DirectAdmin Email Beginner

Email in DirectAdmin: setup and troubleshooting

Create email accounts, set up forwarders, configure spam filtering, and access webmail through DirectAdmin. Includes IMAP/SMTP settings for email clients.

UnderHost NOC Network Operations

5 min read Updated June 2026

On this page

Create an email account
IMAP / SMTP settings
Webmail access
Forwarders
Spam filtering

DirectAdmin's Email Manager handles all mailbox management tasks. Create accounts, set quotas, configure forwarders, and access webmail-all from the same panel section.

Create an email account

Log in to DirectAdmin
Go to Email Manager → Email Accounts
Click Create Account
Enter the username (the part before @), password, and quota (in MB; 0 = unlimited)
Click Create

The new mailbox is ready immediately. Share the IMAP/SMTP settings below with the account holder.

IMAP / SMTP settings

Setting	Value
Incoming server (IMAP)	Your server hostname or IP
IMAP port	993 (SSL) or 143 (STARTTLS)
Outgoing server (SMTP)	Your server hostname or IP
SMTP port	465 (SSL) or 587 (STARTTLS)
Username	Full email address (e.g., user@yourdomain.com)
Password	Email account password set in DirectAdmin

Webmail access

Access webmail at https://yourdomain.com/webmail or https://your-server-ip/webmail. Log in with the full email address and password. DirectAdmin installs RoundCube as the default webmail client.

Forwarders

Forwarders redirect incoming mail from one address to another. Go to Email Manager → Forwarders → Add Forwarder. Enter the source address (the part before @) and the destination email. Mail sent to the source is forwarded to the destination-you can forward to any email address, including external ones.

Spam filtering

DirectAdmin uses SpamAssassin. Enable it at Email Manager → SpamAssassin Setup. You can set the spam threshold score, choose to delete or tag spam, and create whitelist/blacklist entries for specific senders.

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