Editing host-specific mail settings

Allowing or rejecting mail sent from a host


    You can choose to allow or reject mail sent from a particular host to your Mail Server. If you allow mail, mail is sent to the addressee according to the settings specified in the various Mail Server Settings windows. If you reject mail, any mail sent to your users that has the host name in the "from" adress of the message is returned to the sender. Being able to reject mail from certain hosts is useful when you want to control who your users communicate with or prevent your users from receiving "spam mail."

    To allow or reject all outgoing mail, see Allowing or holding outgoing mail.

  To allow or reject mail from a host, follow these steps:
1 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
2 Choose Show Host List from the Server menu.
The Host List appears.
3 Select the host you want to edit, and click the Edit Host button.
The Edit Host button looks like this:
Note: You cannot edit the listing for a host that is connected via AppleTalk.
The Edit Host window appears. Settings for mail being sent from the current host are shown.
4 Select whether you want all mail with this host in the "from" address of the message, to be allowed or rejected by clicking "Allow mail from host" or "Reject all mail from host". (To change your choice click a different button.)
To allow mail to be sent from this host to your users and groups, click the "Allow mail from host" button. When this button is selected, your users can receive mail that has the selected host in the "from" address of the message.
To reject all mail sent from this host, click the "Reject all mail from host" button. When this is selected, messages that include the selected host in the "from" address are returned to the sender.
5 If you're allowing mail, select the mail settings that you'd like to apply to mail being sent from this host by clicking the checkbox next to the desired setting so that a checkmark appears.
To have the mail delivered to the local address, click the "Deliver mail from this host to local addresses only" checkbox so that a checkmark appears.
To track which recipients reject mail from this host, click "Log recipient rejections to error log."
To have a blind carbon copy of each mail message sent from this host be sent to a user or group, click "Send blind carbon copies (BCC) of all messages from this host to:" checkbox so that a checkmark appears. Then click the Users & Groups button, and select the name of a user or group to whom you want to send the message copy, and click Select.
6 If you're rejecting mail from this host and you would like to maintain a record of each time that a message from the host is rejected, click the "Log each rejection to error log" checkbox so that a checkmark appears.
7 Click Save.
Your changes are saved and take effect immediately.


Allowing, holding, or deleting mail sent to a host


    You can allow, hold, or automatically delete all mail being sent to a host.

  To change how mail sent to a specific host is handled, follow these steps:
1 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
2
Choose Show Host List from the Server menu.
The Host List appears.
3 Select the host you want to edit, and click the Edit Host button
The Edit Host button looks like this:
Note: You cannot edit the listing for a host that is connected via AppleTalk.
The Edit Host window appears.
4 Click the "Mail To" tab.
The settings for mail being sent to the current host appear.
5 Select whether you want all mail sent to this host to be allowed, held, or deleted by clicking the appropriate button so that a dot appears. (To change your choice, click another button.)
To allow your users to send mail to this host, click the "Allow mail to host" button. When this button is selected, your users can send mail to the selected host according to the settings specified in the Mail Server Settings windows.
To prevent your users from sending mail to this host, click either the "Hold mail to host" or "Delete mail to host" button.
• If you click the "Hold mail to host" button, any mail that your users send to this host is stored on the server until outgoing mail service is allowed.
• If you click the "Delete mail to host" button, any mail sent from your users to this host is deleted and the sender is notified that the message was not delivered.
6 If you're allowing mail, select the mail settings that you'd like to apply to mail being sent to this host by clicking the checkbox next to the desired setting so that a checkmark appears. (To cancel a setting, click the checkbox so that the checkmark disappears.)
To have messages sent to this host expire after a specified number of hours, click the "Messages expire after <n> hours" checkbox so that a checkmark appears. Then type a number of hours before the message expires in the text box.
To relay mail sent to this host via a specific mail server, click the "Relay all SMTP mail via" checkbox so that a checkmark appears. Then type the domain for the server in the text box.
Mail relay allows you to filter mail through a specific server for security or network limitation reasons. For more information, see How mail relay works.
To warn the sender when mail sent to this host is not delivered, click the "Notify sender of non-delivery" checkbox so that a checkmark appears. Then type the number of hours to wait before notifying the sender of the non-delivery.
To send a copy of the non-delivery notification to the postmaster, click "Notify Postmaster of non-delivery." Postmaster is the default Internet alias for the mail administrator's mail account. For more information on the Postmaster, see About the Postmaster.
7 If you're deleting mail sent to this host and if you would like to notify the sender of the message that the mail to this host has been rejected, click the "Notify sender that mail to host is rejected" checkbox so that a checkmark appears.
If you would also like to send a copy of the non-delivery notification to the postmaster, click "Notify Postmaster." Postmaster is the default Internet alias for the Mail Administrator's mail account.
8 Click Save.
Your changes are saved and take effect immediately.


Setting connection schedules to a host with continuous Internet access


    You can set the frequency with which your Mail Server connects to a host to deliver or receive mail, and you can specify the retry frequency if the host does not respond. The default behavior is that the Mail Server connects as needed, whenever it has mail to send.

