How can I walk through the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Wizard again

This can be useful when you want to make major configuration modifications, such as activate outgoing mail, or move to another messaging server. The wizard will not break your existing configuration, it will only modify options which you ask it to modify. Proceed as follows:

• Stop the Pytheas.MailGate service, if you installed the program as a Windows NT/200x service. Then start the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task from the Start menu.
• Go to the Configuration tab, and click on the Configuration Wizard button.
• Once you are done with the wizard, and if you installed the program as a Windows NT/200x service, exit the Communicaion Task. Then restart the Pytheas.MailGate service.

How can I avoid to receive Session Log messages

• Uncheck the box Send session log message to this Recipient on the Recipient property page. Probably, this box had initially been checked by the Configuration Wizard.
• You may consider leaving this box checked, and check the box Send session log message only if error occurred on the Logging page instead. This way you will get session log messages only when it may be worth reading them.

How can I transfer an existing installation to a new machine

... and preserve the existing configuration data. We suggest the following steps:

• Be sure to have your license key file (pytheas.ini) at hand.
• Stop the Pytheas.Mailgate service (or the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task).
• Copy the \Program files\PytheasMailgate folder and all its subfolders from the old machine to the new one.
• Install the latest version of the product into this folder on the new machine. Accept to start the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task at the end of the setup process (or launch it yourself from the Start menu).
• Go to the About tab and activate your license key.
• Switch to the Configuration tab. Then click on the Configuration Wizard button, and carefully walk through the wizard. Pay special attention to any IP addresses (they are likely to be different on the new machine) and mail server settings (your mail server may be new, too). The wizard will not ask you about Recipient and POP3 account information. After the last step, click Finish and close the wizard.
• On the Configuration tab, you will also find the button to install the Pytheas.Mailgate service. Please note that after this step, you need to exit the Communicaion Task before starting the service.
• Launch the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program and have a look at the various settings. Pay special attention to any IP addresses.

How can I handle many users and mailboxes efficiently?

Initially, PYTHEAS MailGate keeps all its configuration data in an INI file. If you handle email for many mailboxes, the size of this file can approach the size limit imposed on such files by the operating system (this limit may be as low as 64 kB). In such a case we recommend to keep POP3 account and Recipient configuration data in separate files. These files being tab-separated text files, this file can be edited by using your preferred spreadsheet program. Anyway, you can also continue using the Configuration Program as usual.

The procedure and the structure of the new files are discussed in the online help; look for the topics How to keep the list of POP3 Accounts in a separate file and How to keep the list of Recipients in a separate file. How to proceed:

• Make a backup copy of PMailGat.INI.
• In PMailGat.INI, [Options] section, modify one or both of the existing lines Keep accounts in file (for the POP3 account data), or  Keep Recipients in file (for the Recipients data), by adding a file name of your choice, without any path information. For example:
  Keep accounts in file=PmgAccountlist.txt
  If you modify both lines, be sure to use different filenames!
• Restart PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program. Initially, the PmgAccountlist.txt file (according to our example) doesn't exist, and the configuration data we be read from PMailGat.INI as before. But when you save your configuration data (make some dummy modification in one of the POP3 account or Recipient configuration), it will be saved to the new file PmgAccountlist.txt, and from this point it will also be read from this file.
• Once you confirmed that the configuration data went into the separate files, you can safely delete the [Recipients] and/or [POP Accounts] section(s) in PMailGat.INI.

The following points may be of interest:

• By default, passwords are encrypted, which makes modifying them with a spreadsheet program impossible. You have two choices to get around this problem: only touch the passwords with the Configuration Program, or instruct PYTHEAS MailGate not to encrypt the passwords. You can achieve this by setting the POP3 Password not encrypted parameter to a value of 1 (add this parameter to the [Options] section in PMailGat.INI). However, please note that you will have to retype every POP3 account password after changing the value for this parameter.
• To trigger an update of the POP3 accounts or Recipients configuration data inside the Pytheas.Mailgate service (or the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task) after a modification with some spreadsheet program, please start the Configuration Program with the /touch command line switch.

