Multi-Platform Mail Server

Kerio MailServer is an easy and secure way of administering e-mail without any complexities. Let us take a deeper look at it

Saturday, April 08, 2006

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Kerio MailServer 6 is an e-mail server designed primarily for small and medium-sized businesses. It provides multi-platform support as it can run on Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Server, Win XP and Linux. Kerio MailServer supports POP3 and secure POP3, IMAP 4 and secure IMAP 4, Kerio WebMail, MAPI (Messaging API). To manage users, it has an internal database, and can also integrate with Active Directory or Apple's Open Directory. Kerio claims that this server can serve up to 1000 concurrent users. Kerio MailServer is very easy to administer. It does not require a server-based OS to run. Installing this mail server is very simple. It comes with two administration interfaces: Kerio Administration Console and Kerio Web Administration. 

The prior interface gives administrators full access to all settings of Kerio MailServer where as Web Administration allows non-technical people to manage users and aliases in their domain from a browser. Unlike the full-featured console, Kerio Web Administration cannot modify anybody else's settings, and users can only change or view settings of their own domain.

Kerio MailServer provides support for Outlook. It has a plugin called Kerio Outlook Connector, which instead of connecting Outlook to Exchange Server, connects it directly to the Kerio MailServer. Technically, Kerio Outlook Connector is a MAPI provider that replaces Outlook's MAPI provider. Kerio has another plugin called Kerio Synchronization Plug-in for Outlook which is designed for notebook users who need offline access to their calendars and contacts in Outlook. It provides offline synchronization for personal contacts and calendars in Outlook but does not deal with e-mail at all. For e-mail, users must use a standard IMAP or POP3  account to store their  e-mail locally. IMAP allows mail to be stored on the server and synchronized back to the client.

All services in Kerio MailServer can be accessed with a few clicks, providing an easy and time saving job for administrators

Kerio MailServer comes with two different Web mails: Kerio WebMail and Kerio WebMail Mini. With Kerio WebMail users can view and manage e-mail, calendars, contacts and tasks over enterprise LANs as well as on the Internet. It supports browsers like IE 6.0 and Mozilla Firefox, and has all regular e-mail capabilities like mail filters, HTML editor and spell check though you might miss some of the outlook features like working in an offline mode and sync to handheld. On the other hand, Kerio WebMail Mini is designed for PDAs such as the Palm, Pocket PC and BlackBerry allowing users to access their mail from anywhere.

Security and backup
This mail server also comes with integrated McAfee anti virus, which can be configured to automatically update itself every hour. It also has plugins for external anti viruses like Grisoft AVG Email Server Edition, Symantec Scan Engine, VisNetic Antivirus, eTrust InoculateIT, NOD32 and Alwil avast! 4.0 for Kerio. When a virus is detected in a message, Kerio can also be configured to deliver a copy of original anti virus to the administrator. An attachment filter to prevent viruses is also there. It can be configured to allow or block attachments of particular formats.

Kerio MailServer comes with a wide range of features to protect e-mail against spam, viruses, etc

Kerio MailServer comes with plenty of options for spam protection. It uses SpamEiminator, which scans every incoming message for Spam. When spam is detected, it provides that message a particular rating, depending on how you have configured the spam eliminator. It can also be configured to Reject or Forward that message to the administrator if the rating exceeds a particular number.

Kerio MailServer can also block incoming messages from servers that are considered as spam servers. For this purpose, it maintains Blacklists, which uses Internet databases of blacklists like MAPS, ORDB, SpamCop etc. It also lets you create whitelists. If the sender IP address is found in this list, Kerio won't perform any blacklist lookup on that particular e-mail.

To detect spam mail that is being sent from a fake sender id, this mail server uses technologies like Microsoft's Caller ID, and an open-source technology called SPF (Sender Policy Framework). These technologies check the mail to determine whether IP addresses of the remote SMTP server are authorized to send e-mail to the domain specified.

Kerio mail server lets you import Active directory users database into Kerio's mail server database

For backup, Kerio provides options such as Email Archiving and Backup Scheduling. Email Archiving offers to archive mail either on the same server on which Kerio is running or on a remote server. It can archive all incoming and outgoing messages as well as the local and relayed messages. You can also configure it to archive messages before an anti virus check, though it can be dangerous because it will also archive the viruses if a mail has any. You have the option to archive messages every day, week or month. For taking he backups, it lets you take the complete or a differential (partial) backup. In the partial backup, it takes the backup of only newly created or changed files. The mail server can be configured to send an e-mail to the administrator each time after the backup is completed or if any problems are encountered during the backup.

Importing user from Active Directory
To import user from Active Directory, open the Kerio MailServer Console and click on Users tab under the Domain Setting. A new window will appear on the right side of the console. From here click on the Import button. A new pop-up window will appear where you can choose Active Directory from the drop down menu of the Import users tab. Now provide the domain name and server name of the Active Directory from where you want to import users. Provide the username and password of that server and click on OK.

Now Kerio MailServer will automatically import all users from Active Directory to its database.

Configuring for effective spam blocking
To enable SpamEliminator to detect spam efficiently, click on Content Filter and then open Spam Filter from there. First enable the SpamEliminator Rating. Now to define the custom rules for the SpamEliminator to detect spam, click on Add button under the Custom Rules field. In the pop-up window provide information about the fields you want SpamEliminator to check. Next choose whether you want it to block the message or just assign a spam rating and deliver it to the inbox.

Kerio comes with a large database of blacklists. In its Blacklists window just check on which blacklists you want Kerio to use. To add more blacklists to its database, click on Add under the Internet Blacklists. In the pop-up window provide the DNS suffix of the new database and description of the blacklist. Choose the action you want to perform if the IP address is found in this blacklist, click on OK to add it.

To create a whitelist for the incoming messages, click on the Blacklists tab. Then under Whitelist, click on Edit. A pop-up window will show up. Here provide the name of the address group. If you want add just one IP address, choose from the Type drop-down menu. Choose Host and assign the IP address, click on OK to add this IP address to the whitelist.

Similarly if you want to add a whole IP address range to the whitelist, choose Address range from the Type drop-down menu, provide the start and end IP addresses of the range, click on OK to add the range to the whitelist. In the same manner you can also create a custom blacklist.

 Swapnil Arora

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