your choice, such as GoDaddy, Cloudflare or Azure DNS. You can follow the instructions from this article: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/dns/dns-getstarted-portal

Step 2: Change the SMTP settings in your web application

The final step is to change the SMTP settings in your web application, so that it uses your internal SMTP server instead of the default one from your cloud service provider. You will need to update the following parameters in SMTP Settings as shown in the image above.

• SMTP host: mail.yourdomain.com
• SMTP port: 25
• SMTP encryption: SSL
• SMTP username: your username
• SMTP password: your password

Step 3: Ping your site in the cloud (firm.universitysite.com) and make sure your firewall will allow this ip address to connect externally

IMPORTANT!

After changing the SMTP settings, you should test your changes and verify that the emails are sent successfully and received without any warnings or flags by the email clients.