Email Guide

Getting Started with Email Hosting

Everything you need to point your domain, manage mailboxes, and use every feature of your NordServ portal.

Finding things on your service page Pointing your domain Webmail access IMAP & SMTP settings Why can't I connect? Self-service mailboxes Aliases & mailing lists Multi-domain plans Anti-spam, SPF, DKIM & DMARC Daily backups

🗂️ Finding things on your service page

Your Email service page is split into tabs. Overview holds the Email Hosting card for each domain (domain, status, Webmail link, DNS records, and the Mailboxes and Aliases lists with their Change Password and Delete buttons) and the Why can't I connect? card. Settings holds the Add a Domain, Add a Mailbox, Mailbox Add-on and Add an Alias cards (the Add cards only show while your plan has room for more). Billing holds Cancel Subscription and Payment History. The Service Details card at the top stays visible on every tab.

🌐 Pointing your domain

Email hosting needs a handful of DNS records before mail, webmail, and SSL all work — an MX record plus A/AAAA records for the mail, IMAP, SMTP, and webmail subdomains, a DKIM record, and a recommended SPF and DMARC record. The exact records and IP addresses to use are sent to you in a dedicated setup email right after signup, and the same complete list is always available in the portal: the Email Hosting card for each domain (on the Overview tab of your service page) shows it, open by default while the domain is still waiting on DNS, and tucked behind "Show DNS records (SPF, DMARC, DKIM...)" once it's up and running.

Log in to wherever your domain's DNS is managed.
Create the A and AAAA records for mail., imap., smtp., and webmail. exactly as listed in your setup email — 8 records in total (one A + one AAAA per subdomain).
Create the MX record: Name/Host @, Value/Points to mail.yourdomain.com, Priority = 10.
Add the DKIM TXT record from your setup email too — it's required for other mail providers to fully trust your outbound mail.
Add the SPF and DMARC TXT records from your setup email as well — one on the bare domain, one on _dmarc.. Neither is required for SSL or for mail to flow, but together with DKIM they're what keeps your outbound mail out of spam folders.
Remove or disable any existing MX records for the domain pointing elsewhere — having two MX records for the same domain can cause inconsistent delivery.
Save — DNS changes typically take a few minutes to an hour to spread, occasionally longer.

Where exactly to click varies by provider — here's the general path for the most common ones:

Cloudflare: DNS → Records → Add record. Set every one of these records (A, AAAA, and MX) to "DNS only" (grey cloud) — never the orange proxy cloud.
GoDaddy: My Products → DNS (next to your domain) → Add a record.
Namecheap: Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS → Add New Record.
Google Domains / Squarespace Domains: DNS settings → Custom records → Manage custom records.

Warning: If you use Cloudflare, these records must stay on "DNS only" (grey cloud) permanently — enabling Cloudflare's orange proxy on any of them will break SSL certificate activation for your mail services.

Tip: If you're moving from another mail provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.), update the MX record only once you're ready to cut over — mail sent during the DNS propagation window can land on either the old or new mailbox depending on which record the sender's server picked up.

Note: If we still can't see your DNS records 24 hours after the domain was added, we email you a reminder listing the records we are still waiting for, then again every 3 days (at most 3 emails). We keep checking automatically: as soon as the records are detected, SSL is issued and you get a confirmation email.

📧 Webmail access

Every mailbox includes webmail access, so you can check your inbox from any browser without configuring a mail app — the Webmail link is in the Email Hosting card on the Overview tab of your service page. You can still set up Outlook, Apple Mail, or a phone's mail app too, using the IMAP/SMTP settings below.

🔐 IMAP & SMTP settings

Use these settings to set up any mail app — Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or a phone's mail app — as an alternative to webmail. Replace mail.yourdomain.com with your own domain, and use your full email address as the username.

IMAP

Server: mail.yourdomain.com
Port: 993
Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication method: Normal password

SMTP

Server: mail.yourdomain.com
Port: 465
Security: SSL/TLS
Authentication method: Normal password

Tip: Webmail already works out of the box with no setup — you only need these settings if you want to use a separate mail app instead.

🛡️ Why can't I connect?

If a connection to your service fails even though the service is running — a game client, an SFTP or mail app, or your browser — our firewall may have blocked the IP address it comes from. Our servers automatically block addresses that cause too many failed logins or suspicious traffic. The Why can't I connect? card on the Overview tab of your service page checks this for you, on the server that runs this service.

Open your service in the portal and stay on the Overview tab — the Why can't I connect? card is open by default.
Your current IP address is already filled in. To check another connection — a player's, or the network you play or send mail from — replace it with that public IPv4 or IPv6 address.
Click Check. The card shows the address it checked and one of the answers below.

