ESA FAQ. Self Administration Frequently Asked Questions

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1 Self Administration Frequently Asked Questions

2 Contents ESA FAQ...2 How do I... Log in?...2 How do I... Add a new address?...2 How do I... Add a new mailbox?...3 How do I... Add a new alias?...4 How do I... Add a new mailbox which forwards a copy of all mail off to another account? 5 How do I... Add many new accounts at once?...5 How do I... Remove many accounts / make multiple password changes at once?...5 How do I Create a catch-all (Make one mailbox receive mail for all users*)?...5 How do I... Set up an Auto-responder / Out-of-office reply?...6 How do I... Change the password on an existing mailbox?...7 How do I... Change the main ESA administrator password?...7 How do I... Remove an account?...8 How do I... Configure my spam / junk filter?...8 Domain-wide spam filter settings...9 User-specific spam filter settings...10 How do I... Disable my spam filtering?...11 One of my users has left and I don't want them to have access to their account any more. They know their password. What can I do?...11 I'm getting a lot of spam / junk ; What's happening?...11 Messages sent to me are not arriving; What's happening?...12 I'm trying to send a message to multiple recipients; Why does the system disallow it?...13 I have a question that's not listed here; Can you help?...14 Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

3 ESA FAQ How do I... Log in? Go to or they're both the same If you're the administrator, you'll want to enter your domain name in the username field, and the associated password in the field below that. If you want to edit settings pertaining to your own account you can log in with your e- mail address and associated password. You'll need to talk to your ESA administrator if you don't know your password; In most cases this comes about if you use a mail program on your computer and the password is built in, meaning you never see it. However, if you've used our webmail in the past, it's the same password! How do I... Add a new address? You need to be logged in as administrator to do this. To add a new address to your domain, you'll first need to decide whether you want that address to have its own mailbox, or whether you simply want mail for that address to filter into an existing internal or external mailbox with a different address. The latter is known as an alias in ESA. The following two answers should help with what you need. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

4 How do I... Add a new mailbox? You need to be logged in as administrator to do this. Click on create user at the top left of the ESA interface. In the main area on the right, make sure that mailbox is selected from the drop-down at the top. Above that, enter the username for the mailbox. This will be the first part of the address. Don't enter the whole address in this box as this will not work as expected. NB: In most other circumstances when dealing with an ESA-based address, you'll need to enter the full address; This is the exception to that rule. Next, enter a password for the account into both the Password and Confirm Password fields. We ask that the password be entered twice because you can't see what you're typing in these fields. At this point you can click the submit button and the new account will be created. The other fields on the account creation screen are: User description - This is for your personal reference and will show up on the ESA accounts screen to help you identify accounts. You might like to enter the user's real name here, or what the account is for, if it's not obvious from the address. Copy mail to (drop downs and the text box) - this functionality is described immediately below in the question on creating an alias. Auto reply - this functionality is described further below in the question about out-of-office replies. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

5 How do I... Add a new alias? You need to be logged in as administrator to do this. Click on create user at the top left of the ESA interface. In the main area on the right, make sure that alias is selected from the drop-down at the top. Above that, enter the username for the alias. This will be the first part of the address. Don't enter the whole address in this box as this will not work as expected. NB: In most other circumstances when dealing with an ESA-based address, you'll need to enter the full address; This is the exception to that rule. Unlike a mailbox, an alias doesn't need a password, and entering one serves no purpose since there's no underlying storage. Instead, you'll need to specify which internal and/or external accounts you want the mail to forward to. To do this, you can select accounts internal to the ESA with the Copy mail to dropdown, or you can enter external addresses, one per line, into the Copy mail to text box below the drop-down. You'll notice that if you add an internal addresses that a new drop-down will appear below it. This is normal, as you may wish to add more than one internal account to the alias. NB: If you've made a mistake and want to remove one of the entries, simply set its drop-down to be blank, or remove the line from the text field below the drop-downs. At this point you can click the submit button and the new alias will be created. The other field on the account creation screen is: User description - This is for your personal reference and will show up on the ESA accounts screen to help you identify accounts. You might like to enter the user's real name here, or what the account is for, if it's not obvious from the address. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

