A lot of devices and systems can send email alerts\u2026 but only if you give them SMTP settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think: industrial equipment, UPS units, security panels, environmental sensors, website monitoring tools, network appliances, and \u201csmart\u201d everything. Many of these products were designed for IT departments and assume you know your company\u2019s outbound mail server details<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t<\/em> know your company\u2019s SMTP server information (and you can\u2019t easily get it), there\u2019s a simple fallback: you can send directly to text.email<\/strong>\u2019s SMTP server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your device asks for an SMTP server, you can enter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can typically connect on any of these ports (depending on what your device supports):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then configure the \u201cTo\u201d address as your text.email address, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When text.email<\/strong> receives the email, it converts it into an SMS message (and handles the rest of the delivery flow).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many SMTP setups require authentication (a username + password). That\u2019s common when you\u2019re sending email out<\/em> to the broader internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This direct-to-text.email approach is different because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So in typical device UIs, you can leave these blank:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the device forces<\/em> you to enter something anyway, try entering a placeholder value (some devices won\u2019t allow empty fields), but text.email<\/strong> does not require SMTP AUTH for mail destined to Email authentication is normally validated using three common mechanisms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now, That\u2019s intentional: lots of alerting devices send email in \u201cweird\u201d ways, and we\u2019d rather deliver your SMS than block a critical notification because a device can\u2019t do modern email auth correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, we\u2019ll likely tighten this up and start enforcing SPF\/DKIM\/DMARC checks more strictly (because stronger validation helps prevent abuse, spoofing, and spam).<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your device is relaying directly to So even though it works today, direct relay is best treated as a fallback<\/strong>\u2014and it\u2019s another reason to prefer your company\u2019s official SMTP relay whenever possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use this approach when:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you do<\/em> have access to your company\u2019s SMTP server information, it\u2019s usually better to use that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Direct-to- Many corporate networks and ISPs block outbound SMTP to reduce spam. If your device sends mail on port 25, the connection might fail entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Workarounds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without SMTP AUTH, the receiving side has fewer ways to confirm the sender is \u201callowed\u201d to send. That can make spoofing easier and auditing harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As described above, this is the big one: direct relay is the most likely path to failing SPF\/DKIM\/DMARC in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Old devices can be finicky about STARTTLS, TLS versions, or SMTP behaviors. A corporate relay may be more forgiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you route through your corporate SMTP relay, IT can often look up logs. Direct device-to- Some organizations require alerts to flow through approved systems, especially if messages contain sensitive data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ready to get started?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a device asks for SMTP settings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the test fails, the two most common causes are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to set up email-to-text alerts but don’t know your company’s SMTP server details? Use this option instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-text-email-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/text.email\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Quick Option: Connect Directly to
mx.text.email<\/code><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n
mx.text.email<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n
\n
your-number@text.email<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\nyour-number@your-subdomain.text.email<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nNo username\/password needed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
@text.email<\/code> or @subdomain.text.email<\/code><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n\n
text.email<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Note About SPF \/ DKIM \/ DMARC (Important)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
What text.email does today<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
mx.text.email<\/code> is not strictly validating inbound mail against SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat may change later<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why direct device-to-
mx.text.email<\/code> can fail these checks<\/h3>\n\n\n\nmx.text.email<\/code>, it\u2019s very common<\/strong> for one or more of SPF\/DKIM\/DMARC to fail, for reasons like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
alerts@yourcompany.com<\/code>, but it\u2019s not actually sending from an approved outbound server<\/strong> for yourcompany.com<\/code> \u2192 SPF fails<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\nWhen Should You Use Direct Relay?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Downsides and Tradeoffs to Consider<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
mx.text.email<\/code> is convenient, but it\u2019s not always the best long-term solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1) Some networks block outbound SMTP (especially port 25)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
2) No authentication means fewer identity guarantees<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3) Future SPF\/DKIM\/DMARC enforcement may break direct relay setups<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4) Some devices have outdated SMTP\/TLS support<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5) Debugging is sometimes harder without IT visibility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
mx.text.email<\/code> setups can be trickier to diagnose if the device doesn\u2019t provide good error details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n6) Compliance and security considerations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Recommendations and Quick Setup Checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Recommended best practice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
mx.text.email<\/code> when you don\u2019t know the SMTP details or can\u2019t get them<\/li>\n\n\n\n@text.email<\/code> or @subdomain.text.email<\/code>) so it routes correctly and generates SMS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nSetup checklist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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mx.text.email<\/code><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n\n