Blocked by our firewall: the address is blocked with no set end date.
Temporarily blocked by our firewall until …: the block lifts by itself at the date and time shown (in your own time zone) — simply wait until then.
Not blocked on this service's server: our firewall isn't the problem. Double-check the server address and port, and your own network (Wi-Fi, VPN, internet provider or local firewall).
We could not complete the check right now: try again in a few minutes.

When an address is blocked and we know why, the card also shows the reason: too many failed login attempts, suspicious or excessive traffic, an address on a public abuse blocklist (often a shared or previously misused address), or blocked by our team.

Tip: Blocked with no end date, or you think the block is a mistake? Contact support and include the IP address shown in the result so we can look into it.

Note: The check only looks at the firewall of the server(s) running this service, and only public IP addresses can be checked. To prevent abuse it is limited to 20 checks and 5 different addresses per hour — if you reach a limit, try again later. The card is available while the service is active (including a cancelled service until its end date), but not while it is suspended.

📬 Self-service mailboxes

Add a mailbox anytime with the Add a Mailbox card on the Settings tab of your service page (enter the full address, like [email protected]). To remove one, use the Delete button next to it in the Mailboxes list of the Email Hosting card on the Overview tab — it only appears while you have more than one mailbox, since your last mailbox can't be deleted. Either way, no ticket is required and it takes effect immediately. The same list has a Change Password button for each mailbox if someone forgets theirs.

Each plan includes a number of mailboxes and a storage quota per mailbox, both listed on the plan's card on the pricing page. The quota applies to each mailbox separately rather than being pooled, and the Mailboxes list in the Email Hosting card shows each address's usage next to its quota.

With more than 5 mailboxes (or aliases) on a domain, the Mailboxes and Aliases lists in the Email Hosting card start collapsed: click the heading, which reads like Mailboxes (12) — show / hide list, to open or close it. Once a list is longer than 5 entries a Filter by address… box appears inside it — type part of an address to narrow the list instantly. Your Change Password and Delete buttons work exactly the same whether the list is open or not.

Need more mailboxes than your plan includes? Enter the number of extras in the Extra mailboxes field of the Mailbox Add-on card on the Settings tab of your service page and click Update — it's $1 CAD per mailbox per month, added to your recurring billing — the new limit applies immediately, and the higher price starts on your next billing cycle with nothing charged today.

Warning: We check usage daily and email you once a mailbox passes 80% of its quota, well before it fills up. This quota is enforced: once a mailbox reaches 100%, new incoming mail to it is rejected until space is freed up or the quota is increased — there's no grace period, so treat that email as a real deadline, not just a heads-up.

↪️ Aliases & mailing lists

An alias forwards mail from one address to one or more real mailboxes without using up a mailbox of its own — handy for addresses like sales@ or info@ that you want landing in an inbox you already read. Add one with the Add an Alias card on the Settings tab of your service page (the alias address, and the address or addresses to forward to), and the Aliases list in each domain's Email Hosting card on the Overview tab shows them with a delete button next to each. Your plan includes a set number of them.

Tip: Give an alias several forwarding targets and you've made yourself a simple mailing list — everything sent to that one address is delivered to every target on it.

🗂️ Multi-domain plans

Mail Business and Mail Pro let you host multiple domains on one plan. Add a domain with the Add a Domain card on the Settings tab of your service page, then point its MX record the same way as your first domain — each domain gets its own set of mailboxes.

🛡️ Anti-spam, SPF, DKIM & DMARC

Every domain gets spam filtering and automatic DKIM signing on outbound mail — there's nothing to turn on. Your DNS setup email (covered above) also includes an SPF and a DMARC record, and the Email Hosting card for your domain (Overview tab) lists both any time you need them again under "Show DNS records" — publishing them is optional but recommended, since together with DKIM they're what tells Gmail, Outlook, and other providers your outbound mail is genuinely yours, reducing the chance it lands in spam.

Tip: The DMARC record we send defaults to p=none — monitor-only, it never blocks or spam-folders your mail. Once you're confident your outbound mail (and any other tool sending as your domain, like a marketing platform) is properly aligned, you can tighten the policy yourself: p=quarantine sends misaligned mail to spam, p=reject blocks it outright. Start with p=none unless you already know you need stronger enforcement.

💾 Daily backups

Automatic daily backups are included free on every plan — there's nothing to set up. The last 5 days of backups are kept. If you ever need a restore, contact us with the mailbox and date you'd like restored.

Still stuck? Check the FAQ or contact us — we'll answer directly.

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