If you suspect that incoming or outgoing mail is being blocked, resolve the problem according to the article Email – Blocking.
In this article you will read:
Diagnosing Email Problems
The way you diagnose an email problem usually differs depending on whether you are setting up a new service, or you are troubleshooting an existing one. However, if one of the diagnostics does not reveal the problem, we recommend trying the other as well. For example, an outage may occur even with a new service, and an existing domain may have incorrect DNS.
Diagnosing a New Service
If you are setting up a new email service, diagnose problems with these steps:
- Make sure that the service has mailboxes created.
- Run a domain or webhosting diagnostic in the Customer Administration. Pay attention to these items:
- Correctness of DNS servers in the table Domain in the registry.
- Existence and correctness of MX records in the tables DNS, or Webhosting for the domain.
- Domain status in the system and Email verification of the domain owner (if the domain requires it) in the table Domain in the system.
- Check whether the mailboxes are accessible via WebMail ⧉.
- Check the settings of email client.
Diagnosing an Existing Service
If email has stopped working for an existing service, diagnose problems with these steps:
- In Customer Administration ⧉ check whether both the domain ⧉ and Webhosting ⧉ (or WMS ⧉, WebSite ⧉, Mailhosting ⧉) are active.
- Check the status of services on the website WEDOS Status ⧉. The system posts automatically detected outages here within 10 minutes of evaluating the problem. If an outage has to be entered manually, reporting the problem may take longer.
- Check whether your hosting is blocked according to the article Email – Blocking.
- Check whether the mailboxes are accessible via WebMail ⧉.
- Check the email client settings.
Troubleshooting Email Problems
Problems with both newly created and existing email can arise anywhere – from the settings of domain and DNS, through the settings of the hosting service, to mail clients (WebMail, or your own client).
Domain and DNS
The most common problems with the domain and DNS include:
- Inactive domain: An inactive domain has either expired or has not been set up yet. You can find the domain status in its detail in the Customer Administration ⧉. If you cannot see a previously active domain in the administration, it is either in a different customer account (or with a different registrar), or the system deleted it after a certain period following expiration. If you can, pay for the service. It should work again within 6 – 48 hours after your payment is successfully received in our system.
A common reason for the deactivation of generic domains (COM, NAME, …) is failure to verify the domain owner’s email, which we sent you after registration, within 15 days. Find this email and verify the domain owner using the link. If you cannot find the email, contact Support ⧉ to have it sent again. State the domain name.
- Incorrect DNS servers. If you have recently changed the DNS servers (NSSET) of the domain, check that you have the correct MX recordswith the new provider. Also allow for a longer DNS server propagation time, which usually takes 6 – 48 hours.
- Incorrect or missing MX records. For mail to be delivered to the domain, it must have at least one MX record. Enter MX records without a name unless you want to run email on a subdomain.
- Incorrect or missing SPF record. Set up the SPF record according to this guide. If you use multiple email service providers, merge their SPF records into one, because several SPF records have the same effect as none.
Email Hosting
We offer hosting for email as part of the Webhosting, WebSite (except the Free variant) and WMS services. A new addition is the standalone Mailhosting service.
Common mail problems on mailhosting include:
- Inactive hosting. Check whether Mailhosting ⧉ (or Webhosting ⧉, WMS ⧉, WebSite ⧉) is active. If the service has expired, but the system has not deleted it yet, pay for it. The system will restore it within 1 hour of successfully receiving your payment.
- Full mailbox. Check the mailbox usage. If it is full, clear it out, or increase the email capacity service.
- Email blocking. More detailed information and guides on resolving the various causes of blocking can be found in the article Email – Resolving Blocked Emails.
- Mail server outage. Monitor the service Status ⧉. The system posts automatically detected outages here within 10 minutes of evaluating the problem. If an outage has to be entered manually, reporting the problem may take longer.
WebMail
If domain, DNS and hosting serviceare working, it should also work: WebMail ⧉. The most common problem that is not related to the guides above is logging in.
Log in to WebMail using your full email address in the format mailbox@domain.tld.
If you cannot log in with an alias domain, log in with the service name. The name also works when the webhosting has had its main domain removed, for example mailbox@w123456.
If logging in does not work, check:
- That email services are working on the website Status ⧉.
- That the mailbox exists for the given service in the Customer Administration ⧉.
If the error persists for an active mailbox on active hosting, change its password, wait 15 minutes for the change to take effect and try logging in again.
Other Email Clients
Third-party email clients may contain settings that are not compatible with our servers. In addition, clients that you install on your computer are often restricted by security features such as antivirus programs and firewalls.
If you notice an error in your email client during an action that you can perform without a problem on the same device in WebMail ⧉, check the settings of:
- Login. Proceed in the same way as in the chapter WebMail.
- Servers, ports and security according to the article Email – SMTP, POP3, IMAP.
If no combination of settings helps, check that the servers or ports are not being blocked by an antivirus, firewall, or another security component of your device or network. If the error persists, contact the email client’s support first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if nothing in this guide helped?
Send a request for investigation via the form ⧉. State the name of the affected mailbox and as precise a description of the problem and of the solutions you have tried as possible. Attach screenshots ⧉ of error messages and settings.