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Contents
NTmail Dialup Gateway Service

Contents

What is it?

Concepts

Installing the Gateway

Configuring the Gateway with the Control Panel Applet

Command line options

Using with Windows 95

Pattern matching syntax

Registering

Support and Reporting Problems

Warranty

Using this help file

For further information on this product email sales@net-shopper.co.uk. The author may be contacted by email to ntmdgsvc@swsoft.co.uk. The latest version will always be available from ftp://ftp.swsoft.co.uk/ntmdgsvc.

NTmail Dialup Gateway Service is copyright © 1996 7th Wave Software Ltd


What is it?

NTmail Dialup Gateway Service is a Windows NT system service which gives a powerful and flexible system designed to greatly simplify the implementation of Internet email in a Windows NT environment where there is only an intermittent dialup link to the Internet.

It offers email collection from POP accounts, scheduling, RAS dialling and intelligent routing of collected messages and sending of pending outgoing messages during a connection is also supported. It is multithreaded for best performance and has many options for the logging of its actions.

Although designed for Windows NT it will run on Windows 95 with a few minor limitations.

It has been designed to integrate with Internet Shopper Ltd's NTmail NT POP/SMTP server system but is flexible enough to be used with other POP and SMTP servers running under NT or other operating systems elsewhere on a LAN or WAN.


Concepts

Before you can successfully use the gateway service you need to know the principles behind how it works. There are three key sets of information that the gateway uses, these are the Collection list, the Schedules list and the Delivery Rules list.

Collection list

The collection list is a list of POP account details, you may tell the service about as many accounts as you wish. For each account you need to define the mailserver running the pop accounts, the account name and the account password. For details of how to enter POP accounts into the collection list see the Collection Configuration Page of the this help file.

Schedules list

The schedules list consists of one or more scheduled collection jobs, each collection job has flexible settings for when to trigger collection, which POP accounts to collect when triggered and the option to run custom commands during key stages of the collection process.

If RAS is installed you can also configure RAS to establish a link to a remote site at the start of the collection process and remove the link at the end.

If you are running Internet Shopper Ltd's NTmail on the system then you can set options to get NTmail to send all mail pending in its out queue during the collection process and wait for this send procedure to complete. If you receive incoming mail with the SMTP protocol you can also set options to wait for the SMTP reception process to become idle.

For details of how to enter and configure schedules see the Schedule Configuration Page section of the this help file.

For details of what happens when a schedule triggers see the What happens when a schedule triggers section of this help file.

Delivery Rules list

The delivery rules list is a list of rules which control how the messages collected from the pop accounts are forwarded on using the SMTP protocol. Each message collected during any schedule is passed through the list of delivery rules. From this process a list of where and to whom the message needs forwarding is built up and subsequently used to control the forwarding of the message. For details of how to enter and configure delivery rules see the Delivery Rule Configuration Page and How Delivery Rules Work sections of this help file.


What happens when a Schedule triggers

When running the service triggers off a collection sequence as indicated by each schedule list entries 'When' settings. Each sequence is run on its own thread and you can configure things so that more than one collection session run concurrently if required. The only issue with doing this is making sure that there is no clash of access to RAS. If you have two RAS ports you could configure the service to collect email from two different dialup sites at the same time. As a scheduled session runs its thread will go through the following steps:-

•	If RAS enabled run pre-ras custom command.

•	If RAS enabled attempt to dial using schedule RAS settings.

•	If RAS dial fails abort session.

•	Run the pre-collection custom command.

•	If the pre-collection NTmail post kick is enabled attempt to kick NTmail.

•	Add all the schedule's POP collections to the global queue of waiting POP collection requests.

•	Wait for completion of all queued collection requests by the POP Collection Threads.

•	If the post-collection NTmail post kick is enabled attempt to kick NTmail.

•	Run the post-collection custom command if present.

•	If NTmail smtp wait enabled wait required time and for NTmail smtp service to signal its idle.

•	If RAS enabled disconnect connection established above.

•	If RAS enabled run the post-ras custom command.


POP Collection Threads

Each idle POP collection thread monitors the global POP collection request queue and when a request is pending, removes the request and starts to process it as follows:-

•	Connect to the pop server specified in the request and collect any waiting messages, spooling the text into temporary message files in the spool directory.

