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How to setup email with AWS Lightsail


I've recently hosted my wordpress website through AWS Lightsail. The site has a contact form and a newsletter, but neither are working. I'm also unable to send a password reset email through wordpress, receiving a message that the host may have disabled the mail() function.

How do I setup email on my website? Is it handled through the domain or the host? I've read that I may need to sign up for AWS SES, however I'm unsure how to proceed. My client has also informed me that they have Outlook 365 setup for the domain, but I'm unsure where that fits in.


Solution

  • I would suggest not hosting your client's email through your Lightsail server. There are a lot of extra headaches to consider and there are other services that are more reliable and offer a better more robust user interface than the options available on server.

    To get your client a custom domainname email address (ie joe@domainname.com) here are two options:

    Zoho - Cost: FREE

    You can sign up here: https://www.zoho.com/workplace/pricing.html?src=zmail You need to verify the domain name for this to work (either by adding an HTML file to the site or a CNAME to the domain)

    GSuite by Google - Cost: $5/user/month

    You can sign up here: https://inbox.google.com/u/0/search/google%20suite#m_-1052842142248281614_ You can also get some good promotional codes to get 20% off the first year - here's one: 9746YLRVNWERPAH

    And, to your question about making sure forgot password emails are sent, make sure sendmail is installed on the server (apt-get install sendmail), that the /etc/hosts file contains the following

    and that port 25 is open on the server.