Eserv v1.5 - is the enterprise mail, news and proxy server. The server maintains Internet- accepted standards and makes it possible to organize mail and news exchange over local area network as well as sending/receiving external mail over the Internet. The program works either under Windows NT4 or Windows 95. The server is controlled by the Web-interface (built-in Web-server)
Eserv Mail Server 1.5 has many new features. Some of these features include:
The Server is installed on a computer having access to the Internet and collects all enterprise mail. Users can apply to this server for sending/receiving mail without having to connect to the Internet. Standard convenient client programs can be used here - MS Mail&News, MS Exchange Client, MS OutlookExpress etc. Internal and Internet incoming mail is immediately delivered to addressees' mailboxes, while outgoing, mailed to external addressees, is collected on the server until it is sent to the Internet. This sending procedure can also be performed by the server. The dial-up feature is included as well.
The following mail transporting technique is usually used. The organization is given its domain name by an Internet provider, test.koenig.su, for example. According to this, the mailbox named "test" is set up on the provider's server "koenig.su", where all mail for the organization is accumulated. In addition, the provider gives the mail server address, to which all outgoing enterprise mail should be sent. The E-serv server receives all mail for the organization, i.e. all the messages addressed to [email protected], [email protected]..., and distributes among the appropriate mailboxes for ivanov, petrov... Ivanov and Petrov, respectively, would receive their mail over the local area network from the E-serv server. Mail would be sent to the same server. The server checks whether the mail is internal, i.e. whether it is addressed to"ivanov", "petrov", [email protected], [email protected], and sends it to the appropriate mailbox, if it is. If not, the mail is put aside for sending off "outsid e". At times, either by itself automatically or by a person's operation, the E-serv computer connects to the Internet and sends/receives external mail. Mail is received from the provider using POP3 protocol. Users receive their mail from the E-serv using the same POP3 protocol. Mail is sent from users to E-serv using SMTP (ESMTP) protocol. This (SMTP) protocol is used for sending mail from E-serv to the provider's server.
Of course, the technique described allows users to connect not only via local network, but also remotely, using remote access via modem. In that case, the computer with E-serv or another computer must have Remote Access Server and modem installed.
If a computer, having E-serv installed, has permanent connection to the Internet, it is possible to organize sending mail from provider's server using SMTP protocol instead of POP3 protocol, (sending on provider's server's or another Internet computer initiative), i.e. in the way mail is usually sent to the Internet. There is no need to change E-serv for that purpose. All that is needed is to agree with the provider upon this way of mail routing. The E-serv server can be used by the provider as well.
To receive conferences (news groups) for the whole organization NNTP-server is added to E-serv. It receives articles from the conferences you've chosen via provider's server and distributes these conferences among all LAN users. To deliver conferences from the provider's server to the organization and over the organization local network NNTP protocol is used. Client program to read conferences is MS News.
This is a way to control E-serv mail server. Using this interface, mail system administrator can add/remove mailboxes, stop the server, change users' passwords, instruct the server to send/receive mail to/from the provider out of schedule, use other service features. To make this Web-interface work E-serv has simple built-in Web-server (HTTP/1.0 protocol). It also has built-in commands to control mail server operation and simple features to create dynamic Web pages in addition to standard file transfer features (to transfer Web pages and images). Web-interface makes remote file administration possible. That explains why it has been chosen to control the mail server.
To see the web interface first start E-serv.exe (or Eserv service in WinNT), than start Internet browser an type in the URL:
http://localhost:1997/
E-serv can be adjusted to make attempts to send/receive mail to/from the provider's server at preset time intervals. This interval is specified in Setup as "Interval between calls" Time should be set in minutes. For example, interval equal to 60 means that E-serv will send/receive mail every hour, at 0, 1, ..., 23 hours. If there is no much mail and it is not urgent it would be, perhaps more convenient to set specific particular time when mail should be sent/received. In that case specific time moments should be listed in the same Setup field, the format being HH:MM (h for hour, m for minute), for example, 02:00 06:50 12:00.
If it is necessary to send/receive mail immediately "out of schedule", Web interface's Poll command can be used. If the scheduler is used, the program works as follows. If at the specified time the program fails to connect provider's mail servers, it concludes that there is no connection with the Internet and tries to establish dial-up connection through providers' telephones. When this connection is established mail is send/received. On its completion or when the time limit set for a session ("Timeout" parameter in Setup) is exceeded the program breaks the dial-up connection, but only if the program made this connection before. In case the server was accessible during the time of the regular mail sending/ receiving (for example, if there is permanent connection to the Internet or the Server is connected to the local network), the program wouldn't try to break the dial-up connection after sending/receiving process.
To create a list of news groups, which you plan to download from the provider's server, choose "Conferences" section of Web-interface and use "Add a conference" feature. You'll have to enter the name of the news group. It must be exactly the same as the name of the news group on the provider's server. If there is no such group, local work with this group will be possible anyway, but outgoing mail won't be accepted by the provider's server.
News delivery is carried out during the same connection sessions and according to the same schedule as mail. Sending/receiving mail is followed by sending outgoing mail accumulated in the "news\.out" directory and news receiving. E-serv saves the index of the last message read from the provider's NNTP-server in the "news\newsgroup\last" files. During the first connection all messages are downloaded, subsequently only new ones, coming after the "last" number.
Users use E-serv as NNTP-server just like before they could use provider's NNTP-server - with MS News client program, included in MS Internet Explorer.
E-serv maintains mail protection and protection against unauthorized execution of the Web-server privileged commands. Basic password-based privilege check is used. POP3-server access rights check is based on passwords, stored in mailboxes disk directories in the encrypted format. When built-in administration commands are executed through the Web-interface, Web-administrator's access rights are verified with "webmaster" mailbox password. All names and passwords are case sensitive, i.e. if the password is "WebMaster", then the "WEBMASTER" password won't be accepted. A user name is not required, when you change the password (User commands section), the current user name and password is taken instead, because when user runs this command he passes through authentication by name and by password.
E-serv makes its own list of users and doesn't use the list of users' accounts in Windows NT to ensure proper program's work under Windows 95. That is convenient, but potentially lowers the protection reliability. To make the protection stronger it is recommended to add a special user to the Windows NT user accounts list (having "mailserv" name, for example). This user (one and only) will have access to the E-serv directory. Then you must enter "mailserv" input name to the service administrator for E-serv service instead of "Local System". Then you should restart the service.
Note: The default postmaster's password is "PostMaster" and the default webmaster's password is "WebMaster".
To see answers to frequently asked questions, technical notes, and links to other information, go to the following link:
http://www.enet.ru/win/cherezov/eserv.html
Post any problems or questions you have to:
Eserv is a shareware. Registration price - $72. We accept online registration (and other forms). For more details about registration please refer http://www.enet.ru/win/cherezov/eserv.html or mail to Registration
Copyright (C) 1997-98 EType Andrey Cherezov