Do SMBs need the complexity of Microsoft Exchange to share email, contacts, and calendars?

August 8, 2009 – 11:58 am

Original Article written by John Green from Windows IT Pro

This is the excerpt of the review done by John on Kerio MailServer…

Kerio MailServer 6 (KMS) from Kerio Technologies is a full-featured mail server that includes groupware features. Its support for the Microsoft Entourage email client and Apple Computer Open Directory under Macintosh OS X sets it apart from the other products I reviewed.

KMS authenticates user access in one of three ways: using its own internal database, by authenticating to Windows NT domain accounts, or by authenticating to AD or Apple Open Directory using Kerberos 5. Unlike MDaemon and ICS, which ask you to select a single source to use to authenticate all email accounts, KMS lets you choose a different authentication method for different accounts. For each mail domain you create, you can specify the name of one Windows NT and one AD domain, which will be used to authenticate users who use Windows NT and Kerberos 5 authentication, respectively.

AD integration causes KMS to import all users and groups within the target AD domain. AD simplifies mail user administration, letting you enter the information KMS needs when you create or update a user’s AD account. AD integration requires the installation of Kerio Active Directory Schema Extensions. Although I didn’t install the schema extensions to test this functionality, KMS’s implementation appears to be flexible, supporting KMS mail users sourced from one AD domain alongside users defined through the KMS administrative interface.

Installing KMS was simple: I had only to select a location for the software and enter the mail domain name and a name and password for a mail administrator. KMS includes a Web server in support of Web-based client and administrative users. By default, it uses all the standard ports, so you’ll have conflicts if IIS is installed on the same server.

KMS offers two administrative interfaces: a GUI and a Web-based interface. The Web interface lets you manage only Users, Groups, and Aliases, so it isn’t full featured, but I found it easy to use. KMS’s Custom Setup option lets you install the GUI and Help files to your desktop for full remote administration. And the Help files actually do help.

I started my testing by using both the Web interface and the GUI to create a set of users and groups. In KMS, groups serve a dual purpose: They’re used for folder authorization and for group email distribution. Creating an email address for a group is optional.

The Kerio Outlook Connector is a replacement MAPI provider and requires Outlook’s presence on the computer before it can be installed. After the installation, which is a routine process, you must create a new Outlook profile. In Outlook 2000, you configure the Kerio MailServer option, then manually add Outlook Address Book support. In Outlook 2003, and 2007, selecting Additional Server types presents the Kerio MailServer option with preconfigured address book support. The KMS MAPI provider can coexist with other POP3 and IMAP accounts but must be the only MAPI provider in the profile.

KMS offers three assignable levels of access rights—Reader, Editor, and Administrator—and assigns Owner rights to a folder’s primary user. Implementing collaboration features was pretty easy. Anyone who has Administrator rights to a folder can create subfolders and assign rights within the folder structure using Outlook or Kerio WebMail. KMS supports six folder types: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Notes, and Journal.

Users can share private folders the same way an administrator shares public folders. On the Sharing and Security tab of a folder’s Properties page, select or type the name of a user or group and assign the access privileges you want to allow. Users who aren’t owners must ask to see the folder before it will appear in their folder list, a process called Folder Mapping (in Outlook) or Subscribing (in WebMail).

Free/busy meeting scheduling worked well and was the easiest to implement of the products I tested. KMS looks only at a user’s primary calendar and its subfolders when collecting free/busy information. Names from each Contacts folder that I marked for display as an email address book were available when I selected meeting participants. Also, KMS collects free/busy data only from those who use a supported client: Outlook with the Outlook Connector, Entourage, or WebMail.

KMS’s built-in Web server supports two Web-based interfaces: Kerio WebMail for desktop use and Kerio WebMail Mini, a lightweight Web interface for use with PDAs and other handheld devices. Users will enjoy the full-featured, easy-to-use Web-Mail interface. I adjusted easily to the layout, which is similar to an Outlook Folder view, as Figure 3 shows. Right-clicking a folder or a mail item produces useful context menus, and a Settings button provides entry to options such as Rules, Out-of-Office setup, and the client refresh interval. Reminders pop up and provide Snooze and Dismiss options.

I found it easy to navigate KMS’s UIs and administrative interfaces. Additionally, the AD extensions add a dimension of integration and manageability unique to KMS among the products I reviewed.