6 How do I... Add a new mailbox which forwards a copy of all mail off to another account? You need to be logged in as administrator to do this. This is a combination of the above two answers. When creating the account as a mailbox, make sure to add the relevant addresses in the Copy Mail to areas before clicking submit. How do I... Add many new accounts at once? A common question asked by schools and large businesses. There's no easy way to do this as an ESA administrator, unless you prefer sitting for hours creating new account after new account. Instead, we suggest you compile a list of preferred usernames and passwords in CSV format (most common spreadsheet packages, like Excel, allow for saving as CSV), and send that to support@exa-networks.co.uk. We advise not specifying the same password for all accounts, unless of course you intend that every one of your trustworthy users immediately logs into ESA as an individual and resets their own password. If you prefer, we can supply random passwords on a per-user basis and send an updated CSV file back to you. How do I... Remove many accounts / make multiple password changes at once? In fairness, this question isn't asked very often, but a similar procedure to the previous answer can be followed if necessary. How do I Create a catch-all (Make one mailbox receive mail for all users*)? First of all, if the account does not already exist, create the mailbox that you would like to serve this purpose. When this is done, click on domain settings on the left. The account can then be chosen from the Catchall Account drop-down. * The catch-all account only catches mail for those addresses that do not have their own mailbox or alias, as these take precedence. To make the catch-all collect everything, either delete the specific mailboxes, or set a Copy Mail to under each non-catch-all mailbox which forwards a copy to the catchall account. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

7 How do I... Set up an Auto-responder / Out-of-office reply? If you're the ESA administrator, log in and then click on the relevant username in the user list. If you're a user with an ESA account, simply log in. You'll be taken to the relevant screen immediately. At the bottom of the main section select enabled within the Autoreply drop-down. Three more fields will be added to the interface. Into the first field, sender address, you can include a different address to the user's own should you so wish. This means that anyone replying in turn to the auto-reply message should automatically see that their mail program tries to send to that address instead. Leaving this blank will send the message from the account itself. The second field is the Subject line of the auto-response. If the special character group %s is included here it will be automatically replaced with the sender's original subject line. Examples might be: I'm out of the office today Re: %s I've received your message, subject '%s', and will deal with it in due course The final field is for a short message explaining to your correspondent why you're not available. There's no provision here for adding formatting or colours, nor is there provision for adding graphics or a custom signature. You are however, welcome to design a text-based message and signature with, say, Windows Notepad, and then copy and paste it into the box, where, despite the cramped appearance, should retain its original structure as a response. NB: The auto-response system is intelligent in that it keeps track of which addresses have already received a response, and so will not respond each and every time to an individual who continues to send to an auto-responsive address. This is to cut down on back-scatter from our mail system, which could otherwise cause us to be block listed as an indirect source of junk . Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

8 How do I... Change the password on an existing mailbox? If you're the ESA administrator, log in and then click on the relevant username in the user list. If you're a user with an ESA account, simply log in. You'll be taken to the relevant screen immediately. Enter the new password for the account into both the Password and Confirm Password fields. We ask that the password be entered twice because you can't see what you're typing in these fields. Click the submit button, and the changes will be processed. Bear in mind that making a change to an address password will usually require the reconfiguration of any computer mail programs that collect mail for the account, i.e. any saved password will need to be removed and made to match the new password. How do I... Change the main ESA administrator password? This isn't possible from within the ESA interface for safety reasons. If you need to change the password, we ideally need an request sent by from either the domain itself, the bill payer or the reseller associated with the domain. This should be to be sent to support@exa-networks.co.uk. You're welcome to specify a password, as long as it is secure; Alternatively we can generate a randomised password. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

