Skip to content

Mail servers and ports

To receive e-mail in an e-mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird, Mail.app, smartphone, tablet...) you must use the correct settings.

What is the difference between POP3 and IMAP?

Your email program usually gives you the choice between POP3 and IMAP to retrieve retrieve emails, but what exactly is the difference?

  • When you use POP3 the messages are downloaded to your computer. All changes (folders, labels, ...) are only visible on the computer on which you read emails. By default the emails are also deleted on the server, so you take up less server space. This is a legacy method.
  • If you use IMAP, then all changes to emails are also sent back to the server. When a mail is marked as read marked then this is visible everywhere. This is the best option if you have email on multiple devices (laptop, smartphone, webmail...) uses. This is a newer and recommended method.
Disk space

All emails are also stored on the server, you can track the used space in Sock.

OpenMinds Shared Mail settings:

Incoming email (IMAP or POP3)

  • Server: mail.openminds.be
  • Port:
    • 143 for IMAP
    • 993 for IMAP via SSL
    • 110 for POP3
    • 995 for POP3 via SSL
  • Login / Username: Your full e-mail address
  • Password: As set in Sock.

Outgoing email

  • Server: mail.openminds.be
  • Port: 587 (Note: this is probably set to 25 in your mail client!).
  • This server requires authentication: Yes.
  • Login / Username: Your full email address
  • Password: As set in Sock, same password as incoming email.

Common mail ports:

Port Service In / out Notes
25 SMTP Outgoing (Unsecured)
465 SMTPS Outgoing (Deprecated)
587 SMTP (Smart TLS) Outgoing Preferred
2525 Alternative SMTP Outgoing
110 POP3 Incoming (Legacy, unsecured)
995 POP3S Incoming (Legacy, secured)
143 IMAP Incoming (Unsecured)
993 IMAPS Incoming Preferred