Hosted Kerio MailServer Solutions by GetSync’d.Com

CONTACT: InfTek, Inc. (GetSyncd.Com) * 888.447.9623 * http://www.getsyncd.com

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Spam Control and Kerio MailServer

July 24, 2009 – 12:04 pm

… written by Tony Lawrence from A.P. Lawrence

Kerio Mailserver supports both Caller-ID and SPF. Not many other servers support these, but a few of the big people do, so it could be worthwhile to turn these on.

These work by checking back with the domain that the message supposedly was sent from. Kerio explains these at their on-line Administrator’s Guide, Section 13.5 Email policy records check:

There are two similar technologies available for performing email policy records check in Kerio MailServer. The first one is Caller-ID created by Microsoft, the other one is a project named SPF (Sender Policy Framework). Both technologies provide explicit verification of message senders. During this verification process, the IP addresses of SMTP servers that send mail from the specific domain are published. For each domain that supports at least one of the above technologies, a TXT record is stored in DNS with a list of IP addresses that send email from the specific domain. Kerio MailServer then compares the IP address of the SMTP server with IP addresses contained in this DNS record. This method guarantee verification of sender’s trustworthiness for each message. If the DNS record does not contain the IP address the message was sent from, such message has a falsified address and it is considered as spam. This way, it is quite easy to distinguish, whether the message is spam or not.

Messages received from a server that has no IP address list in the DNS record will be always delivered. For the email policy purposes, these emails will not be considered.

As Kerio recommends, you probably shouldn’t block outright if a message violates these policies. Instead, just increase the spam score. That helps prevent accidents – a missing but legitimate mail server sending mail that has no other spam characteristics won’t be affected. It also lets you set custom rules that override spam setting for specific needs – you can’t override a block.

Sounds like there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. If someone pretends to be sending from Microsoft.com but isn’t using a legitimate Microsoft mail server, the Caller-ID will catch them because Microsoft implements this. If someone spoofs mail from a domain that doesn’t use either of these methods, the checking has no affect, positive or negative. As more domains start using either of these, the filters become more effective.

However, I recently heard of a situation where this setting caused a problem. In this configuration, a user had accounts that he would forward to his main account. These were different domains hosted on the same server. If a company like Microsoft tried to send to one of those forwarded accounts, the Kerio server would (incorrectly) think that it should find itself (the domain he forwarded from) in Microsoft Caller-ID records when the forwarded mail was checked.

Of course that is wrong – that check should bypass on forwards within the server itself – it should only be done on first arrival – but for at least right now, it will fail under these conditions. The solution is simple enough – include the forwarding domain in the list of addresses that aren’t checked for Caller-ID or SPF.

Tony Lawrence from A.P. Lawrence: See Original Article

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Enhanced Features on iPhone 3.0 for Hosted Kerio MailServer

July 11, 2009 – 3:06 pm

Scott Spiro (http://blog.scottspiro.com) talks about two new Apple iPhone 3.0 features that enhance Microsoft Exchange connectivity.

Considering that our Hosted Kerio MailServer services are the perfect Microsoft Exchange Alternative, these features are a more than welcome addition to the functionality between the iPhone and the GetSync’d.Com Hosted Kerio MailServer solutions!

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Apple iPhone 3Gs is Hot… REALLY HOT!

July 1, 2009 – 2:42 pm

We love the technology behind Apple’s new iPhone 3Gs and the way it works with our Hosted Kerio MailServer solutions, but, it seem reports of the hot new iPhone are not just referring to it’s popular sales status, but also the overheating problems the new generation phone is experiencing. Some picture have surfaced on the that web that show the iPhone 3Gs white exterior gets hot enough to actually glow pink. See pictures.

It has been reported that an internal sensor prevents the iPhone 3Gs from being operated if its internal temperature hit 45 degrees Centigrade, or 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

Apple had already posted an advisory on the issue, complete with a screen shot of the heat warning.

Apple assures the phone meets Safety Standards, but InfTek wonders if a recall is immanent or if a firmware upgrade will fix this issue?

Posted in Hardware, Kerio MailServer, Mobile Email | 1 Comment »

iPhone 3G S Buyer’s Guide

June 26, 2009 – 1:35 pm

We feel the iPhone 3Gs is an awesome new smart phone that only a company like Apple can deliver, but is it worth the price of admission?

Either way you see it, the first generationiPhone, the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3Gs are all great at keeping you sync’d with our hosted Affordable Exchange Alternative… InfTek’s Hosted Kerio MailServer Solutions.

Posted in Inftek News, Kerio MailServer, Mobile Email, Podcasts | No Comments »