•	For each message collected build a delivery list by applying all the delivery rules to the message header.

•	Add the delivery list and message filename to the queue of pending delivery requests.

•	Wait for all delivery requests queued by the above steps to be completed by the SMTP Delivery Threads.

•	Signal that the POP collection request has completed.

•	Return to monitoring the POP collection request queue for collections to undertake.


SMTP Delivery Threads

Each idle SMTP delivery thread monitors the global SMTP delivery queue and when a request is pending it will remove the request from the queue and start to process it. The request may contain a number of SMTP servers that the message needs to be forwarded to and one or more recipients on each SMTP server. Each SMTP server is contacted in sequence, the recipient list sent and the message text spooled from the temporary file created by the POP collection process.

When the message has been forwarded to all servers the thread checks the 'Keep Spool Files' setting and if zero deletes the temporary file. If any of the deliveries for the message fail then the temporary file will not be deleted.

Finally the thread signals the delivery request has been completed and returns to monitoring the SMTP delivery request queue for further deliveries to undertake.


Installing the Gateway

The software is distributed as a zipped archive which you will have to expand with pkunzip. Having done this you will have the following files:-

readme.txt	general notes and installation guide

ntmdgsvc.exe	main service executable

ntmdgset.cpl	control panel configuration applet

ctl3d32.w95	3d dialog effects dll for Windows 95

ctl3d32.wnt	3d dialog effects dll Windows NT

ntmdgsvc.hlp	windows help file

changes.txt	changes history file

install.bat	installation batch script

Installing for Windows NT

Important. Windows NT installation needs to be done from a Windows NT account with Administrator privileges.

Run the install.bat file, this will copy all the files into the correct places and install the gateway as a system service. You should copy ctl3d32.wnt to %systemroot%\system32\ctl3d32.dll if you do not already have ctl3d32.dll installed or the supplied ctl3d32.wnt is newer than the ctl3d32.dll present on your system.

Installing for Windows '95

Again run the install.bat file, this will copy all the files into the correct place. Similarly you should copy ctl3d32.w95 to %winbootdir%\system\ctl3d32.dll if you do not already have a copy or the one supplied ctl3d32.w95 is newer than the ctl3d32.dll present on your system.

Entering the Activation Key

You will need a key to get the service fully running. There are several ways of getting a key:-

•	A one month, trial key may be found on the page http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/key.htm

•	You can apply for a key by completing a form at http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/apply.htm. You will usually get the key emailed to you within 24 hours.

•	If you used FTP to obtain this file, you may find a "license.txt" file which should have a key in it.

•	Send a request to sales@net-shopper.co.uk

Having obtained a key and installed the service you can enter your key in one of two ways. From the command line enter the command:-

ntmdgsvc -key <key>

where <key> is the activation key obtained as outlined.

Alternatively you can open the control panel 'Email Gateway' applet, select the Key Page and type it in here. When entered click the enter button to install the key.

Without a valid key the gateway service will have some features disabled, the schedules will not automatically trigger although can still be run automatically and any messages that are collected will have an 'unregistered' warning inserted into them.


Using the Control Panel Applet

The control panel applet offers configuration of all of the gateway service facilities. With the software installed running the control panel will include the Email Gateway icon which can be double clicked on to open up the gateway service configuration dialog. Select the various configuration pages by clicking on the tabs at the top of the dialog.

Configuration options

Collection Configuration Page

Scheduling Configuration Page

Delivery Rules Configuration Page

Logging Configuration Page

General Configuration Page

Key Entry Page

About Page


Collection Configuration Page

The Collection configuration page of the control panel applet

The collection configuration page allows you to define all the pop accounts that may be used in scheduled email collection sessions. You can Add, Edit or Delete entries from the list using the buttons to the right. Select entries from the list to Edit or Delete by clicking on them. You can double click on an entry in the list to Edit it.


Scheduling Configuration Page

The Scheduling configuration page

The scheduling page allows the configuration of schedules. A schedule controls when, what and how email is collected. Schedules can be Added, Edited or Deleted from this page. A schedule can also be triggered to run immediately with the Go Now button.


