3.7 Gathering Outbound E-Mail Information

Your Novell Vibe site can be configured to send outbound e-mail through an existing e-mail system. E-mail from the Vibe site is useful for the following activities:

In order for your Vibe site to communicate with your e-mail system, you need to gather the following information about your e-mail system.

After installation, outbound e-mail can be disabled and enabled again on the Vibe site, as described in Configuring E-Mail Integration in Site Setup in the Novell Vibe 3.2 Administration Guide. However, you must configure outbound e-mail in the Vibe installation program.

3.7.1 Outbound E-Mail Protocol

E-mail systems communicate by using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). You need to determine whether the e-mail system that you want your Vibe site to communicate with is using SMTP or SMTPS (secure SMTP).

For GroupWise, you can check how the Internet Agent is configured:

  1. In ConsoleOne, browse to and right-click the Internet Agent object, then click Properties.

  2. Click GroupWise > Network Address.

    In the SMTP field, if the SSL column displays Disabled, GroupWise is using SMTP. If the SSL column displays Enabled, GroupWise is using SMTPS.

  3. Click Cancel to close the Network Address page.

BASIC VIBE INSTALLATION SUMMARY SHEET

Under Outbound E-Mail Protocol, mark SMTP or SMTPS to match the e-mail system that you want Vibe to communicate with.

If the e-mail system requires SMTPS, see Securing E-Mail Transfer in Site Security in the Novell Vibe 3.2 Administration Guide.

3.7.2 Outbound E-Mail Host

In order to send messages to your e-mail system, Vibe needs to know the hostname of your SMTP mail server.

The default SMTP port of 25 is typically appropriate, unless the SMTP mail server requires port 465 or 587 for SMTPS connections.

For GroupWise, this is the hostname of a server where the Internet Agent is running. GroupWise always uses port 25, even when SSL is enabled.

When the Vibe site sends e-mail notifications for scheduled events, the messages are time-stamped according to the time zone you specify here during installation. This setting allows you to use a time zone for e-mail notifications that is different from the time zone where the server is located. The time zone list is grouped first by continent or region, optionally by country or state, and lastly by city. Some common selections for United States time zones are:

Time Zone

Continent/City

Pacific Time

America/Los Angeles

Mountain Time

America/Denver

Central Time

America/Chicago

Eastern Time

America/New York

BASIC VIBE INSTALLATION SUMMARY SHEET

Under Outbound E-Mail Host, specify the name of the mail host, the SMTP port number it uses, and the time zone for the time stamp you want on scheduled event notifications.

3.7.3 Outbound E-Mail Authentication

Many SMTP mail hosts require a valid e-mail address before they establish the SMTP connection. Some e-mail systems can construct a valid e-mail address if you specify only a valid username; other e-mail systems require that you specify the full e-mail address for successful authentication. You should provide a username (e-mail address) to ensure a successful connection. E-mail notifications from the Vibe system are sent using this e-mail address in the From field.

Some e-mail systems also require a password. Some do not. If authentication is required, you should also provide a password.

By default, the GroupWise Internet Agent does not require authentication in order to receive inbound messages. However, the /forceinboundauth startup switch is available for use in the Internet Agent startup file (gwia.cfg) to configure the Internet Agent to refuse SMTP connections where a valid e-mail username and password are not provided. The Internet Agent can accept just the username or the full e-mail address.

BASIC VIBE INSTALLATION SUMMARY SHEET

Under Outbound E-Mail Authentication, indicate whether or not authentication is required for the Vibe site to communicate with your e-mail system. If it is, specify the username or e-mail address, and if necessary, the password for the e-mail account.

3.7.4 Outbound E-Mail Send Restriction

By default, the Vibe site allows Vibe users to send messages to all Vibe users by using the All Users group on the Vibe site. On a very large Vibe site, this generates a very large number of e-mail messages. If desired, you can prevent messages from being sent to the All Users group.

BASIC VIBE INSTALLATION SUMMARY SHEET

Under Allow Sending E-Mail to All Users, mark whether or not you want users to be able to send messages to the All Users group.