MailEnable Standard Edition
Configuration Guide
Version 1.0
MailEnable
Messaging Services
for Microsoft Windows NT/2000/2003
|
|
MailEnable
Pty. Ltd. Date last modified 1/12/2005 2:22 PM |
MailEnable Standard Edition Configuration Guide Version 1.0
1 Introduction
to MailEnable Standard Edition
1.1 Contact the MailEnable Team
1.2 How to Download MailEnable
Standard
1.3 MailEnable Standard System
Requirements
2.3 Sending and Receiving Mail
4.1.5 Choose Program
Installation Location
4.1.8 Creating an Initial
Post Office
4.1.9 SMTP Connector
Configuration
4.1.11 Viewing the README File
4.1.12 Completing Installation
5 Post-Installation
Configuration
5.1 MailEnable Diagnostic Utility
5.2 Check and Configure DNS Settings
5.2.1 To set up PTR records
under Microsoft's DNS Server
5.3 Check and Configure Relay Settings
6 MailEnable
Administration Console
6.5 Managing Server Configuration
7 Configuration
of Services and Agents
7.1.12 Reverse DNS Blacklisting
8.1 Backing and Restore MailEnable
Data
8.4.1 Configuring Netscape
Messenger
8.4.2 Configuring Microsoft
Outlook Express
8.4.3 Configuring Microsoft
Outlook
8.5 Manually testing if MailEnable can
send mail to remote servers
8.6 Troubleshooting SMTP Connectivity
issues and Analysing Log Files
8.6.1 How to import the
Activity log into Microsoft Excel
8.6.2 How to
relate Activity log entries to the debug log file
8.7 Configuring redundant or backup
(MX) mail servers
You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software. Unless you have a different license agreement signed by the respective owners, authors and copyright holders of the MailEnable product suite, herewith referred to as ("ME"), your use, distribution, or installation of this copy of MailEnable indicates your acceptance of this License.
All rights of any kind in MailEnable which are not expressly granted in this License are entirely and exclusively reserved to and by "ME". You may not rent, lease, modify, reverse engineer, translate, decompile and disassemble MailEnable without the permission of its owners, authors and copyright holders of MailEnable.
You are not permitted to commercialize derivative works of MailEnable without a written agreement signed by the respective owners, authors and copyright holders of MailEnable.
All accompanying files, data and materials, are distributed "as is" and with no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.
This disclaimer of warranty constitutes an essential part of the agreement. Any liability of "ME" will be limited exclusively to refund of purchase price. In no event shall "ME", including but not limited to its principals, shareholders, officers, employees, affiliates, contractors, subsidiaries, or parent organizations, be liable for any incidental, consequential, or punitive damages whatsoever relating to the use of MailEnable, or your relationship with "ME".
In addition, in no event does "ME" authorize you to use MailEnable in applications or systems where "ME"'s failure to perform can reasonably be expected to result in a significant physical injury, or in loss of life. Any such use by you is entirely at your own risk, and you agree to hold "ME" harmless from any claims or losses relating to such unauthorized use.
You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting Donations, for any copies, however made, and from distributing such copies with other products of any kind, commercial or otherwise, without prior written permission from "ME". "ME" reserves the right to revoke the above distribution rights at any time, for any or no reason.
1 Introduction to MailEnable Standard Edition
1.1 Contact the MailEnable Team
MailEnable Pty. Ltd. (ACN 100 453 674) is an Internet Messaging product company that develops, markets and supports software for hosted messaging solutions. MailEnable’s mail server suite provides a tightly integrated hosted messaging solution for the Microsoft platform.
MailEnable is a 100% privately owned Australian Company and was established in early 2001. MailEnable's customers include some of the worlds largest Internet/Application Service Providers, Educational Institutions, Organizations, Government Agencies and Corporates.
486 Neerim Road
Murrumbeena, 3163
Victoria, Australia
Tel: +613 9563-4177 (AEST)
Fax: +613 9530-4066
Email: sales@mailenable.com
1.1.1 Support Contact
For any support issues including program defects and general support inquiries, please follow the link below. The web page displayed here shows a form, which once correctly filled out, will permit the MailEnable support team to assist in any support requests. http://www.mailenable.com/support/supportrequest.asp
1.2 How to Download MailEnable Standard
If you have not already done so, the following section will outline how to download the latest supported MailEnable Standard Edition.
To download follow the link below and you will be taken to the MailEnable Website download page where you will find the download location for all MailEnable versions. http://www.mailenable.com/download.asp
As a registered user this link is a key location for all upgrades, which are free of charge for 6 months from first licensed installation. Stored here are any patches and hot fixes deemed necessary for the continual use of the MailEnable product.
1.3 MailEnable Standard System Requirements
1.3.1 Operating System
§ Windows 2003 Standard Edition, Web Edition or Enterprise Edition
§ Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Server or Professional
§ NT 4 Server
Note: While the MailEnable product suite can be installed and has been tested on XP and workstation environments the company does not support these platforms.
1.3.1.1 Requirements for Windows NT 4.0
Window NT has some requirements, so you will need to install the following (if you have not done so already).
§ Service Pack 6a
§ Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 1.2 or later
§ Internet Explorer 5.5 or later (with Browsing Enhancements)
1.3.2 Platform Requirements
§ Intel Compatible Hardware
§ 128MB RAM, 100MB hard disk space
§ Network interface card configured to use TCP/IP
§ Dedicated Internet Connection
2 How Internet Email Works
If you are administering a mail server on the Internet you need to understand how email works. It is important to know how messages are delivered and sent, how servers know how to send to you and how your clients retrieve their email. This will help you in diagnosing problems, tracking faults, and knowing who to contact (or blame!) when something goes wrong. The information in this section is not specific to MailEnable; this applies to all mail servers. This information is essential knowledge if you wish to properly administer an Internet mail server.
2.1 Email Clients
An email client is a
software application that is used to send, receive, store and view e-mail.
Some examples of
email clients include
§ Pegasus Mail,
§ Outlook and
§ Outlook Express.
§ Mozilla Thunderbird
2.2 Email Server
An email server holds and distributes e-mail messages for email clients. The email client connects to the email server and retrieves messages. An email server may also be known as a mail server, or a mail exchange server.
2.3 Sending and Receiving Mail
To send Internet e-mail, you need an Internet connection and access to a mail server. The standard protocol used for sending Internet e-mail is called SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). The SMTP protocol is used to both send and receive email messages over the Internet.
When a message is sent, the email client sends the message to the SMTP server. If the recipient of the email is local (i.e. at the same domain as the email originated from) the message is kept on the server for accessing by the POP, IMAP or other mail services for later retrieval.
If the recipient is remote (i.e. at another domain), the SMTP server communicates with a Domain Name Server (DNS) to find the corresponding IP address for the domain being sent to. Once the IP address has been resolved, the SMTP server connects with the remote SMTP server and the mail is delivered to this server for handling.
If the SMTP server sending the mail is unable to connect with the remote SMTP server, then the message goes into a queue. Messages in this queue will be retried periodically. If the message is still undelivered after a certain amount of time (usually a few days), the message will be returned to the sender as undelivered.
3 MailEnable Overview
MailEnable has a variety of services that interact in order to deliver a message to a mailbox. This interaction is done by a system of queues, which are used to move the emails around. The actual moving of the messages is done by the MTA service, which is logically the central service to the whole MailEnable system. The MTA will pick up messages waiting in a queue and move them to the queue of another service to be processed.
3.1 Structure of MailEnable
MailEnable is comprised of Connectors, Agents and Services. The definitions of these components are described in the table below and in detailed in following sections.
|
Component |
Definition |
|
Connectors |
Connectors move mail between systems or subsystems (local or remote) |
|
Agents |
Agents run perform specific management or operating functions for MailEnable itself. An example of an Agent is the Mail Transfer Agent. Its function is to move messages between connectors. |
|
Services |
Services expose MailEnable functionality to external agents or programs. An example of a service is the POP3 service. This service allows mail clients to access mail from their postoffice. |
Figure 3‑1 Relationship between Agents, Connectors and Mail Services in MailEnable
3.1.1 Services
Services allow external programs (usually
email clients) to access the message store.
When a user wants to read email that has been sent to their mail server for handling, there are several mail services that can be used to retrieve the email messages so that the user can read them in their email client. These services include POP3, IMAP4 and web mail to name a few. Each of these mail services have benefits and shortcomings, as the following information outlines.
§ POP3
§ IMAP4
§ HTTPMail
§ Web mail
Each of these mail services is described in more detail in Chapter 7.
3.1.2 Connectors
Mail connectors move mail between systems or subsystems (local or remote). A mail connector allows MailEnable to send a receive mail messages to external systems. MailEnable has multiple mail connectors: SMTP, Postoffice and List Connectors.
3.1.2.1 SMTP Connector
The SMTP connector is responsible for both receiving inbound SMTP Mail and delivering queued outbound SMTP mail.
3.1.2.2 Postoffice connector
The Postoffice
connector is responsible for receiving and delivering mail to a
postoffice. It also determines any
rules or filters applied to messages at a mailbox level.
3.1.2.3 List connector
The list connector
is responsible for receiving and delivering mail to
3.1.3 Agents
3.1.3.1 Mail Transfer Agent
The Mail Transfer
Agent is responsible for sending messages between connectors.
§ Receiving Inbound Messages from Mail Connectors
§ Delivering Mail to Local Mailboxes
§ Queuing Mail for Relay to Mail Connectors
3.2 Administering MailEnable
From an
administration perspective, MailEnable is comprised of the following
components.
§ Postoffices,
§ Domains
§ Mailboxes
§ Lists
§ Groups
Figure 3‑2 Structure of Postoffices, domains and mailboxes
A postoffice is used
to host multiple mailboxes and domains under one area. For example, if you were
providing email hosting for multiple companies, you would create a postoffice
for each company. Within the postoffice you can assign multiple domains and
mailboxes. If you are running a small mail server, you might only have one postoffice. Post offices can have the same name as a
domain.
Multiple domains can be assigned to a postoffice. You need to have at least one domain configured in order to have a valid email address.
A mailbox is a repository for email. It is used to store emails for one or more email addresses. When a user connects with a mail client application (Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.), they connect to a mailbox to retrieve their email. When creating a mailbox, MailEnable will automatically create an email address for each domain in the postoffice, using the format mailboxname@domain.
Each mailbox can have one or more email address mapped to it. You are only able to add an email that matches an existing domain for the postoffice. When you first create a mailbox, MailEnable will automatically create emails for each of the domains for the postoffice.
MailEnable contains a list server that enables people to subscribe and unsubscribe to a list. A list is a online discussion group or information mailout, where emails are sent out to all the members. People are able to post to the list (e.g. list@companyx.com), and the server will duplicate their email and send it out to all the members.
A group is an email
address that maps to one or more other email addresses. For example, you can
set up a group with has the recipient as staff@companyx.com and add 50 email
addresses as members of this group. When someone emails
staff@companyx.com, the email is duplicated and sent to all 50 members.