Delivery Rules Configuration Page
Delivery Rules Configuration Page	How Delivery Rules Work

The Delivery configuration page

The delivery rules page allows configuration of delivery rules. Delivery rules control how collected email is distributed and at least one rule is required before collected email will be forwarded. Rules can be Added, Edited or Deleted from this page. The order of rules can also be altered, rules are used in the order they appear in the list. For a more detailed discussion of delivery rules see the How Delivery Rules Work section of the help file.


Logging Configuration Page

The Logging configuration page

The logging page allows control over what information is logged during the running of the gateway service. Information can be logged to the Windows NT Event Log and/or to ASCII log files.

To enable logging of particular types of event simply check the relevant checkbox in the section for the required log type.

There are more options for file logging as some of the information the extra options produce is too verbose for the Windows NT event log. To use the file logging options you need to set the path to here the log files will be generated. A new file will be started for each day that the service is running. The files will be produced into the file logging directory as configured with this pages Path: setting, with names of the form dgyymmdd.log


General Configuration Page

The General configuration page

The general configuration page contains all the general system wide options for the service. This includes the retry options for socket and RAS failures, worker thread counts for the collection and delivery operations and how long to keep the temporary message spool files.

The retry settings control the number of retries made after failure to connect and the interval in seconds between the retries.

The thread settings control the number of worker threads available for POP collection and SMTP delivery of messages. Each setting controls the maximum number of concurrent POP collections and SMTP deliveries that can be occurring simultaneously. If you only collect from a single POP account there is no need for more than one POP thread. Depending on the rules you have and the SMTP server(s) your forwarding email to you may get improved delivery rates with higher thread counts.

NB. Changes to the thread settings will not take effect until the service is restarted. All other settings take effect as soon as the control panel applet is closed.


Key Entry Page

The Key Entry page

The Key Entry page allows the entry of an activation key. To enter your key type it exactly as supplied into the Key: entry field and then click on the Enter button. The key will be validated and if all is well installed into your system registry. A confirmation dialog will be displayed indicating the key status.

For information about obtaining full or trial activation keys see the Registering section of this help file.


About  Page

The About page

The About page gives version and contact information for the product.


Schedule When Configuration Page

The schedule When configuration page

The when page allows configuration of the times that the schedule will trigger. If one schedule can't be configured to give the collection timings you want use more than one. For example, one schedule could collect hourly between 8am and 6pm and another two schedules could be set up to collect between midnight and 8am and 6pm and midnight at a lower frequency.


Schedule What Configuration Page

The schedule What configuration page

The what page allows selection of the POP accounts that email will be collected from when the schedule triggers. Clicking on the Add button to select accounts to be included in the collection list.

To remove an item from the list select it in the list and then click on the Remove button.

If you have more than one entry they will be considered for collection in parallel using the available POP collection threads as set on the General Configuration Page.


Schedule RAS Configuration Page

The schedule RAS configuration page

The Ras configuration page enables configuration of Ras dialling for the schedule. It requires that Ras has been installed on your system, if it is not present the page will not appear on the dialog.

Before you can use the Ras options you need to configure one or more suitable entries in your Ras phonebook and check they establish the required links. Under Windows NT Ras dialler application in the Remote Access Service folder of program manager will allow you to create and test Ras entries.

With entries in the Ras phonebook the Ras Entry combobox will list each entry by name along with <disabled>. Select the entry you want to be used for dialling (or disabled if no dialling required) and Ras will attempt to dial that entry when the schedule is triggered using the settings from this configuration page. Some of the options on this page only apply to Windows NT and will be disabled if running on Windows 95.


Schedule Custom Configuration Page

The schedule Custom configuration page

The settings on this page allow complex customisation of a schedules collection process.

At four key stages custom commands can be set-up to execute with the collection process optionally waiting for the custom command to complete before proceeding further with the collection.

The custom commands can be applications or batch scripts, any program or script can be used so long as it will run to completion without user intervention. The custom commands run hidden from the user desktop and so no user input can be given.

The four stages are Pre Ras Dial, this command is run just prior to the service initiating a Ras dial for the schedule. The command is not run if Ras dialling is not enabled for the schedule. Pre Collection, this command is run just prior to the pop collection request(s) being queued for processing. Post Collection, this command is run immediately after all collection and delivery for the schedule has completed. Post Ras Dial, this command is run after Ras has disconnected. Again, this Ras command will only execute if Ras dialling is enabled.

