I can't send or receive email: what to check, step by step

Follow the steps in order. Each one rules something out, and most problems are found by step 3.

Wherever you see example.co.za, use your own domain.

Step 1: Does webmail work?

Webmail bypasses your phone, laptop and email program. It is the quickest test.

1. Open https://example.co.za/webmail in a browser. This works on both cPanel and DirectAdmin.
2. Log in with your full email address and mailbox password.
3. Try sending an email to yourself and to an outside address such as a Gmail address.

Result	What it means	Go to
Webmail works and the test emails arrive	The mailbox and server are fine. The problem is on your device or in its settings	Step 3
Webmail works but email isn't arriving or sending	The mailbox is fine but delivery is failing	Step 4 or Step 5
You can't log in to webmail	Password, blocked connection or account problem	Step 2
The webmail page won't load at all	Possibly a blocked connection or a domain problem	Step 2

Step 2: You can't log in to webmail

Check these in order.

1. The password

Mailbox passwords are separate from your client area password and your control panel password. If you are not sure, reset it:

• cPanel: Email Accounts → Manage next to the address → set a new password.
• DirectAdmin: E-mail Accounts → change the password for the address.

Then update the password on every device that uses this mailbox. One device with the old password will keep failing and can cause the next problem.

2. Your connection is blocked

Too many wrong password attempts block your internet connection's IP address at the server. This includes attempts you don't see, such as a phone in a drawer retrying an old password every minute.

Signs of a block:

• Webmail, your website and your control panel all stop loading from your office or home.
• Everything works from a phone on mobile data, or from a friend's connection.
• Other people can see your website.

You can't unblock yourself. Open a support ticket and include your public IP address. Find it by searching "what is my IP" or visiting a site such as whatismyip.com from the affected connection. Fix the wrong password on every device first, or the block will come back.

3. The account is suspended

Log in to the client area at portal.webway.host and check for unpaid invoices or a suspended service. See My account is suspended, what can I do.

Step 3: Webmail works, but a device doesn't

Is it one device or all of them?

• All devices stopped at the same time: the password was changed, or your connection is blocked (Step 2). If one device has an old password, it can get the whole connection blocked, which then stops the others.
• One device only: that device has wrong settings or a stale password.

Fix the device

1. Compare its settings with Email server settings: IMAP, POP3 and SMTP. Check the server name, port, security type and that the username is the full email address.
2. Re-enter the password.
3. Make sure "outgoing server requires authentication" is on.
4. If it still fails, delete the account from the device and add it again. With IMAP nothing is lost, because your email stays on the server.

Step 4: You can send, but you don't receive

1. Is the mailbox full?

• Webmail usually shows a storage bar. Your control panel shows the quota next to the address (cPanel: Email Accounts; DirectAdmin: E-mail Accounts).
• If it is full, delete old messages, empty Trash and Sent, or raise the quota in the control panel.

2. Check the Spam or Junk folder and any filters or forwarders

Look in webmail, not only on your device. A forwarder set on the address sends copies elsewhere and may be set to not keep a copy.

3. Did anything change with your domain or DNS?

Incoming email follows your domain's MX records. If you recently:

• moved your website or domain,
• changed nameservers,
• set up Cloudflare, or
• set up Google Workspace or Microsoft 365,

then the MX records may no longer point to Webway.

Check them with a free online MX lookup (search "MX lookup"). For email hosted at Webway, the MX record should point to mail.example.co.za. If it points somewhere else, fix it in your DNS zone (cPanel: Zone Editor; DirectAdmin: DNS Management), or where your DNS is hosted if not at Webway. Changes can take a few hours to spread.

4. Has the domain expired?

An expired domain stops all email. Check the domain in your client area.

5. Ask the sender for the bounce message

If someone tells you their email to you failed, ask them to forward the bounce message they received. It says exactly why. See Step 6.

Step 5: You receive, but you can't send

1. Check the outgoing (SMTP) settings

• Server: mail.example.co.za
• Port 465 with SSL/TLS, or 587 with STARTTLS
• Authentication on, with your full email address and password

2. Is a port blocked on your network?

Some office and public networks block port 465 or 587. Try the other one. If both fail but webmail sends fine, the network is the problem.

3. Have you hit the sending limit?

Shared hosting limits how much email each account can send, to protect the server's reputation. On cPanel hosting the limit is 300 emails per hour per domain. DirectAdmin servers can have a daily limit per account. If you hit it, messages queue or bounce with a message about the limit. Wait and try again later. If you send newsletters, use a mailing service instead.

4. Read the error your email program shows

It is often a bounce message in disguise. See Step 6.

Step 6: What the bounce message means

A bounce (also called a delivery failure or "Mail Delivery Subsystem" message) contains a reason near the bottom. Find the line with a number such as 550 or 554 and match it here.

Text in the bounce	What it means	What to do
"User unknown", "No such user", "Recipient address rejected"	The address you sent to doesn't exist	Check the spelling. Ask the recipient to confirm the address
"Mailbox full", "Quota exceeded", "Over quota"	The recipient's mailbox is full. If the bounce is about your own address, yours is	See Step 4
"Relay access denied", "Authentication required", "Must issue a STARTTLS command first"	Your device is trying to send without logging in	Turn on outgoing authentication and use port 465 or 587
"SPF", "DKIM" or "DMARC" fail	Your domain's authentication records are missing or wrong	See How to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for my domain
"Blocked using", "Listed in", "blacklisted", "Spamhaus", "Barracuda"	The sending server's IP or your domain is on a block list	Open a ticket and attach the full bounce
"Message rejected as spam", "Content rejected", "Spam detected"	The receiving server thought the message was spam	Remove suspicious links or attachments and try again. Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC
"Domain has exceeded the max emails per hour", "Too many messages"	The sending limit was hit	Wait and try later. See Step 5
"Connection timed out", "Host not found", "No MX records"	The recipient's domain has a DNS problem, or has expired	Contact the recipient another way. Nothing to fix at your end
"Delayed", "Will keep trying"	Not a failure yet. The server is retrying	Wait. If a final bounce arrives, match it here

Still stuck?

Open a support ticket and include:

• The email address that is affected.
• Whether webmail works (Step 1), and what happened when you tried.
• Whether the problem is on one device or all devices, and which apps (for example Outlook on Windows, iPhone Mail).
• Whether you can send, receive, neither, or both intermittently.
• When it last worked, and anything that changed around then (new password, new phone, DNS changes, Cloudflare, a new provider).
• The full bounce message, forwarded as an attachment, if you have one.
• Your public IP address from the connection that has the problem (search "what is my IP").
• One example: the sender's address, the recipient's address, and the date and time it was sent.