3.3 Email delivery flow
3.3.1 Sending Mail
When mail is being sent to a non-local address, this is known as “relaying” i.e. MailEnable has to "relay" the email back out.
Figure 3‑3 Email to remote (Relaying)
To avoid spammers from using the mail server to send email out to anyone, you can require clients to authenticate against the server prior to sending email.
When email is being delivered to a local address, this is not relaying, and MailEnable will always accept this email. This is how you receive email from other mail servers on the Internet, as they do not need to authenticate.
3.3.2 Receiving mail
When an email arrives via SMTP, the SMTP service saves this message to its Inbound queue. The MTA service is constantly checking this queue for new items. When the MTA sees the message arrive it examines the message to determine where it is to go. If the MTA service determines it is to go to a local mailbox, then it will move the message to the postoffice connector service Outbound queue. The postoffice connector will be checking its Outbound queue and can then process this message and deliver it to a users mailbox.
Figure 3‑4 Local email delivery flow
The naming of the Inbound/Outbound queues may be confusing initially, especially with the postoffice connector service where you would think "Inbound" would be for messages going to mailboxes. But think of the queues as always relative to the MTA service. So the MTA service will check all the Inbound queues of the services and move messages to the Outbound queues of the services. Services only check their Outbound queue and if they need to create a message then they will do this in their Inbound queue.
Since the MTA service is the central service responsible for moving messages around the system, it is the logical place for all the global filters, and items such as anti-virus, Bayesian filtering, etc. (the features available to you are determined which version of MailEnable you are running). Even messages which arrive via SMTP and have to be sent via SMTP are processed by the MTA service, since only the MTA can move the email from the SMTP Inbound queue to the SMTP Outbound queue.
Utilising different services in this way gives MailEnable a high level of flexibility, such as allowing services to be split across machines and to permit more than one type of service to be running on different servers. But due to this flexibility it does create one hurdle for an administrator of MailEnable, and that is the problem of being able to track a message. A message just being sent to a local mailbox will be logged in the SMTP logs, the MTA logs and the postoffice connector logs. Fortunately there are tools and monitoring software that come with MailEnable that makes this easier, but understanding the queue mechanism will make administering your server a lot easier.
4 Installing Standard Edition
4.1 Installation Overview
Note: In order to install MailEnable Standard, you require administrative privileges of the server MailEnable is installing upon.
Firstly run the installation executable by double clicking on the install program. The installation program will then guide you through the rest of the installation process. Each screen of the installation program is likely to contain data entry fields, Next, Back and Cancel control buttons.
The [Next] button allows you to proceed to the next step of the installation process.
To exit the installation at any time, you can click on the [Cancel] button.
Likewise, the [Back] button allows you to step back through the installation process. At any time the [Cancel] button is pressed you will be shown an exit screen as shown below verifying that you do in fact want to exit the installer.
4.1.1 Installation note
Once you commence installation, the following note will appear. This is just to inform you that MailEnable will try to access the Internet once installation is completed. Read the note and click [OK] to continue.
4.1.2 Welcome Screen
The welcome screen informs that you are installing MailEnable Messaging Services. It also provides a warning outlining the copyright protection of the MailEnable product suite.
If you wish to continue installing the application, click on the Next button.
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.3 Registration Details
The following dialog box may appear to inform you that a previous version of MailEnable has been installed (and who it was installed by).
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.4 Terms and Conditions
The ‘Terms and Conditions’ dialog box explains the licensing terms and conditions of installing and using the MailEnable product suite.
You should read this carefully as it outlines all conceptual and legal issues relating between the agreement between MailEnable and the End User in relation to the way the program can be used.
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.5 Choose Program Installation Location
Setup will now prompt you to nominate where it will install its configuration and binary files. By default, MailEnable will install itself under the “Program Files” directory. You can change to a different directory by clicking on the Browse button.
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.6 Selecting Program Group
The installation wizard will now prompt you for the program group where you want the MailEnable icons and shortcuts installed.
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.7 Selecting Repository
Setup will now prompt you to nominate where to install its configuration and messaging data. By default, MailEnable will install itself under the “Program Files” directory. You can change to a different directory by clicking on the Browse button.
MailEnable will detect the repository location if you are using the local repository. You can also nominate a repository on a backend server by pointing at the directory on this server that contains the \CONFIG, \POSTOFFICES or \QUEUES directories.
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.8 Creating an Initial Post Office
Setup will now prompt you to nominate at least one Post Office to deliver mail to and from. You will also need to provide a password for the Postmaster mailbox for the post office.
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.9 SMTP Connector Configuration
The installation will now prompt you to enter specific details for its SMTP Connector.
These settings are outlined in the following table:
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Domain Name |
The domain name should be the domain name
of the organization that owns or is operating the server. If you are using this server on the
Internet, it is important that this domain name is registered. |
|
DNS Host |
The DNS host used by the SMTP Connector to
locate mail servers. If you wish to use multiple DNS addresses, you can enter
these here, and separate the IP addresses with a space. In most cases, you
should include the same DNS host(s) as configured under the network TCP/IP
settings for the computer. |
|
SMTP Port |
The SMTP port is almost always set to 25.
Very rarely is another port number used and it is recommended that this
setting remain as 25. Corporate or hosting companies/agencies may wish to use
a different SMTP port to 25 to obscure the fact that the server is running
SMTP services. |
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
4.1.10 Commence Installation
The installation program will prompt you a final time before it commences installing files and registering the application.
Please click the [Next] button to continue.
The installation will now install files and display a progress window whilst the components are installed and configured.
4.1.11 Viewing the README File
The installation program will now display the Read Me file for your review. The readme file contains release history and notes. It also outlines any considerations of known issues with the current installation.
4.1.12 Completing Installation
Finally, setup will inform you the installation procedure completed successfully.
Now that MailEnable is installed on the server, you are able to use the Administration program to manage it. You will find the icon for MailEnable Administration under the Program Group you nominated in the setup program.
Please click the [Finish] button to complete installation of MailEnable
Please click the OK button to automatically reboot. A reboot is required after install or upgrade.
5 Post-Installation Configuration
5.1 MailEnable Diagnostic Utility
The MailEnable Diagnostic Utility checks your installation for system errors or warnings. The Diagnostic Utility also reports on your current system configuration. In most cases, the diagnostic file should provide you with enough information to determine whether your server is configured properly or to diagnose system faults.
You can find the MailEnable Diagnostic Utility in your MailEnable Program Group or under the “Diagnose” icon in the MailEnable administration program as shown below.
Figure 5‑1 MailEnable Diagnostic Utility
Once the Diagnostics Utility has been clicked on, it may take a few seconds to load (depending on the number of domains you have). A web page will be invoked and will give a test output of all services installed within the MailEnable program. In order to rerun the Diagnostic through the Administration program, right click on the Diagnose icon and select Refresh from the popup menu. Below is an example of this test output and how it is displayed. The refresh option can also be used if the page does not properly load..
The classes and test configurations that are run are as follows:
|
Option |
Description |
|
Version
Information |
This
section contains all required environment data and version information. |
|
Configuration
and Data Test |
This
section verifies that all repository stores are valid and free from any
corruptions or permissions errors. |
|
Application
Environment |
Checks
various system files on the server that MailEnable relies on. |
|
System
Services and Tests |
A
test on services and whether they are correctly installed and running. Some services are not installed in all
versions of MailEnable, and so therefore may fail this test. Click the Status
link to get confirmation of whether this is the case. |
|
Queue
Status |
A
calculation of the quantity of all inbound and outbound emails is displayed
here. |
|
Host
TCP/IP Settings |
A
basic check here on IP and DNS configurations is completed here. |
|
Network
Interface Report |
A
check of all Network Interface Cards and validation of drivers is completed
here. |
|
Mail
Transfer Agent |
Reports
details of the MTA service settings that can affect delivery and
Antivirus/pickup event performance. |
|
SMTP
Configuration Test |
The
settings or properties of SMTP settings are defined here. Allows you to check
security settings for this service. |
|
SMTP
Relay Settings |
Relay
settings are checked here. This
verifies that only authorized addresses can send through the mail server. |
|
SMTP
Inbound Bindings Test |
Provides
information on the bindings to IP addresses. |
|
SMTP
Outbound Configuration |
Shows
outbound SMTP configurations. |
|
SMTP
Outbound Queue Status Test |
Shows
status of messages queued to remote hosts. |
|
DNS
Resolution Test |
Resolves
all DNS settings. |
|
Host
IP Reverse Lookup Tests |
Outlines
the reverse DNS configuration settings and verifies settings. Some mail
servers will reject email if there is no PTR record for your IP address, so
if this test fails you need to have a PTR configured for your IP address. |
|
Hosted
Domain Resolution Test |
Checks
whether local domains have MX records. |
|
Reverse
DNS Lookup Configuration |
Indicates
whether reverse DNS blacklists are enabled for the SMTP service. |
|
Web
Application Configuration Test |
Checks
web mail and web administration settings ensuring sites are correct. |
|
Message
Filtering/Antivirus |
Shows
the status of the MTA and configurations of any Filters and AV programs. |
|
Authentication
Tests |
Checks
all authentications provided by MailEnable. |
|
Post
Office Status Tests |
Authenticates
all post office accounts and domains. |
Note: The Diagnostic Utility is also a separate application which can be run through the Program Files >Mail Enable >System Utilities menu.
5.2 Check and Configure DNS Settings
Whilst MailEnable is relatively simple to install, you are likely to need to configure Domain Name Services (DNS) to publish your mail server to remote mail servers and clients. This is necessary so that a remote mail server will be able to determine the IP address of your MailEnable server (in order to deliver any mail to your server).
If you intend to use MailEnable on the Internet, you should have a fixed IP address that is registered under your public DNS. If you are not on a static IP address (i.e. your IP address changes) and you want to direct emails and domains to the server, you will need to use a dynamic DNS provider (DNS2GO is one example of this) that keeps track of your changing IP address and updates the DNS details accordingly. Companies that offer this service may charge a monthly fee, although there are some free services available. You are still able to send email from MailEnable with a dynamic IP address, but unless the DNS is updated with your new IP address every time it changes, other mail servers will not be able to connect to yours. Be aware that a number of mail servers will not accept email from you if you are not on a static IP address, or if you are using a cable/DSL connection.
Every domain that you register on MailEnable should have mail exchanger (MX) records defined with your ISP or whoever is hosting your DNS.
Due to the vast array of combinations for DNS hosting and the number of vendor specific DNS implementations, you should consult your DNS provider for instructions or inform them of your servers published IP Address along with the domain names you are hosting under MailEnable and request they configure your DNS accordingly.
