Getting started

How to activate two-factor authentication on a Gandi mail Roundcube account

A bank of nine mailboxes arrange in a square and mounted on a wall with one mailbox open in which there are two envelopes stacked on top of one another, on a purple background

Protecting an service with a password is essential, but insufficient. Emails often contain important and sensitive information that should remain private, especially personal data and private data.

Improve the security of your email communications

Activating two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Gandi email account improves the protection of your important and private communications. This higher level of security can be added to any email address whether you use SOGo or Roundcube.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) refers to a security practice requiring two methods of verification to validate you are who you say you are. When you activate 2FA on your Gandi email account, in addition to your password, you’ll need to provide an additional code generated by an application (usually on your smartphone) to access your email account.

Activate 2FA on Roundcube

Before starting, you’ll need to install an application like Google Authenticator on your device that will act as your 2FA “key.” The device is usually a smartphone. If you have a Yubikey, you can also use it with Yubico Authenticator.

Next, let us guide you with this video:

Email address hosting at Gandi

Gandi offers a “personal” email service with each domain name registered with us, called “GandiMail.” For each domain name registered at Gandi, you get two “standard” email accounts with 3 GB of storage each. You can also buy additional email addresses as you need: Standard addresses come with 3 GB of storage and Premium comes with 50 GB.

Video script

Hello everyone, and welcome to Gandi’s YouTube channel!

Today, we are going to show you

how to set up two-factor authentiation on Roundcube.

Two-factor authentication helps you to strengthen the security of your custom email accounts.

As a reminder, with every domain name you register with Gandi

you get 2 standard, custom email addresses with 3 GB of data storage.

To begin with, connect to your Gandi account,

then go to the “Domain name,” tab.

From your active domain names,

click on the domain name associated with your email address.

Then go to the “Email” tab.

Click on the email address

that you want to activate two-factor authentication on.

Once you’re on this page,

Click on the option to go to your webmail and then choose Roundcube.

Enter your Roundcube login information,

(not to be confused with your Gandi login),

and once you have logged in to the Roundcube interface,

click on “Settings” in the upper right.

Then, click on “2-factor authentication” in the menu on the left.

Next, click on “Fill all fields,”

which will automatically fill in the fields required.

Once your codes are generated, remember to click on “Save.”

A QR code will then appear on your screen.

You’ll need to scan this QR code with the authenticator app

installed on your phone.

Once you’ve scanned the QR code, a code will be generated

every 30 seconds in your authenticator app.

Enter this code in the corresponding field on

your computer.

Then click to verify your code.

If you verify the code in time,

A “Code OK” notificaton should appear.

Otherwise, try again to enter the code

available in your mobile app.

That’s it! You’ve now activated two-factor authentication

on RoundCube!

To further secure your email account,

return to your email interface in your Gandi account.

Then, click on the “Go to Webmail” link

from the page for your email address.

This time, click on “Manage mailbox preferences.”

On this page, you’ll see a summary of the

security level of your email address as well as

some recommendations to improve

the security of your email account.

We recommend that you set up a recovery email address.

If you lose your Roundcube login,

it can be sent to your recovery email address.

To configure this recovery address,

scroll down the page to the

“Account recovery methods,” section.

Then, enter the email address that you want

to use as your recovery email address

for your Roundcube account.

Then, click “Save.”

You will receive a notification,

asking you to verify your recovery email address

by clicking the link within 24 hours.

Go to your recovery email account and click the link

in the email you receive.

If you don’t find it, wait a minute, and be sure

to check your spam folder.

When you follow the link, you will be asked to

provide your email password

created on your Gandi account,

and then click “Confirm.”

Your recovery email address will then be configured.

Finally, let’s go back to the “Account recovery methods,”

and configure account recovery codes.

In the “Recovery codes,” section,

enter your Gandi email account password

and click on “Generate recovery codes.”

And you’ll see your recovery codes.

It’s very important to save these

in a safe place that no one

besides you has access to.

You can, for example, store them

in a password manager

or in a password-protected file.

These should be accessible in case you ever need them.

So there you have it—now you can configure two-factor authentication

on your Roundcube custom email address.

It’s that easy.

At Gandi, we help guide you in managing

the security of your different services.

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