Yes, you can set up ASIP mail server to send/receive mail several times a day. In brief, you can make arrangements that all outgoing mail be relayed to your ISP's mail server for delivery to its ultimate location, and that any incoming mail be delivered to your ISP's mail server until you are online and it can be delivered to you.
Important: In this scenario, you will want the ASIP mail server to have connectivity to two separate IP network segments:
- Your local area network, so that users can exchange mail with the ASIP Mail server
- Your PPP connection, so that the mail server can exchange mail with other mail servers on the Internet.
To do this, you will need some type of router or gateway, such as Vicom Internet Gateway. This allows the server to connect via a PPP connection, yet maintain a connection (by mirroring a port), to your private IP network. Without such a router or gateway, your users will not be able to send/receive mail from the server if it is set to use the PPP port for all TCP/IP connections.
Setting up ETRN to retrieve mail from your Internet Service Provider
ETRN (extended turn) command uses a mechanism to define extensions to the SMTP service whereby a client may request that the server start the processing of its mail queues for messages that are waiting at the server for the client machine. If any messages are at the server for the client, then the server should create a new SMTP session and send the messages at that time.
1. Verify with your ISP that they can support ETRN requests.
2. Ask your ISP to set up a "backup" mail server for your domain name, example: "acme.com". They will need to modify the MX-List for "acme.com", to list their own mail server as a mail exchanger for acme.com.
3. Ask the ISP for the name of the mail server they have specified as a backup for your mail server (For the purposes of this example we will call that mail server "mail.myisp.com".)
4. Open ASIP Mail Admin and start the Mail Server program.
5. After both are up and running, open the host list window in Mail Admin.
6. Choose "Show Host List" from the Server menu.
7. Click the Create New Host button in the host list window.
8. When the "name" dialog box opens, enter the name of your ISP's mail server --"mail.myisp.com".
9. When this entry shows up in the list, select it and click the Edit Host button in the Host List window.
10. In the Edit Hosts Window for the ISP mail server, click the Schedule Tab.
11. Choose Set Allowed Connection Times from the pop-up menu.
12. Set up a schedule of allowed connection times on the 7-day, 24-hour panel. Green means allowed to connect at that time, gray means do not connect at that time.
13. Click the Remote Mail Polling (ETRN) checkbox in the lower right hand corner. This will allow the ASIP 6.0 Mail Server to poll your ISP's mail server during allowed connection times and ask it to download any mail waiting for your domain name.
Forwarding all your remote mail through one SMTP mail server.
When running with a dialup connection, it is sometimes useful to have all your outgoing mail sent to one SMTP mail server so that your AppleShare IP mail server doesn't waste time sending mail to various mail servers all over the Internet (which may be down or unreachable at the time your server is connected). Forwarding all your mail to another SMTP mail server with a timed Internet connection is a method of off-loading mail delivery to another server that has the bandwidth and the time to complete the message delivery process.
1. Open Mail Admin with the ASIP Mail Server running
2. Choose Mail Server Settings from the Server menu.
3. Click the Mail Out Tab.
4. Click the Relay all SMTP mail via checkbox
5. In the text field next to the check box enter the name of your ISP's mail server.
6. Click Save and close the window.
All outgoing mail will now be forwarded to the designated SMTP mail server to complete the delivery process. Setting this option has no effect on mail that is being delivered to your local users, it will only affect mail that has to be delivered to other mail servers.
Set Up the AppleShare IP Mail Server
Set Up the AppleShare IP Mail Server with its name for aliases or private IP networks (such as with the Vicom Gateway or other PPP dialup IP gateways).
1. Open Mail Admin with the ASIP Mail Server running
2. Determine the domain name(s) that your ISP has registered for your company or mail server. These are the name(s) other people will use to send you mail.
3. Open the Host List window in Mail Admin.
4. Click the New Host button in the Host List window.
5. Enter the domain name of your mail server.
6. Select the host you just created when it appears in the list.
7. Click the Edit Host button.
8. Click the mail-out tab.
9. Click the Relay all SMTP mail via checkbox.
10. Enter the private-IP address of your ASIP mail server in the text box.
11. Click Save.
12. Repeat starting at step 4 for each additional name you want your mail server to know about.
Setup a default schedule for all outgoing mail
1. Open Mail Admin with the ASIP Mail Server running.
2. Open the Host List window in Mail Admin.
3. Choose Edit Default Host Profile from the Server menu.
4. Click each of the four tabs Mail In, Mail Out, Schedule, and Network.
5. Make sure all settings are the way you want them for all outgoing mail. In particular, make sure to set up the schedule that you want mail to be sent with.
6. Click Save.
Note: Do NOT click the Remote Mail Polling feature for Default hosts, you only need to enable this feature for a single host, not all of them.
Now any time your users send mail to any other Internet mail server, the outgoing mail will wait until an allowed connection time to be sent. Using this in combination with the global server setting to relay all outgoing mail via one server is a powerful combination. ASIP mail server holds all your outgoing mail until an allowed connection time, and then all the mail is sent to one SMTP server at once.