| Mail Server Support
Mailing
Lists
The
mailing list feature is an easy way of sending off a mail to a single
address that will be forwarded onto all the members of the list. They
are especially useful as discussion groups or connecting with others
who share the same interests and ideas.
Merak
can go one step further and also be configured as a "list
server" which means it will handle the administration of the
lists and their members via emailed commands.
As
the setup of a mailing list is somewhat different to a list server
they have been covered separately in the next sections.
Note
that the setup of the Anti Spam filters is done in the usual manner.
Specify an index file which contains the filters you want applied to
this list.
Alias
Specifies
the name for the mailing list. When you want to send a mail to the
list it will be this <name>@domain that you will use.
Description
Descriptive
text for the mailing list
Owner
The
email address of the owner of the list. Multiple addresses can be
specified using the semicolon delimiter
List
File
If
the list is to be used to send mail to various recipients at various
domains then a list file needs to be used. The list file specifies the
path and filename of a text file containing the email addresses of the
list members. If you are using a list server to administer this list,
specify a path and filename then save your changes. If you are
administering the list manually after specifying the path and filename
use the edit button to edit the members of the list. Place each member
on a new line in the format of "username <email>" as
follows :
Ian
Atkins <iana@rsk.net>
John
dod <john@msn.com>
You
can also specify a list of email addresses that are eligible to join
the mailing list in a second text file, and append this to the first
with a semicolon delimiter.
Set
list owner to "From" field
Specifies
that the Owner email address will be copied into the "From:
" field. Using this option greys out the "set from to"
option.
Set
"From" to
Specify
an email address to be put into the "From: " field. Using
this option greys out the "set list owner to from field"
option.
Set
"Reply to" to originator
This
specifies that a reply to the message will be sent to the originator
of the message. Eg. UserX sends a mail to the list. UserX reads the
mail and writes a reply. By default his reply will be sent to UserX
not the list.
Swap
fields
This
specifies that the user’s replies will be sent back to the list, not
the originator of a message.
List
Server
Leave
this unchecked.
Send
to All
If
the list only contains users of the same domain (eg. Domain of
icewarp.com the list is list@icewarp.com and all the recipients are in
icewarp.com) then it is not necessary to specify a list file and this
option may be checked. This option will forward a mail received by the
list to ever user in the domain.
List
Server Help
Leave
this blank.
Options
Tab
Add
to subject
This
prefixes the subject line with the specified string. If the text is
already present it does not duplicate it. If the subject line is not
present it is created.
Send
to Sender
If
unchecked and a user (who is on the list) sends a message to the list,
he himself will not get it back. If checked he will receive a copy of
his own message.
Set
Recipient To:
Specifies
a new recipient in the To header.
Copy
to Owner
If
the owner is not on the list, this option will copy messages to the
email address specified in the "owner" field. However it is
suggested that owners subscribe to the list themselves.
Subscription
File
If
the list is administered by a list server, then when a new user is
added Merak will inform the new user of their subscription. A text
file (rules of the list perhaps) can be appended to this information
by specifying a path and filename here. As always the edit button can
be used to edit the file.
Header
File
Specifies
a text file that should be inserted at the beginning of all messages
passing through the mailing list.
Footer
File
Specifies
a text file that should be inserted at the end of all messages passing
through the mailing list.
Moderated
Mailing List / List Server
A
moderated mailing list is where a message needs to contain a password
for the message to be approved and sent to list members. The password
can be either on the first line or the start of the Subject. If the
password is not specified then the message is sent to the list owner
who can add it and send it back. When the message is sent out to list
members the first line with the password is removed or the password
part from the Subject is removed!
Some
mail clients support the X-Approved MIME header which contains the
password. MERAK automatically checks that header. If it finds it and
the password is correct it does not check and remove the first line.
It will only remove the X-Approved header. This will even work with
HTML messages.
Beware
of "multipart/alternative" messages (HTML messages) for
first line password which contain the password in several places -
Merak will not remove all the passwords! It is recommended to use
plain text and not HTML for mailing lists.
Deny
EXPN
If
a client issues an EXPN command the list members will be returned.
Checking this option prevents this - "No such mailing list"
will be returned.
Max
Mail Size
Specifies
the maximum message size that can be sent to the mailing list.
Members
Only
Specifies
that only the members of the mailing list can send messages to the
mailing list.
Sender
of the message is the originator
This
is an advanced SMTP option. When connecting to an SMTP server the MAIL
FROM <sender> command is issued. If the <sender> is blank
some email servers reject the message. This option always ensures that
the sender is never blank.
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