Mail settings for Sphinx shell accounts

This page gives mail settings for email hosted on our sphinx shell accounts. This includes email for any domains that you have hosted with us, as well as the username@mythic-beasts.com address that is included with your account.

Email for your domain

Incoming

If you have a domain hosted with us, you can configure POP3 mailboxes to receive mail using the Shell Account Control Panel. The settings required to receive mail from POP3 mailboxes are as follows:

Server name:	sphinx.mythic-beasts.com
Port:	995
Connection Security:	TLS (or SSL)
Username:	The full email address for your POP3 account
Password:	As set

Outgoing

Outgoing mail is sent using Authenticated SMTP. You can authenticate using the username and password for any POP3 account for any domain hosted with us - it does not need to match the address that you are sending from. If you do not have any POP3 mailboxes, you can also use the settings described at the bottom of this page.

Server name:	smtp-auth.mythic-beasts.com
Port:	465
Connection Security:	TLS (or SSL)
Username:	The full email address for any POP3 account that you have with us
Password:	The password for the POP3 account

Email for your .mythic-beasts.com email address

Your Mythic Beasts shell account comes with its own email address, of the form:

username@mythic-beasts.com

The settings for using this address are described below.

Incoming

Mail can be received using either POP3 or IMAP. IMAP gives you the ability to store multiple folders on the server, so can be useful if you access your account using multiple devices.

Server name:	sphinx.mythic-beasts.com
Port:	995 (for POP3) or 993 (for IMAP)
Connection Security:	TLS (or SSL)
Username:	Your sphinx username
Password:	Your shell account password

Outgoing

Outgoing mail is sent using Authenticated SMTP. You can use the credentials for any POP3 account defined for a domain that you have hosted with us. Alternatively, you can set a password for Authenticated SMTP for your sphinx shell account using the Customer Control Panel, and use the settings below:

Please note that these settings replace the use of ".mailauth" files

Server name:	smtp-auth.mythic-beasts.com
Port:	465
Connection Security:	TLS (or SSL)
Username:	yourusername@sphinx.mythic-beasts.com
Password:	The password, as set above

SMTP ports

If you have followed the instructions above, and still cannot send email, it's possible that you will need to use a different port number, and/or different TLS / SSL settings. Unfortunately, since this depends on the details of your email client and network provider we can't provide specific advice—there are just too many possible combinations!

First, some very general advice, relevant to resolving almost any problem with a computer.

Be methodical. There are a number of possibilities to try: it's worth keeping notes as you go through them.
Look for clues! What, exactly, does the computer do? How long does it take to do it—a second? a minute? If you can email us a report with a couple of clues, there a good chance we can resolve it—we're good at interpreting clues. (But if all you can say is it doesn't work then, sorry, we're not psychic!)
If there's an error message, write it down, even if you don't understand it. It's astonishing how many problems can be solved simply by typing an error message into your-favourite-search-engine.

Here's how we suggest you tackle problems with sending email.

You definitely need to authenticate to our SMTP server, otherwise we won't let you send mail to anyone except us and our customers. Make sure you know what username and password you should be using to authenticate.
Try these ports, in this order:
1. port 465
2. port 587
3. port 443
4. port 987
5. port 25
As an absolute last resort, turn off TLS (also known as SSL), and repeat the ports test. (You can skip ports 465 and 443 this time though, as they definitely won't work.)

If you're still stuck, please do email us a report of all that you've tried, and we may be able to help. Include the settings you are using. (Unfortunately you probably can't copy-and-paste them from the mail settings dialog box, so you might have to retype them, or you could send a screenshot.)

Ultimately, however, we might have to conclude that it's not our problem: some network providers may have locked down your email client so tightly that it's simply not possible to interoperate with our servers. In this case, you should be able to send outgoing email to your network provider's SMTP server.