If you are operating MailEnable from a computer at your office or home, make sure that your Internet plan allows you to run a mail server. Some providers block incoming email to mail servers on their network, to avoid the possibility of spam abuse. They can also block all outgoing email that is not going through their mail server. If unsure, please contact your service provider. If MailEnable can send email correctly, but does not receive any, it is likely to be either your DNS settings, or your ISP has blocked incoming email to stop you running a mail server.
More information is available on
configuring DNS in the MailEnable Knowledgebase (http://www.mailenable.com/kb) and in
the MailEnable forums (http://forum.mailenable.com/).
The precise approach for configuring DNS depends on whether you are hosting your own DNS or whether an ISP or third party hosting the DNS. This section explains how you can configure your DNS if you are hosting your own DNS Server.
Using the DNS Management software for your DNS Server, ensure that a DNS "A" (Host) record has been created for your mail server. This record type allows the host to be identified by a host name rather than IP Address. You can validate that this was successful by using the ping utility. You should attempt to ping the host using its host name. If this works, then the A record was registered correctly.
Next, you should attempt to create an MX record that points to the A record. The way this is achieved depends on which DNS server/vendor you are using.
It is important that you understand the role of the Authoritative DNS Server. The authoritative server for a domain determines which DNS Server(s) holds the 'master copy' of the domains DNS entries as they are to be used throughout the Internet. An example for registering MX records using Microsoft DNS Server is available at:
5.2.1 To set up PTR records under Microsoft's DNS Server
Ensure
that DNS Forwarding is enabled on the server. This means that if a client
cannot find DNS records on your server, the DNS server will forward request to
your ISPs DNS servers. This can be accessed under the properties of the server
- Forwarders Tab (within DNS Manager)
Create
the Reverse Lookup Zone for address range of your public IP address (e.g.:
201.248.10.* ). Create this by selecting 'New Zone' under the properties of the
server (within DNS Manager).
Create
PTR Records for all your IPs under the Zone outlined above (within DNS
Manager).
Ensure
the primary DNS IP addresses used by MailEnable's SMTP Connector is configured
to use your local DNS rather than referring upstream to your ISPs. This is much
faster and more efficient. (This is done via MailEnable Administration program
under the properties of the SMTP Connector)
Restart
the SMTP Service to place DNS Server changes into effect (Service Control
Manager)
Note: You should check with your ISP that they allow PTR referrals to your server. This can be checked using resources at http://www.dnsstuff.com
5.3 Check and Configure Relay Settings
Mail servers accept messages for recipients that have their mailboxes hosted on the mail server itself. Any attempt to send a message to a non-local recipient (i.e. a recipient on a different mail server) is called a ‘relay’. It is critical that you regulate who can send messages to others (non-local recipients) or your server will be identified as an Open Relay. This means that people on the Internet can send email out through your server without authenticating. Secure your server by configuring strict rules as to who can use your server to relay messages to non-local recipients.
For a server on the Internet, the best relay setting to have is to only have Allow relay for authenticated senders, and leave Allow relay for local sender addresses unchecked. This will make everyone who wants to send email out via your server provide a username and password.
To access the SMTP Relay options, open the Administratio3n program, expand the Servers >Localhost >Connectors branch, right click on the SMTP icon, select Properties from the popup menu, and click the Relay tab as shown below:
Below
is an explanation of the various relay settings:
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Allow relay for
authenticated senders |
This means that
people who try to send mail out through your server need to enter a username
and password (i.e. this option enables SMTP authentication). To set this is
different for various mail clients, but in Microsoft Outlook Express and
Microsoft Outlook for instance, you do this in the account properties via the
"My server requires authentication" checkbox under the
"Servers" tab. It is advisable that you have this option enabled if
you are not using privileged IP ranges. You should also ensure that you have
not enabled Secure Password Authentication (SPA). |
|
Allow relay for privileged
IP ranges |
This means
that you will allow people with certain IP addresses to send email through
your server. If you know the IP addresses of those persons who are able to
send email out through your server, you can use this option. DO NOT select
this if you haven't set a list of IP addresses, as you may inadvertently
allow everyone access. Normally this option is not selected. This option is usually required to allow
sending through the server from a web server or web page. |
|
Allow relay for local
sender addresses |
This will allow
people to send mail if their ‘From’ address has a domain that you host on
MailEnable. For instance, if you host domain.com, and someone sends a mail
that has their ‘From’ address as peter@domain.com, the email will be sent.
Unfortunately spammers may still abuse this by pretending they are one of
your users, so most servers will not use this option. Using this option may
cause some anti-spam blacklists to consider your server as “open relay” and
block your email. |
|
POP before SMTP
authentication |
The IP address
of users who authenticate via POP is remembered and permitted to relay. You
can set the time to remember the IP address for. Some client applications
will try to send email before retrieving (e.g.: Microsoft Outlook), so they
will generate an error message on the first send try. Subsequent send
attempts will then work if they are before the specified time. To remember the
IP address, a file is written to the Mail Enable\Config\Connections
directory. The file name is the IP address and the file extension is PBS. |
5.4 Check Mail Services
There are various services that are copied onto your computer when MailEnable is installed. These services run in the background and handle the sending, receiving and distribution of email. After initial installation, you should check that these services are running.
Expand the Servers >localhost >System branch, and click Services. You should see the following:
Figure 5‑4 MailEnable Services
The icons indicate the status of the service:
Indicates that the corresponding service is
running
Indicates the service is not running, or
could not be started
If a service is not running, you can start it by right clicking the service and selecting Start from the pop-up menu. The reason for a service failing to start will be displayed in the Status column. Failure of a service to start is usually due to another service running on the same port (such as the Microsoft SMTP Service).
Make sure the services that could possibly be interfering with MailEnable are disabled. If a service fails to start, you can check its respective debug log to get more details of the failure.
6 MailEnable Administration Console
The majority of MailEnable configuration and maintenance is done through the MailEnable Administration application in a Microsoft Management Console.
You can start this application by using the Start menu in Microsoft Windows and navigating to MailEnable Standard Edition by clicking:
Start->Programs->Mail Enable->Mail Enable Administrator
The MailEnable Administration program will open and you will be presented with a window similar to the following:
Figure 6‑1 MailEnable Administration Program
The tree view on the left allows you to navigate through the various components of MailEnable in order to configure them. The first item in the display is Messaging Manager. This is where you modify the various global settings, such as domains, Post Offices and mailboxes. Explanations of these items are later in this document.
The second item, labelled Servers, is for configuring the various
servers that are in your MailEnable configuration. This document only describes
how to configure a single server installation.
Many of the tree view items have configuration options. These are accessed by right clicking on the icon, and selecting the Properties item from the popup menu.
6.1 Messaging Manager
This section describes the configuration of the Messaging Manager. The Messaging Manager configures global settings for MailEnable. To access these settings, right click on the Messaging Manager icon and select the Properties item form the popup menu, or click the Configuration icon in the right side panel
6.1.1.1 General Settings
General Settings for MailEnable’s configuration can be found under the Properties of the Messaging Manager. This allows you to configure the default quota for mailboxes as well as the paths that MailEnable uses to store its configuration data. You should use these settings when you wish to cluster MailEnable and have multiple servers share the same configuration repository. This will effectively allow you to configure a clustered server array or to change the location of the MailEnable configuration and storage repositories.
Figure 6‑2 Messaging Manager General Properties
|
Setting |
Explanation |
|
New
mailboxes have size limit |
This
allows you to configure the default quota for mailboxes, so every new mailbox
created will have a quota configured.
This can be enable/disabled in the mailbox settings. |
|
Automatically
create an email address for each domain with every new mailbox created. |
If
you have several domains in a post office and this setting is selected then
every time a mailbox is created in a post office a mail address or address
mapping will be created for each domain for the mailbox. |
|
Directory
paths from the MailEnable system |
This
specifies the various system directories for MailEnable. |
6.1.1.2 Security
MailEnable Integrated Authentication allows you to use Windows Authentication as well as MailEnable’s inbuilt authentication. It also allows you to have mailboxes created as users successfully authenticate using Windows Credentials. To enable Integrated Authentication, you must select Messaging Manager Properties and check the box labelled “Enable Integrated Authentication”.
This is a system wide setting that allows you to simply enable or disable authentication for all hosted Post Offices.
When using Tab Delimited Configuration Providers (the default configuration provider available with Standard Edition), MailEnable passwords are stored in text files under the configuration directory. You can optionally specify that you want to encrypt MailEnable passwords. If you are using integrated authentication, Windows credentials will take preference to these passwords.
|
Setting |
Explanation |
|
Password
Details/Encrypt Passwords |
When
using Tab Delimited Configuration Providers, which is the default storage
within MailEnable, MailEnable passwords are stored in text files with a TAB
extension under the \config directory of the MailEnable directory structure.
You can optionally specify that you want to encrypt MailEnable passwords. If
you are using integrated authentication, Windows credentials will take
preference to these passwords. |
|
Enable
Integrated Authentication |
This
is a system wide setting that allows you to simply enable or disable
authentication for all hosted MailEnable post offices. MailEnable
Integrated Authentication allows you to use Windows Authentication as well as
MailEnable’s inbuilt authentication.
It also allows you to have mailboxes created within MailEnable as
users successfully authenticate using Windows Credentials. To enable
integrated authentication, you must select Messaging Manager Properties
(right click on Messaging Manager) and check the box labeled “Enable
Integrated Authentication”. |
6.2 Post Office Configuration
A Post Office is used to host multiple mailboxes and domains under one area. For example, if you were providing email hosting for multiple companies, you would create a Post Office for each company. Within the post office you can assign multiple domains and mailboxes. If you are running a small mail server, you might only have only one Post Office. If you host multiple domains for various people, you would create multiple post offices (think of them as similar to “customer accounts”). When you first install MailEnable, a post office will be created for you, but it is best to go through the creation steps so you can understand the process involved.
If you wish to add a new Post Office,
click on the Messaging Manager
branch in the left tree view window of the MailEnable Administration console.
In right window, you will now see an icon titled Create Post Office. Click this icon to create a post office. You
will be prompted to enter a post office name, so enter a meaningful name that
describes the client. You also need to supply a password for a default mailbox
that will be created for the post office administrator. For now, enter a
password, as mailboxes will be explained in a later step. The post office name
is used for mail clients, so usually the post office name would be company or
business name. You have now created a Post
Office.
Note: You can also right click the Post Offices branch and select New->Post office... to create a new post office. Functions that are represented by an icon are mostly available through right-clicking items in the left hand panel.
In the MailEnable Administration Console you can now expand the Post Offices branch to display all the available Post Offices. You will see the name of post office you have just created. Clicking on the post office you created will display the available actions you can perform (as seen in the diagram below).
Figure 6‑3 MailEnable Administration Program
Post office configuration can be accessed using the Administration Console by selecting Messaging Manager|Post Offices|Post Office Name Properties.
.