    Note: You may want to set your connection schedule and other host settings for the Default Host before you create additional hosts or before new hosts appear in your list. To edit the default template, see Editing the default host template.

    IMPORTANT: If you have an intermittant, that is, less than 24 hours a day 7 days a week, connection to the Internet (either through your ISP's Mail Server or your organization's primary mail server), your Mail Server may not be recieving mail that is being sent when your Mail Server is unavailable. To be sure you receive all your mail, you should enable remote polling (or "ETRN") in addition to setting your schedule. Skip this section and see Setting connection shedules to a host with intermittant Internet access.

  To schedule connections to a host when you have continuous Internet access, follow these steps:
1 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
2 Choose Show Host List from the Server menu.
The Host List appears.
3 Select the host which you want to edit, and click the Edit Host button
The Edit Host button looks like this:
Note: You cannot edit the listing for a host that is connected via AppleTalk.
The Edit Host window appears.
5 Click the "Schedule" tab.
The schedule for connecting to the current host appears.
6 Select whether you would like your Mail Server to connect to the current host as needed or at specifed times by choosing an item from the pop-up menu on the top-left side of the panel.
If you want to connect only when your server has mail to send to this host, choose "Connect as needed."
If you want to connect to the host at specific times, for example, after normal business hours, choose "Set allowed connection times."
7 If you chose "Set allowed connection times," specify the hours and days during which you want your Mail Server to check for mail by dragging across those times to make them green.
The default behavior is that the Mail Server connects as needed, whenever it has mail to send. So the schedule is green (for "connect") 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
To change the connection time, drag across the time-line to enable or disable the connect time. Green means "connect during this time," and gray means "don't connect during this time." Set the schedule for each day of the week during which you want the Mail Server to connect to a host.
To change green back to gray, or gray back to green, click or drag across the time you want to change again.
8 Choose the interval at which you want the Mail Server to attempt to establish a connection to the host to deliver or receive mail in the Retry Frequency section.
• To use the host's default, click "Use the server's default frequency."
• To specify your own retry frequency, click "Retry every <n> minutes," and type a number of minutes in the text box.
9 Click Save.
Your changes are saved and take effect immediately.


Setting connection shedules to a host with intermittant Internet access


    If you have an intermittant, that is, less than 24 hours a day 7 days a week, connection to the Internet (either through your ISP's Mail Server or your organization's primary mail server), your Mail Server may not be recieving mail that is being sent when your Mail Server is unavailable. To be sure you receive all your mail, you should enable remote polling (or "ETRN") in addition to setting your schedule.

    In addition, you'll need to create a host entry for your ISPs Mail Sever and ask your ISP to modify their DNS MX list.

    If your Mail Server has 24 hour Internet access, you do not need to enable remote polling when you set your schedule. See Setting connection shedules to a host with continuous Internet access

  To schedule connections to a host when you have intermittant Internet access, follow these steps:
1 Contact your ISP (or primary Mail Server administrator), and ask them to modify the MX entries on their DNS server to indicate that their Mail Server should be the backup server to your Mail Server.
For example, the MX list would list your server first and the ISPs server second, as follows:
maildoc.company.com
mail.your_isp.com
This way, if your Mail Server is not available when mail is being delivered to your domain, the contacting mail server will try sending the mail to the next server in the MX list. Since the second server has 24 hour 7 day a week access, your mail can always be delivered there if your server is not available.
For more information about MX lists, see the The Mail Server and DNS.
2 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
3 Choose Show Host List from the Server menu.
The Host List appears.
4 Click the New Host button to create a new Host to represent your ISP's mail server (or your organization's primary mail server).
The New Host button looks like this:
5 Type a name for your ISP's Mail Server in the new host profile window that appears. Then click OK.
The new host appears in the Host List window.
6 Double-click the new host in the Host List.
The Edit Host window for your new ISP host appears.
7 Click the "Schedule" tab.
The schedule for connecting to the current host appears.
8 Choose "Set allowed connection times" from the pop-up menu on the top-left side of the panel.
In many cases organizations without full-time access to the Internet want to connect to the host during less expensive times, for example, after normal business hours,
9 Specify the hours and days during which you want your Mail Server to check the ISPs server for mail.
Drag across the hours during which you want the Mail Server to connect to a host to select them. The gray portions of each day are the times and days your Mail Server will connect to check for mail.
10 Choose the interval at which you want the Mail Server to attempt to establish a connection to the host to deliver or receive mail in the Retry Frequency section.
• To use the host's default, click "Use the server's default frequency."
• To specify your own retry frequency, click "Retry every <n> minutes," and type a number of minutes in the text box.
11 Enable remote polling (or "ETRN") by clicking the "Enable polling for remote mail based on Retry Frequency" checkbox so that a checkmark appears.
When remote polling is checked, your server will notify, or "ping," the selected host to let it know it is available for mail services. This is useful when your server is only scheduled to provide mail service during certain hours; it lets hosts that might be trying to send mail to the server know when your Mail Server is available to receive mail again.
Note: Do not enable Remote Polling if the schedule you are creating is for your Default Host template, or for a host to which you have continuous (24 hours a day 7 days a week) access. Remote Mail Polling should only be enabled on one host per mail server.
12 Click Save.
Your changes are saved and take effect immediately.


