Configuration for sending with gmail

[Tech Guy]

First let me say, I can send email to my Kindle, or even my gmail account with no problems. However, a friend began having problems sending via his gmail account so I'm trying to help.

I can't find any configuration for sending out email. I see a form in preferences - Sharing by email - but all fields are blank except port, which says 19. So, how does Calibre know how to send the email? Is that information all hidden? Normally, it would at least show some fields, with the password and perhaps username blanked out. Otherwise, how can you make changes. The only things I can think of is that it's using an open relay, which I didn't think even existed any more, or I'm too dumb to find the settings

For my friend, he has a G Suite account, which used to work. He read that Google is tightening up their usage by 3rd-party apps starting 1/9/19, about the time he started having trouble - will this affect Calibre?

Hoping someone can help restore my sanity.

[theducks]

Did he click Use GMX first, then fill in the User stuff?

Sorry, but I use my regular ISP (email) settings, so I will not click that button as a test.

[Tech Guy]

Originally Posted by theducks

Did he click Use GMX first, then fill in the User stuff?

Sorry, but I use my regular ISP (email) settings, so I will not click that button as a test.

No, but I think it would bring up a form for entering the login information - for GMX. It won't hurt to press it, and in fact I have. I also pressed the Hotmail button. But there's no button for gmail, etc. You realize, I hope, that gmx is not related to gmail, which is what he is using.

But, the question is how did you fill in your regular ISP email settings? What if you need to change a setting? That's what I don't see.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Tech Guy

No, but I think it would bring up a form for entering the login information - for GMX. It won't hurt to press it, and in fact I have. I also pressed the Hotmail button. But there's no button for gmail, etc. You realize, I hope, that gmx is not related to gmail, which is what he is using.

But, the question is how did you fill in your regular ISP email settings? What if you need to change a setting? That's what I don't see.

You just double-click the box (value) and type. (My ISP furnished a tips page for mail clients like look_out_express. just match the names of the fields

I don't use webmail (browser) client, so I have all my settings in a file (for ease reference). So I just used the same values I put into my e-mail clients on my devices.

[Tech Guy]

Originally Posted by theducks

You just double-click the box (value) and type. (My ISP furnished a tips page for mail clients like look_out_express. just match the names of the fields

I don't use webmail (browser) client, so I have all my settings in a file (for ease reference). So I just used the same values I put into my e-mail clients on my devices.

It's strange that I have nothing at all in the form, but it still works. I thought maybe there was another place for the data or something. So it's still a mystery.

Hope someone who knows the answer reads this.

[Tech Guy]

After giving this a bit of thought, I can only surmise that the outgoing server can be left blank, and will use some unknown mail relay or perhaps a built-in smtp server. If for some reason that doesn't work, we can specify some other server such as hotmail, gmx, or whatever we have access to, such as our ISP.

I looked at the headers of a test email I sent to myself, and can't see any recognizable servers, just my IP address, so it seems like it may be built in to Calibre, but I'm not an expert.

[kovidgoyal]

Email does not require a server to be sent. If you dont send one, then it is sent directly from your computer. The problem with doing that is that for reasons of spam, mail not sent from well-known servers if often automatically blocked at the reciopients end. Email started out a truly de-centralized, open protocol, now thanks to spam it is largely a centralised IM system.

[Tech Guy]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Email does not require a server to be sent. If you dont send one, then it is sent directly from your computer. The problem with doing that is that for reasons of spam, mail not sent from well-known servers if often automatically blocked at the reciopients end. Email started out a truly de-centralized, open protocol, now thanks to spam it is largely a centralised IM system.

Thanks a lot, Kovid.. I finally realized that this must be exactly how it works. I guess I'm getting old, because I have used PHP code to send email years ago, but forgot most of the web programming code I used to do.

I had my friend delete the configuration information, but unfortunately it still didn't work, probably due to either a firewall or ISP blocking. However, he did manage to get it to work by configuring Google security settings to allow the gmail server to accept it.