Figure 6‑4 Post office properties
6.2.1 Authentication settings
Once you have enabled Integrated Windows Authentication globally as per section 6.1.1.2, you can then configure each post office with specific authentication settings
This dialog allows you to configure the Mirosoft Windows domain that post office mailboxes can authenticate against. The name of the Mailbox must match the corresponding Windows account name. For example, a mailbox named Administrator will be able to authenticate using the Windows Administrator password.
In simple implementations there is likely to be only one domain, or the authentication will be done against the local machine. More complicated implementations will allow you to authenticate against specific domains (i.e.: if the organization is made up of multiple domains).
|
Setting |
Explanation |
|
Use Integrated Windows Authentication |
This setting allows you to define whether
the post office can use Windows Authentication. |
|
Use Post Office Name as Windows Domain Name |
You should select this option if the name
of the post office matches the desired Windows Domain Name. |
|
Map this Post Office to the following Domain Name |
This setting allows you to define the
Windows Domain Name that the will be used for authenticating this post
office’s Mailbox users. If you wish to authenticate against the local
machine, you can either leave the Domain Name blank or enter a single period
(.). |
|
Authenticate against Active Directory |
This option configures MailEnable to use
UPN style logins, rather than legacy Windows NT style logins. Both login
mechanisms work equally as effectively, except Active Directory allows you to
host multiple domains in its hierarchy. |
|
Automatically create mailbox if successful login
and one doesn’t exist |
This option allows accounts to be created
as users attempt to authenticate. If a user enters valid Windows credentials,
their mailbox is created automatically. By enabling this option, you can immediately
provide access to mailboxes for those who have validated against the
specified domain. |
6.3 Post Office Actions
6.3.1 Email Users
An administrator is able to e-mail all
the users at a Post Office by selecting/clicking on the Post Office name under Messaging Manager->Post Offices.
Clicking on the following icon sends an email to all users of a particular post office.
6.3.2 Export Users
A user list can be exported in CSV (comma-separated value) format, with the fields you require. To export users, click on the post office where you wish to export the users. Right click the post office name, select All Tasks and then select Export Users. From the list you select the items you wish to export to the file. Enter the filename you wish to save to and select Export.
6.3.3 Delete Messages
Messages can be deleted from MailEnable either globally or by post office or mailbox. You are able to specify how many days old the messages have to be, whether you wish to delete all messages before a certain date, or you want to delete all messages.
6.3.4 Import Windows Users
Windows users can be imported into a MailEnable post office. This will create a mailbox for each Windows user. To import users, select the post office you wish to import the users to. Then, either click the icon for Import users, or right click the post office name, select All Tasks from the popup menu and then select Import Users.
You will then select the Windows users you wish to import. Select whether to give them a specific quota, or allow them to have an unlimited amount of space. The password for all selected users can be set to the same, or you can let MailEnable give the users random passwords. You cannot import the passwords from the Windows users, but by using integrated authentication you are able to authenticate against the Windows passwords. If you are giving the mailboxes random passwords, you will need to export the user list to produce a list of all the users and the passwords assigned. Be aware that you cannot use random passwords if your database is using encrypted passwords, since the export will not be able to read them. By default, the users are given an email address corresponding to a domain for the post office you are importing to. Select the domain you wish to assign email addresses for. Mailboxes are automatically enabled when created.
6.3.5 Import Users
This feature allows you to import users to the local postoffice. You must use a comma delimited file that is formatted as:
emailaddress,password,quota
Password and mailbox is optional. If not provided then default settings are used and domains will be created if necessary.
If quota limits are not specified in the file, these can be set to a certain limit, or unlimited
If password settings are not specified in the file, a random password may be generated or a set password can be created for all imported users.
6.3.6 Edit default message
This edits the default message (default.mai) that is generated in a mailbox when the mailbox is created. For more detailed information on this selection, please see http://www.mailenable.com/kb/Content/Article.asp?ID=me020027
NB: The default.mai will also be recreated if you moved from using tab delimited configuration storage to database configuration storage.
6.3.7 Create domain
Domains are logically placed under the Post Office that owns them. You can use the Administration Console to manage the domains that are serviced by a Post Office (or customer). A domain is of course needed in order to create emails. To add a domain, from the right hand side window of the MailEnable Administration Console click on the Create Domain icon. You will be prompted for the domain to add. Here you must enter the full domain you wish to receive emails for. For instance, if you wish to receive emails such as sales@mailenable.com or info@mailenable.com, you would enter the domain mailenable.com here. The domain you add will now appear under the Domains branch.
Multiple domains can be assigned to a Post Office. You need to have at least one domain configured in order to have a valid email address.
The Domain properties page allows you to redirect a domain to another server. If you wish to relay all the mail destined for a domain, you can enter the alternate IP addresses here.
|
Setting |
Explanation |
|
Domain is disabled |
Stops email being sent to the domain. |
|
Abuse Address |
You are able to enter the email address or
select the mailbox for the abuse@domain email address. |
|
Postmaster Address |
You are able to enter the email address or
select the mailbox for the postmaster@domain email address. |
|
Catchall Address |
A catchall address will catch all emails
for a domain that do not have a mapping to a mailbox. You are able to select
an existing mailbox to send all the emails to, or you can enter the email
address where you wish to send them to. By implementing a catchall, be aware
that this will capture a lot more spam, so make sure you monitor the mailbox
or email address you have selected as a catchall. |
|
Act as Smart Host |
This will redirect all mail for the current
domain to another mail server. This would be used if for instance you were
acting as a backup mail server for the domain. You are able to specify a port
number by adding a colon and port number after the IP address. e.g.
192.168.3.45:30. Do not enter the IP address of your MailEnable server, as it
will create a message loop (the mail server will send to itself) and messages
will finally end up in the Bad Mail directory. |
Remote hosts can be denied access to the system by adding them to the blacklist for a domain. This effectively denies a server the ability to send to the domain if the domain in a senders email address matches an item in the blacklist. For example, if you add the domain “mailenable.com” to the blacklist for a domain, then the domain will not accept any emails from mailenable.com.
6.3.8 Create Mailbox
A mailbox is a repository for email. It is used to store emails for one or more email addresses. When your server users connect via POP with a mail client application (such as Microsoft Outlook or Eudora), they connect to a Mailbox in order to retrieve their email. A Mailbox can have multiple email addresses. This means a user only requires one Mailbox to connect to, from which they can retrieve email from all their email addresses. When creating a mailbox, MailEnable will automatically create an email address for each domain in the post office, using the format mailboxname@domain. When a mail client application logs onto to MailEnable to retrieve email, it needs to have its username formatted as mailboxname@postofficename.
Figure 6‑5 Mailbox properties
To create a mailbox, click the post office branch. Select Create Mailbox from the icons displayed. You will be presented with the window to the left.
The first text box is the Mailbox Name, where you enter a name for the mailbox you are creating. If the person who will be using this mailbox to download their emails is named John Brown, you may want to enter johnbrown here.
This both identifies the user and ensures there is no duplication of Mailbox names. As you enter the Mailbox Name in the text box, you will notice the POP Logon name entry just below it will change to reflect your entry.
The POP Logon name is the same as the “User Name” that is used by mail clients when they connect to the server to retrieve email. MailEnable uses the @ symbol to identify the post office the mailbox belongs to. This way, you can have the same mailbox names in different post offices (although the username to retrieve their email will differ, since the username is formatted as mailboxname@postofficename).
The second text entry box is the Password, where you enter a password that will, together with the POP Logon name, give access to the mailbox. Once again the Password you set is the same as the password that is used by mail clients to authenticate when they connect to the server to retrieve email.
6.3.8.1 General Options
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Mailbox
Name |
This
is the name of the mailbox. Once created, this cannot be changed. |
|
POP
Username for mail clients |
This
is the username used for logging onto the server via POP3. Use this
information to set up the client mail software (this is the username). |
|
Password |
The
password for the mailbox. This is used by the client software when
connecting. If SMTP authentication is turn on, this password is also used for
sending email. Other extensions to the MailEnable product may also use this
username/password combination. |
|
Select
random password |
Creates
a random 8 character alphanumeric password. |
|
Mailbox
Type |
Determines
the access level for the mailbox. If the mailbox is given "ADMIN"
rights, then the user will be able to administer MailEnable via the
administration web interface (this is only relevant for MailEnable Enterprise
version). |
|
Mailbox
has a size limit |
Limits
the size of the mailbox. If an email will take the size of the inbox over
this amount, the email is bounced back to the sender. |
|
Logon
Disabled |
When
a mailbox is disabled, it cannot be accessed via a service, e.g. POP3. It
would be used when you don't want the mailbox or email mappings to the
mailbox to be recognised, but don’t want to actually delete it. Useful when
you wish to suspend an account. |
|
Delete
messages |
Allows
the deletion of messages from the mailbox. Deleting messages from the mailbox
properties page will only delete emails from the selected mailbox. |
6.3.8.2 Addresses
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Reply
To Address |
This
address is used as the reply to address for auto responders. |
|
Email
Addresses for Mailbox |
Each
mailbox can have one or more email address mapped to it. Use the Add Email…
button to add new email addresses. You are only able to add an email that
matches an existing domain for the post office. When you first create a
mailbox, MailEnable will automatically create emails for each of the domains
for the post office. |
6.3.8.3 Redirection
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Redirect
this mailbox to |
The
Redirection property page allows you to redirect all email for the mailbox to
an alternative email address or addresses. To enable redirection, select the
Redirect this mailbox to checkbox. Click the Add button to add email
addresses. If you have more than one email address listed, the email will be
copied to all of the addresses you have listed. There is a limit of
approximately 25 email addresses you can redirect to (the limit depends on
the length of each email address). |
|
Keep
a copy of the message in mailbox |
By
default, when you redirect a mailbox to another email address a local copy is
not retained. By enabling this option you can keep a copy of all the messages
that are being redirected. |
6.3.8.4 Messages
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Messages |
Lists
the current messages in the current mailbox. Double-click an item to view the
contents of a message. On the most recent 200 messages are displayed. |
6.3.8.5 Actions
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Enable auto responder |
Enabling this will send a message back to
anyone who sends an email to the mailbox. You cannot enable auto responders
for the postmaster mailbox. |
|
Enable
delivery event |
This
option allows you to execute a program on every message when it is delivered
to a mailbox. The command line executed is: program
postofficename mailboxname messagefilename Where
program is the program filename, postofficename is the name of the
postoffice, mailboxname is the name of the mailbox and messagefilename is the
name of the message file. Be aware that the directory path to the message is
not passed to the program. You will need to read the directory path from the
registry in the program file. The
delivery event will not fire for any messages marked as bulk. Bulk messages
are mostly system generated messages such as delivery failures, delivery
reports, and autoresponder replies. Messages from list servers may also not
fire the delivery event. |
Note: If SMTP authentication is turned on, this password is also used for sending email. Other extensions to the MailEnable product may also use this username/password combination.
An administrator can e-mail a user/mailbox owner from within the Messaging Manager by right clicking on the Mailbox and selecting Send email as shown below.
