Email server settings

Setting up Hover email is similar to setting up any POP or IMAP email service. You can use any email program that allows you to create POP or IMAP connections with your new Personal Email address from Hover.

When entering your Hover email account settings in your email software, use these settings (don't worry, we'll provide you with specific examples for all of the non-geeks who aren't ready to configure their email account using only the server settings below).

Before Getting Started

Before setting up your email service, sign into our webmail mail.hover.com with your email address and password to make sure that you have the correct password. If the password is incorrect, you can change it following the instructions here

If you can send but not receive, double check that the MX record is correct.

Hover's MX record is: mx.hover.com.cust.hostedemail.com

IMAP

Username: your full email address
Password: your email password
Inbound and outbound mail server hostname: mail.hover.com
The ports can be left blank to use the default values. However, if you need them:

Inbound port: SSL: 993 | Non-SSL: 143
Outbound SMTP port: SSL: 465 | Non-SSL: 25 or 587

We recommend IMAP (not POP) as messages are stored on the server which provides better syncing with multiple devices. Please also use SSL for better login security. For detailed instructions based on different email software, please see below. Please note that for Apple's iOS devices, you will need to enter your email and password for the Outbound SMTP server mail.hover.com. The device might say it's an optional configuration but if you don't enter them, you won't be able to send emails.

POP

Username: your full email address
Password: your email password
Inbound and outbound mail server hostname: mail.hover.com
The ports can be left blank to use the default values.

Inbound port: SSL: 995 | Non-SSL: 110
Outbound SMTP port: SSL: 465 | Non-SSL: 25 or 587

Heads Up!

Your Internet Service Provider or local network firewall may filter traffic going through the default outgoing mail server ports. By default, your email software will use port 25 for the outgoing (SMTP) server

If you’re unable to send email, switch to port 465 (if SSL is enabled) or port 587 or 8025 (if SSL is not enabled). A little trial and error will usually let you figure out which outgoing port your Internet Service Provider will allow you to use to send out messages.

Setting Up Your Hover Email

To better illustrate how this all comes together, here are some step-by-step tutorials for setting up your Hover email address in Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, and in Gmail. Click on any of the links below for step-by-step instructions:

What are POP and IMAP?

POP and IMAP are two protocols that mail programs can use to remotely access your email Inbox as opposed to logging into Webmail. Protocols are a set of rules for how data is transferred and received over the Internet. A protocol is like a language. Email software uses protocols to talk to our (and every other) email server.

We highly recommend configuring your Hover email using IMAP, as it allows for synchronization of your email messages and folders. This is important if you need to access your email from more than one device. For example, you may need to access your messages from your home PC, your laptop, your smartphone, etc.

Want more details on POP and IMAP? Here’s some further explanation:

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) keeps your email messages on our mail server, so the mail messages don’t take up drive space on your computer, handheld or mobile device. This means, all your messages and folders will be available to you no matter what device you are accessing them from. It also means that you are interacting with your email in real time. IMAP allows you to access and create folders directly on our mail server. This keeps your Inbox, Sent messages, Drafts, Trash, and any custom folders synchronized between our mail server, Webmail, and your own computer. IMAP is perfect for keeping a backup copy of messages on our email server and for accessing messages from more than one computer, or while using mobile devices such as an iPhone or Blackberry.

Want to learn more? You can read the Wikipedia entry for IMAP by clicking here.

POP (Post Office Protocol) is an older mail protocol, the first one. It was designed for short quick connections to the Internet, a fast download of information, and then the connection is broken. New messages are removed from our server when they are downloaded using a POP connection. Most POP email programs can be set to leave copies of messages on the server if you need to view messages remotely in Webmail or download your email to more than one computer. It’s difficult to keep multiple computers and mobile devices synchronized, though, as you’re downloading messages to different locations. The POP protocol cannot synchronize sent messages or other email folders on different computers.

Want to learn more? You can read the Wikipedia entry for POP clicking here.