How To: Manage MTA Settings ¶

The Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) is transfers email messages from one server to another using SMTP.

From the MTA page in NodeWorx, server administrators may manage the SMTP service, including editing the mail server hostname, bounce message options, inbound and outbound connections, email blacklists, and SMTP routes.

Note

The SMTP settings on this page only refer to port 25.

SMTP settings for port 587 and 465 are managed via the MSA Settings page in NodeWorx.

Contents

How To: Manage MTA Settings

To Manage the SMTP Inbound and Outbound Service ¶

SMTP inbound corresponds to the qmail-smtpd program. This service listens to TCP port 25 and receives mail from other MTAs.

SMTP outbound corresponds to the qmail-send program. This service receives mail from the qmail-smtpd program and delivers it to the correct local mailbox. It also receives mail injected from a local mailbox and sends it to the remote delivery program.

Checking SMTP Inbound and Outbound Status ¶

Log into NodeWorx from the browser (https://ip.ad.dr.ess:2443/nodeworx)
In NodeWorx, navigate to System Services > Mail Server > MTA Settings
Under Primary SMTP Server Settings, the SMTP Status (inbound) and SMTP Status (outbound) bars indicate the current status of the services
- It is also possible to control the status of the service from this interface:
  - Play starts the services
  - Arrow restarts/refreshes the services
  - Stop stops the services

Setting the Authentication Mode ¶

Log into NodeWorx from the browser (https://ip.ad.dr.ess:2443/nodeworx)
In NodeWorx, navigate to System Services > Mail Server > MTA Settings
Under Primary SMTP Server Settings, select the desired authentication mode from the Authentication Mode dropdown
Click Update

To Manage SMTP Server Settings ¶

Log into NodeWorx from the browser (https://ip.ad.dr.ess:2443/nodeworx)
In NodeWorx, navigate to System Services > Mail Server > MTA Settings
Under MTA Server Options, update the desired fields:
- Mail Server Hostname: The mailserver hostname. This must be a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), as some mail
  servers will reject messages from a mail server with a hostname that is unresolvable by DNS
- Default Domain: The default domain appending to any email address that does not include a domain portion
Click Update

To Edit the Mail Server’s Bounce Message Options ¶

Log into NodeWorx from the browser (https://ip.ad.dr.ess:2443/nodeworx)
In NodeWorx, navigate to System Services > Mail Server > MTA Settings
Under MTA Bounce Message Options, update the desired fields:
- Bounce From: The email address or user that bounces messages are sent from
- Bounce Host: The hostname or IP address that a bounce message is sent as.If a message is permanently undeliverable, a single bounce notice is sent to the message’s envelope sender. This notice is sent from bouncefrom@bouncehost
- Double Bounce Messages: Setting this option to yes allows Qmail to double bounce email messages. A double-bounce occurs when a bounced message also bounces
- Double Bounce To: The email addresses that double-bounce messages are sent to
- Double Bounce Host: The hostname or IP address that double bounced messages are sent as. If a single-bounce notice is permanently undeliverable, a double-bounce notice is sent to doublebounceto@doublebouncehost. If that message bounces, no more bounce attempts are made
Click Update

To Edit SMTP Options ¶

Editing Inbound Mail Server Options ¶

Log into NodeWorx from the browser (https://ip.ad.dr.ess:2443/nodeworx)
In NodeWorx, navigate to System Services > Mail Server > MTA Settings
Under MTA SMTP Options (inbound) update the desired fields:
- SMTP Greeting: The SMTP greeting shown to mail servers when they connect to the SMTP daemon on this server. This must begin with a FQDN.
- Inbound Connections (max):The maximum number of concurrent incoming SMTP connections for the mail server
- Timeout: The maximum amount of time, in seconds, that the SMTP mail server will wait for communication for inbound SMTP connections
- Message Size: Maximum filesize (in megabytes) allowed for incoming messages. Setting this to 0 will allow an unlimited message size
- MTA Level Outbound E-mail Address Blacklist: Email addresses that are blacklisted from sending from the server. Enter one email address, per line. Entire domains may also be blacklisted by entering @domain-to-toblacklist. Existing blacklist entries may be removed by deleting them from this field
- MTA Level Inbound E-mail Address Blacklist: Allows the ability to blacklist specific e-mail addresses at a very low level, so they are denied before further processing takes place
- Realtime (SBL) Blacklists: The SBLs that are used to determine if incoming or outgoing domains have been globally blacklisted for spam
Click Update

Editing Outbound Mail Server Options ¶

Log into NodeWorx from the browser (https://ip.ad.dr.ess:2443/nodeworx)
In NodeWorx, navigate to System Services > Mail Server > MTA Settings
Under MTA SMTP Options (outbound) update the desired fields:
- Outbound Connections (max): The maximum number of concurrent outbound SMTP connections
- Response Timeout: The maximum amount of time, in seconds, that the mail server will wait for a response from the sending mail server
- Connect Timeout: The maximum amount of time, in seconds, that the server SMTP client will wait for the remote SMTP server to accept a connection
- Queue Lifetime: The maximum amount of time, in seconds, that a message will remain in the mail queue for delivery before it is either delivered, or purged. The default is 604800 (one week)
- SMTP Routes: Artificial SMTP routes. If the domain matches the host, qmail-remote will connect to the relay, as if the host had the relay as its only MX Record. The syntax for this field is [domain]:[destination server]. If [domain] is blank, blank all mail will be be routed to [destination server]
Click Update