Updates to Email Sending in GDS

As part of some recent updates in our system, we have now be able to make the email sending to be more compatible with the settings required by your own Internet Service or Email Provider.  e.g GDS can now communicate and send email using Google Mail.

The changes for our system mean that GDS can send email using the secure email protocol which provides such as Google require. 

Sending using your own email account can bring many benefits, including perhaps logging the email in your sent items list for future reference, and it should also be much quicker to send email using your own ISP. The server that we use for email is a General Use server, and not a dedicated email server. As such, it was never really designed for large email use, or frequent use with attachments, and as such, we have had to throttle back the performance of our freely provided email services, so that our server is not regularly overloaded.  Our GDS email services are provided as a free to use facility for users of our GDS system. Our email service is not monitored by us regularly, and as such we are not aware at all times of how the service is performing.

In short... please use this guide that will help you to use your own Email Provider for sending email where possible! :-)  

We have some steps and details on how you can use your own email provider below. If anything seems to not be working when you click the Send Test Email button, then please email support@gds.co.uk with the details of the problem.

You can access the email settings through the GDS System Settings screen via the GDS menu in the top left corner, and Configuration settings. On the System Settings screen, there is a tab at the top called Communication, on there will be the settings for the email setup. These steps are shown in the screenshots below.

On the Communication tab, you will need to update the Send Server to the server name of your email provider. For example, if you have a Google Mail account, the Send Server will be smtp.gmail.com. You can usually find these settings, such as Server and Port Number on your ISP's website, or on their help pages. We don't have a list of these available, but the server name often starts with smtp. or mail. 

The Port setting is a number will vary depending on your email provider. Usually, the port will be either 25, 465, or 587. You should be able to find the port used through your email settings. Google Mail for example uses the port 465.

Typically, the email provider will use Secure Communications, so you will need to make sure that it is ticked if that is the case. If the Port you are advised to use is 25, then it is probably not secure, but anything else, means the connection needs to be secure, and so the User Secure Communications checkbox needs to be ticked.

You will probably have to enter a username and password for your own email account. This is because when email is sent, your GDS system will need to log in to your mail providers email server, using your credentials, to send the email on your behalf.  If you are entering a username and password, then tick the option to Use Username And Password, and enter your Username, and your email account password in the relevant boxes. As a tip, your username is often your full email address, but it may not be.

The From Email element should be in the format as shown which is your name, followed by a space, and then your email address with a "<" and ">" on either side, like  <myemail@myserver.co.uk> 

Prior to saving, you should use the Send Test Email button below the mail settings to send yourself, or a friend or colleague, a test email to confirm that your updated email settings are correct.

The Reply To address will usually be your email address, so that someone who receives your email can press Reply and have any response sent back to your inbox.

As of version 5.0.11 you can also add a BCC which will send a hidden copy of every email sent out to an email address of your choice, this will allow you to keep track of emails going out and to ensure emails have been sent. This can be activated from the GDS System Settings screen shown on the screenshot below.

Many thanks! Please email support@gds.co.uk if any part of this guide is wrong, or if you can't get your settings to work.