Setting network connections by host


    You can change default network settings to gain greater control over how your Mail Server manages its network connection to a specific host and processes DNS requests.

  To change the network settings for a host, follow these steps:
1 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
2 Choose Show Host List from the Server menu.
The Host List appears.
3 Select the host you want to edit, and click the Edit Host button
The Edit Host button looks like this:
Note: You cannot edit the listing for a host that is connected via AppleTalk.
The Edit Host window appears.
4 Click the Network tab.
The Network settings for the current host appear.
5 Indicate how often you'd like the Mail Server to contact the DNS server for assistance when contacting the current host by choosing an item from the pop-up menu.
Choose "Cache DNS Results" from the pop-up menu if you want your server to cache DNS results when contacting this host.
Every time a mail server is requested to send mail, it verifies the domain names in the outgoing mail address by contacting your network's DNS server to find IP addresses for the addressed domains. Since the DNS database doesn't change very frequently, you can have your server cache the DNS results for a period of time.
Choose "Always check DNS Results" if you want your server to poll the DNS server before every connection to this host.
To use the global network settings that are specified in the Advanced Mail Server Settings window, choose "Use Mail Server Settings" from the pop-up menu.
See also The Mail Server and DNS.
6 If Cache DNS Results is selected, choose the length of time you'd like the DNS results to be cached when connecting to this host, by clicking one of the buttons below the Cache DNS Results pop-up menu.
Click "Respect ‘Time to Live' (TTL) parameters" if you prefer to use the DNS server's recommended TTL time.
Click "Cache DNS information for <n> minutes," then enter a number of minutes, if you prefer to specify a length of time for the DNS information to be cached.
7 Choose what information you'd like the Mail Server to request from the DNS server when attempting to connect to the current host, by clicking one of the DNS Request buttons.
Click "MX-List & A-Record" if you want the Mail Server to use information in both the MX List and the A-Record when asking for information your server needs to deliver mail to the current host.
Click "MX List only" if you want the Mail Server to use information in only the MX List when asking for information your server needs to deliver mail to the current host.
Click "A-Record only" if you want the Mail Server to use information in only the A-Record when asking for information your server needs to deliver mail to the current host.
8 To set how long the Mail Server should wait to establish an open network connection to the current host, type a number in the "Open connection after <n> seconds" box.
The open connection is the length of time the server attempts to connect to a host. In general, from 100 to 120 seconds is considered adequate. You may want to change this if you know you're contacting a host that typically takes longer to respond.
To set how long the Mail Server should wait for a response when the connection is open with the current host, type a number in the "Network read/write after <n> seconds" box.
9 The network read/write is the length of time the server waits for additional information before breaking the connection. In general, from 100 to 120 seconds is considered adequate.
10 To change the SMTP port number that your Mail Server uses when connecting to the current host, click the "Use custom SMTP port" checkbox so that an X appears.
The SMTP port you specify here is the port that will be used to send mail to another SMTP mail server.
11 Click Save.
Your changes are saved and take effect immediately.


Creating a new host


    You can create a host entry before the Mail Server has sent or received mail from a host. You may want to do this if you're setting up a restricted list of hosts with which you want your users to communicate, or if you're just planning your e-mail connections in advance.

    To edit the default settings that are specified for every new host, see Editing the default host template.

  To create a new host , follow these steps:
1 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
2 Choose Show Host List from the Server menu.
The Host List window appears.
3 Click the New Host button
The New Host button looks like this:
The New Host appears.
4 Type a name for the host in the Host Name text box.
The name you type is the name that will appear in the Host List.
5 Set the Mail From, Mail To, Schedule, and Network attributes for this host by clicking each tab and entering the desired settings. For instructions, see
Allowing or rejecting mail from a host
Allowing, holding, or deleting mail to a host
Setting connection schedules to a host
Specifying network connections by host


Editing the default host template


    You can change the default settings that are specified for every new Host. You may want to do this to customize the template to your needs before you start creating new hosts.

    Note: Changes to the default host template do not affect the settings for hosts that already exist in the Host List.

  To edit the default "new host template," follow these steps:
1 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
2 Choose Edit Default Host Profile from the Server menu.
The Edit Host window for the Default Host template appears.
3 Set the Mail From, Mail To, Schedule, and Network attributes for this host by clicking each tab and entering the desired settings. For instructions, see
Allowing or reject mail from a host
Allowing, holding, or deleting mail to a host
Setting connection schedules to a host
Specifying network connections by host


Deleting a host

     
    You can delete a host from the Host List.

    IMPORTANT: If you delete a host for which there is mail on the Mail Server waiting to be delivered to that host, the messages for that host are deleted without a non-delievery message being sent to the sender.

  To delete a host entry , follow these steps:
1 Open the Mail Admin program, if it's not already open.
2 Choose Show Host List from the Server menu.
The Host List appears.
3 Select the host you want to edit, and click the Delete Host button
The Delete Host button looks like this:
  The host is deleted and removed from the Host List.

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