Figure 6‑6 Sending email to users
6.3.8.6 Managing Email Addresses
When you create a mailbox, email addresses are created for all the domains available in the post office. For instance, if you have a domain called mailenable.com, and created a mailbox called peter, the email address peter@mailenable.com will automatically be created. If you wish to create new email addresses, you can add them by selecting the Emails tab at the top of the window. A list of the current email addresses will be shown. In order to add another email address for this mailbox click the Add Email button. The following window will appear:
Figure 6‑7 Adding email address
The first text box, Enter email name is where you enter the first part of the email address. So if you are adding sales@mailenable.com you only need to enter the word sales. As you enter the email name you will see the actual full address of the email you are adding in the label below it.
You will also notice the Available Domains list box in this window. The domains listed here are domains that are entered via the Create Domain icon. MailEnable restricts you to adding email addresses only for the available domains in each Post Office account. For the purpose of this guide we have entered only one domain. In cases where there is more than one domain in a client’s post office account, these domains will appear in this list box. You can then select the appropriate domain by clicking on it and then entering email name that is required. Select OK on the Add Emails window when you have entered the address. It will now appear in the mappings list.
Select OK on the Mailbox Properties window as your mailbox has now been configured.
6.3.9 Create a Group
A group is an email address that maps to one or more other email addresses. For example, you can set up a group that has the recipient as socialclub@company.com, and add 50 email addresses as members of this group. When someone emails socialclub@company.com, the mail is duplicated and sent to all 50 members. When creating a group, the group name is the full text of the group name so you can easily identify it. The recipient address is the email address of the group and within this group there can contain multiple external groups.
Groups can have several external addresses. So the one group can have different email addresses that can be used.
To import users into a group form a text file, right click on the group icon in the tree view display and select the All Tasks->Import Members menu item.
6.3.10 Set quota
Selecting this option will reset all mailbox quotas for the post office to the specified value. This will only affect the current mailboxes, not any future ones that will be added.
6.4 Lists
MailEnable contains a list server that enables people to subscribe and unsubscribe to a list. A list is an online discussion group or information mail out, where emails are sent out to all the members. People are able to post to the list, and the server will duplicate their email and send it out to all the members. When a user wishes to subscribe to a list, they need to send an email to the list with the word “subscribe” in the subject. When the user wishes to be removed from the list, they need to send an email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject.
To create a new list, under the Messaging Manager select the post office that you wish to create a list for. Right click the Lists folder and select New >List. This will load the List Properties window that will allow you to configure a new list.
Figure 6‑8 List Properties window
6.4.1 General
The general options associated with a list are outlined in the following table:
|
Setting |
Description |
|
List name |
The name of the list. This determines the address that people email to in order to post to the list. You can see the full email address for the list at the bottom of the General property page. |
|
Select
domain for this list |
The domain used for the list name. |
|
List owner
email (also moderator) |
The email address of the moderator. When a list is moderated, all the emails that are posted are sent to the moderator. It is the job of the moderator to decide whether or not the email is to be posted. Only emails coming from the moderators email address will be posted to the list. |
|
List is
disabled |
Disables the list so no one can post to it. |
|
Enable list
help |
Enables help for the list. So if someone posts to the list with the subject of help, then they will receive an email with details of what commands the list server will accept. |
|
Send from |
This determines the From address which will be used for all emails coming from the list. This can be either the moderators email address or the list address. This does not determine where the reply goes. |
|
List Type |
Determines whether the list is moderated or not. If moderated, all incoming emails will be sent to the moderator email address. |
|
Description |
A description of the list. This is displayed in the Administration program to allow you to easily see what a list is about. |
6.4.2 Options
MailEnable also provides advanced list configuration options. These options allow you to control who can post to your lists, where list replies should be directed, who can subscribe to your lists and the format of any subject prefix that is applied to posts
6.4.2.1 Subscription type
MailEnable allows you to control how subscriptions are handled.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Anyone can
subscribe to this list via email |
Will allow people to subscribe to the list
by sending the word “subscribe” as the subject of an email to the list. |
|
E-mail
subscriptions are not permitted for this list |
Stops people from subscribing to the list.
List members can only be added through the administration program. |
|
E-mail subscriptions
need to be confirmed |
This
option enforces a subscription confirmation code to be returned to the list
for successful subscription. When this option is enabled a subscription code
will be sent out after a message has been sent to list with “SUBSCRIBE” in
the subject field of the message. The user then needs to reply to list using
the confirmation code that was sent out to him/her to successfully subscribe
to the list. |
6.4.2.2 Posting Permissions
MailEnable allows you to control who can post to a list.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Anyone can
post to this list |
Anyone
is allowed to send a message to the list. |
|
Only
subscribers can post to this list |
The
list will only accept posts from email addresses that exist in the list. |
|
Posting to
this list requires a password |
You
are able to password protect your list. To send an email to a password
protected list users need to enclose the password in square brackets and
colons e.g. [: and :] |
6.4.2.3 Reply Options
These options allow you to determine who should receive responses when a recipient replies to a post.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Subscribers
reply to the list |
The
reply to address is set to the list address, so when users reply to a message
that gets sent from the list, their email gets sent to the list. |
|
Subscribers
reply to the posters address |
The
reply to address is set to the email address of the sender, so when users
reply to a message that gets sent from the list, their email gets sent to the
person who made the original post. |
|
Subscribers
reply to the moderators address |
The
reply to address is set to the moderators email address, so when users reply
to a message that gets sent from the list, their email gets sent to the
moderator. |
6.4.2.4 List Subject Prefix
Most lists place a prefix in the subject of the list messages. This allows subscribers to filter the messages that are dispatched to them via the list server. These options allow you to control the prefix that is appended to the subject of messages that are dispatched to list subscribers.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Subject is prefixed with the name of the list |
The list name, enclosed in square brackets
([ and ]) is added to the start of the subject line of emails posted to the
list. |
|
Subject is not altered |
The subject is not altered for any messages
posted to the list. |
|
Subject should have the following prefix |
The specified text is added to the start of
the subject line for all emails posted to the list. |
6.4.3 Headers
Specify plain text headers for all list messages.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Attach
header |
This
text is added to the top of every email when the Attach header checkbox is
selected. |
6.4.4 Footers
Specify plain text footers for all list messages.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Attach
footer |
This
text is added to the bottom of every email when the Attach footer checkbox is
selected. |
6.4.5 Importing List Members
MailEnable can import users from a text file to a list. Right click on the list icon in the tree view display and select the All Tasks->Import Members menu item. You can then import members from a text file.
6.4.6 List Commands
Users send commands to the list by putting the command in the subject line. The available commands for the list server are:
§ Help – sends an email back with the available commands of the list server
§ Subscribe – adds the user to the list (if the list permissions allow them)
§ Unsubscribe – removes the user from the list
6.5 Managing Server Configuration
The server you have installed MailEnable on must be properly configured to accept and transmit Internet traffic. The Domain Name Server (DNS) for your hosted domains needs to be configured with the correct details. The DNS informs other mail server software what your IP address is in order for them to connect to you and deliver email. This means you need to make sure that the DNS that contains the details about your domain has an MX record. Your domain name provider will be able to configure this for you.
If you are not on a static IP address (i.e. your IP address changes) and you want to direct emails and domains to the server, you will need to use a dynamic DNS provider that keeps track of your changing IP address and updates the DNS details accordingly. Companies that offer this server may charge a monthly fee, although there are some free services available. You are still able to send email from MailEnable with a dynamic IP address, but unless the DNS is updated with your new IP address every time it changes, other mail servers will not be able to connect to yours.
If you are operating MailEnable from a computer at your office or home, make sure that your Internet plan allows you to run a mail server. Some providers block incoming email to mail servers on their network, to avoid the possibility of spam abuse. If unsure, please ring your service provider. If MailEnable can send email correctly, but does not receive any, it is likely to be either your DNS settings, or your ISP has blocked incoming email to stop you running a mail server.
6.5.1 General Configuration
General
Server Configuration Options are located under the properties of the Messaging
Manager.
Figure 6‑9 Messaging Manager General Options
Using this dialog, you can specify the default post office for your server. This means that any username that only has the mailbox name will be assumed to be from the default post office. E.g. the sales@yourdomain.com user will only need to use sales to log on with.
The Server Properties dialog also allows you to define the level of encryption for your Authentication database. The default setting is to store credentials unencrypted, however, you can change the server setting to use hashed passwords as an alternative.
7 Configuration of Services and Agents
7.1 SMTP
An SMTP, or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol connector, is used to send e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP, IMAP, HTTP or web mail.
In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. This is why you need to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your e-mail application.
Note: Frequently, POP and SMTP servers are the same computer. Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) use one server for receiving mail (POP Server) and another for sending mail (SMTP Server); this is done mostly for load balancing and for redundancy.
Using the Administration Console you can access the SMTP properties by expanding the Servers >Localhost >Connectors branch. Right click on the SMTP icon and select Properties. The options are explained below:
7.1.1 SMTP Properties
Figure 7‑1 SMTP Properties
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Local
Domain Name |
This
is the domain name of the server you have installed MailEnable onto, or the
default domain for your configuration. It is used for system messages, to
announce your server when it connects to remote server, and when remote
servers connect to MailEnable if the host name has not been specified. |
|
Host name
(optional) |
This
is the host name of your mail server. For example, if you have configured
mail.mydomain.com in your DNS to point to your mail server, then you would
enter this here. If a host name has been specified for an IP address on your
server, then that value will override this host name. |
|
DNS Address |
The
DNS that the local machine uses. If using more than one DNS then separate the
addresses with a space character. If the SMTP service fails to connect to the
first DNS it will try the second or subsequent DNS. Use the DNS that you have
configured for your local network. Remember that this is not necessarily the
DNS of where your domain name is registered. |
|
Specify the
email address when sending notifications. |
The
address from which notifications are sent. When MailEnable sends out email
such as message delivery delays, or delivery failures, it will use this
address as the "from" email address. Usually you would use
postmaster@localdomainname.com (substitute your domain here). Make sure this
is a valid email address. |
7.1.2 Inbound
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Also listen
on alternate port |
You
can also allow the SMTP service to listen on an alternate port by enabling
this option. Usually this is done to cater for clients who may be on
connections where their outbound port 25 has been blocked. |
|
Maximum
number of concurrent connections |
The
amount of connections that will be available for remote servers and email
clients to connect to. |
|
Advertised
Maximum message size |
Entering
a value here will inform remote mail servers and email clients of the maximum
size of an email that should be sent to the server. The size is represented
in kilobytes. Clients or remote mail servers may ignore the value. A size of
0 means that there is no limit on message size. |
|
Enforce
this message size |
Will
check each inbound message size after it is received and if it is over the
limit it will be deleted and an error returned to the remote server or email
client that is trying to send. |
|
Access
Control |
The
Access Control feature allows you to specify who can connect to your email
server. You can specify a list of IP addresses that are either banned from
connecting, or are the only ones allowed to connect. You can use the *
character as a wildcard. |
|
Inbound IP
Bindings |
You
are able to select the IP addresses that the SMTP service will be bound to.