How can I have more than one user use the same sender's address in outgoing mail?

The sender's address in outgoing email is set by your mail server, and this server generally won't let you set the same SMTP address for two or more users. However, if it handles your outgoing email, you can make it happen with PYTHEAS MailGate.

The trick is to assign SMTP addresses like sales__fk@pytheas.com. to the users being involved. When an outgoing email with such a sender's address is handled, PYTHEAS MailGate removes the two underscores and the characters up to the @-sign (no more than ten characters), thus leaving the sender's address as sales@pytheas.com. More...

Another interesting feature may be to rewrite the sender's name. In the example above, to achieve that the sender won't show up with his real name, but instead as the Sales Department, you would activate the Rewrite human readable names function on the Outgoing mail page of the Configuration Program, and add the following line:
sales@pytheas.com Sales Department
Please note that only email leaving to the Internet and flowing through PYTHEAS MailGate will be modified in this manner.

Installing on machines with Microsoft Windows 200x

Configure the Windows 200x built-in DNS Server

To configure DNS resolution for Internet names, while still resolving local names through your own DNS server which plays a central role in your Active Directory, you need to delete its Root DNS zone, and add a Forwarding DNS Address.

• Open the DNS administration console in the Administrative Tools folder.
• Expand the DNS Server node; you should then see the Forward Lookup Zones et the Reverse Lookup Zones. Expand the Forward Lookup Zones folder.
• Right click the "." folder under the Forward Lookup Zones and click Delete. This has been the Root DNS zone.
• Right click the DNS Server name and click Refresh.
• Open the Property page of your DNS Server. Go to the Forwarders tab.
• Check the Enable Forwarders check box,
  Enter the IP addresses of the Internet DNS servers.

Adapted from: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server documentation

Configure your servers and workstations to use the (Windows 200x) DNS server.

Directory access when installing your mail server (Microsoft Exchange 5.5 or Lotus Domino) on a Microsoft Windows 200x server, which also is a Global Catalog

Note: This issue does not apply to installations with Microsoft Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003.

On Microsoft Windows 200x global catalog, the default LDAP port is used by its Active Directory services. To allow LDAP communication between your mail server and the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program,  you need to tell your mail server to use a port other than 389 (which is the default value for the LDAP port).

• Microsoft Exchange Server v. 5.5: In the Microsoft Exchange Server administration program, go to
  <site>/Configuration/Protocols, open the LDAP Protocol properties page, and enter a different port number (3890 for ex.).
• Lotus Domino R5: In the server Configuration document, go to Ports, Internet Ports, Directory, and enter a different port number (3890 for ex.).
• In the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program,
  Your mail server page,
  Mail server directory access (LDAP) frame,
  enter the previously chosen new port number (3890 for ex.).
  Use the Check button to verify.

Please note that you cannot configure a non-standard LDAP port in the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Wizard. So you will have to type the first SMTP address yourself :-(

The Windows 200x SMTP Server

Note: This issue does not apply to installations with Microsoft Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003.

When installing Microsoft Exchange 5.5, Lotus Domino or PYTHEAS MailGate on a Microsoft Windows 200x server, you should take care of its built-in SMTP Server. You should stop it (and configure its start-up configuration accordingly), if you do not need it. Otherwise, the mail server you are installing may not be able to use TCP port 25 for listening.

To check if you may run into such a problem, make a telnet connection to the Windows 200x machine, to port 25. You should get a response from your mail server, or no response at all (if your mail server is not working yet). If you get a response like
220 (...) Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.x ready (...)
the SMTP Server built into Windows 200x is running.

