How to send email from your onion service

How to send email from your onion service

Your onion service includes a mailbox with POP, IMAP and SMTP access and a webmail client. Outbound traffic is blocked by default, so this mailbox is how your site sends mail.

Step 1 — Open the Email tab

Sign in to the Customer Portal, open your onion service and click "Email". The first card shows the mailbox username and password. If you need a different username, open a ticket — the username cannot be changed from the portal.

Step 2 — Use the POP, IMAP and SMTP settings

The "POP, IMAP, or SMTP settings" card lists everything an email client needs. All three protocols require SSL:

• POP — server mail.olh.icu, port 995, SSL required.
• IMAP — server mail.olh.icu, port 993, SSL required.
• SMTP — server mail.olh.icu, port 465, SSL required.

Most mail clients detect these values automatically once you enter the mailbox address and password.

Step 3 — Read and send mail in the webmail client

On the same card, the webmail sentence carries a SnappyMail link. Open it, type the mailbox address into Email and the password from the card into Passphrase, then click SIGN IN. Tick "Remember Me" only on a machine you control.

It is the same mailbox the POP, IMAP and SMTP settings point at, with PGP support in the browser.

If the login is rejected, re-copy the password rather than retyping it — it is a long random string. The mailbox password can only be reset by support.

Step 4 — Send mail from PHP

The recommended library is PHPMailer. Point it at the SMTP server with the mailbox credentials:

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host       = 'mail.olh.icu';
$mail->SMTPAuth   = true;
$mail->Username   = 'your-mailbox-username';
$mail->Password   = 'your-mailbox-password';
$mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_SMTPS;
$mail->Port       = 465;
$mail->setFrom('your-mailbox-username', 'Your Site');
$mail->addAddress('[email protected]');
$mail->Subject = 'Hello';
$mail->Body    = 'Message body';
$mail->send();

For WordPress, install the "WP Mail SMTP" plugin, choose "Other SMTP" and enter the same host, port 465, SSL and the mailbox credentials as the SMTP username and password.

Step 5 — Respect the limits and prefer PGP

The mailbox is capped at 50 MB, has a per-mailbox rate limit, and mass email is forbidden — the service is suspended if it is used for it. Prefer PGP where your recipients support it.

What to do next

Not delivered? Check the mailbox password first, then confirm port 465 with implicit TLS (587 is STARTTLS and is not what the portal shows). If a plugin floods the mailbox, review it — the rate limit is per mailbox.

Related articles

• How to secure the admin services of your onion service
• How to connect to your onion service with SSH