Mail Server (Mailsrv) allows you to configure a computer running Windows NT Server as an electronic mail (e-mail) provider for intranet or Internet users. With Mail Server installed, the computer can connect directly to the Internet to send and receive e-mail and provide user postoffice services.

This utility is a basic SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) and POP3 (Post Office Protocol) service for Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server. It supports Internet-based mail clients including the Windows NT Inbox, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Mail, among others. The Mail Server e-mail service, however, is completely separate from the electronic messaging and groupware services of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Mail.

The intermediate files required by Mail Server and mailboxes are all spooled on the Windows NT server that is running the service. They can be accessed through a public-domain or commercial POP3 client. Mail Server automatically creates a mail folder with secured permissions the first time a user's account receives mail or the first time the user checks his or her mail via a POP client.

Caution: Windows NT security provides a high level of security both for individual users and Windows NT-based networks. However, Mail Server supports only the clear text password authentication of POP3 and does not support the APOP command. In other words, clear text passwords are sent over the network in readable (clear) format and are not encrypted. If network security is a concern, administrators should use caution when using the Microsoft Mail Server utility. The potential for malicious tampering with Internet communications should be considered before using Microsoft Mail Server.

Because Mail Server is integrated with the local account database, it must be installed on a local NTFS (Windows NT File System) drive. Installation will fail if you attempt to use a network or non-NTFS drive for your spool directory.

Mailsrv installation requirements:

• The spool directory must be on a local drive.
• This local drive must be formatted NTFS.
• The NT system should be installed on a NTFS drive.

Installing Mail Server creates the following services:

• SMTP Server. Responsible for receiving/sending SMTP mail.
• POP3 Server. Responsible for POP2/POP3 clients and requests.
• Local Mail Delivery Agent. Responsible for delivery of local mail.
• Eudora Password Change Server. Responsible for Eudora password change requests.
• Mail Server Admin. Not yet implemented.

By default, the Eudora Password Change Server service is not enabled, since it allows password changes based on unencrypted requests. To enable this service, go into the Control Panel's Services applet and change the service's state to enabled.

The Mail Server Admin service is planned for a future release and has not yet been implemented. However, it is listed as a service after Mail Server has been installed. Any attempt to start this service will result in an error.

To ensure that mail flows smoothly, it may be necessary to alter the Mail Service's transform rule set. Setting up these transforms is discussed under Transforms.

To uninstall Mailsrv:

1  Run INSTALL.EXE and select the deinstall option.
2  Reboot the system. S

You must successfully uninstall Mailsrv before reinstalling a new version. Uninstalling will delete all relevant Mailsrv registry entries.

Mail Server Specific Registry Entries

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MailSrv

Parameters

MailDirectory

the top of the mail directory hierarchy

LoggingLevel

flags indicating how much to dump in the event log

SMTP Retry

the retry interval in seconds for outbound SMTP messages

Local Retry

the retry interval in seconds for local messages

SmtpGateway

the gateway to use for all SMTP mail (no DNS resolving is done)

Inbound Transforms

rules applied to addresses coming in

Outbound Transforms

rules applied to addresses going out

- Aliases
    Alias
    Alias...

one alias can be listed per line. Multiple alias lines can be listed. Aliases are completely dynamic. The key name corresponds to the incoming name, the key value is the alias it should be transformed into. Two examples are placed in the Registry entry during installation, one for Postmaster, which is required and must not be deleted, and one for MAILER_DAEMON.

Dependent Registry Entries

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip

Parameters

Domain

used by the $(Domain) token as the system's domain

DhcpDomain

If above Domain key is invalid this key is queried for the $(Domain) value. One of these two keys must contain valid information

Hostname

used by the $(Me) token as the computer's name

NameServer

IP addresses of the DNS servers to be used for name resolution.

DhcpNameServer

IP address of the DNS servers to be used for name resolution

Transforms are rules applied to addresses coming in and going out on Mail Server. They serve primarily to allow domain owners to mask out the computer names (hostnames) and/or domain names within the domain.

Inbound Transforms and Outbound Transforms are each of type REG_MULTI_SZ. Each line in the MULTI_SZ is a transform, and they are searched in the order that they appear. If a rule matches, it is applied, and the search is completed. If no rules are matched, the address remains unchanged.

Transforms and Tokenizing

Each transform takes the following format:
pattern > transformed pattern

For example:

Transform: $1@$2.bitnet > $1@$2.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu

The address rkinput@microsoft.com, for example, could be converted into tokens as either:

Transform: $1@$2
Tokenized as: $1 = rkinput, $2 = microsoft.com
<OR>

Transform: $1@microsoft.com
Tokenized as: $1 = rkinput

Given the initial transform, the address rbw@williams.bitnet would be converted as follows:

Transform: $1@$2.bitnet > $1@$2.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Tokenized as: $1 = rbw, $2 = williams
Final: rbw%williams.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu

Special Tokens

The following special tokens are recognized:

$(Me) corresponds to hostname.domain
$(Hostname) corresponds to hostname
$(Domain) corresponds to domain

When Mail Server initializes it creates these token by querying specific keys in the registry.

