Email Troubleshooting Guide

Troubleshooting Common Email Problems

This guide covers the most common email issues our customers encounter and how to resolve them.

Cannot Send Email

If your email client connects but messages fail to send:

• Check your SMTP port. Use port 465 (SSL) or 587 (TLS). Many ISPs block port 25. If both are blocked, try port 26 as an alternate.
• Enable SMTP authentication. Our servers require authentication for outgoing mail. In Outlook: More Settings > Outgoing Server > check "My outgoing server requires authentication."
• Check your sending limits. Shared hosting accounts have hourly email sending limits to prevent spam. If you are sending bulk email or newsletters, consider a dedicated email service.

Cannot Receive Email

• Check your mailbox quota. If your mailbox is full, new messages will bounce. Clear out old email or increase the quota in cPanel > Email Accounts.
• Verify MX records. If your domain MX records are not pointing to our server, email will be delivered elsewhere. Check in cPanel > Email Routing.
• Check spam filters. The message may have been caught by SpamAssassin. Log into webmail and check your Junk or Spam folder.

Cannot Log In to Email

• Use your full email address as the username (user@yourdomain.com), not just the part before the @
• Verify the password by logging into webmail at yourdomain.com/webmail. If it works there, the password is correct and the issue is in your client settings.
• Check for IP blocks. Too many failed login attempts will trigger a temporary firewall block. Visit my.ultrawebhosting.com and use the Unblock IP button.

Emails Going to Spam

• Check SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Go to cPanel > Email Deliverability and make sure all records show green checkmarks. Missing or incorrect authentication records are the number one reason emails land in spam.
• Check your IP reputation. Use MXToolbox Blacklist Check to see if your server IP is on any spam blacklists. If it is, contact us and we will investigate and request delisting.
• Send a test to mail-tester.com. Use mail-tester.com to get a detailed score showing exactly what is hurting your email deliverability.

SSL Certificate Warnings

If your email client shows a certificate warning when connecting, it means the SSL certificate on the mail server uses the server hostname rather than your domain name. You can safely accept or trust the certificate. To avoid the warning entirely, use the server hostname from your welcome email (instead of mail.yourdomain.com) as your incoming and outgoing server.

Correct Email Server Settings

• Incoming (IMAP): mail.yourdomain.com, Port 993, SSL
• Incoming (POP3): mail.yourdomain.com, Port 995, SSL
• Outgoing (SMTP): mail.yourdomain.com, Port 465 (SSL) or 587 (TLS)
• Username: Full email address
• Authentication: Required for both incoming and outgoing

If you have worked through these steps and the problem persists, open a support ticket with the exact error message you are seeing, the email client you are using, and whether the issue is with sending, receiving, or both. This helps us diagnose the issue quickly.