Provide mail service

You configure the Mail server to respond to mail traffic for a specific domain.

In mail administration terms, you’re designating the mail server as the “mail exchange” for the domain. Domains are the names an organization uses to determine its network identity on the Internet, like example.com.

With your DNS provider, you should also verify that the MX record in the DNS entries matches the domain name you configure here. A DNS hosting service can help you with this. Your ISP or DNS registrar might provide DNS hosting service, or you can search for a provider on the web.

If you use OS X Server for your DNS service, you set your own MX records. See Add a mail exchange record.

You can have your server be the mail server for any number of domains. These additional domains are called virtual domains and you configure and add them in this pane. Virtual domains also must have complete DNS MX records pointing to your server.

1. Create the MX record for your mail domain with your DNS provider.

2. In the Mail pane, click Add  below the Domains section.

3. Enter the Domain name served by your Mail server.

4. Create email addresses for users of this domain.

   1. Click Add , then enter the user name that will receive mail in the Members column.

      The field will try to autocomplete the entry with local users and network users.

      The email address name is automatically filled in.

   2. If you wish, change the address by selecting the short name in the Email column and entering the new email address.

5. Click Create.

6. Repeat for all domains that are hosted by the mail service.

You can have your server provide an email address for your user for any number of domains that you host. These additional domains are called virtual domains. Virtual domains must be enabled prior to adding users and email addresses to them.

For example, you might want to make mail to “marketing@example.com” go to John Doe’s existing hosted mail account on myserver.com, “johndoe@myserver.com.”

By default, any local or local network user on your server will be included, if the listed domain matches your server’s host name.

1. In the Mail pane, select the desired domain, then click Edit .

   In this example, the desired domain would be example.com.

2. Click Add , then enter the user name that will receive mail in the Members column.

   The field will try to autocomplete the entry with local users and network users.

   The email address name is automatically filled in.

   By default, it’s the short name of the user. For example, John Doe’s short name is “johndoe,” so when you add the email account for example.com, the address is johndoe@example.com.

3. If you wish, change the address by selecting the short name in the Email column and entering the new email address.

   In this example, you would want to change the Email column to read “marketing.”

4. Click Create.

Users that want to send and receive email using your Mail server must authenticate to your server. By default, these authentication methods are enabled for your server:

If you’re using Active Directory to manage users, you must select Active Directory as the method of authentication.

1. In the Mail pane, click the Edit button next to Authentication.

2. Choose one of the preset authentication groupings, based on how users authenticate to your server, or choose Custom to tailor the authentication to your environment.

   Mail service applies your chosen authentication methods to the mail access protocols POP and IMAP, and when relaying mail through SMTP.

3. Click OK.

Use the Server app to specify a mail relay server. Your mail service can relay outgoing mail through another server, and that relay server then forwards the mail to its destination.

Some ISPs require that all mail be sent through their servers even if you’re running your own mail server. You set the mail relay server to forward mail through your ISP’s servers.

1. In the Mail pane, select “Relay outgoing mail through ISP.” If this option is already selected, click the Edit button.

   A dialog appears for entering the relay server connection details.

2. Enter the relay server’s DNS name or IP address supplied by your ISP or organization.

   If you need a custom port, specify a port number after the IP address or host name. For example, you could enter 17.2.3.4:587 or example.com:587.

   You can disable your mail exchange (MX) lookups by entering your IP address or host name in brackets. For example, [17.2.3.4] or [example.com].

3. If your ISP or organization requires your server to authenticate before sending mail, select “Enable SMTP relay authentication,” then enter the user name and password supplied by your ISP or organization.

   If you select “Enable SMTP relay authentication,” your credentials are sent using the strongest authentication method available: Cleartext (if SSL is enabled), CRAM-MD5, Digest-MD5, or Kerberos.

After a mail delivery connection is made and the message is accepted for local delivery, the Mail server can screen it before delivery. All local or remote mail deliveries are scanned for viruses, but only local mail passes through the spam scanner. OS X Server can analyze the text of a message, and give it a probability rating for being junk mail. The Mail server can reject mail from other mail servers that are considered blacklisted. You can use greylist filtering to reject unknown senders until they’re proven legitimate. You can also have Mail service scan incoming messages for junk mail and viruses. For more information, see Junk mail and virus filtering options.

1. In the Mail pane, click Edit Filtering Settings.

2. Select which filtering options to enable on your Mail server.

You can set a default mail quota for all users by enabling and setting limits for mail storage on your server. You can also set individual mail quotas in the Users pane. Individual user quotas override global quotas for all users. If a user exceeds the quota, the server prevents mail delivery for that user.

• To set a default quota for all users, select Mail in the Server app sidebar, select “Limit mail to MB per user,” then enter the limit.

• To set a quota for an individual user, select Users in the Server app sidebar, Control-click the user’s name, then select Edit Mail Options, then enter the limit.

You can forward a user’s mail to another email address using mail options.

1. Select Users in the Server app sidebar.

2. Control-click a user, click the pop-up menu at the bottom of the pane, then select Edit Mail Options.

3. Choose forwarded from the “Mail should be” pop-up menu.

4. Enter a forwarding email address, then click OK.

Use the Server app to enable a group mailing list through the group services settings.

1. Select Groups in the Server app sidebar.

2. Double-click a group name, or click the Action pop-up menu , then choose Edit Group.

3. Select Enable group mailing list.

   You use the listed address to email all members of the group.

4. Click Done to save your changes.