Be aware that the commands will run with the security rights of the account the gateway service is running under. By default this will be the system account. If you have problems with commands not working when launched by the gateway service that do if run interactively this security issue should be the first thing to check.


Schedule NTmail Configuration Page

The schedule NTmail configuration page

The settings on this page are only relevant if the NTmail system is running on the same system as the gateway service. If this is the case then the options allow the NTmail POST service to be 'kicked' before the POP collection process and again after the collection and delivery has been completed. You can also make the gateway wait for the NTmail STMP service to signal that its idle and set a minimum active time for the schedule when in this mode. This latter feature is for use with dialup links to Internet providers who deliver mail to their clients using the SMTP protocol. When a connection is established any waiting email will start to come in and the gateway will wait for this to cease before completing the schedule.

The settings show above are recommended as pre-collection the POST service is 'kicked' to process its pending out queue but the gateway service does not wait for it to complete and gets straight on with collection. The post collection 'kick' is done in case there is bounced mail or other messages needing to be sent out as a result of delivery of any collected messages. For the post collection 'kick' the 'Wait For Completion' option is checked so that the gateway service waits for POST to complete before continuing, disconnecting RAS and completing the schedule job.

If you are not using RAS with the schedule you may want to disable the wait option for the post collection 'kick'.


Pop Account Add/Edit Dialog

The Pop Account Add/Edit dialog

The dialog allows the entry or editing of POP account details stored in the collection list. Enter the pop server address, username and password for the account.


Pop Account Selection Dialog

The Pop Account Selection dialog

The dialog allows the selection of pop accounts for a schedule collection list. To add pop servers to the schedule select them in the dialog and click Add. As a shortcut you can double click directly on a list item to add it.


Delivery Rule Configuration Dialog
Delivery Rule Configuration Dialog	How Delivery Rules Work

The Delivery Rule configuration dialog

The delivery rule dialog allows the configuration of a delivery rule. Delivery rules control how collected messages are delivered. See the How Delivery Rules Work section of this help file for details of the delivery rule system.


How Delivery Rules Work
How Delivery Rules Work 	Delivery Rule Configuration Dialog

The delivery rule system can take a little understanding. The delivery rules list consists of one or more rules which are global to the gateway. Each message collected is checked against each rule in turn and for those rules which the message matches the rule criteria, a copy of the message is forwarded as indicated by the rule that matched.

There are two types of rule, normal and default. A messages are only checked against the default rules if the message didn't match the criteria of any of the normal rules. Rules are checked against each message in the order that they appear on the Delivery Page. Both normal and default rules appear in the same list and so the list is checked in two passes, first skipping the default rules, and then if necessary, again skipping the normal rules.

Each rule has a Stop if Delivery setting, when enabled checking of rules stops when a rule results in a message delivery. If rules don't have this option enabled and more than one rule match the message, each rule will result in deliveries of the message as the rule indicates taking place.

The criteria of each rule consists of pattern match strings for pop account the message was collected from, a pattern match string for the header fields of the message and a pattern match string for the contents of a matched header field. The pattern match strings allow powerful conditions to be set up in a rule, for example a pop account pattern string of *@mailgate.ftech.net would match on any messages collected from any pop account on the pop server mailgate.ftech.net.

The pattern string for matching the contents of a header field is used to extract email addresses for the delivery stage. So a setting of *@swsoft.co.uk would create a list of all the addresses in the field that matched the pattern.

When a rule has matched a message and extracted at least one delivery address then the message is processed for delivery. The delivery settings of a rule give three options, the message can be delivered to the first matching addressee, to all matching addressees or the extracted address(es) can be mapped to a new address. In the latter case the rule can either have a setting giving a complete address such as ntmdgsvc@swsoft.co.uk in which one copy of the message will be addressed to ntmdgsvc@swsoft.co.uk or a domain name which results in the addresses being mapped into the new domain. For example if the setting was swsoft.co.uk then an address mark@swsoft.ftech.co.uk would be mapped to mark@swsoft.co.uk. The rule also has a SMTP server setting, this is the server that receives deliveries for the rule.

