TechTips - How to Configure an SMTP Server with SharePoint 2007

There are many different functions that can be paired with a website that is hosted via SharePoint 2007. One of the most important pieces to my SharePoint 2007 Server Farm setup is the SMTP server. This functionality gives SharePoint 2007 a ton of power; it allows the websites to send email. In this guide I will explain to you how to setup the SMTP server within SharePoint 2007 so that you can add email functionality to your SharePoint 2007 websites.

So first of all you will have to already have an SMTP server setup and running on your network, without an SMTP server already setup this guide is useless. If you want to setup an SMTP server you can check out this article by Microsoft that gives you a pretty good understanding of how to setup SMTP services on a server. If you already have an SMTP server then the setup is relatively painless.

To configure your SharePoint 2007 websites to use SMTP and send email just follow these steps:

Open the SharePoint Central Admin Page

Click Operations Tab

Click Outgoing E-mail Settings (Topology and Services)

This will get you to the Mail Server settings page where you will have four fields that you will need to populate with the SMTP mail server information. The first option is

Out Bound Mail Server - Enter the SMTP server name or IP in this field

From Address - This is the email address you want displayed when email is sent from your SharePoint website

Reply-to Address - The email address you want reply emails sent to

Character Set - The character set you want to use with the emails (default is the most common)

Once you have all of the information entered into the page you just have to click the OK button. SharePoint should give you a success message letting you know the settings were saved. Now your SharePoint site is enabled to send email using the SMTP server. You should go to your site and test it out.

That is all there is to it now all of your existing sites will have these settings applied to them for their outgoing email functionality. All of your sites should be able to send email from within the applications if they support the function. Hope this guide helps you to get your email settings configured and working for your SharePoint 2007 websites.