WHS as a Free Email Server

You can continue to add email accounts to your new mail domain, but your initial configuration is not completed yet.  Before adding more accounts to your mail server, I would definitely finish the configuration first for proper testing.

  1. In the left window tree, expand the Settings section to reveal SMTP and select it.
  2. Click the Delivery of Email tab and populate the Host Name with the address of your WHS.  It is essential that this be completed so that the mail server knows its public name.

Some ISP’s actually restrict access to certain ports and most that do also restrict access to port 25.  Luckily for me, this isn’t the case; if you fall into this category, you still have some options.

Before you test whether or not your mailserver is functioning, you MUST add it to your firewall exceptions list and forward the ports (Default Ports = TCP – 25, 110, 143) in your router if you are using one.  Adding the application to the windows firewall is extremely simple.  You can access the firewall configuration by opening the Windows Firewall application in your control panel.

  1. In the Exceptions tab, select add program
  2. Navigate to c:\Program Files\hMailServer\Bin
  3. Select hMailSErver.exe.
  4. Click OK a few times and you now have allowed hMailServer as an exception in your Windows Firewall.

To determine if your ISP blocks access to port 25 open a command prompt and type: telnet xxxxxx.homeserver.com 25 (where xxxxx.homeserver.com is your WHS address).  If you can connect, you are golden… if not.  You have more work to do.

One of your options is to have your ISP’s mail server act as a relay for your home mail server.  In the same section you specified your SMTP hostname, you will see an option for an SMTP relayer.  This is the information you will need to populate to have your ISP’s mailserver act as a relay for you.  Fill in the SMTP relayer field with your ISP’s mail server information: mine would be smtp.comcast.net and provide your credentials for accessing your email in the fields below.

About Joe D

I have always had a passion for everything computing. In early 2000, I decided to take my passion to the web. Thus, C.O.D. was born. Through the years we have made many great friends at C.O.D. and hope to continue our journey for years to come.

Check Also

Using QNAP’s RTRR with Windows Server

I have a lot of data.   So much so, that there are servers and multiple …

20 comments

  1. is this discussion still alive

  2. Excellent article and thanks for posting the detailed instructions (so often missing on other sites as you note).

    And certainly easier than running Exchange!

  3. wow another free stuff! thanks for sharing this one. cheers!=)

  4. ok after I set up the home server in the window home server, how do I access any mail from it and how do I set up my outlook 2007 to access the mail?

  5. I used the following as my pop3 ***.mydomain.com and SMTP as my ISP SMTP address (cause my isp restricted port 25); to setup Outlook Express. I was able to send out email message, however I couldnt receive any emails. I'm getting this error message when run Receive All in Outlook Express:

    "Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible cause for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity. Account '***.mydomain.com', server 'mydomain.com', Protocol: POP3, Port 110, Secure(SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC0F.

    I did verified that PORT 110 is open @ the router.

    Please let me know if you can help, thanks in advance.

  6. Just checking, is this article still relevant one year later? Someone pointed me here but it’s a bit old.

  7. I’ve obtained my domain at homeserver.com. However, there is no MX record for it (All mails sent to the address were failed). How do I add the MX record via WHS? Thanks!

  8. How do one access the emails thru outlook???? or even set up webmail… i have installed hmailserver and it all very well, it even says i have a message but what the point of it if i can’t read it??????

    • I will eventually write a tutorial on setting up outlook, mail, or outlook express to get mail from your hmailserver. The easiest way to explain for now is to use your servers, ip address or given homeservername as the smtp and pop server.

  9. Hey. The download link appears to not be working. It just redirects to this page again. ANy suggestions?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.