The $(Domain) key is read from the registry entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Domain

If that entry does not exist, Mail Server tries to obtain a value for $(Domain) by querying:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\DhcpDomain

The $(Hostname) is obtained from the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Hostname

Make certain that one of the above keys exists. If not, the Mail Server services will fail when initializing. If the Registry entries do not contain the correct information for the Mail Server, simply do not use the special tokens in your transforms.

Examples

Inbound Transforms Example:

The administrator of Mail Server on the Internet might set up several Inbound Transforms so Mail Server recognizes that several different domains all correspond to the local machine.

$1@microsoft.com > $1
$1@ms.com > $1

If Mail Server received mail for rkinput@microsoft.com, it would be transformed into rkinput and queued for local delivery. If it received mail for rkinput@ms.com it would also be transformed into rkinput and queued for local delivery. However, if Mailsrv received mail for rkinput@copper.microsoft.com it would then use the Outbound transforms and queue the mail for remote delivery. (Mail Server would think that this is for a remote machine since no rule was matched.)

So if we wanted to make certain that all mail to any hostname on the microsoft.com domain was routed for local delivery we could create the following Inbound Transforms:

$1@microsoft.com > $1
$1@$2.microsoft.com > $1

All mail destined for microsoft.com would be queued for local delivery. $1 would represent the local account name. If no local account is found by the name represented by $1, Mail Server will attempt to send an undeliverable mail message.

This could also be accomplished using the special tokens. Assuming $(Domain) is equal to microsoft.com this could be setup as follows:

$1@$(Domain) > $1
$1@$2.$(Domain) > $1

If $(Domain) is microsoft.com, then all mail for any host at microsoft.com would be queued for local delivery. The administrator should be certain that the information in the special $(Domain) token is valid. Please see the above special token information.

Outbound Transforms Example:

The administrator of Mail Server on the Internet might setup server Outbound Transforms so that the outbound mail has a different return address.

$1@$(Me) > $1@microsoft.com
$1@$(Hostname) > $1@microsoft.com
$1@$2.bitnet > $1@$2.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu

Mail Server is integrated into the machine's local account database. To setup a new e-mail account, simply create a local account for the user via User Manager.

A domain account cannot be used for the purposes of a Mail Server e-mail account. For instance, Mail Server cannot deliver mail to a username like DOMAIN\user1. Instead, you must create a local user account named user1.

The mailbox for a user will be created by Mail Server the first time a valid local user checks for mail or receives mail. The mailbox will have secured permissions and can only be access by the user.

Note: Make certain that the account flag "User Must Change Password at Next Logon" is not active when a user checks the mail for an account. If active, it will cause an error when trying to retrieve mail from the user's mailbox.

Q: How do I delete a user's e-mail account?

A: Disable or remove (via User Manager) the user's local account from the machine's local account database. Then delete the spool directory.

Q: How do I access/delete a user's mailbox?

A: A user's e-mail is held in a spool directory, using the e-mail name of the user, under the Mailsrv installation directory. These spool directories are secure and can only be accessed by the user. For an administrator to access these files/directories they must assign themselves proper permissions or take ownership of the files through Explorer or File Manager.

Q: Where can I get trouble-shooting information?

A: The Event Log should contain information about any troubles encountered when Mail Server is initializing or sending/receiving requests.

This version of Mailsrv does not implement:

• Mail Server Admin service (the service is created but not implemented)

• aliasing

Note: Eudora (a popular POP3 e-mail client that can work with Mail Server) does not always properly separate the names of recipients on the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines. Users should put commas between user names on these lines to correctly separate the names and enable Mail Server to interpret them correctly.

back to Overview
SMTP (definition)

Simple Mail Transport Protocol. A protocol used on the Internet to transfer mail reliably and efficiently. SMTP is independent of the particular transmission subsystem and requires only a reliable, ordered data stream channel.

An important feature of SMTP is its capability to relay mail across transport service environments. A transport service provides an interprocess communication environment (IPCE), which may cover one network, several networks, or a subset of a network.

A process can communicate directly with another process through any mutually known IPCE. Mail can be relayed between processes running on hosts on different transport systems by a host connected to IPCEs on both transport systems.

back to Overview
POP (definition)

Post Office Protocol. A maildrop service that allows a client to retrieve mail that the server is holding for it. The most recent implementation is Version 3, or POP3.

On certain types of smaller nodes on the Internet, it is often impractical to maintain a message transport system (MTS): this would require that a workstation or personal computer support an SMTP server and local mail delivery system or remain continuously connected to the Internet. POP permits a node which can support an MTS to function as a server, offering a maildrop service to less endowed client nodes.

MAILSRV.EXE
INSTALL.EXE
MAILSRV.HTM

Mailsrv follows the same support policy as other Resource Kit utilities. It is provided 'as is' without warranties of any kind. We provide a method for customers who purchase the Resource Kit to report bugs and receive possible fixes for their issues. Contact the e-mail address:

RKINPUT@MICROSOFT.COM

This e-mail alias is only for Windows NT Resource Kit issues. There is no guarantee as to when or if bugs in the Resource Kit software will be fixed or new features added. Microsoft Product Support Services supports Resource Kit utilities on a 'best-effort' basis.

Best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 2.0 or higher.  Last updated August 14, 1996.
Copyright © Microsoft Corp. 1995 - 1996