How to install PYTHEAS MailGate with a proxy server

If you have a proxy server to connect to the Internet, you should configure PYTHEAS MailGate to use it to connect to the POP3 and SMTP mail hosts. Doing it this way assures that others services (such as connections to web servers, etc.) can take place concurrently. Uncheck the Use RAS box in the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program, Internet tab.

Microsoft Proxy server

You need to install the Winsock Proxy Client software on the computer which runs the Communication Task (even if it runs on the proxy server machine itself).

Other proxy servers (such as WinGate or WinProxy)

You should configure such a proxy server to do a "feed through" of the POP3 and SMTP connections (and not to download POP3 mail, and run a POP3 server itself).

Then, in the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program,...

In the POP3 account properties dialog:

• set the address of the POP3 server to the IP address of the machine running the proxy server,
• set the POP3 username according to the proxy configuration rules (generally, the required username looks like: POP3user#POP3server).

To handle outgoing mail through the proxy server, enter the IP address of the machine running the proxy server in the SMTP Relay Server field (Outgoing Mail tab, Hostname parameter). Configure your proxy server to send outgoing mail to your ISP's SMTP relay server.

How can I achieve that downloaded messages are not deleted on the POP3 server

• Check the box Don't delete messages forwarded to this Recipient on the Recipient property page for each Recipient.
• If you have a POP3 account with several Recipients connected to it (i.e. it has selective routing criteria), you should also check the box Don't delete unroutable messages in the POP3 account properties.
• You may use the Delete mail left on POP3 server after ...days function on the POP3 Account property page to keep your POP3 mailbox clean and the cumulated size of the messages within the allowed limit.

How do I specify allowed attachment file types using the Content Checking Rules

You need to create two Content-Checking Rules:

• a Pass-Through Rule which defines the masks for allowed file extensions (you need to define all different masks in a single Rule):
  - call it (for ex.): Allow these extensions;
  - on its Attachments page, configure the list of masks which define the allowed file extensions (for ex.: *.doc; *.zip; *.gif).
• an Intercept-Rule for any file attachments:
  - call it (for ex.): Deny all;
  - on its Attachments page, enter: * (one single asterisk);
  - be sure that this Rule is lower in the list than the Allow... rule.

You may want to check your arrangement with the Try Content-Checking Rules function.

Using Hidden Message Headers for Message Routing

Some Background

Normally, the To: and Cc: headers are used to route incoming messages. However, in case of messages for which you receive a blind carbon copy (BCC), or a message from a mailing list, the information in these headers cannot directly be used for message routing.

To achieve correct message routing in such cases,  examine the (hidden) message headers of a message which you received from your POP3 account (in Microsoft Outlook, use the Options dialog while having the message displayed in its window). The goal is to find a message header which preserved the RCPT-TO information used in the SMTP protocol when the message has been delivered to the ISP's SMTP/POP3 server. Candidates for such headers are Delivered-To, X-Envelope-To, Envelope-To or others. If the value of this header makes it possible to understand to which SMTP address the message has been delivered, you found a useful one. Unfortunately, some SMTP/POP3 servers do not preserve this information.

How to Use the Hidden Message Header

• Configure the name of the hidden message header on the POP3 account property page. Choose among the values in the list, or type in the name of the header you found.
• On the property page for Recipients being connected to the POP3 account, look at the caption text for Keywords and Other SMTP addresses in the Message Routing Criteria frame. It will show you which one of these properties will be used to identify the Recipient in the value of the configured hidden message header.
• If Keywords are used for identification, the value of the hidden message header must pass Address Validation first, just like a SMTP address found in the To or Cc headers of a message.
• If Other SMTP Addresses are used for identification, the message routing algorithm searches for the Recipient's SMTP address and the Other SMTP addresses in the value of the hidden message header.

To fine tune how the value of the hidden message header is used by the routing algorithm: open the PMailGat.INI file and look for the [Envelope information Header Masks] section. Examples of lines you may find in there:

To change this information, exit the Configuration Program, edit the PMailGat.INI file in notepad, then restart the Pytheas.MailGate service (or the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task).

