How to send e-mails from any address using Gmail's SMTP server

[Alexander Turcic]

A little while ago Lifehacker posted instruction how you could use Gmail's SMTP server to send mail from any e-mail address. Drawback: Google would always rewrite your From: address back to your original Gmail address, kinda defeating our original idea. Last week then, Google added a new feature allowing Gmail users to add multiple e-mail addys and to choose one from a drop-down list when sending a message via the Gmail interface. What hasn't been mentioned yet is that once you've added another verified e-mail address to your Gmail account, Gmail's SMTP server would happily forward the new From: address! And this is how you do it:

• Log in to your Gmail account.
• Click 'Settings' along the top of any page, and then select the 'Accounts' tab.
• Click 'Add another email address' in the 'Send mail as:' section.
• Enter your full name in the 'Name:' field, and the email address you'd like to send messages from in the 'Email address:' field.
• Click 'Next Step >>,' and then click 'Send Verification' to complete the process. Gmail will send a verification message to your other email address to confirm that you'd like to add it to your Gmail account.
• Now go to your e-mail client software to setup your e-mail account.
• Under e-mail address, use one of the verified e-mails you've added to your Gmail account.
• Under outgoing mail smtp server, use smtp.gmail.com. Since it requires SMTP authorization, use your Gmail account as username (e.g. yourname@gmail.com) and your Gmail password as password. You can turn TSL on or off.

[cbarnett]

Very nice... thanks for the heads up, Alexander.

Craig.

just a friendly reminder... this works only if you use <gmailusername> as your username. If you log into the smtp server useing <gmailusername>@gmail.com, it will rewrite the from address to your gmail account.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

just a friendly reminder... this works only if you use <gmailusername> as your username. If you log into the smtp server useing <gmailusername>@gmail.com, it will rewrite the from address to your gmail account.

No problem But it still works fine for me here when authorizing with @gmail.com. Attached two screenshots of my configuration.

Cheers,
Alex

I have been plagued by SMTP problems for some time - but recently started using AuthSMTP - http://www.authsmtp.com

Solved all the problems I had with changing settings, multiple email addresses, using with my own domain, using multiple ISP's and although not free its cheap. Hope it helps!

The option to set up another email address in the From: field is only available for the moment if your interface language is US English. So make sure that is the case before trying.

[Randeep]

I've tried adding a new e-mail with this method but it still rewrites the e-mail address as of Jan 2006. Maybe GMail has since deactivated this capability?

Too bad if they did because a free SMTP server that's not blocked by ISPs all the time (like mine) would be so sweet.