# SMTP connection problem, docker installation

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/smtp-connection-problem-docker-installation/41981
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [April 3, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/smtp-connection-problem-docker-installation/41981 "2016-04-03T19:03:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![claas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/claas/32/71725_2.png) [@claas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/claas)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/smtp-connection-problem-docker-installation/41981/3 "2016-07-18T12:51:17Z")

</div>

If you use [discourse\_docker](https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker), try setting this in your **app.yml** :

```
DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: login

```

If you don’t use docker, try setting this in your **discourse.conf** :

```
smtp_authentication = login

```

By default, Discourse uses `plain` authentication (which is not what MS Exchange expects):

> <https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/be3a5a56ccc284b352aa65080fc6b955f73cc72a/config/discourse_defaults.conf#L74>

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