E-mail Setup in PowerChurch

From your e-mail provider:

PowerChurch Plus sends e-mail via SMTP. Most e-mail providers will have articles on their web sites explaining how to set up their e-mail accounts in Outlook or other e-mail clients. PowerChurch Plus requires the same setup information as Outlook or any other program that sends e-mail, so it should be very easy to find the information needed.

Some of the more common e-mail providers are Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook/Live/Hotmail, Charter, Comcast, SBCGlobal, AT&T, etc. Do an internet search for "gmail smtp settings" (replacing gmail with the name of your e-mail provider) and you will likely find the correct article at the top of the list.

For those whose e-mail accounts came with their web hosting (e.g. yourname@yourwebsite.org), you will need to perform the search as mentioned above with your web hosting company's name. For example "godaddy smtp settings".

Using Gmail, Office365 or Outlook? These providers now require OAUTH2 to function within 3rd party clients like PowerChurch. PowerChurch 11.5+ and above supports Gmail OAUTH2 and PowerChurch 15 additionally supports Office365 and Outlook OAUTH2. OAUTH2 simply means that, instead of storing your username and password within PowerChurch, you provide authorization for PowerChurch to send emails on your behalf. This is done by storing an authorization token. This token can be revoked at any time. In the upcoming section we will go over how to set this up within PowerChurch using the "Authorize" button.

Setting it up in PowerChurch Plus:

The e-mail setup options in PowerChurch Plus can be found under File > Preferences > System Setup Options. Click on the E-mail tab. The settings here are system-wide and will be used by default for all users of PowerChurch Plus. The individual fields are explained below.

• E-mail Address. The e-mail address you will be sending from.
• Send a copy to this address. Include yourself in all mailings.
• Display Name. The name that is shown beside your e-mail address when receiving e-mail.
• Outgoing E-mail Server (SMTP). This is the actual mail server address. For example: "smtp.yourmailserver.com"

Note: If your provider requires a specific port number, include that number at the end of the SMTP server address like this "smtp.yourmailserver.com:123"

E-mail Authorization: E-mail authorization is handled in two ways in PowerChurch depending on the e-mail provider being used. Basic authorization and OAUTH2. Basic authorization sends your e-mail username and password each time you attempt to send an e-mail in powerchurch hence why it is required to input that information into the User Name / Password field below. OAUTH2 requires the user to authorize PowerChurch to send e-mails on their behalf. This is done by storing an authorization token once the user log-ins to their e-mail from PowerChurch.

Basic Authorization:

• Outgoing e-mail server requires authentication. If your e-mail server requires you to log in to be able to send e-mails, which most do, check this box.
• User Name/Password. Enter the user name and password to log in to your e-mail account.
• Security (None/SSL/TLS). Most e-mail providers require some form of secure connection/encryption. Select the appropriate option here.
• Validate Certificates. When using SSL/TLS, if this option is checked, PowerChurch will validate each security certificate it comes across.

OAUTH2 Authorization:

• Authorize: If an Authorize button appears alongside the outgoing smtp server, that means you are using an email that requires extra authorization through the OAUTH2 protocol. Click the Authorize button to begin the authorization process. Authorization is required for email providers such as Gmail, Office365 and Outlook. Upon clicking on the Authorize button, you will be given more information as to why you need to authorize, click continue to proceed. Clicking continue will either open up a Google or Microsoft login. From here, login and follow the prompts to authorize your email.

• Google: Login and then select the checkbox that says "Send email on your behalf". Once this is completed, you should receive a message that says the verification code has been received.
  

• Microsoft Outlook / Office365: Simply login to your associated email. Upon successful login, you will receive a message that says the verification code has been received.
  

• Use Advanced Sending Options. This allows the e-mail process to be throttled to match limitations of your e-mail provider. (Send no more than X messages every Y minutes)

Click the ellipsis (...) button to define more advanced sending options for even finer throttling controls. PowerChurch sends a number of messages, then disconnects from the server, and waits a moment, then reconnects and repeats the process. The fields below allow you to configure those steps to work best with your e-mail provider. Note: Only in extreme circumstances do you need to make any changes here.

• Connect Pause. Wait this number of milliseconds before connecting to the server.
• Per Connect. How many messages to send before disconnecting.
• Send Pause. Wait this number of milliseconds in between each message sent.

There are also user-specific e-mail settings that can be found under File > Preferences > User Setup Options. Click on the E-mail tab. The fields on this screen are the same as on the System Setup Options screen, but they are all inactive/grayed out. Next to each field is an "Override" check box. The user will inherit all the system-wide defaults, but can choose to override certain fields, like using a different e-mail address and/or display name, while leaving the server and authentication settings alone.



As mentioned previously, these settings are in no way specific to PowerChurch Plus. The same fields of information will be needed for any program that sends e-mail using SMTP.

Troubleshooting:

General Errors. The error messages that are returned from your SMTP server are reported back to you in PowerChurch. These messages are standardized across most SMTP servers. You should be able to do an internet search for the error number or message to find a quick diagnosis of the problem.

Antivirus. Once you fill out the required information, click the Test button. If you are able to successfully test the connection to the server, then you will most likely be able to send e-mails without issue. However, certain antivirus/security programs will insert themselves into the outgoing SMTP process, monitoring outgoing e-mails to make sure that a virus or other threat is not being sent.

If you send file attachments as part of your bulk mail, you might find that you are more likely to have problems with your antivirus or other security software causing the e-mail sending to fail after only a few are sent. In this instance, you may need to set up PowerChurch as a trusted program in your antivirus/security program.

Firewall. Another common problem is that the network firewall will not allow outgoing connections from PowerChurch Plus or programs other than Outlook, Windows Live Mail, or Thunderbird. To resolve this, you will simply need to set up an exception for PowerChurch Plus.

Local ISPs and PowerChurch Online. A common problem that PowerChurch Online users experience is that local internet service providers (ISPs) will not allow you to send e-mail from their servers if you are not connected to their internet space.

Normally this wouldn't cause an issue, except the program that is trying to send the e-mail is running on our servers in Asheville, NC, not your local computer. In this instance, you will simply need a different e-mail address to send from. When sending e-mails from the new address, you can specify a different "Reply to" address, allowing you to still have replies come back to your main e-mail address.