Gmail SMTP vs Mail Queues by PBCI

Gmail SMTP plugin allows you to authenticate with your Gmail account to send email via Gmail SMTP server. Most shared hosting servers have restrictions when it comes to email. Usually email will get blocked or missing for no reason. Sometimes it will get blocked when your website reaches the daily limit of outgoing email. This plugin can bypass this issue by routing the email through Gmail’s SMTP server. Gmail SMTP Add-ons Reply-To Cc Email Logger Gmail SMTP Benefits Gmail SMTP plugin is not like most SMTP plugins. It uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol to authorize access to the Gmail API – which means a more secure login system and users won’t have to enter any username or password. Gmail SMTP plugin uses PHPMailer – a very popular library used for sending email through PHP’s mail function. This libary is also used in the core WordPress to send email. Gmail SMTP plugin utilizes “wp_mail” (A function used by WordPress to send email) instead of completely overriding it. This way you still get all the benefits of the default mail function. You no longer need to enable Allow less secure apps on your gmail account to fix SMTP connection issue. This issue became prominent from December 2014, when Google started imposing XOAUTH2 authentication (based on OAuth2) to access their apps. This issue still affects almost all the SMTP plugins because they authenticate via username and password. How OAuth 2.0 Authorization Works You register an application in the Google Developers Console. The application is launched and it requests that you give it access to data in your Google account. If you consent, the application receives credentials to access the Gmail API. Gmail SMTP Features Configure your website to send email using Gmail SMTP server Authenticate using OAuth 2.0 protocol Authenticate with encryption when sending an email (TLS/SSL) Gmail SMTP Basic Setup Create a new project in Google Developers Console. Enable Gmail API in it. Create credentials (OAuth client ID) to access this API. Configure the consent screen for the web application. Enter a Product Name and a Privacy policy URL. Once the consent screen is configured, create a web application. Go to the plugin settings (Settings->Gmail SMTP). Set the Authorized Redirect URL of the application as the one shown in the settings. Finish creating the web app. Copy the newly created Client ID and Client secret and paste into the settings area. Enter your OAuth Email, From Email and From name. Select an encryption. Enter a port number. Save the settings. Now you can authorize your application to access the Gmail API by clicking on the Grant Permission button. Once the application has been authorized Gmail SMTP plugin will be able to take control of all outgoing email. Gmail SMTP Settings Authorized Redirect URI: Authorized redirect URL for your website. You need to copy this URL into your web application. Client ID: The client ID of your web application. Client secret: The client secret of your web application. OAuth Email Address: The email address that you will use for SMTP authentication. This should be the same email used in the Google Developers Console. From Email Address: The email address which will be used as the From Address when sending an email. From Name: The name which will be used as the From Name when sending an email. Type of Encryption: The encryption which will be used when sending an email (TLS/SSL. TLS is recommended). SMTP Port: The port which will be used when sending an email. If you choose TLS it should be set to 587. For SSL use port 465 instead. Disable SSL Certificate Verification: As of PHP 5.6 a warning/error will be displayed if the SSL certificate on the server is not properly configured. You can check this option to disable that default behaviour. Gmail SMTP Test Email Once you have configured the settings you can send a test email to check the functionality of the plugin. To: Email address of the recipient. Subject: Subject of the email. Message: Email body. For detailed setup instructions please visit the Gmail SMTP plugin page.

Send mail using SMTP without exceeding the the rate allowed by your mail provider(s). Mail can be sent using multiple user logins/passwords to give fault tolerance and make each mail message somewhat unique so that it is less likely to be flagged as SPAM/UCE by either your or the downstream mail providers. Messages can be automatically resent when the plugin detects Non-delivery messages (NDRs) returned from mail sent by the plugin. Email can be throttled per outbound SMTP account. Limits can be set for maximum number of recipients per hour and per day. Features Sends mail via SMTP Send mail no faster than the configured number of recipients per hour and day. Keeps you in complience with your providers email sending limits. Configure multiple SMTP accounts to use for sending messages (Gmail, MSN, Go-daddy, etc) Process non-delivery messages and automatically resend messages Keep record of sent mail messages so that you can prove to your provider you didn’t send SPAM Automatically stops sending email when errors encountered, auotmatically restarts after configured period of time Mail sending statistics display Benefits Using multiple email accounts makes it less likely that your email will be incorrectly flagged as SPAM by downstream providers Use in combination with other email newsletter, sending and formatting WordPress plug-ins Reduces non-delivered mail due to invalid SPAM flagging or exceeding near or downstream provider sending/receiving limits More information can be found on our web site. Notes Non-Delivery Processing Non-Delivery (NDR) messaging processing note: plugin should recognize common non-delivery formats. But, because non-deliveries are free form, and can be highly customized or specifically localized the plugin may not recognize the message. If you provide a sample non-delivery message we can make the plug-in a little smarter.