Setting up an SMTP server

If your school(s) will be sending email notifications to patrons or allowing patrons to email Resource Lists, you'll need to set up your outgoing mail server information. You can use your own or a third-party mail server.

If you're a Super Administrator and you maintain one mail server for the entire consortium, you'll need to set up your outgoing mail server.

Otherwise, Destiny Administrators can set up a mail server for their district or school.

Note: If you are using a third-party mail server, you'll need to check with your mail service provider for the connection information needed here.

Server settings

1. Log in as the Destiny Administrator or Super Administrator and click Setup adjacent to the button.
2. If you're a Destiny Administrator, from the Update District page, open the District Options tab.
   If you're a Super Administrator, from the Update Destiny Installation page, open the Options tab.
3. Click adjacent to SMTP Settings.
4. Enter the name of your mail server (for example, smtp.myschool.edu) adjacent to SMTP (Mail) Server Address.
5. Adjacent to Port, enter the port number of your mail server.
   • 25, the default, is the standard SMTP channel used for unsecured (plaintext) communication between a mail client (Destiny) and a mail server.
   • 465 is typically used with SSL transport.
   • 587 or 25 is used with TLS transport.
6. Select the Transport Protocol from the list.
7. If the mail server requires authentication, enter a user ID and password so that Destiny can log on to the mail server.
8. To test the connection to the mail server, click .
9. Make sure to click at the bottom of the page when you are done.

Once you have established this connection, email options appear on various pages in Destiny.

We provide some examples of third-party mail server configuration. All require a User ID and password for authentication:

From/Reply To settings

If your mail server requires a sender's email address, you'll need to enter From/Reply To information. (Some SMTP mail servers reject incoming email messages that don't include a return email address.)

1. Enter a default name next to From/Reply To Display Name.
2. Enter a default email address next to From/Reply To Email.
3. To send a test email, click .
4. Make sure to click at the bottom of the page when you are done.

Notes:

These two fields are optional but, if one is defined, the other must be.

The person generating the notices or sending the email has the option on the page to enter their own display name and email address.