The final setting of a rule is the Filter messages with duplicate message-Id's setting. With this option enabled the rule keeps a list of all the message Id's that it processes and if a message is re-presented to the rule it will be discarded. The message-Id's are stored for three days and are saved to disk if the service is stopped and reloaded at start time. For the purposes of the Stop if Delivery setting, a filtered message is considered delivered.


Command Line Options

You can issue a number of commands using the ntmdgsvc program at the command prompt. The following commands are supported:-

ntmdgsvc -install

Installs ntmdgsvc as a Windows NT system service. This command will fail if used on Windows 95

ntmdgsvc -remove

Removes ntmdgsvc from the Windows NT system service list. This command will fail if used on Windows 95

ntmdgsvc -start

Starts the ntmdgsvc if not already running. This command will fail if used on Windows 95.

ntmdgsvc -stop

Stops the ntmdgsvc if running as a Windows NT system service. This command will fail if used on Windows 95.

ntmdgsvc -config

Dumps the current registry configuration for the service to the standard output. You can redirect this output into a file if required.

ntmdgsvc -go "<schedule entry name>"

Trigger the schedule to start immediately, once the schedule has been triggered the ntmdgsvc command terminates. Use the name that appears in the Scheduling Configuration Page of the control panel configuration dialog.

ntmdgsvc -wait "<schedule entry name>"

Trigger the schedule to start immediately as with the -go option but wait for the schedule process to complete. Use the name that appears in the Scheduling Configuration Page of the control panel configuration dialog.

ntmdgsvc -console

This causes the program to start and initialise but lets it know that its running from a console and not to behave as a Windows NT system service.

ntmdgsvc -help

Displays help information on the ntmdgsvc command line options.

ntmdgsvc -winhelp

Launches winhelp with the ntmdgsvc help file.

ntmdgsvc -key <registration or trial key>

Verifies and registers the given key.

ntmdgsvc

If running on Windows 95 you can only run ntmdgsvc as a console application as Windows 95 doesn't support system services. ntmdgsvc will detect that its running on Windows 95 and disable the system service code without the need to use the -console option.


Using with Windows 95

ntmdgsvc will work running on Windows 95 with the only limitation being that the advance RAS configuration options for Modem Speaker, Software Compression and prefix/suffix numbers are not available. Also the NTmail integration options will not work as at the time of writing NTmail cannot run on Windows 95. It is expected that a Windows 95 version of NTmail will be released and when this becomes available the integration options will be available.

When executed on Windows 95 ntmdgsvc will detect the operating system and disable its system service support code. It will then continue to run as a standard console application, in the same way as if the -console option had been specified.

The ntmdgset.cpl control panel applet will appear in the Windows 95 control panel object automatically once its been copied to the Windows 95 system directory.


Registering

To evaluate this product you should obtain a trial key from which will fully enable the product for a calendar month. Without a key the program will function correctly but each mail message that passes through the gateway will have a registration request inserted into it.

Trial keys can be obtained by the following methods:-

•	A one month, trial key may be found on the page http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/key.htm

•	You can apply for a key by completing a form at http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/apply.htm. You will usually get the key emailed to you within 24 hours.

•	If you used FTP to obtain this file, you may find a "license.txt" file which should have a key in it.

•	Send a request to sales@net-shopper.co.uk

If you find this product useful you should purchase a full registration key from Internet Shopper Ltd. For information on registering and current pricing of Internet Shopper Ltd products see the page http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/reg.htm. To register the product complete the form on the page http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/apply.htm, email sales@net-shopper.co.uk or write to Internet Shopper Ltd, PO Box 6064, London, SW12 9XG, UK.


Warranty

This Program is provided "as is". 7th Wave Software Ltd. (SWSL) and Internet Shopper Ltd (ISL) warrants that the Program will substantially comply with the specifications set out in the documentation. Except as stated herein this Program is provided, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, statutory or otherwise, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Program is with you. Should the Program prove defective, you assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction. SWSL does not warrant that the functions contained in the Program will meet your requirements or that the operation of the Program will be uninterrupted or error-free.

