Tip: Gmail migration: How to send emails for a different domain (not telus.net)

[SunDog]

Suppose I have a domain, xyz.com with various email addresses e.g. [email protected] that I use as aliases for [email protected]. Prior to being force--migrated to Gmail, I used to send emails through telus.net so that when the email was received it looked like it came from [email protected].

But with Gmail, the closest I can get is to set the "Reply-to" address so that when the email is received it looks like it came from [email protected]  with a different "Reply-to" of [email protected]. This is not what I want (i.e. I don't want people to know I'm a Telus customer 😝).

If I go to Gmail -> Settings -> All Settings -> Accounts and Import, there is a section for "Send mail as:". But if I try to "Add another email address" for [email protected], I get a message saying "You must send through xyz.com SMTP servers when you send as [email protected]. However, this functionality is not available for your account. Please contact your domain administrator for more information."

The key point is, directly under the "Send mail as:" it does say "(Use telus.net Mail to send from your other email addresses)". So in my email client (NOT the Gmail web interface), I simply changed my SMTP (outgoing) server back to the original me_xyz account on smtp.telus.net. My emails now show up as coming from [email protected] with no mention of Telus! 😎

This will of course only work for as long as my account exists on smtp.telus.net and, if I change my email password, it changes it there too.

[SunDog]

This also only works if the email client allows you to change the smtp server. So far I've only been successful on my desktop client (Thunderbird) but neither Android nor iPhone will let me change it (or even see it, for that matter).

[NFtoBC]

The iPhone definitely lets you choose SMTP accounts. You do have to create multiple email services, but once done, you can choose which is the one you wish to use.

[SunDog]

It wouldn't upload the screenshots I have (no surprise there 🤐) so I'll have to describe them. On both of my iPhones and my iPad, when I go to OUTGONG MAIL SERVER for the Gmail account, it looks like this:

PRIMARY SERVER

Gmail SMTP Server                On >

OTHER SMTP SERVERS

smtp.telus.net                        On >

Under Gmail SMTP Server, I can move the green slider to turn it off but the Done button is greyed out so I can't make the change permanent.

And on my Android phone, I've tried a half-dozen mail apps and as far as I've been able to figure out, none of them let me configure a different smtp server for Gmail accounts. As soon as I set the IMAP server to imap.gmail.com, Google "takes over" and it sets it up as Gmail, not IMAP.

The only email client I have that can change the smtp server is Thunderbird on my PC.

[BillTelusCust]

You should send email for any particular domain from that domain's mail server infrastructure and not from anywhere else.

Finding ways around this are not advisable because your email will be shown as not legitimate.  SPF and DKIM will indicate that you are sending from a place that's not authorized for the domain.

Going this route is creating problems, not solving them.

[SunDog]

Right, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. If I replace smtp.telus.net with smtp.xyz.com I'm still not able to disable smtp.gmail.com!

The problem it does solve is for when I get sick of my internet provider and don't want to have to tell all my contacts (or harder, any website/company that has my email address for contact) of my new addresses. (Btw, I've had this set up for 20 years, first with Shaw and then with Telus. It's only now that it's switched to Gmail that it's a problem.)

[BillTelusCust]

Sorry I misunderstood - I think when you were talking about sending email as another domain, that threw me off.

You need to set them up as separate accounts in the email client.  Which email client are you using?

I don't use ISP specific email either...and I have several email accounts set up on multiple devices.

If you say which email client you're using, I may be able to help you.

[SunDog]

For my iPhones and iPad it's just the default Apple Mail. On my Android I use BlueMail. I also tried a few others, including Outlook for Android, and haven't found one that will let me change the server. I'm not sure about other PC mail apps but I use Thunderbird and had no problem configuring a different server. All have multiple accounts although now the only provider under all of them is Gmail. The old telus.net setup wasn't a problem so it's obviously specific to Gmail/Google.