Questions about the new email infrastructure

[RFH Reseller: neogic]

Hi Smorgo - I asked the same question and Warren advised:

Unfortunately despite many spam handling options SmarterMail doesn't have any quarantine/reporting feature; however you are able to configure it to delete or move to junk high spam probability messages and then set the junk folder to auto-clear as required.

I replied with the following and am awaiting replies:

Thanks Warren. The feature set of SmarterMail is very impressive in comparison, been checking out the Outlook sync tool, server-side filtering/alert rules, etc - excellent stuff, thank you!

Unfortunately the spam filtering seems pretty weak so far - could be partly psychological as spam flagged messages default to coming through with subject line prefixes rather than being quarantined, but I see I can't just send all SPAM-HIGH messages to Junk on the server as it flagged one edition of Paul Thurrot's WinInfo Daily as SPAM-HIGH (and yet the previous day's as SPAM-LOW)!

Is there any form of quick and easy spam training, as Modus had? The Modus quarantine facility had a quick Release / add as safe sender / report as non-spam button - anything equivalent for SmarterMail? There's a manual safe list, but it would be a pain to have to add manual entries each time.

Secondly, the old webmail allowed checking of other mail accounts without having to logout and login - they appeared in left column and could be viewed individually. A quick skim of the docs mentioned being able to retrieve other POP3 accounts into the main account (not the same thing, and looks like is currently disabled anyway). Is there an equivalent?

Finally, as someone asked in the "Increase in SPAM since the migration - Coincidence?" thread, is there any form of bulk settings management for resellers? e.g., setting spam filtering / auto clean settings across multiple mailboxes / domains? I notice mention of "global address books", which gives hope for domain-wide management facilities.

Cheers, Ben

[RFH Reseller: neogic]

Just answered my own spam training question - messages have a Mark > As Spam / Not Spam option. Marking as 'Not Spam' automatically moves to the main Inbox and adds to trusted senders / reports to server as non-spam. Annoyingly, marking explicitly as Spam moves to Junk E-mail instead of moving to Deleted Items, where it then blends in with unreviewed items.

[RFH Reseller: neogic]

Reply from Warren:

Hello Ben,

The feature set of SmarterMail is very impressive in comparison, been checking out the Outlook sync tool, server-side filtering/alert rules, etc - excellent stuff, thank you!

Indeed, I personally particularly like the "plus addressing" feature.

Unfortunately the spam filtering seems pretty weak so far

We expected this, the new system will need to learn and we will need to tweak - its all brand new so we've got to find the right settings which work for us, without being too aggressive or too weak.

A quick skim of the docs mentioned being able to retrieve other POP3 accounts into the main account (not the same thing, and looks like is currently disabled anyway). Is there an equivalent?

There is a POP3 retrieval facility but I haven't looked into it since we disabled it due to this feature contributed to the previous mail servers performance issues.

is there any form of bulk settings management for resellers? e.g., setting spam filtering / auto clean settings across multiple mailboxes / domains? I notice mention of "global address books", which gives hope for domain-wide management facilities.

There is no cross-mailbox/domain configuration and you will see the global address book (all mailboxes on the domain) is read-only - the problem here is that there is no way to choose who has domain ownership/admin rights the Helm Control Panel simply doesn't provide a means to do it.

[RFH Reseller: ABNET]

Re the "Mark as Spam" option via the Inbox. It does nut JUST move the message/s to the JunkMail folder. According to Smarter Mail's help file, it also adds it to the list of spam senders - see below for actual quote:

# Mark - Allows you to mark the selected message(s) as read, unread, spam, or not spam.

* Read - Marks the selected message(s) as read and changes the status indicator appropriately.
* Unread - Marks the selected message(s) as unread and changes the status indicator appropriately.
* Spam - Marks the selected message(s) as spam. In most folders, choosing the Mark as Spam option will delete the message and add it to a list of spam messages for better spam protection later. This type of spam filtering, in which you actually "teach" the mail server what you consider unwanted email, is known as Bayesian filtering. It is to your benefit to mark spam rather than just deleting it because it helps your mail server avoid that type of mail in the future. Note: If you are using the Commtouch Premium Antispam add-on, messages marked as spam will be sent to Commtouch for evaluation.
* Not Spam – Marks the selected message(s) as not spam and automatically adds the email address to your trusted senders list.

[slippers]

Having all sorts of email problems since the upgrade, many accounts not working at all, some only work on pc, mac email not working on any and the ones that work are getting barrages of spam.

Is anyone else having issues?

[Staff: Warren Ashcroft]

Having all sorts of email problems since the upgrade, many accounts not working at all, some only work on pc, mac email not working on any and the ones that work are getting barrages of spam.

We're aware of the SPAM, that will eventually sort itself out as the system learns and is tweaked. Other than that there are no server issues so if email clients are not connecting their settings are incorrect.

[RFH Customer: Ourpcman]

Don't forget there's:
1. MD5 authentication issue, is that just iPhones? (I may not have that totally correct)
2. Bypass port 366 no longer available, only 587. (I know you switched AGES ago but 366 was still there for "legacy" reasons)

[RFH Reseller: albatroz]

Smartermail is a very nice email platform. However it is a pity that some of their most amazing features (like domain-wide email filtering) does not work
in hosting environment

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

Smartermail is a very nice email platform. However it is a pity that some of their most amazing features (like domain-wide email filtering) does not work
in hosting environment

For what its worth, this isn't a mail server issue since even Modus Mail had this ability, it is an issue with intergration with Helm. Hopefully we will see the new backend RFH has been talking about / working on materialize in the near future and that since this would be written in house it would cater for these advanced functions.