---
title: "Recommended Email Server Settings"
canonical: "https://help.telegra.de/space/MCCE/9561348868255/Recommended%20Email%20Server%20Settings"
format: markdown
---
![telegra Contact Center - Empfohlene E-Mail Einstellungen](media://510be174-f0a6-43ea-ac0d-a628c7b23b14)

### How Email servers work

**Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3)** and** Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)** are protocols for retrieving e-mail from an e-mail account on an e-mail server.

**Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)** is a protocol for sending e-mail on behalf of an e-mail account.

**An Email server in the contact center works as follows:**

An email account already exists with an email provider, e.g. Gmail or Microsoft.  
Contact Center configures a POP3/IMAP/SMTP connection to this email account so that emails can be read or sent via this account.

### This is how authentication works

When the contact center connects to this email account using one of the above protocols, it must authenticate the user's credentials. The contact center processes two types of authentication:

- **Basic **- Here, the username/email address and password associated with the email server are used to authenticate the user. Example: e-mail address "test123@gmail.com" with password "test". These are configured by a company administrator in the Administrator Portal under ***Email → Email Server***, User and Password Settings.

> ⚠️ **Note: **Basic authentication is problematic in that the contact center requires the user password in clear text, and this method is being phased out by popular email providers in favor of other, more secure options.

- **OAuth2**, also known as "modern authentication" - Here, the username/email address associated with the email server and a token provided by the email provider are used to authenticate the user.
  - There are several OAuth2 authentication flows. The contact center uses the "authorization code" flow.
  - For the enterprise administrator configuring the email server, a new tab opens in the web browser and the email provider asks the administrator for the password. After authentication, the administrator is asked if they want to give permission to the "Contact Center" application to read/write emails on their behalf. If the administrator agrees, the email provider provides the Contact Center with a token that can be used to access the email account.
  - With this method, the contact center does not know the user's password. (The Password field is not displayed to the enterprise administrator when setting up an email server and selecting OAuth2 as the authentication type).

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