Ian Dunn 6:25 pm on April 12, 2016
Tags: email ( 27 ), smtp, wordcamp.org ( 30 )

Allowing WordCamp.org SMTP

The Community Team is discussing e-mail options for WordCamp organizing teams, and one of the potential solutions is to allow SMTP traffic from outside the network. If that was done, then the teams could send out mail from city@wordcamp.org accounts, rather than having to setup a Gmail account that messages get forwarded to, and sending mail from that.

I don’t know why SMTP is currently blocked, though, so I wanted to find out if allowing that traffic is an option or not.

#email, #smtp, #wordcamp-org

Ian Dunn 8:59 pm on April 12, 2016

I’d also like to check if it’s an option to install/maintain a webmail client that doesn’t ship with cPanel? The ones that do are pretty old and crappy, compared to what modern users expect. Something like N1, Mailpile, or RainLoop would be much better.

If that’s not an option, then there’s probably no point in allowing SMTP.
Ian Dunn 5:05 pm on April 14, 2016

Er, it looks like SMTP is available outside the network on mail.wordcamp.org:465|587, just not :25. It does have an invalid cert, though. So, I think what we’d need for this to be a viable option would be a valid cert and modern webmail.

(Just to be clear, I’m not requesting those things be done right now, just asking if they’re feasible.)
Ian Dunn 11:44 pm on May 2, 2016

cc @seanosh, since this has been open for awhile. It’s not urgent, but I want to make sure it doesn’t fall through the cracks.
- Ian Dunn 11:51 pm on May 2, 2016
  
  nevermind. cc @barry
stankea 9:38 am on May 12, 2016

@iandunn, as you already noticed, the smtp is enabled and works, and it’s on default submission ports (587, 465). Port 25 is used for server to server communication, not for user to server.
As for the SSLSSL Secure Socket Layer - Encryption from the server to the browser and back. Prevents prying eyes from seeing what you are sending between your browser and the server., unfortunately, the current version of cpanel doesn’t support SNI for all services, only for web server.

As for the webmail, cpanel has roundcube installed and is one of the options to use. I personally think that roundcube is pretty modern.

You should be able to use that. Marking as resolved for now
- Ian Dunn 8:49 pm on May 12, 2016
  
  Cool, thanks for confirming that.
  
  I’m having a hard time seeing any modern qualities about Roundcube, though. The design feels like it’s from 2006; it’s not JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/.-based, and has to reload the entire page to do anything; and it’s not responsive, so it can only be used on a desktop. In my opinion, that’s a pretty poor user experience for an email client.
  
  It sounds like we’ll need to move to a different service anyway, though, so it’s probably a moot point.