I'm testing alarm email notifications and confused about the "From Address" field in the Notification Block.
Simple questions:
What email address should I put here for testing?
Does this address need to be registered somewhere in the Gateway?
Does it need to match my SMTP username?
The documentation just says "Email address used for the From field" which doesn't help much.
What do you typically use in this field?
In theory it could be any email address you would like a reply to go to if the recipient hits reply. But the SMTP server you use may use the from field as part of their authentication or validation, and that may put restrictions on the address you choose here. We have no way to know if that’s the case – you’d need to contact them.
This address does not need to be registered on the gateway nor does it need to match your SMTP user name. It does not even need to be a working email as far as Ignition is concerned.
Hi Kathy,
Thank you so much for your prompt and detailed response! This clarifies a lot of confusion I had about the "From Address" field.
Your explanation that the address doesn't need to be registered on the Gateway or match the SMTP username is very helpful. I understand now that the restrictions come from the email provider's SMTP server rather than Ignition itself.
I'm currently testing with Gmail, so I'll start with my actual Gmail address as the From Address and then experiment with other addresses to see what gets accepted by their SMTP server.
This kind of practical clarification would be really valuable to include in the documentation, as I suspect many users run into this same confusion when setting up email notifications for the first time.
Thanks again for taking the time to provide such a clear explanation!
Best regards,
Don't!
Make sure that the emails themselves contain a "from" address that will lead back to the relevant server and script in the event that a malfunction (such as rapidly-repeating emails) causes mail problems. Failure to sort out flooding issues may result in loss or closure of your email system and could be costly for your business. I usually use something like
<scriptname>.<servername>.<plant>.<country>@<company-name>.<tld>
It will also make it look like someone competent and organised is running the show!