On a multi-homed machine you may only wish to listen to connections on
particular IP addresses. Always bind the service to all available IP
addresses will allow connections on all IP addresses that are configured for
the machine. |
7.1.3 Outbound
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Maximum
number of send threads |
The
amount of threads that are used to send email. |
|
Timeout for
Remote Mail Servers |
How
long the SMTP service will wait for a response from a remote mail server
before disconnecting. |
|
Outbound
queue poll interval |
How
often the SMTP service polls the outbound queue directory for mail messages
to send. This is measured in seconds. |
|
Limit
outbound message size |
This
option will force MailEnable to check the size of each message before
delivering to a remote mail server. If the message cannot be delivered it
will be returned to the sender (or sent to the bad mail directory if the
message is system generated). |
|
Outbound IP
Binding |
This
option allows you to force the SMTP to use a specific IP address on the
server when it is trying to deliver email. |
7.1.4 Relay
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Enable Mail
Relay |
In order for MailEnable to send email, you need to enable Mail Relaying. Otherwise MailEnable will only be able to receive email. There are four options available to limit those who are able to send mail out through your SMTP server. You are able to select any combination of the four in order to best meet your needs. A client only has to match one of the items in order to relay through your mail server. These settings are described in section 5.3 |
|
Allow relay
for authenticated senders |
Enabling
this feature is required for any user on the server to relay through the
server. When enabled a client must
supply a valid username and password to relay. Almost anyone that wants to send mail from a remote client to
an address that is not on the server will require this setting to be
enabled. This setting is enabled by
default on the installation of MailEnable. |
|
Allow relay
for privileged IP ranges |
This
setting allows you to enable relay for any connecting IP, it does not require
authentication as such simply allows any connection on the IP or IP range you
stipulate to relay. If you are using
scripts or web pages then this setting is very useful and often compulsory. |
|
Allow relay
for local sender addresses |
This
setting allows relay for any address that is hosted on the server. It is important to enable this only if you
are sure. If this setting is enabled
any user can forge a "from" address and then, without any
authentication, relay through your server.
This can cause serious issues. |
|
POP Before
SMTP authentication |
This
is required due to some ISPs and certain routers not allowing SMTP
authentication. This feature will
bypass this issue by authenticating a client using POP if this authenticates
then the SMTP service will allow this IP access for a designated period of
time. |
7.1.5 Security
Setting |
Description |
|
Reject mail
if sender address is from an invalid domain |
When a user is sending mail to MailEnable,
this option will check the From address in order to verify the domain it is
coming from. This setting is used to stop people from abusing the mail server
by using incorrect information. The majority of people who use an incorrect From
address are spammers. This may affect valid email from incorrectly configured
clients, so you should monitor your logs more often. |
|
Authenticated
senders must use valid sender address |
If this is selected, users with
authentication to send email must configure their email client with a valid
email address that is assigned to the mailbox they are using to send on. This
option is useful to force clients to use a legitimate email address, thereby
reducing the possibility of spam. |
|
Hide IP
addresses from email headers |
By default, the IP address of a client
connecting is displayed in the header of an email message. If you have an
network with it’s own IP range where you do not wish to expose what range you
use to receivers of emails, then you would enable this option, which will
replace the IP address with 127.0.0.1 |
|
Require PTR
DNS entry for unauthenticated connections |
If an inbound connection has not been
authenticated, MailEnable will look up to see if there is a PTR DNS entry for
the connecting IP address. MailEnable will not validate whether the entry is
valid, it will check to see if one exists. Local IP addresses are not checked
for PTR entries. |
|
Disable all
catchalls |
Catchalls for domains will cause your email
server to collect a lot more email and can cause your server to relay spam
(i.e. if you redirect a catchall to a remote email address). This option will
stop all catchalls from working. |
|
Allow
domain literals |
MailEnable will allow inbound emails to be
formatted as user@[IP Address], such as user@[192.168.3.10]. MailEnable will
accept emails for any of the IP address that have been configured on the
server. If you are using NAT, or wish to accept extra IP addresses which are
not configured on the server, you can click the Advanced… button that will allow
you to enter these extra IP addresses. |
|
Use
alternate welcome message |
When an email client or other mail server
connects to MailEnable, a one line welcome message is displayed. By default,
this indicates that the server is running MailEnable software, and shows the
version of the software. If you enable this option, you can replace the
welcome message with your own. There are also two variables that you can use
in your welcome text that will be replaced. These are: %LOCALDOMAIN% - this will be replaced with
the SMTP domain from the SMTP options %TIME% - this will be replaced with the
current time on the server |
|
Restrict
the number of recipients per email |
You are able to restrict the number of
recipients per incoming email. Allowing a large number of recipients per
message may help with sending to contact lists via email clients, but it also
raises the benefit to spammers, as they can save on bandwidth and can send
through more messages in a shorter amount of time. |
|
Drop a
connection when the failed number of commands or recipients reaches |
Most proper email clients will recognize
error codes returned by the mail server for an invalid recipient or similar.
But some spammers and bulk email utilities may not recognize these errors and
keep trying to send. By enabling this option, MailEnable will drop the client
connection. It is recommended not to use a low value (5 for example), as some
valid web scripts will not check the return codes either – but these will
only produce a small amount of failed commands. |
|
Auto-ban
the IP address if this number is reached |
If a connection has reached the
disconnection limit, you can also automatically add the IP address of the
client to the SMTP Access Control list. Be aware that if enabling this
option, your Access Control list can grow, and adversely affect the
performance of the SMTP service. So it is recommended to check the Access
Control list regularly. |
7.1.6 Advanced SMTP
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Enable
alternate catch-all header |
When
mail is sent to an invalid recipient and they are specified as a BCC on the
message, it is difficult for the mail administrator to know who should have
received the message. The Catch-All header allows you to specify the name of
the message header field that is used to record any recipients that were
delivered to the Catch-All account. By default, MailEnable records this
information into the Received By: message header; hence this setting is
supplied to provide more control over how the information is recorded within
the message. Only one copy of a message with multiple recipients is delivered
to the catchall mailbox. |
|
Add
required headers for authenticated senders if needed |
Some
email clients or applications will not add a Message-ID or Date header line
to their emails. You may encounter a mail server that requires these items
and will reject the email if they do not exist. By enabling this option,
MailEnable will add the required lines (if they don’t exist) to all users who
are authenticated to relay through MailEnable. |
|
Allowed
SMTP Commands |
The
list of SMTP commands you are able to disable are shown here. For example,
you may wish to disable the EXPN, which displays all the emails of users in a
group, or VRFY, which will allow someone to confirm an email address on the
system. |
7.1.7 Delivery
|
Setting |
Description |
|
First Retry |
The delay before a message is retried for
the first time. The default is 15 minutes. |
|
Second Retry |
The delay before a message is retried for
the second time. The default is 30 minutes. |
|
Third Retry |
The delay before a message is retried for
the third time. The default is 60 minutes. |
|
Subsequent retries |
The delay before a message is retried for
the first time. The default is 240 minutes. |
|
Failed Message Lifetime |
This determines the amount of time a
message will stay in the outbound queue before MailEnable gives up and moves
the message to the Bad Mail directory. If the message has hit the maximum
retry amounts, it will be moved to Bad Mail, even if Failed message lifetime
has not been reached. |
|
Delay notifications |
When an email fails to be delivered, but
the error is not permanent (which could happen if there was a network error,
the remote server was down, or other errors), then MailEnable will send an
email to the original sender to inform them that the message has been
delayed. This option will allow you to turn this off, send a message only on
the first failure, or to send a message back for each send delay. There is
also the option to only send delay notifications after a specified amount
time from when the message send is first attempted. This will allow you to
have the SMTP service try to send the message more than once before the
sender is informed that there is a delay. |
|
Do not
generate Non-delivery Receipts |
When
an email cannot be delivered and the error is permanent, then MailEnable will
send a message to the original sender informing them of the error. Enabling
this option will stop this message from being generated. |
7.1.8 Smart Host
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Smart Host
Enabled |
Enabling
this option will force all outbound email to be sent to one server, which you
would enter here. Do not configure this to point back to your MailEnable
server. |
|
This server
requires authentication |
The
server you are forwarding all your email to may require SMTP authentication.
If so, enable this option and enter the username and password that has been
assigned to you. The login method used is AUTH LOGIN. |
|
Domain
smart-hosting takes priority |
You
may wish to configure a local domain in MailEnable and smart-host this to a
different server for your general outbound email. Enabling this option will
allow the smart-hosts you have configured for individual domains to override
the SMTP outbound smart-host. |
7.1.9 Logging
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Logging
Options |
MailEnable's
SMTP Connector provides W3C, Activity and Debug Logging. W3C Logging is used
to record service usage, Activity logging is used to record system activity
and Debug Logging is used to provide low-level information on system
activity. |
|
Enable
Logging |
Enables
W3C logging for the SMTP service. W3C Logging allows you to specify which
fields are logged and the rollover frequency. The directory can also be
specified. |
|
Activity
Log |
Enables
the Activity Log. |
|
Debug Log |
Enables
the Debug Log. |
7.1.10 Blocked Addresses
Blocked addresses are those SMTP email addresses you do not want to accept email for. Any email sent to one of these addresses via SMTP will receive an error indicating that the address does not exist.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Add |
Adds
a new SMTP email address to block. |
|
Remove |
Removes
the selected blocked email address. |
7.1.11 Whitelist
Whitelist IP addresses are those that are not checked for reverse DNS blacklisting or SPF and are not auto-blocked by the SMTP security options.
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Enable
whitelist |
Enables
the SMTP whitelist. |
|
Add |
Adds
an IP address to the whitelist. |
|
Remove |
Removes
the selected IP address from the whitelist. |
7.1.12 Reverse DNS Blacklisting
Note: Reverse DNS Blacklisting is not available under Windows NT 4, and you will not see its configuration screen
Reverse DNS Blacklisting allows you to use popular DNS based blacklists with MailEnable this can help to control spam. You can select which RBL blacklist providers you want to use. You should enable only the providers that you need as it has an impact on performance.
DNS blacklists are lists of IP addresses that are not allowed to connect to your email server. These lists are formed in various ways. Some lists are simple listings by country, some list known spammers and some are reactive and add entries only after an IP address was responsible for sending out junk email. Blacklists have a high risk of causing "false positives", which means that legitimate email may be refused. If you wish to use DNS blacklists, please do some research on how the lists are maintained, what the removal process for listed IPs is and what the providers motivations and goals are with their list. Choose the list(s) that are right for you.
