Hi everyone. I subscribe to a 3rd part smtp relay service for outgoing messages and am wondering if there is a way to configure autodiscover to use smtp server hostname, username and password of the provider. So far I have set the proper CNAME records and a SRV record based on the documentation. I found this post - https://community.mailcow.email/d/2406-autodiscover-serve-mail-domain-instead-of-hostname -but I also need to add a username and password and I believe it would only be for the SMTP settings of data/web/inc/vars.inc.php? Even if I use the 'server' = $mail_domain as depicted by rallisf1 in his article, where would I specify the value of the $mail_domain variable? I tried a couple of things and IMAP connections are successful but it fails due to not being able to reach an SMTP server. Here is what I inputted into the data/web/inc/vars.inc.php: [upl-image-preview url=https://community.mailcow.email/assets/files/2024-07-09/1720484442-878373-image.png] Any help (if there is anything that can be done) would be much appreciated! Let me know if I need to provide any other information. Thanks! If this helps, I did find that inputting the custom name as depicted in my Putty screenshot actually inputs that server FQDN when autodisovering, but the username and password fills in the logging user's IMAP username and password. I need autodiscover to input the custom values for the smtp relay service If this helps, I did find that inputting the custom name as depicted in my Putty screenshot actually inputs that server FQDN when autodisovering, but the username and password fills in the logging user's IMAP username and password and a 0 for the SMTP port. I need autodiscover to input the custom values for the smtp relay service and hopefully be able to specify STARTTLS for the security? [upl-image-preview url=https://community.mailcow.email/assets/files/2024-07-09/1720486058-298906-image.png]

@"esackbauer"#p17025 I do have it setup as a Sender-dependent transport [upl-image-preview url=https://community.mailcow.email/assets/files/2024-07-09/1720568085-910585-image.png] As long as everyone puts in the custom smtp info when setting up their mail clients it works.

Custom autodiscover settings

knowlesee73

Hi everyone. I subscribe to a 3rd part smtp relay service for outgoing messages and am wondering if there is a way to configure autodiscover to use smtp server hostname, username and password of the provider.

So far I have set the proper CNAME records and a SRV record based on the documentation. I found this post - https://community.mailcow.email/d/2406-autodiscover-serve-mail-domain-instead-of-hostname -but I also need to add a username and password and I believe it would only be for the SMTP settings of data/web/inc/vars.inc.php? Even if I use the ‘server’ = $mail_domain as depicted by rallisf1 in his article, where would I specify the value of the $mail_domain variable?

I tried a couple of things and IMAP connections are successful but it fails due to not being able to reach an SMTP server. Here is what I inputted into the data/web/inc/vars.inc.php:

Any help (if there is anything that can be done) would be much appreciated! Let me know if I need to provide any other information.

Thanks!

If this helps, I did find that inputting the custom name as depicted in my Putty screenshot actually inputs that server FQDN when autodisovering, but the username and password fills in the logging user’s IMAP username and password. I need autodiscover to input the custom values for the smtp relay service

If this helps, I did find that inputting the custom name as depicted in my Putty screenshot actually inputs that server FQDN when autodisovering, but the username and password fills in the logging user’s IMAP username and password and a 0 for the SMTP port. I need autodiscover to input the custom values for the smtp relay service and hopefully be able to specify STARTTLS for the security?

DocFraggle

knowlesee73 if there is a way to configure autodiscover to use smtp server hostname, username and password of the provider.

I don’t get why exactly you want to do that? Why don’t you just let mailcow handle the outgoing mail traffic as you configured the relay in mailcow anyway?

esackbauer

knowlesee73 if there is a way to configure autodiscover to use smtp server hostname, username and password of the provider.

And how do you think the sent emails will be DKIM signed?

knowlesee73

DocFraggle I am hoping that by setting it up this way that users will not have to manually setup their clients with the custom smtp settings

[unknown] the 3rd party relay dkim signs the emails.

DocFraggle

I still don’t get it, but maybe you have a special relay service… do you sync your user’s credentials stored in mailcow with your relay service?

knowlesee73

DocFraggle I use SpamHero for inbound and outbound mail. I do not have a Static Public IP and am not able to send or receive without a relay. I have MX records setup in my domain that points to SpamHero domains and there is an SMTP service that can be setup too under my plan. I only allow specified SpamHero IP’s through my firewall for incoming. I don’t have to open up ports for outgoing as I use SpamHero’s smtp server smtp.mxthunder.net with the generated username and password in that portal. When I am setting up email clients (Thunderbird, Android mail, Nextcloud Mail etc), I have to manually add the SpamHero SMTP server details in order to successfully connect. My messages are DKIM signed by SpamHero - I also had to setup DKIM records for SpamHero in my domain for dkim signing outgoing messages through SpamHero. The autodiscover for Mailcow currently autofills parameters based on mailcow user information which is fine for IMAP.

I will continue to direct users to manually input the SMTP server parameters when connecting their clients if this is not feasible to adjust the autodiscover parameters within mailcow.

esackbauer

Why don’t you use a sender dependent transport map pointing to spamhero?
That way autoconfig would work and you are still able to send outgoing via spamhero.

knowlesee73

esackbauer I do have it setup as a Sender-dependent transport

As long as everyone puts in the custom smtp info when setting up their mail clients it works.

knowlesee73

So after re-reading esackbauer and digging in some more, you’re saying that just setting up the relay in the sender dependent transport will configure the autoconfig values of my domain with those values for SMTP? I just discovered that by navigating to: http://<hostname>/.well-known/autoconfig/mail/config-v1.1.xml it shows the configurations that a mail client will discover and then configure itself with. It shows in my xml config that the username is set to input the <username>%EMAILADDRESS%</username> with password-cleartext for authentication. The username for my Spamhero relay is auto-set for the domain I’m relaying -> somedomain.net and the password is a custom password I set in Spamhero. It did adjust the hostname to the Spamhero hostname. Why isn’t autoconfig using the sender dependent transport configurations for autoconfig?

mlcwuser

knowlesee73 Did you set up the relayhost for your domain(s) as described here: https://docs.mailcow.email/manual-guides/Postfix/u_e-postfix-relayhost/#set-the-relayhost-for-a-domain

Maybe I’m missing something, but as far as I understand it, if Mailcow is configured correctly, there should be no need to (re)configure the clients at all, i.e. they can continue to use Mailcow as their SMTP server, and Mailcow (Postfix) will automatically (re)route the messages to the external relay.

knowlesee73

mlcwuser Thank you for the information but It is not an issue of not being able to send mail. I already have the relay service setup as a Sender Dependent Transport and have my domain in Mailcow pointing to it. I was just wondering if there was a way to reconfigure auto-discovery/auto-config to setup mail clients when users are signing into their accounts in Thunderbird or Android mail apps.

esackbauer

@mlcwuser You are right.
Most of the times people forget to add this sender dependent transport to their domains in mailcow.

knowlesee73

I have yet to figure out if this is possible. I’m going to keep playing with it and will post back if I get it sorted. Thanks everyone

esackbauer

knowlesee73 Why isn’t autoconfig using the sender dependent transport configurations for autoconfig?

Because that is not the point of having a relay server and dangerous.
Relay servers are something which is only for server to server communcation and should NEVER be used for client to server communication. Rogue clients or network sniffers (e.g. in public wifi networks, or crawlers traversing the autoconfig URL) could find out about the cleartext password and send spam with the relay service.
Please leave the autoconfig as it is intended to, and let the client to server communication happen via mailcow. mailcow then sends the mail via the relay service.