SWSL´S AND ISL'S SOLE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM, DEMAND OR CAUSE OR ACTION WHATSOEVER, AND REGARDLESS OF FORM OF ACTION, WHETHER IN CONTRACT OR TORT, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL BE LIMITED, AT SWSL´S AND ISL'S SOLE OPTION, TO REPLACEMENT OF THE PROGRAM OR REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SWSL OR ISL BE LIABLE FOR OR YOU HAVE A REMEDY FOR RECOVERY OF ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF ISL HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, LOST REVENUES OR ECONOMIC LOSS OF ANY KIND, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY THIRD PARTY.

All trademarks are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners.


Support and Reporting problems

We strongly recommend that you join the NTMAIL-UPDATE mail list so that you receive details of updates to this software.  To join this list, send an email message to list@net-shopper.co.uk with the body "join ntmail-update" and you will receive conformation of being added.

In addition you may like to join the discussion forum for the NTMail product range by sending a message to list@net-shopper.co.uk with the body "join ntmail-discuss" or "digest ntmail-discuss".  You will receive conformation that you have been added.

If you have any problems with this product, please check out the WWW pages at

http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/index.htm

and

http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/ntmail/faq.htm

If there is still no resolution to your problem, please contact:

ntmail-support@net-shopper.co.uk

When reporting problems to ntmail-support please include as much information as you can with the problem report. The most useful is to generate a configuration dump which will show us exactly how you have the gateway set up. To do this use the following command:-

ntmdgsvc -config >config.txt

This will save the configuration into the file config.txt, you can of course use a different file name. Also, use the file logging facilities of the Logging Configuration Page to log as much information as you think will be relevant and include the log file and config.txt in your problem report.


Regular expression syntax
Pattern matching syntax

The pattern matching system used in delivery rules supports the following syntax.

?	Matches any single character.

*	Matches zero or more characters.

[ ]	Matches any single character that appears within the square brackets. For example, [0123456789] will match any single decimal digit. The characters can be specified as a range: [0-9] has the same meaning as the previous example.

[^ ]	Matches any single character that does not appear within the square brackets. For example, [^abc] will match any single character except 'a', 'b' and 'c'.

\	Matches the following character literally. For example, \* will match a single asterisk and \\ will match a single backslash.

Any other character matches itself. Case is ignored.


The Title field of a rule is for the user to give it a meaningful name. This is what will appear on the Delivery Configuration Page. for the rule.


The Rule enabled check box controls whether the rule is active. This allows rules to be entered but disabled so that they have no effect. Simply enable this checkbox when you want the rule to become active.


There are two types of rule,  normal and default. When checking rules the gateway first applies the normal rules to a message and only if non of the normal rules result in a delivery will it then checks the default rules. In both cases rules are checked in the order they appear on the Delivery Configuration Page. To make a rule a default rule check this box.


When this feature is enabled if the rule results in a delivery of the message being processed then no further rules will be examined. If the feature is disabled after delivering the message as indicated by the rule, the gateway continues through the rules list looking for more matches.


When messages are checked against a rule, the pop account that the message was collected from is compared against this pattern match string. The pop account represented in the form <user>@<popserver> has to match the pattern string for the rule to be used on the message. You can use wildcarding in the pattern string so that a rule can apply to multiple pop accounts. For example, *@mail.ftech.net would make the rule apply to messages collected from any pop account on the mail.ftech.net server. The combo box lists all the known pop accounts as set up on the Collection Configuration Page.


Messages that are checked against the rule and pass the pop account pattern match are then searched for the header field specified by the If header field setting. The value entered should generally be a header field followed by *, for example To:*, but doesn't have to be. You could search the header for a particular phrase or keyword using an entry like *a keyword*. The combo box lists the most commonly used header pattern match strings.


If the pop pattern string and the header field pattern string both produce matches on a message then the rule looks for addresses in the matched header field that comply with the pattern string entered in the has addressee(s) matching setting. Addresses that are found that match are added to a list of possible delivery addresses for the message and rule combination.


If the First addressee of field delivery option is selected then the first address that matched the has addressee(s) matching setting is used as a delivery address for the message and added to the messages delivery list.


If the All matching addresses in field delivery option is selected then all the addresses matched the has addressee(s) matching setting are used as delivery addresses for the message.


