How to Check Your KWR-Hosted Email in Gmail without Forwarding

This article is for clients who have their email hosted by KWR, and would like to use the gmail user interface (gmail.com or mobile app) to send and receive (POP3). We recommend this as an alternative to 'automatic forwarding', which can increase the risk of spam penalties.

Note on folders: this technique won't work if you want to use subfolders of your KWR account in gmail. If you want to use subfolders, you will have to transfer your actual email hosting to Google - to do this you would need to sign up for a G Suite account, then contact us to have the necessary changes made to your DNS records. The drawback is that there is a monthly per-user cost for G Suite, but some of our clients prefer to use it because of the higher storage limits, more advanced spam filtering, and other features such as the ability to use folders/IMAP.

Note: it is entirely possible (and normal) to have your website at yourdomain.com hosted with KWR while your email @yourdomain.com is hosted with Google. The same goes for any other email provider that supports custom domains, such as Microsoft/Office 365. Contact us if you would like more info. There are various reasons why you might want to do this. If your storage needs are low, keeping your email hosting with KWR is usually a lower cost alternative to the giants (Microsoft/Google), but as your storage needs increase you may actually get a better deal from the giants, particularly if you have very few users (they charge per user).

Steps - Check mail from other accounts in Gmail

1. Log into your gmail account via your web browser. In the top right, click Settings.
2. Click the "Accounts and Import" or "Accounts" tab.
3. In the "Check mail from other accounts" section, click "Add a mail account".
4. Enter your full email address (mail@yourdomain.com)
5. Select "Import emails from my other account (POP3)"
6. In the 'Username' field, enter your full email address (mail@yourdomain.com)
   Enter your password
   Enter POP Server: (Enter your website's domain name)
   Select Port: 995
7. Check the following boxes:
   • "Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server"
   • "Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail"
   • "Label incoming messages" - this will give you a folder that keeps these emails separate from the rest of your messages.
   • "Archive incoming messages (Skip the inbox)" - you have to check this in order for incoming mail to be delivered to the right folder.
8. Click Add Account.
9. Select "Yes, I want to be able to send mail as [mail@yourdomain.com]"
10. Enter your name, and select "Treat as an alias"
    Click "Next Step"
11. Enter SMTP Server: (Enter your website's domain name)
    Select Port: 465
    In the 'Username' field, enter your full email address (mail@yourdomain.com)
    Enter your password:
    Click "Add Account"
    

Google will now send you a confirmation email at (mail@yourdomain.com) containing an access code which you will need to complete the setup. If you do not currently have automatic forwarding set up, you will have to do one of the following to receive the message: Log into your cPanel and select 'access webmail', or email support@keepitreal.hosting and ask to have the message forwarded to you, or ask us to give you the code. Once you have the message and/or the code, go back to gmail, enter it and click "Verify".

If it worked, you should now see a new folder in your list of folders: mail@yourdomain.com.

When you compose a new message, you should now have drop-down options in the "From:" field including mail@yourdomain.com.

If it didn't work, contact us for support.

Further Reading

Check emails from other accounts (Google Support Article)