You can configure Reverse DNS Blacklisting as follows:
1. From the administration program select Servers|localhost|Connectors|SMTP|Properties
2. Click on the Reverse DNS Blacklisting Property Sheet
3. Check the option to Enable Reverse DNS Blacklisting
4. Scroll down the list and select the Blacklist Provider (e.g.: Spamhaus)
5. Check the box to enable the selected blacklist.
|
Setting |
Explanation |
|
Enable
Reverse DNS Blacklist |
This
enables or disables Reverse DNS Blacklisting for the SMTP Connector. |
|
Blacklist
Service |
You
can use this combo box to list Anti-Spam service providers and their
settings. |
|
Enabled |
This
option allows you to specify whether you wish to configure the server to
check a specific Blacklist Provider. |
|
DNS Path |
This
allows you to define whether you wish to refer your lookup request to the
service providers DNS Zone or to simply query a DNS Host for an entry. Most
implementations of DNS Blacklists require a Zone lookup. |
|
Zone/Name
Server |
This
is the name of the DNS Zone or the IP Address of the DNS host that should be
queried. |
|
Record
Type to check for |
When
the remote host or zone is queried, it may return one or more DNS Record
types. Most implementations return an A record, but other implementations may
return NS, PTR or MX records. |
Note: You can configure a White list that will override the reverse DNS blacklist. This is configured in the administration program by selecting the White list button on the Reverse DNS Blacklisting tab under the properties of the SMTP Connector.
Note: Reverse DNS blacklists affect the performance of incoming email. The reason for this is that for each inbound connection, MailEnable will perform a lookup in the remote DNS.
MailEnable provides a list of well-known Reverse DNS Blacklist providers. You can also configure your own blacklist provider by pressing the Add... button. The following dialog will appear.
Figure 7‑2 Adding blacklist service name
Once you have added the provider, you are able to configure it using the screen outlined earlier. You must click the Enable button before you can configure the service provider’s details.
7.2 POP
POP stands for Post Office Protocol, the language used by computers to describe how mail is retrieved by the user. If you have an e-mail account where you routinely pick up your mail, you probably do so through their POP server, though some online services maintain their own proprietary mail transfer system.
Frequently, POP and SMTP servers are the same computer. Some ISPs (Internet Service Providers) use one server for receiving mail (POP Server) and another for sending mail (SMTP Server).
Using the Administration Console you can access the POP properties by expanding the Servers >Localhost >Connectors branch.
Right click on the POP icon and select Properties. The options are explained below:
Figure 7‑3 POP Properties dialog box
7.2.1 General
The following table outlines the configuration options for MailEnable’s POP Service:
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Maximum concurrent connections |
This is the thread setting limit for
incoming POP connections at one time. |
|
Alternate @ characters |
Some older mail clients don't allow the use
of @ in the username section. Since the MailEnable usernames are formatted in
mailboxname@postoffice format, this may cause problems. To solve this,
MailEnable allows you to specify the characters that can be used as a substitute.
Just enter the list of characters such as #$%. This will allow users to log
on using mailboxname@postoffice, mailboxname#postoffice,
mailboxname$postoffice and mailboxname%postoffice. |
|
POP Port |
This is the port MailEnable will allow
client POP connections on. The default is 110. |
|
Also listen on alternate port |
You can also allow the POP service to
listen on an alternate port by enabling this option. Usually this is done to
cater for clients who may be on connections where their outbound port 110 has
been blocked. |
|
Enable APOP authentication |
Usually, the users’ username and password
are sent in clear text format (i.e. not encrypted). Due to this, people are
able to "tap" into the data stream and read the username and
password. To avoid this, APOP encrypts the password before sending, and it
changes every time the user logs on. So even if a person manages to grab the
encrypted password, they will not be able to use it to log on. Enabling this
option will force clients to enable APOP authentication on their mail client
software. Make sure your users are using software that supports APOP,
otherwise they will not be able to receive email. A lot of the older mail
clients do not support APOP. |
|
Access Control |
The Access Control feature allows you to
specify who can connect to your POP service. You can specify a list of IP
addresses that are either banned from connecting, or are the only ones
allowed to connect by selecting the Access Control button.. |
|
IP Addresses to bind POP to |
You are able to select the IP addresses
that the POP service will be bound to. On a multi-homed machine you may only
wish to allow connections on particular IP addresses. Always bind all IPs
will allow connections on all IP addresses that are configured for the
machine. |
7.2.2 Logging
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Enable
Logging |
Enables
W3C logging for the POP service. W3C Logging allows you to specify which
fields are logged and the rollover frequency. The directory can also be
specified. |
|
Logging
Options |
Produces
a debug and activity log for the POP3 service. Use this if you need to get
more details about what the service is doing (i.e. you are debugging a
problem). |
7.3 Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
The Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) is primarily responsible for moving messages between MailEnable Connectors. The MTA moves messages from Inbound Queues to the respective Outbound Message Queues of different connectors based on rules defined in an Address Map table.
Examples of MTA functionality follow:
§ Receiving Inbound Messages from Mail Connectors
§ Delivering Mail to Local Mailboxes
§ Queuing Mail for Relay to other Mail Connectors (Including themselves, as in SMTP Relay)
§ Executing external filters (such as antivirus) and pickup events
7.3.1 MTA Properties
Figure 7‑4 MTA Properties
The configuration options for the Mail Transfer Agent are outlined in the following table:
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Inbound mail max.
delivery time |
The delay time before an inbound mail message is delivered. |
|
Maximum threads |
The amount of concurrent threads that will be used to move emails
around. Some command line virus checkers do not like to have multiple
instances running, so you can restrict the MTA to using one thread to resolve
this. |
|
Enable pickup
event |
When an email arrives, you are able to execute a program, and
MailEnable will pass the mail message filename to the application. For
example, if you write a VB script that adds some text to the end of each
email that gets delivered, you would enable the pickup event. The command
line used to execute the application is: program messagefilename connectortype Where program is the program filename, messagefilename is the name of
the message file and connectortype is the type of messages (i.e. SMTP, LS,
SF). Be aware that the directory path to the message is not passed to the
program. You will need to read the directory path from the registry in the
program file. The pickup event is executed before any filters (antivirus for
instance). |
|
Logging
Options |
Produces a debug and activity log for the POP3 service. Use this if you
need to get more details about what the service is doing (i.e. you are
debugging a problem). |
7.4 Post Office Connector
The post office connector performs the delivery of emails to mailboxes. It is responsible for executing mailbox filters, delivery events, auto responders and quota handling.
When a mailboxes quota is exceeded, you can determine whether the user is notified of the quota issue and whether the message is returned to the sender or sent to the postmaster for that post office. Non Delivery Receipts can also be configured.
Using the Administration Console you can access the Post Office Connector properties by expanding the Servers >Localhost >Connectors branch.
Right click on the Post office icon and select Properties. The options are explained below:
Figure 7‑5 Post Office Connector Properties
7.4.1 General
Setting |
Description |
|
When
mailbox has reached quota |
Specify
the action for when a mailbox’s quota is exceeded. You can determine whether the user is notified of the quota
issue and whether the message is returned to the sender, or sent to the
postmaster for that post office. |
|
Notifications
when quota is reached |
Configure
what notifications are sent when a quota is reached. Options include notify
Sender only, notify sender and mailbox and send no notifications. |
|
Quota
enumeration |
When
a mailbox is at its quota, it can be calculated in two different ways. 1. Only Inbox folder counts towards quota 2. All users mail folders counts towards quota (Example: Sent Items, Drafts, Inbox) |
|
NDR
Generation |
Non
Delivery Receipts can be configured to not sending NDRs, or allowing the SMTP
service to handle and send all default Non Delivery Receipts. |
|
Redirection
handling |
Redirection
handling this has two settings, one that will perform a redirect from the
mailbox address where the mailbox was sent to and one that will redirect and
leave the senders address for the message, this is used mainly for and one
that will allow you to redirect from a particular mailbox. |
7.4.2 Logging
|
Setting |
Description |
|
Logging |
This
enables the activity and debug logs for the post office connector. |
8 Operational Procedures
8.1 Backing and Restore MailEnable Data
This article explains how you can effectively backup configuration.
A basic utility is available for download from the following URL:
http://www.mailenable.com/support/mebackup.zip
With this utility, you can pass /BACKUP as a parameter to use it as an automated command line backup utility. There are 3 main areas where MailEnable stores configuration and user data:
Registry: Server Configuration (Service Settings, Machine Specific Configuration Information)
File System: Queues, Post office and Account data, etc
Provider Store (File System): \CONFIG Directory or SQL Server Database; depending on provider).
It is relatively straightforward to backup and restore MailEnable. The most primitive way is to copy everything under the Program Files directory to an alternate location. MailEnable mostly uses flat files for configuration (by design) and therefore all messages and configuration are simple to backup.
The only additional information you need to (optionally) backup is the information in the registry. The registry hosts server specific information (like connector settings, etc).
To do this, you need to use the registry editor (REGEDIT) to export the HKEYLOCALMACHINE\SOFTWARE\MailEnable registry key (and all subkeys and values) to a reg file. (More information on how to use the registry editor is available from Microsoft's Web Site).
To recover the backup, you should stop all services, replace the directory tree from your backup and then import the saved registry file into the registry.
8.2 Debugging MailEnable
Mail services can be run interactively in debug mode allowing debug messages to be written to the screen. The following instructions outline how to run the services in debug mode:
Open the regedit and move to the HKEY LOCALMACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mail Enable\Mail Enable\SMTP\Debug Mode Key.
Set the value of this key to 1 (this tells the server to write debug messages to the console rather than to a file).
Then, run the Windows command prompt and type in the following command:
C:\Program Files\Mail Enable\Bin\MESMTPC -debug
When you have completed the debug session, you can close the console window. Make sure that you set this setting back to 2 when you have completed running the server in debug mode.
8.3 Inspecting log files
Log files are an important aspect of any mail server. You need to understand what the various log files that MailEnable produces in order to find and rectify any problem. Fortunately, MailEnable can produce a large amount of logging information to help you isolate a problem.
MailEnable usually can produce 3 logs for each service. They are called W3C, Activity and Debug logs. The W3C log has all the information about what is passing to and from the mail server in W3C extended log file format (www.w3c.org). The Activity log will display all the information that is passing to and from the server. The Debug log is used to display information about what the service is actually doing.
When you first think you are having a problem with email, there are some quick steps to resolve the problem, which basically involve examining the various log files. If you follow the guidelines below to see which log file will help you, issues will get resolved faster.
Check the Debug log file first. This will more likely have information about the error that the service has encountered. The Debug log will show errors such as DNS failures, file errors, send problems, etc.
If you cannot see the issue in the Debug log, it is likely that it is not a program error, but an error in conversation between the servers (i.e. the server may be trying a command that isn't supported).