If the To delivery option is selected then the value entered here is used to control the delivery addresses for the message. The setting can be either a full email address or a mail domain only. If the former then the entered email address is used as the single delivery address regardless of how many addresses where found in the earlier stages of the rule processing. If a mail domain is specified, then each delivery address found in the rule processing has its mail domain replaced with the To setting and these new address(es) are added to the delivery list. For example if the To setting was swsoft.co.uk and a delivery address had been determined of mark@swsoft.ftech.co.uk then the actual delivery address used would be mark@swsoft.co.uk.


The Using SMTP server setting specified the smtp server to deliver copies of a message that meet all the rules criteria to. The message has all the delivery addresses determined by the rule added to its overall delivery list to be sent to the entered smtp server. As more than one rule may result in this behaviour then copies of a message may end up being sent to multiple addresses on multiple smtp mail servers.

The server address may be specified as an IP address in the form x.x.x.x or as a name such as mailgate.ftech.net.


If the duplicates filter is enabled, the rule keeps track of the value of each messages Message-Id: header field. This information is then used to check for a message being processed more than once by the rule. If this is detected the rule does not deliver duplicate copies of the message. If a message is flagged as duplicate but the rule would have resulted in a delivery then for the purposes of the 'Stop on delivery' setting the message is considered delivered.

The message id's are remembered for 3 days from the time of the first occurrence and are saved into the spool directory as dupnnnnn.dat files if the gateway service is stopped so that they can be reloaded when it is next started.


Opens up this help document on this page.


This button will be enabled if you can abandon your edits to the dialog. Clicking the Cancel button will close the dialog and abandon any alterations you may have made.


This button will either show OK or Close depending on whether you have an option to use the cancel button. Click this button to close the dialog and commit your changes.


If there have been changes made the need saving this button will be enabled. Click to apply the changes you've made without closing the dialog.


Click this button to make the selected schedule start.


The Delete button will remove the selected schedule. You will be given an opportunity to abort the operation.


The Delete button will remove the selected pop account. You will be given an opportunity to abort the operation.


The help file make extensive use of bitmap images of program screens which may be clicked on with the mouse to find out information about features of the screen.


The list shows all the POP accounts known to the gateway. Click on items in the list to select them for editing or deletion. Double click on an entry to go straight into the editor dialog.


Enter the address of the POP server that the entry is for. You may enter a name such as mailgate.ftech.net or an IP address such as 193.133.17.80. The combo box lists the most recently entered servers.


Enter the account name that the entry is for.


Enter the password for the account the entry is for.


Click OK to close the dialog and commit your edits.


Click Cancel to close the dialog abandoning your edits.


Click Add to add selected accounts to the schedule What configuration page.


Enter a program or batch file to be run at the start of a schedule prior to RAS dialling. The command will not be run if RAS dialling is disabled for the schedule.


Select the accounts you want to add to the schedule What configuration page from this list. You can double click an entry to add it immediately.


Enter a program or batch file to be run prior to collecting messages from pop accounts.


Enter a program or batch file to be run after collecting messages from pop accounts.


Enter a program or batch file to be run after RAS has disconnected. The command will not be run if RAS dialling is diabled for the schedule.


Check this box if you want the schedule to wait for the command to complete before continuing to the next stage of the schedule.


Check this box to have the schedule tell the NTmail POST service to start sending waiting outgoing messages prior to starting pop message collection.


Check this box if you want the schedule to wait for the NTmail POST service to signal it has completed sending outgoing messages before starting the pop message collection.


Check this box to have the schedule tell the NTmail POST service to start sending waiting outgoing message after pop message collection has been completed.


Check this box if you want the schedule to wait for the NTmail POST service to signal it has completed sending outgoing messages before completing the schedule.


Check this box if you want the schedule to wait for the NTmail SMTP service to signal that it is idle before completing the schedule.


When Wait for SMTP is checked use this setting to control the minimum schedule activity time. After all other collection activity has ceased the schedule will wait until the schedule active time has exceeded this setting before starting to wait for the SMTP service.


This is the username Ras will use for authentication when it connects. If you are using a Ras connection script with the username coded in the script you won't need to use this field.


This is the password Ras will use for authentication when it connects. If you are using a Ras connection script with the password coded in the script you won't need to use this field.