How to delete a message from a POP3 mailbox using Telnet

Please note: Beginning with version 2.15a, you can use the tool integrated into the Configuration Program to do this (POP3 Account property page, Delete/Cleanup tab, View/Delete messages button).

1. Connect to the POP3 server

Execute TELNET.EXE.

• in Microsoft Windows XP or 200x, type...
  SET LOCAL_ECHO
OPEN POP3server 110
• in Microsoft Windows 9x or Microsoft Windows NT4: check that the "local echo" option is turned on; then use the Connect/Remote system dialog to connect to the POP3 server on port 110.

After successfully connecting to the POP3 server, you should see the its greeting message in the Telnet window.

2. Get the list of messages on the POP3 server

Type...
USER POP3user
PASS POP3password
LIST

Please note that the password is case sensitive.

3. Identify the message to delete

The LIST command produced a list of messages and their sizes in the POP3 mailbox. To further identify a particular message, you can type:
TOP n 0
where n is the number of one of the messages listed; the trailing 0 is a zero.

4. Delete the message(s)

Type
DELE n
where n is the number of the message to delete.

5. Disconnect

Once you are finished, it is important to correctly disconnect from the POP3 server by typing:
QUIT

How to make a trace of the dialog with a POP3 server

• If you configured PYTHEAS MailGate not to delete messages after downloading them, and you want to obtain the trace for a particular message which has already been downloaded, but still contained in a POP3 mailbox: click on the Clear message Ids button (on the property pages of the POP3 Account), so PYTHEAs MailGate will "forget" about the messages which have already been downloaded. When doing this, it may be a good idea to use the View/delete messages tool (on the Delete/Cleanup tab of property pages for POP3 Accounts) to delete messages which are of no further interest.
• In the PMailGat.INI file, in the [Options] section, set the following parameter:
  POP3 Trace=1
  (modify the parameter value if it already exists; otherwise, add a new line line. You should avoid copy and paste here as this may introduce some other character between POP3 and Trace instead of the required space character.)
• Stop the Pytheas.Mailgate service and start the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task from the Start menu. You should see a line confirming that the trace has been activated.
• Go through a download session (click on the button in the toolbar). Wait for the session to complete.
• In the PMailGat.INI file, reset the parameter:
  POP3 Trace=0
• Stop the Communication Task, and restart the Pytheas.Mailgate service.
• You will find the POP3 protocol trace in the PmgPOP3Trace.txt file in the Program_Files/PytheasMailgate folder.

Troubleshoot outgoing mail handling: messages are not queued in the PYTHEAS MailGate queue of outgoing messages

Start the PYTHEAS Mailgate Remote Control program, and watch the Outbound transfer page. The Remote Control program has trouble connecting to the Pytheas.Mailgate service, confirm that this service (or the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task) is running.

Send a message from a corporate email client program to an Internet email address. When an outgoing messages is accepted in the PYTHEAS Mailgate outgoing mail queue, you get the following lines:

[00:50] Queue [1] ESMTP Connection accepted from: your-mail-server
[00:50] Queue [1] Mail From: <webmaster@pytheas.com> SIZE=3798 (Pmg1F7B.tmp, Priority:  High)
[00:50] Queue [1] Rcpt To: <somebody@somedomain.com>
[00:50] Queue [1] Subject: A sample message
[00:50] Queue [1] Connection closed.

If you get a similar result, messages are in fact accepted in the outgoing mail queue (which means that you don't have the problem). If these messages have problems leaving the queue, you may want to check our article about Relaying denied errors.

If you do not get this result, check the outgoing mail queue of your corporate mail server (the one the client program connects to). You should have the outgoing message waiting there.

• If you do, continue with Check A1.
• Otherwise, check with the destination, if the message has been sent anyway.
  • If it has been, but you want outgoing mail flow through PYTHEAS MailGate, keep reading.
  • If it has not been sent, check that your mail server has been correctly configured to handle outgoing Internet mail.

