1 - Provisioning Email Filtering

Once logged in with your trial, or permanent administrative username and password, enabling email filtering requires the following:

• Steps 1-3, "Filtering Email " must be performed to begin filtering email.

• Step 4, "Securing Port 25 Traffic "should be done 72 hours later for optimal security and filtering service.

• Steps 5-6, "Operational Suggestions " are listed at the bottom.

Filtering Email

1. Verify that your inbound mail server as identified in your email is correct, see:

Verify Mail Server

2. You may a) create user accounts automatically using "Unknown User Settings", or b) create user accounts manually, or c) create user accounts using a bulk import from Active Directory. You may mix these methods, which have their own advantages and limitations, please review the information below to make the best choice for your needs.

Note: "Unknown User Settings" default selection is "Drop Spam and Viruses..." which filters spam and virus email, passing through (delivering) all other emails, without user account creation. Nor does user account creation occur with the option "Reject Messages to Unknown Users". Using these two options require manual user account setup.

1. Automated - User accounts can be created automatically using the "Create users on receipt of good mail" option. When Enterprise Email Filter receives email for your organization, it attempts to validate the recipient with your mail server. If your mail server authenticates the recipient's email address, the email address is added as a valid user. If your mail server rejects the recipient's email address, Enterprise Email Filter rejects the email also. Automated account creation:

2. Will place new accounts into one group only ("Main" by default)

• Will not append email aliases (alternate email addresses) for users, therefore you get separate accounts for each email address, billed separately, and treated separately (login, quarantine, and archive etc).

• Will cause random password generation, which will require sending out an Enterprise Email Filter Welcome Message to distribute the random passwords to users.

• Will add internal distribution-lists as user accounts.

• May create invalid accounts if the mail server does not authenticate the recipient, particularly if receiving Spam. These account creations will affect billing if left in place.

Important: The recommended approach to using automated account creation would be to enable the feature just long enough (1-2 days) for valid email users to be authenticated to the Enterprise Email Filter, then delete any invalid accounts, add missing users, and optionally create new groups. Finally, you would configure "Reject Messages to Unknown Users" to strictly control incoming email delivery, or "Drop Spam and Viruses..." to stop Spam and Virus email, allowing delivery of all other email. To check how "Unknown User Settings" is configured currently, see:

Unknown User Settings

2. Manual - If you wish to add the users yourself, including aliases and passwords, into one or more groups, you can do so at any time in "User Management". The main advantage of Manual user creation is precise control over group and user configuration. Note that Enterprise Email Filter requires usernames extracted from user email addresses, see:

Add Users to your Groups

3. Active Directory Bulk Import - import Active Directory (LDAP) users, and verify the import in "User Management". This may be preferable to manual creation of many user accounts, see:

Import Windows Active Directory (LDAP) Users

3. Your DNS provider currently has pointers (MX records) on DNS servers directing email for your domain name directly to your organization. The DNS servers and domain name are specified in your filter service confirmation email. Contact your DNS provider and request that they redirect your MX records to point at:

mail.mxpath.net

This will redirect email to Enterprise Email Filter before being sent to your organization. If you require help with this, please contact us at (866) 566-3346 and we would be more than happy to be on the phone call with your DNS Service Provider.

Please Note: The MX RECORD should be set at the highest priority. Example: if your MX RECORD currently looks like this:

mydomain    3600    MX    10    mail.mydomain
mydomain    3600    MX    20    mail2.mydomain
mydomain    3600    MX    30    mail3.mydomain

… then "mail.mydomain" is set at the highest priority (i.e., 10), while "mail3.mydomain" is set at the lowest priority. The numbers you see above (10, 20 and 30) are the MX Record's priority settings. The lower the number, the higher the priority.

Using the example above, your new MX Record should look like this:

mydomain    3600    MX    10    mail.mxpath.net

The Global Gateway Services consists of multiple, geographically dispersed data centers and guarantees 99.999% up time. You can rest assured that your email is protected by a rock solid network and will always be available.

Secondary MX records are not recommended. Spammers and viruses typically look for "back doors" to infiltrate networks. Having a secondary MX record simply advertises where these "vulnerabilities" might be.

Please note that once your MX RECORD change has been made, it may take 24 to 48 hours for it to propagate throughout the Internet. There will be absolutely no downtime during this transition. As your e-mail begins to flow through the Global Gateway Services, it will be filtered and delivered immediately to your specified mail server address.

Secure Port 25 Traffic

4. It is strongly recommended that incoming port 25 traffic (SMTP) be blocked except when originating from your Global Gateway email filtering service. After your MX Record change has fully propagated across Internet DNS servers (allow 72 hours), only allow incoming traffic from the following list of Global Gateway filtering subnets, i.e., configure your firewall and/or local mail server to only accept inbound SMTP traffic only from the IP ranges listed below:

Operational Suggestions

5. Once you have re-directed Email traffic to the Enterprise Email Filter, customize your Email filtering service by reviewing the following tasks:

• To notify your users about email filtering, see:

Email Welcome Message

• As administrator, after a period of time, you might want to fine-tune your email filtering by adding global Blacklist (blocked) and/or global Whitelist (approved) entries, see:

• You may also want to filter by attachment type, file size, look for specific email content, adjust spam scoring and virus quarantine, see:

• The filters (above) have an impact on what is quarantined or considered Spam. As administrator, you may investigate quarantines for any user.  Users may manage their own quarantines. See:

User Quarantine

Admin Quarantine

• You will want to eventually run monthly email reports, see:

Email Reports

• By re-configuring your MX Record with your DNS provider you re-directed your inbound mail through the Enterprise Email Filter.  To re-direct your outbound mail through the Enterprise Email Filter, see:

Outbound Email Filtering

Outbound Email Forwarding

Note: All the filters mentioned above can be "enabled" to apply to outbound email. Click on the Outbound tab (link) for each filter to enable and configure the filter. Outbound filter "order" can also be configured separately from Inbound.

• If you choose to add groups beyond the default Main group, and you want them serviced by Enterprise Email Filter, see the following:

Manage Groups for your Organization

Group Setup

6. Please report unfiltered Spam by forwarding the Spam as an "attachment" to abuse@mxpath.net. Our 24-Hour Spam Team will analyze these messages and update our filters appropriately, thank you!