Server details reference — ports, servers, authentication

Quick reference. If you’re setting up a mail client manually and don’t want to scroll through a guide — all server details here at a glance.

Server address

Identical across all protocols:

mail.xaweho.de

(If your plan has a different mail server address, it’s in the setup mail. In most cases it’s the generic mail.xaweho.de.)

IMAP — receiving

Value	Configuration
Server	mail.xaweho.de
Port	993
Encryption	SSL / TLS
Username	full email address (vorname@deinedomain.de)
Password	mailbox password or app password (see below)
Authentication	password, normal (no OAuth)

POP3 — receiving (alternative to IMAP)

Value	Configuration
Server	mail.xaweho.de
Port	995
Encryption	SSL / TLS
Username	full email address
Password	mailbox password or app password
Authentication	password, normal

Recommendation: only use POP3 if you really want to store mails locally and use just one device. For all standard setups: IMAP.

SMTP — sending

Value	Configuration
Server	mail.xaweho.de
Port	587 (recommended) or 465
Encryption	STARTTLS (for 587) or SSL/TLS (for 465)
Username	full email address
Password	same as IMAP
Authentication	password, normal
Server requires auth	enable

CalDAV — calendar

Calendars, contacts and tasks run via CalDAV/CardDAV (SOGo) with us — on all devices, from iPhone to Linux desktop. There is no Exchange/ActiveSync account with us.

Value	Configuration
URL	https://mail.xaweho.de/SOGo/dav/<deine-mailadresse>/Calendar/
Username	full email address
Password	same as IMAP

Example URL: https://mail.xaweho.de/SOGo/dav/info@deinverein.de/Calendar/

CardDAV — address book

Value	Configuration
URL	https://mail.xaweho.de/SOGo/dav/<deine-mailadresse>/AddressBook/
Username	full email address
Password	same as IMAP

SOGo webmail

Value	URL
Direct login	https://mail.xaweho.de/SOGo/
Username	full email address
Password	mailbox password + 2FA code if enabled

Mailcow GUI (for domain admins)

Value	URL
Login	https://mail.xaweho.de/
Username	full email address (main mailbox)
Password	mailbox password + 2FA code if enabled

When main password, when app password?

Application	What to use?
SOGo webmail	main password + 2FA code
Mailcow GUI, domain admin	main password + 2FA code
Apple Mail / Outlook / Thunderbird (IMAP)	app password (if 2FA enabled), otherwise main password
Mobile mail app (IMAP)	app password (if 2FA enabled)
CalDAV / CardDAV clients	app password (if 2FA enabled)

More on app passwords in App passwords for mail clients.

What we’ve configured on the server side

So that all of this works with your mail clients, we’ve set up on the server side:

• MX record for your domain → mail.xaweho.de
• A record mail.xaweho.de → our mail server IP
• SPF record for sending authorization
• DKIM record for cryptographic signing
• DMARC record for receiver policy
• MTA-STS to enforce TLS
• Autodiscover records for mail client auto-setup
• SSL certificate (Let’s Encrypt) on mail.xaweho.de

You don’t have to configure any of this yourself — it’s part of our plan.

Encryption notes

• TLS 1.2 minimum: old mail clients with only TLS 1.0/1.1 are rejected. If you’re using a very old client: update or replace it.
• MTA-STS active: other mail servers sending mail to us must use TLS.
• STARTTLS on 587: submission port with an upgrade to TLS during the SMTP session — today’s standard.
• Direct SSL on 465: alternative SMTP submission, without STARTTLS negotiation. Also allowed.

Critical notes

Never use:

• IMAP/POP3/SMTP without encryption (ports 25, 143, 110) — we reject that.
• Plain-text authentication without TLS — we reject that.

Mailcow doesn’t permit it. If a mail client tries, you get connection errors.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I quickly find my mail client’s server, port and auth settings? In every mail client these details are under “account settings → server settings”. The exact path differs per client, but they all have something like it.

What are autodiscover records? DNS records that mail clients query during auto-setup. We set autoconfig.deinedomain.de and autodiscover.deinedomain.de as aliases to our server. Outlook and Thunderbird use these to configure themselves automatically.

Does IMAP IDLE work for push mail? Mailcow supports IMAP IDLE. Straight talk: there is no real Exchange push with us. Clients that use IDLE properly (Thunderbird, K-9 Mail, FairEmail) get new mails almost instantly. iOS Mail, on the other hand, only polls IMAP accounts at intervals — set “Fetch New Data” to “every 15 minutes”, it doesn’t get faster there.

Does Mailcow accept TLS 1.0? No. We reject TLS 1.0 and 1.1 — they have known security weaknesses. TLS 1.2 minimum is required. Mail clients from around 2017 onward all support TLS 1.2.

Which authentication methods do you support?

• LOGIN (plain with TLS)
• PLAIN (with TLS)
• CRAM-MD5
• SCRAM-SHA-256

In practice all mail clients use LOGIN with TLS — that’s the most secure and simplest way.

Do OAuth or Microsoft 365 SSO work with Mailcow? Not directly. Mailcow is classic IMAP/SMTP with username/password. OAuth login would be a server extension we currently don’t have active.

What if I run into configuration problems? Open a ticket with:

• Which mail client (name + version)
• Which exact error (wording)
• What you entered (without the password!)

We help quickly — usually it’s a typo in the server or port.

What’s next

• Setting up Apple Mail (macOS)
• Setting up Apple Mail (iPhone/iPad)
• Setting up Outlook for Windows
• Setting up Thunderbird
• App passwords for mail clients