If this field is non-blank the entered string will override the phone number in the phonebook entry. Leave it blank if you want to use the number stored in the phonebook.


This field is only relevant if connecting to a Windows NT Server system or network where you need to authenticate using a domain account. If this is the case enter the name of the domain in which the account giving you Ras access exists.


If this checkbox is enabled then the Ras dialler pre and postfix numbers (if any) are used as part of the number dialled. This is a Windows NT only feature.


The software compression setting can be in one of 3 states, default, on or off. If default the Ras default setting is used, if on software compression is enabled and if off it is disabled. This is a Windows NT only feature.


The Speaker setting can be in one of 3 states, default, on or off. If default the Ras default modem speaker setting is used, if on the modem speaker is enabled and if off it is disabled. This is a Windows NT only feature.


Select the Ras phonebook entry the schedule should dial or <disabled> if Ras dialling is not required. The combo box will list all available Ras connections.


Click the Remove button to remove the selected pop account from the list.


List of pop account that the schedule will collect email from. Click Add to add entries to the list. Select entries and click Remove to remove entries from the list.


The Title field allows you to enter a descriptive string for the schedule. It will appear in the list of schedules on the Scheduling Configuration Page.


If the Enabled checkbox is unchecked the schedule will be disabled. This allows schedules to be switched off for periods without having to delete them from the list.


The Days of Week checkboxes control which days of the week the schedule is active on. If a checkbox is checked then the schedule will be active on that day, if unchecked it will not trigger on that day of the week.


The Starting At setting is the time in hours and minutes that the schedule will first trigger on the enabled days.


The Until setting is the time in hours and minutes that the schedule becomes inactive on the enabled days.


The Every setting controls how often the schedule will trigger between the start and stop times on the enabled days.


When enabled this option logs errors to the application section of the NT event log.


When enabled this option logs warnings to the application section of the NT event log.


When enabled this option logs informational events to the application section of the NT event log.


When enabled this option logs gateway service start and stop events to the application section of the NT event log.


When enabled this option logs message collection events to the application section of the NT event log.


When enabled this option logs message delivery events to the application section of the NT event log.


When enabled this option logs errors to the days log file.


When enabled this option logs warnings to the days log file.


When enabled this option logs informational events to the days log file.


When enabled this option logs gateway service start and stop events to the days log file.


When enabled this option logs message collection events to the days log file.


When enabled this option logs message delivery events to the days log file.


When enabled this option logs full smtp protocol exchanges the days log file. Note that this option can result in large log files.


When enabled this option logs full pop protocol exchanges the days log file. Note that this option can result in large log files.


When enabled this option logs debug information which may be useful for the developers when resolving problems.


Enter the path to the directory the log files should be created in. Files will be created in this directory on a daily basis with the name format of dgyymmdd.log.


Sets the number of retry attempts that will be made to connect to pop servers.


Sets the number of retry attempts that will be made to connect to smtp servers.


Sets the number of retry attempts that will be made to make a RAS connection.


Sets the time between retry attempts for the particular operation.


Sets the number of POP threads running. This controls how many POP accounts the service can collect messages from simultaneously.


Sets the number of SMTP threads running. This controls how many SMTP deliveries the service can make simultaneously.


This setting controls how long POP spool files are kept in the spool directory. A setting of -1 means never delete, a setting of zero means delete as soon as delivered. Any other value is the number of days that the spool files will remain in the spool directory before being automatically tidied.


Sets the spool directory. The directory should exist and is where all collected POP messages are spooled to await forwarding by SMTP delivery.


This list shows all the schedules currently entered into the gateway. Select one and click Edit, Delete or Go Now to edit, delete or run a schedule. You can double click an entry to go straight into the edit dialog.


The Delete button will remove the selected delivery rule. You will be given an opportunity to abort the operation.


Delivery rules are applied in the order they appear in this list, first for normal rules and secondly for default rules. The Up and Down buttons can be used to re-arrange the rules in the list. Select a rule and click Up or Down.


The list shows all the delivery rules set up in the gateway. Select a rule and use the buttons to the right to change the list as required. Double click a rule to go straight into the Rule Edit Dialog.


A dummy line!