Setting Up Mail Relay from Google For Windows Server 2008

Here is how we can setup Windows Server 2008 boxes to use Google as mail relay. This is pretty much usable for small time Web Setups. Lets see the Steps:


1. Install SMTP Service in Windows, if not already installed.

2. Enable IMAP for your google account to ensure it is accessible from external world. Login to Gmail and Goto Settings and Select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP settings tab, and make sure Enable IMAP is selected. If it’s not, select it and save your changes.

3. To manage the SMTP Service Installed Open IIS 6.0 Manager (Not IIS 7.0). (Start -> Administrative Tools -> IIS 6.0 Manager).


4. Find SMTP Virtual Server with the mail icon in the tree. Open Delivery tab.


5. In the Delivery tab Choose Outbound Security and Choose Basic Authentication. Provide the Google account Credentials and Check TLS Encryption. Press OK

6. In the Delivery tab choose Advanced give the domain name and for smart host name: smtp.gmail.com

 7. we can also configure logging in the General tab. stick to Microsoft IIS Log File Format and in the Properties section choose the path. This will help to see the diagnostics.


Please note that Google has imposed certain limitations what we can do with this kind of setup. This free Google mail setup allows only 100 recipients for each mail and only 500 recipients can be sent mails per day.