SMTP Host Authentication

The Internet Agent supports SMTP host authentication for both outbound and inbound message traffic.


Outbound Authentication

For outbound authentication to other SMTP hosts, the Internet Agent requires that the remote SMTP hosts support the AUTH LOGIN authentication method. To set up outbound authentication:

  1. Include the remote SMTP host's domain name an authentication credentials in the gwauth.cfg file, located in the domain\wpgate\gwia directory. The format is:

    domain_name   authuser   authpassword

    For example:

    smtp.novell.com   remotehost   novell
  2. If you have multiple SMTP hosts that require authentication before they will accept messages from your system, create an entry for each host. Make sure to include a hard return after the last entry.

  3. If you want to allow the Internet Agent to send messages only to SMTP hosts listed in the gwauth.cfg file, use the following startup switch:

    /forceoutboundauth

    With the /forceoutboundauth switch enabled, if a message is sent to an SMTP host not listed in the gwauth.cfg file, the sender will receive an Undeliverable message.


Inbound Authentication

For inbound authentication from other SMTP hosts, you can use the /forceinboundauth startup switch to ensure that the Internet Agent accepts messages only from SMTP hosts that use the AUTH LOGIN authentication method to provide a valid GroupWise user ID and password. The remote SMTP hosts can use any valid GroupWise user ID and password. However, for security reasons, we recommend that you create a dedicated GroupWise user account for remote SMTP host authentication.