8.4 Configuring Email Clients
In order to read and send email from an email client such as Eudora, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express you need to configure them to connect to MailEnable. The POP3 and SMTP server should be the server name you are running MailEnable on. Email clients have to be able to resolve this server name to an IP address. The username needs to be the full logon name for the mailbox. Remember that this is formatted as mailboxname@postofficename. You will not be able to retrieve email if you do not use the full username.
8.4.1 Configuring Netscape Messenger
§ Start Netscape
§ Select Edit then Preferences from the menu bar
§ Click on the '+' symbol on the right of Mail & Group
§ Click Mail Server option
§ Enter values in the input boxes
§ If you don't want to re-enter your password every time you check email click More Options, then tick Remember mail password
§ Click on Identity
§ Type in your full name or business name in Your Name: input box
§ Type in the email address you would like people to contact you with (e.g. info@mydomain)
§ Type in your reply email address (e.g. info@mydomain)
§ Click OK to accept new settings.
8.4.2 Configuring Microsoft Outlook Express
§ Open Outlook Express.
§ Click on 'Tools | Accounts...'.
§ Click on the 'Mail' tab.
§ On the right side, click on 'Properties'.
§ Now click on the 'Servers' tab.
Make sure the POP Logon name is the same
as the Account name (username) that is used by mail clients when they connect
to the server to retrieve email. Eg: mailbox@postoffice.
If you have enabled SMTP Authentication on your server, you should check the
option instructing Outlook Express that your outbound server requires
authentication. The checkbox to do this is labelled My server requires authentication.
8.4.3 Configuring Microsoft Outlook
§ Access the Tools|Accounts menu.
§ Select the Mail tan and click Add|Mail.
§ Enter an appropriate display name.
§ Enter your e-mail address.
§ Specify your incoming and outgoing mail servers. eg: mail.[mydomainname].com.
§ Specify your Account Name and Password. Your Account Name is formatted as Account@Postoffice.
§ Specify how you connect to your mail server.
§ Click Finish
For assistance in setting up other mail clients, please refer to the MailEnable web site.
8.5 Manually testing if MailEnable can send mail to remote servers
Many ISPs block outbound SMTP traffic to
ensure that spammers do not abuse their service. You can validate whether you
can send mail to remote hosts by using the telnet utility.
Instructions follow:
1.
From the Windows Start Menu select
Start|Run and enter CMD as the application to run. Then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, enter the following:
telnet mail.mailenable.com
25
The remote mail server should respond with an initiation string much like the following:
220
mailenable.com ESMTP Mail Enable SMTP Service, Version: xxxx ready at 02/28/03
14:04:45
3. Type the word QUIT and then press enter.
If you were successfully able to do this,
then no firewall (either local or your ISPs) is preventing outbound SMTP
traffic.
The
next procedure to try is sending an actual message to the remote host (rather
than just determining whether you can connect to it).
This
is outlined as follows:
1.
From
the Windows Start Menu select Start|Run and enter CMD as the application to
run. Then click OK.
2.
At
the command prompt, enter the following:
telnet mail.mailenable.com 25
The
remote mail server should respond with an initiation string much like the
following:
220 mailenable.com ESMTP Mail Enable SMTP
Service, Version: xxxx ready at 02/28/03 14:04:45
3.
Type
the following: HELO YourDomainName and then press enter.
The server should reply with something
like 250 xxxxxxxx
4.
Type
the following: MAIL FROM: and then press enter.
The server should reply with something
like 250 xxxxxxxx
5.
Type
the following: RCPT TO: and then press enter.
The server should reply with something
like 250 xxxxxxxx
6.
Type
the following: DATA and then press enter.
The server should reply with something
like 354 xxxxxxxx
7.
Enter
the text as follows (Note: [CRLF] = Enter Key):
Subject: Test Message[CRLF]
[CRLF].[CRLF]
1.
Type
the following: QUIT and then press enter.
If you were able to do this then
MailEnable should be able to send messages to the remote host. If your receive
an abnormal response for any of the commands you typed in, then you should
search the MailEnable knowledge base for any articles that may give an
indication of the cause of the error.
Example:
C:\>telnet mail.mailenable.com 25
220 mailenable.com ESMTP MailEnable Service, Version: -1.110- ready at 11/20/03
23:49:40
EHLO test.mydomain.com.au
250-mailenable.com [144.136.51.56], this server offers 4 extensions
250-AUTH LOGIN CRAM-MD5
250-SIZE 10120000
250-HELP
250 AUTH=LOGIN
MAIL FROM:
250 Requested mail action okay, completed
RCPT TO:
250 Requested mail action okay, completed
DATA
354 Start mail input; end with [CRLF].[CRLF]
Subject: Test Message
.
250 Requested mail action okay, completed
QUIT
221 Service closing transmission channel
Connection to host lost.
8.6 Troubleshooting SMTP Connectivity issues and Analysing Log Files
MailEnable provides extensive logging of SMTP activity. There are three log files that are used by MailEnable. These are the Debug, Activity and W3C logs. The W3C log files are essentially a replica of the Activity log, hence you really only need to investigate the Activity and Debug logs.
The debug log contains "wordy" explanations of significant actions undertaken by MailEnable. For example, when a user attempts to relay a mail message, this is recorded and timestamped in the SMTP Debug log.
The Activity log file contains a transcript of all SMTP commands exchanged between MailEnable and other remote clients or mail servers.
The simplest way to find a message and debug a SMTP transaction is to open the SMTP Activity log in Notepad and search it. You can also load the log file into Microsoft Excel as follows:
8.6.1 How to import the Activity log into Microsoft Excel
File|Open Browse to C:\Program Files\Mail Enable\Logging\SMTP (or equivalent directory).
1. Change the Files of Type combo to All Files (*.*)
2. Select the activity file you want to open (the files are named as SMTP-Activity-YYMMDD).
3. Excels Text Import Wizard will now be displayed. Select the option to import the text as Delimited data and click Next
4. Select the format as Tab delimited and click next
5.
Click Finish to import the data
You should now see a worksheet with data represented as follows:
A=Transaction date and time
B=Transaction Type (Inbound or Outbound)
C=Message ID/Message file Name (This is used to match with other logs to track
messages)
D=TCP/IP port number that the SMTP transaction was occurring on
E=TCP/IP Address of the remote host involved in the SMTP transaction
F=The name of SMTP Command that relates to the transaction
G=The details for the SMTP Command that relates to the current transaction
H=The details for the response to the SMTP Command that relates to the current
transaction
I=The number of bytes sent when executing this command
J=The number of bytes received in executing this command
There are two important types of transactions outlined in the SMTP Activity log
file. These are SMTP Inbound Transactions and SMTP Outbound Transactions. These
transactions are denoted in the log files as SMTP-IN and SMTP-OU in their
respective lines in the Activity log file.
8.6.2 How to relate Activity log entries to the debug log file
The
most obvious way or relating an entry in the Activity log file to the Debug log
file is via the time stamp recorded in the file. You can also use the Message
ID (as this is often recorded in the debug log file). The message ID is also
useful in tracking messages as they pass through the MTA. The MTA logs this
message ID and therefore you can use the logs to track a message as it is
routed through MailEnable’s Connectors via the MTA.
For example, a user may complain that they cannot send mail from outlook. In this case an error message will be reported back to the remote mail client.
Eg: 503 This mail server requires authentication. Please check your mail client settings.
You should then use this error string to locate the transaction sequence in the SMTP Activity log. Once you have found the entry in the SMTP Activity log, you can then check the SMTP Debug log for the same time period. You should, find that the System has recorded the reason why the relay request was denied.
8.7 Configuring redundant or backup (MX) mail servers
There
are two principal ways to configure redundancy with MailEnable.
The
simplest way to achieve redundancy is to install a copy of MailEnable as the
master server. You can then install separate copies of MailEnable on other
servers and smarthost the domains to the ip address of the master server. This
will mean that if the master server is down, that the auxiliary servers will
accept mail for the domains and hold it until it is online.
You
will also need to change the DNS/MX settings for the domains to configure the
appropriate MX preferences. Other mail servers learn about your Mail Server via
DNS MX records. They are basically the means by which someone enumerates a
target domain to the server responsible for receiving mail for that domain. MX
records have a preference associated with them that determines the order that
they are used. The lowest preference is attempted first. The lower the
preference value, the higher the priority. Hence an MX record with a preference
of 1 would be attempted before an MX entry with a preference of 10. The
abovementioned approach is typically used if your backup mail servers are
distributed in different geographic or logical locations.
A
second alternative is to host all your mail servers on the same local network
and cluster the servers. This effectively means that all your servers. This
allows you to install multiple servers with MailEnable and have them use the
same store for their messages and post office data. You can then use any of
these servers to access the mail. It basically requires that one of the servers
share the mail data and configuration directories and that the others access
them.
9 Glossary
|
Term |
Explanation |
|
Address
Map |
An
address map is used to define source and target mail exchanges between
Connectors by the Mail Transfer Agent. For example, mail sent to the SMTP
address [SMTP:Jones@mailenable.com] is likely to have an address map to the
post office address [SF:MailEnable/JONES]. |
|
Agents |
Agents
run perform specific management or operating functions for MailEnable itself.
An example of an Agent is the Mail Transfer Agent. Its function is to move
messages between connectors. |
|
Connector |
Connectors
facilitate moving mail between systems or subsystems (whether they be local
or remote). |
|
DNS |
Domain Name Server (or System) is a database of Internet names and addresses which maps domain names to the official Internet Protocol (IP) address and vice versa. |
|
Group |
A
Group represents a logical combination of mail addresses addressable under a
single mail address. Any mail addressed to the group is distributed to all
the members belonging to that group. |
|
IP |
Internet Protocol. A network and transport protocol used for transmitting data over the Internet. Every machine on the internet has its own IP number/address. |
|
List |
A
List is much like a group. The major difference between a list and a group is
that lists are subscription based, can be moderated, and can have headers and
footers applied to them. |
|
Mailbox |
A
mailbox is a repository for email. It is used to store emails for one or more
email addresses. When a user connects with a mail client application (Outlook
Express, Eudora, etc.), they connect to a mailbox to retrieve their email. |
|
MTA |
A
Windows Service that exchanges internal messages between MailEnable
Connectors. |
|
Post
office |
A
post office is used to host multiple mailboxes and domains under one area.
For example, if you were providing email hosting for multiple companies, you
would create a post office for each company. Within the post office you can
assign multiple domains and mailboxes. |
|
Provider |
Providers
are used by Connectors, Agents and Services to allow them to read their
configurations. An example of a provider is the Tab Delimited Address Map
provider. This provider reads the address map that is used to determine mail
routing between connectors. In order to allow the applications to read
configuration data from different sources, different providers would be used.
For instance, SQL Server would have its own providers. |
|
Recipient |
The
address to where the email is destined. |
|
Services |
Services
expose MailEnable functionality to external agents or programs. An example of
a service is the POP3 service. This service allows mail clients to access
mail from their post office. MailEnable employs standard Windows Services
that make it compatible with Windows NT/2000/2003. |