9 How do I... Remove an account? You need to be logged in as administrator to do this. Click on the relevant account in the user list and then click on the delete account button. WARNING: You might wish to consider downloading any mail sent to that account before deleting it; This completely removes all trace of the account and any mail that may be in the underlying mailbox. When asked if you're sure you want to delete it, be absolutely sure! How do I... Configure my spam / junk filter? ESA contains a comprehensive spam filtering solution that works at both the domain level - to which ESA administrators have access - that can be overridden to some degree by individual user settings - to which both ESA administrators and the users have access. The filtering works on the principle of spam score - how much like junk mail a message appears to be, to which certain thresholds can be applied; block lists - for placing the addresses of known sources of junk mail; and allowed lists - for placing the addresses of those whose messages are mistakenly filtered as junk. Every message that reaches an ESA is given a score based on an arbitrary, but frequently updated scoring system that determines how likely a message is to be junk. The higher the score, the more likely it is to be spam. Anything identified as spam, whether by falling foul of a threshold or a block list, will be placed in the recipient's own Junk folder (visible via webmail or IMAP) if it exists, or else the domain's main spam filter which is, assuming the default is left in place, a mailbox called spam@domain-name. If you're not an administrator, you may wish log in, click delivery settings on the left hand side and then skip ahead to the individual user spam filter help. (continued...) Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

10 Domain-wide spam filter settings As the ESA administrator, you can find the main domain spam filtering by first clicking domain setup on the left hand side, and then clicking 'spam' which appears further down on the left hand side. The spam settings screen has six sections, the middle two of which are covered here. For the others, see the user settings below, which are identical in function. Spam Threshold - see below Delete Threshold - see below Allow Local Domains - when enabled, this indicates that you implicitly trust any mail that purports to be from Exa Networks customers, and do not wish to filter mail from them. We recommend leaving this option disabled since not all mail that purports to be from our customer base is actually from our customer base, and is in fact from someone who is using their address without permission. More on this below. Spam Account - this indicates which mailbox within the ESA is to be the main spam filter mailbox under the ESA. When an ESA is created, a spam@domain-name mailbox is created for this purpose and is the default option. Again, we advise not to change this unless absolutely necessary. Allowed list - see below Block list - see below Administrators can access an individual users' specific, and overriding settings by clicking the username on the user list screen and selecting the spam option on the left hand side. NB: if you find you're adding many entries to the Allowed list, and more-so the Block list, let us know. There may be something we can do to retrain the spam filter, or at least let you know why the messages are being misfiltered. (continued...) Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

11 User-specific spam filter settings This screen has six sections, the middle two fields being different to the administrator screen outlined above. Spam Threshold - messages whose spam score is over the spam threshold will be filtered. If no value is specified, this will fall back to the default value of 5. The arbitrary spam scoring system is always trained so that most of the legitimate mail sent to our customer base scores below 5, thus ensuring that unless absolutely necessary, the Spam Threshold setting does not need changing. Delete Threshold - for those are convinced that messages over a certain spam score are definitely junk, this feature allows complete deletion of those messages scoring above this threshold. Leaving this blank disables the deletion threshold, and we recommend this course of action. WARNING: We accept no responsibility for any mail lost through use of the Delete Threshold! Spam Folder - this indicates which IMAP/webmail folder within the account is to be the spam filter. When an account is created, no specific location is created for this purpose, but a conscientious administrator or user might wish to activate this feature for the user's purposes. Only junk mail directly addressed to the user will end up in such a folder Bounce Folder - this indicates which IMAP/webmail folder within the account is to catch all messages that look like mail-server bounce-back messages. These aren't spam, but if there is a problem with a mailserver elsewhere, it can be useful to activate this feature. Administrators may note that a global bounce account feature is available elsewhere in the ESA, but is not listed under the spam filter settings. Allowed list - if you find that messages sent from certain correspondents always end up in a spam filter, you can add their address (e.g. joe@exanetworks.co.uk), or even their whole domain (e.g. exa-networks.co.uk) here. One entry per line. Block list - if you want mail from certain correspondents to be filtered regardless of how legitimate their messages seem to our scoring system, then place their address or domain here. Like the allowed list, one entry per line. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

