diff --git a/src/addons.js b/src/addons.js
index 23b57be22..d185c5d99 100644
--- a/src/addons.js
+++ b/src/addons.js
@@ -390,9 +390,10 @@ function setupEmail(app, options, callback) {
     assert.strictEqual(typeof options, 'object');
     assert.strictEqual(typeof callback, 'function');
 
+    // note that "external" access info can be derived from MAIL_DOMAIN (since it's part of user documentation)
     var env = [
         'MAIL_SMTP_SERVER=mail',
-        'MAIL_SMTP_PORT=2500',
+        'MAIL_SMTP_PORT=2525',
         'MAIL_IMAP_SERVER=mail',
         'MAIL_IMAP_PORT=9993',
         'MAIL_DOMAIN=' + config.fqdn()
diff --git a/src/mailer.js b/src/mailer.js
index cf37aebbf..6a32d8375 100644
--- a/src/mailer.js
+++ b/src/mailer.js
@@ -159,14 +159,14 @@ function sendMails(queue) {
 
         var transport = nodemailer.createTransport(smtpTransport({
             host: mailServerIp,
-            port: 2500, // this value comes from mail container
+            port: 2525, // this value comes from mail container
             auth: {
                 user: 'no-reply', // derive from adminEmail
                 pass: 'supersecret'
             }
         }));
 
-        debug('Processing mail queue of size %d (through %s:2500)', queue.length, mailServerIp);
+        debug('Processing mail queue of size %d (through %s:2525)', queue.length, mailServerIp);
 
         async.mapSeries(queue, function iterator(mailOptions, callback) {
             transport.sendMail(mailOptions, function (error) {
diff --git a/src/scripts/setup_infra.sh b/src/scripts/setup_infra.sh
index 0c1d3a795..25698d31d 100755
--- a/src/scripts/setup_infra.sh
+++ b/src/scripts/setup_infra.sh
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ if docker images "${GRAPHITE_REPO}" | tail -n +2 | awk '{ print $1 ":" $2 }' | g
     echo "Removed old graphite images"
 fi
 
-# mail (MAIL_SMTP_PORT is 2500 in addons.js. used in mailer.js as well)
+# mail (note: 2525 is hardcoded in mail container and app use this port)
 # MAIL_SERVER_NAME is the hostname of the mailserver i.e server uses these certs
 # MAIL_DOMAIN is the domain for which this server is relaying mails
 mail_container_id=$(docker run --restart=always -d --name="mail" \