Check A1: Check with the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program if the Pytheas.MailGate service is listening for outgoing mail

Note: You need PYTHEAS MailGate v. 2.30c or later for this check. If you have an older version, please upgrade, or do check A2 instead.

On the machine running the Pytheas.Mailgate service or Communication Task, open the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program, go to the Outgoing mail page, and click on the Try to listen for outgoing message now... button. You should get the following response:

*** The port could not be opened for listening.
*** Now trying SMTP connection to port 2500...
220 PYTHEAS MailGate ESMTP server ready
HELO Your_machine_name
250 PYTHEAS.MailGate
QUIT
*** The SMTP connection has been closed

If you get this result, skip to check B. If you don't, go to check A3.

Check A2: Check with Telnet if the Pytheas.MailGate service is listening for outgoing mail

On the corporate mail server machine, open a command prompt, and type the following:

telnet ip_address tcp_port

where...
ip_address is the IP address of the machine running the Pytheas.Mailgate service or Communication Task;
tcp_port is the TCP port on which the Pytheas.Mailgate service is supposed to listen for outgoing mail. If your corporate mail server and PYTHEAS MailGate are installed on the same machine, this generally is port 2500. If they run on different machines, this generally is port 25. In any case, use the value configured on the Outgoing mail page, the listen on IP address / port parameter.

You should get a response from the Pytheas Mailgate ESMTP server. If you do, skip to Check B. Otherwise, continue with Check A3.

Check A3: Look for error messages when the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task starts

Stop the Pytheas.Mailgate service and start the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task from the Start menu. Wait a couple of seconds. Confirm that you get something similar to the following message on the Session page:

[00:10] Now queuing outbound messages in C:\Program_Files\PytheasMailgate\Outgoing; listening on TCP port 2500.

• If you get this message or a similar one, and the previous check did not perform as expected, proceed as follows:
  • Leave the Communication Task running, do not restart the Pytheas.Mailgate service, and try again (Check A1 or Check A2).
  • If you get better results now, modify the start-up parameters of the Pytheas.Mailgate service to have it start up with a "real" user account (by default, this service runs in the localsystem context). Then terminate the Communication Task, start the Pytheas.Mailgate service, and run Check A1 or Check A2 again.
• If you get an error message at this point, check that there is no other service using the TCP port that PYTHAS Mailgate tries to use. In this case, either stop - or reconfigure - the other service, or switch PYTHEAS MailGate to another TCP port; please note that you will have to configure the new TCP port number in your mail server configuration, too (see below). Then run Check A1 or Check A2 again.

Check B: PYTHEAS MailGate configuration parameters

In the PYTHEAS MailGate configuration program, Outgoing mail page, Listen on IP Addr frame, select: <any available>. If you had another value there, save the modified configuration. Then open the outgoing message queue management program of your corporate mail server to trigger it to resend the waiting message, while observing the the Outbound transfer page in the PYTHEAS Mailgate Remote Control program.

If this solved the problem, you may restrict the IP Address for the listening socket again. Use the IP address of the "smart host" configured for your corporate mail server (see below).

Check C: Check the Corporate Mail Server Configuration

Let's check the IP address and TCP port where your corporate mail server should send outgoing mail.

If you are using Microsoft Exchange 2000 or Microsoft Exchange 2003 server:

Check in the Microsoft Exchange System Manager if you have a SMTP connector in the routing group of your server with a SMTP:* address space, supposed to handle outgoing Internet mail.

• If you do, check on the General page of its property pages, if it configured to send mail to the IP address of the machine running the Pytheas.Mailgate service; this option corresponds to Forward  all mail through this connector to the following smart hosts.
• If you don't, the destination IP address for outgoing mail is configured in the properties of the Default virtual SMTP server in Servers/(Your_Server)/Protocols/SMTP, Delivery page, Advanced button, Smart_host field.