12 How do I... Disable my spam filtering? The safest way to do this is to set the Spam Threshold to a high number, say 99. This will practically guarantee that everything gets through. Bear in mind to make sure that the Delete Threshold is disabled. Other ways include setting the Spam Account drop-down to be empty, or deleting the destination account or sub-folder that the filter places messages into. One of my users has left and I don't want them to have access to their account any more. They know their password. What can I do? You need to be logged in as administrator to do this. Firstly, the simplest step is to change their password. Later, you might want to download a copy of any which still exists in their mailbox. Later still, you might want to completely remove their mailbox and recreate the same username as an alias that forwards mail to your account, or another in the ESA. I'm getting a lot of spam / junk ; What's happening? If the junk mail appears to be addressed from yourself, or people in the same domain, it's likely that your ESA administrator has activated the Allow local domains setting. Look into turning that off to see if that helps at all. If the junk mail is coming from a specific address (which is rare these days, but still possible) or with the same subject line, let us know. We'll investigate, and very likely retrain our system to help filter that mail properly. Finally, it's possible that the spam filter has been disabled somehow. Check that this hasn't been done. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

13 Messages sent to me are not arriving; What's happening? Assuming the messages aren't simply taking a while to arrive, there are several things to try: First of all, disable any Delete Thresholds in the ESA and if there was one, ask the sender to try again. Then and only then, make sure to check spam filter locations, such as the ESA's spam@domain-name account, or within the user's IMAP/webmail spam filter folder. Next, check to see if the person who sent the mail has received an error or bounce message of some sort. Of course, it's possible that their own system has filtered any error message from our side, but more often than not they will get through. Your correspondent's ISP should be able to help them read the bounce-back and diagnose the problem; Failing that, we can do the same if it can be sent to us in some form. If they're completely unable to anyone under Exa's umbrella, especially Support, a FAX will suffice. If there are no signs of any errors, ask them to CC support@exa-networks.co.uk when they send the mail again. Finally, if all else has failed, we may be able to do some investigation if you can provide the address from which the message is supposed to come, and also the outbound mail server the sender is using to send their mail. Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

14 I'm trying to send a message to multiple recipients; Why does the system disallow it? At the time of writing, our system has a limit of 25 recipients per . This is not something we change lightly as it provides a surprising amount of protection to prevent our mail servers from being identified as a source of spam and then block listed. As you can imagine, anyone whose servers are used by multiple schools and companies must spend as little time block listed as possible. Luckily, there is a workaround in ESA: 1) On the main ESA screen, click 'create user' on the menu 2) Set the username to a name that encompasses the whole group of recipients - this address will ideally be for your use only. For instance, a school might create the name class4b, or a company may create newsletter.recipients. No specific format is required - it's just an address. 3) Set the 'Account Type' drop-down to 'alias' 4) Set one or more Copy mail to addresses: a) Using the Copy mail to drop-down section, add any recipients that can be found in the same ESA. Once you've added one, a new drop-down will appear should you wish to add another. b) addresses from outside the ESA can be added, one entry per line, to the other Copy mail to section. 5) When you've finished adding addresses, click submit We recommend only ever using the mailing list address in a BCC; Recipients will then be unaware of the method that has been used to everyone at the same time, which otherwise could be abused. Of course, it may be that the address is eventually discovered by one of the recipients, at which point you would have to change it. Since messages are required to have something in the To: field, we recommend using your own address there. (continued...) Exa Networks Ltd Revision:

15 e.g. in your mail program your messages would look something like: From: To: BCC: Subject: Notification about an event at a place and time Can those attending the event please be aware that the time has been moved from the morning to the afternoon, and will now be one floor above in the building. The original location is locked and will be inaccessible. whereas your recipients would see: From: your. @your.domain.co.uk To: your. @your.domain.co.uk, undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: Notification about an event at a place and time Can those attending the event please be aware that the time has been moved from the morning to the afternoon, and will now be one floor above in the building. The original location is locked and will be inaccessible. I have a question that's not listed here; Can you help? Yes we can. Call us on or us on support@exa-networks.co.uk and we'll do our best to advise and/or talk you through what you need to do on the ESA interface. If your question becomes a common one, there's a good chance it will be added to this document! Exa Networks Ltd Revision: