# Changed email service, now the forum won't resolve via IP address nor URL
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [October 11, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331 "2025-10-11T18:06:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/1 "2025-10-11T18:06:18Z")
Complete amateur here.
I had to remove Sendgrid because I was being overcharged for my small site, so I switched to SMTP2Go.
I received the instructions for what to use for Discourse, and made the changes via the discourse-setup command in the console. Since I did that, I cannot access the forum by IP or url: [forum.g2ic.com](http://forum.g2ic.com)
I didn’t make any changes to anything else, so I’m at a loss what’s wrong. I have rebuilt the app several times with no difference.
There was another person who had this issue but he had Wordpress running at the same port, but I don’t have anything like that. I ONLY changed the SMTP info.
Can anyone give me ANY insight? I’m willing to pay for help – I’ve been struggling with this for the past 7 hours. I just need this resolved.
Cloudflare is handling my DNS
DigitalOcean is the host.
Thank you thank you thank you
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### Author:  [@David\_Ghost](https://meta.discourse.org/u/David_Ghost)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/2 "2025-10-11T18:14:40Z")
Im not sure, but i think you can change SMTP details in app.yml then rebuild?
And as you have done it by discourse setup, maybe you should grey out the “a” record and re-try it in 5 minutes, to install it in the correct ip adress.
Hope its helps
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### Author:  [@anoedo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anoedo)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/3 "2025-10-11T18:28:00Z")
It should be caused by the lack of an HTTPS (443) inbound rule in the DO cloud firewall rules. Please check the DigitalOcean firewall rules under Inbound Rules to see if there is an HTTPS (443) rule. If not, try adding it.
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/4 "2025-10-11T19:11:00Z")
@David_Ghost I tried removing the “A” entries, waiting about 15 mins, and then re-added them. No change. (BTW, I assumed you meant the A entries in Cloudflare. Tell me if I misunderstood you). But yes, I did check the app.yml detail via the “nano” command and everything appears correct.
@anoedo There was no cloud firewall enabled on the droplet. I added it per your instructions. It’s been active for about 5 minutes. No change as of right now.
I can try doing the discourse-setup again to see whether it gives me a new message about that port. Maybe?
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### Author:  [@David\_Ghost](https://meta.discourse.org/u/David_Ghost)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 7:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/5 "2025-10-11T19:25:03Z")
That’s not correct. You should edit the “A” record to set it as “DNS ONLY” (grey cloud) temporally then re do a discourse setup after 5 minutes. It should works
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/6 "2025-10-11T19:27:49Z")
Understood. The “A” for the forum was proxied. I have set it to “DNS Only”. I’ll wait the 5 minutes then run the setup again. Will report results.
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/7 "2025-10-11T19:59:55Z")
It actually let me get through the discourse-setup process this time (although it DID let me the very first time 8-ish hours ago). I did not get any port errors, and the rebuild completed.
I still have the same issue. I appreciate the response!!
[g2ic.com](http://g2ic.com) which auto-forwards to [forum.g2ic.com](http://forum.g2ic.com) does not work and I get a “host” error. I try inputting the IP address only and still get the same error.
Any other ideas? ☹
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/8 "2025-10-11T21:16:29Z")
I will be back later tonight to check on things. But would really appreciate any thoughts or further suggestions. Thank you very, very much for reading.
Maybe there’s a clue in the rebuild app log? I don’t know how to record that, but if anyone can tell me how, I’ll gladly post that when I get home.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/9 "2025-10-11T21:28:16Z")
You still have the orange cloud. This keeps let’s encrypt from getting a certificate. And after a few tries, you get rate limited.
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/10 "2025-10-11T21:34:36Z")
I did leave it grey for a while, then went back to proxied because all my other subdomains were proxied (orange). I’ll leave it grey from now on until this is resolved. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/11 "2025-10-11T23:03:32Z")
It looks like you were rate limited and don’t have a certificate so nginx won’t start up. You’ll need to wait until the rate limit is over or add another subdomain (maybe the apex domain) using hostname aliases as described at [Set up Let’s Encrypt with multiple domains / redirects](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-let-s-encrypt-with-multiple-domains-redirects/56685)
You’ll need to point the other host name to the server with another A record (or cname if it’s a subdomain)
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2025, 12:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/12 "2025-10-12T12:20:53Z")
Thanks @pfaffman
Me looking at that thread: 😵💫
I think the gist of it is to add those two entries under the environmental variables. I will give that a shot. I already have domain forwarding going on so that people that go to “[g2ic.com](http://g2ic.com)” already get forwarded to “[forum.g2ic.com](http://forum.g2ic.com)” so I’m wondering if there’s going to be conflicts.
((Back when I ran this site in the 90s, it seemed SO MUCH EASIER 😓 ))
Can anyone tell me though WHY on earth this happened by just changing the SMTP values??
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/13 "2025-10-12T12:57:33Z")
I added the hostname alias line underneath the hostname.
DISCOURSE\_HOSTNAME\_ALIASES: [g2ic.com](http://g2ic.com),[board.g2ic.com](http://board.g2ic.com)
I added a CNAME entry to Cloudflare for “board” to point to [forum.g2ic.com](http://forum.g2ic.com)
I left it as unproxied.
Rebuilding now.
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### Author:  [@David\_Ghost](https://meta.discourse.org/u/David_Ghost)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/14 "2025-10-12T13:34:28Z")
> [@NFULFX](#):
>
> Can anyone tell me though WHY on earth this happened by just changing the SMTP values??
Its because generally, we change the smtp details in the app.yml then we rebuild.
As you have done it by discourse setup with a proxy, you have a setup fail. And if you do it too many times (5 times), you get rate limited by lets encrypt by 1 week. But it’s weird, as i cant see it checking your domain at crt.sh
At least, it’s looks like your site is running fine now 🥳
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/15 "2025-10-12T13:48:00Z")
> [@NFULFX](#):
>
> Can anyone tell me though WHY on earth this happened by just changing the SMTP values??
I did a `docker logs -f app` and saw errors about `LETSENCRYPT_ACCOUNT_EMAIL` being invalid (it appears to have the value “OFF” in your earlier versions of the file). I changed it to your email address, rebuilt, and it’s working now.
I’m not sure if something changed to require that it be a valid email (It should be removed since let’s encrypt [no longer will use that address to notify you of a problem](https://letsencrypt.org/2025/01/22/ending-expiration-emails).
I don’t have time now to check the commits to see if something’s changed about this, but I don’t remember seeing anything.
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### Author:  [@NFULFX](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NFULFX)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/16 "2025-10-12T14:38:01Z")
I appreciate everyone’s help with this. It looks like it was a weird fluke from a previous installer’s setup input. (I didn’t set that value to “OFF”). But I’m back online. I haven’t checked to see whether the email is working but we’ll see! I’m just so relieved at this point! Thank you!
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2025, 3:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/17 "2025-10-12T15:13:19Z")
I just tested and mail is working!
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 11, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changed-email-service-now-the-forum-wont-resolve-via-ip-address-nor-url/385331/18 "2025-11-11T15:14:09Z")
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