Please note that the IP address needs to be put inside [square brackets].

The outgoing SMTP port is configured in the virtual SMTP server properties, Delivery page, Outgoing connections button. This value should correspond to the value configured in the PYTHEAS MailGate Configuration Program, Outgoing mail page (Listen on IP address / port parameter). Please see our explications in Check A2 about the default value of this parameter.

If you are using Lotus Domino:

Have a look at our configuration guide for Lotus Domino R5/R6 servers, chapter 4 for the name/IP address of the machine to send outgoing mail to, and chapter 2 for the outgoing SMTP port.

If you are using Microsoft Exchange 5.5:

Please check in the Microsoft Exchange Administration Program, on the Connections tab of the property pages of the Internet mail service, that the option Forward all messages to the host is activated, and points to the IP address of the machine running the Pytheas.Mailgate service.

Conclusion

Once we checked that the PYTHEAS Mailgate outgoing mail queue is ready to accept messages, and that your mail server sends outgoing mail to the correct IP address/TCP port, outgoing messages should at least make it into the PYTHEAS MailGate outgoing mail queue. If there are problems to send these messages to the ISP's SMTP relay, please go on reading.

What to check if you get a Relaying denied error (550... SMTP response) when sending outgoing mail

• Frequently, access to the relaying services of a SMTP relay server is bundled with your Internet access. Hence, you should use the SMTP relay server run by your ISP. There is a chance that it will automatically recognize you being allowed to use its services.
• Check if other identification procedures are required (for ex. POP before SMTP, or the AUTH LOGON procedure of the ESMTP protocol); then configure PYTHEAS MailGate accordingly. If you have a firewall, be sure that the required extensions are allowed for outgoing ESMTP connections.
• Check that the sender's SMTP address corresponds to the SMTP Address of his POP3 mailbox, and does not belong to some publicly unknown messaging domain.
• Get in touch with the people who run the SMTP relay server and check what are the requirements to use its relaying services.

Messages which could not be sent are not returned to the sender

This problem is reported with the following error message in the session log:
Queue: *** Error :No notification to: <somesender@yourdomain.com> (The message subject). Sender's address unknown.

Please make sure that the corresponding SMTP address somesender@yourdomain.com either...

• appears as the Recipient's SMTP address, or...
• is listed in a Recipient's Other SMTP addresses property.

Make a Trace of an Outgoing SMTP Connection

This may help you understand communication problems between PYTHEAS MailGate and your ISP's SMTP relay server.

• Stop the Pytheas.Mailgate service.
• In the PMailGat.INI configuration file, [Options] section, add the parameter
  Outbound SMTP Trace=2
  (or change its value, it it already exists. You should avoid copy and paste here as this may introduce other characters instead of the required space character.)
• Run the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task from the Start menu (this program is the same as the Pytheas.Mailgate service). Its window should show the following line
  [10:00] Outbound SMTP Client trace activated.
• Now make the problem happen, which you want to examine. The SMTP dialog will be saved in file Program Files\PytheasMailgate\PmgOutboundSMTPTrace2.txt.
• Stop the PYTHEAS MailGate Communication Task. Reset the value for the parameter mentioned above to 0 (zero).
• Restart the Pytheas.Mailgate service.

Note: For more information on this topic see the online help, chapter Diagnostic of Communication Problems. In the session log, Outbound transfer part, an outgoing connection looks like this:

[10:10] Send: Connecting to smtprelay.isp.com...Login successful...done. (ESMTP, Max size: 21000000, DSN)
[10:10] Send: Mail From: <pmgsupport@pytheas.com> (Pmg5C47.tmp, 7,4 kb, queued: 01/01/2004 10:09:54)
[10:10] Send: Rcpt To: <webmaster@pytheas.com>
[10:10] Send: Subject: This is an outgoing message
[10:10] Send: Message sent (7,4 kb).
[10:10] Send: Outbound connection closed.