EduLink One - Anyone use it as their sole email / texting system?

[tj2419]

Does anyone use EduLink One as their sole parent email / text system? We currently use the app for attendance, house points etc etc but not the communicator side.

 

If you use it as your sole provider who doe you use for your email service provider with it? Do you just use your GSuite/Office 365 details or anther third party provider.

Do you find it reliable? Do your emails always get delivered to all recipients etc?

 

Who do you use for texting with it?

 

I like the idea of using just Edulink One as all our communication methods but when we tried using GSuite as the mail provider in it, it was a little hit and miss if parents received the email.

 

Thanks

[tj2419]

No one using the email / texting side of EduLink One?

[synaesthesia]

We're just about to start using it, we've intended to for a while but have concentrated on using the app for prep etc.

[jthompson]

We're just about to start using it for email. We're using it with G Suite and have configured an SMTP relay service on G Suite for it, so we can use the various reply-to options that EduLink offers. We've been using InTouch until now, so having the ability for staff to get email replies directly into the Gmail, rather than in SIMS, will be nice.

Still working out the delivery speed when there are lots (100s) of email recipients, but there are no issues so far with emails not being delivered. Still also trying to nail down the implications of Gmail sending limits on our wider use of it.

[tj2419]

We're just about to start using it for email. We're using it with G Suite and have configured an SMTP relay service on G Suite for it, so we can use the various reply-to options that EduLink offers. We've been using InTouch until now, so having the ability for staff to get email replies directly into the Gmail, rather than in SIMS, will be nice.

Still working out the delivery speed when there are lots (100s) of email recipients, but there are no issues so far with emails not being delivered. Still also trying to nail down the implications of Gmail sending limits on our wider use of it.

 

Yeah, that's my concern with using gsuite or office 365. We once got blocked by microsoft as they thought we were spamming people years ago when we were just sending a lot of all student emails.

[jthompson]

For G Suite, the sending limits are all documented online. It's just working out whether we're likely to come anywhere near them that's a bit of a headscratcher. Our staff love love love to send messages to all of the students in the school

[RobFuller]

Just started using it here, hoping to cut the SMS bill compared to InTouch come "snow days" as the option to App Alert first then fall back to SMS in a winner, we are pushing hard to make sure people have the app installed!

Emailing is nice that the messages come from you rather than via a third party, much more professional looking, the same applies for SMS as well. Very please thus far!

 

Note, we are sending via O365 which appears to have a 10,000 recipients per day limit on our plan level.

Edited October 8, 2018 by RobFuller

[mavhc]

Make sure it's properly setup with DKIM and SPF

[tj2419]

Make sure it's properly setup with DKIM and SPF

 

Any pointers how to do this in office 365? Thanks

[mavhc]

Well, you do it on your public dns server, need to get the IPs Edulink uses to send email and add them, in addition to the O365 ones

[tj2419]

Apparently all the email is sent direct from Office 365 servers not EduLink's. hmmm. We sent one message and office 365 disabled the account for spam but looks like it is just something on our setup.

[jthompson]

Apparently all the email is sent direct from Office 365 servers not EduLink's. hmmm. We sent one message and office 365 disabled the account for spam but looks like it is just something on our setup.

 

In our Google setup, we've configured an SMTP relay service (something that's available in G Suite Gmail settings) specifically for use with EduLink. It includes the EduLink IP address that the relay should accept SMTP connections from, along with some user credentials that are also plumbed into the settings on EduLink. You'll be able to get the relevant IP address(es) if you ask someone at EduLink. I'm not familiar with O365 but I would imagine a similar setup is possible.

 

The alternative is to set up your own mail relay, allow connections to it from EduLink, and include it as appropriate in your domain records (to list it as a valid source of email for your domain).

[tj2419]

In our Google setup, we've configured an SMTP relay service (something that's available in G Suite Gmail settings) specifically for use with EduLink. It includes the EduLink IP address that the relay should accept SMTP connections from, along with some user credentials that are also plumbed into the settings on EduLink. You'll be able to get the relevant IP address(es) if you ask someone at EduLink. I'm not familiar with O365 but I would imagine a similar setup is possible.

 

The alternative is to set up your own mail relay, allow connections to it from EduLink, and include it as appropriate in your domain records (to list it as a valid source of email for your domain).

 

Is there a guide on how to do this as I could use our gmail account to set it up instead so it works in the same way. Or some screen shots from yours?

 

Also are you able to send me the EduLink IP address so I can check with them if it is the same for us?

 

Thanks

Edited November 12, 2018 by tj2419

[jthompson]

Is there a guide on how to do this as I could use our gmail account to set it up instead so it works in the same way. Or some screen shots from yours?

 

Also are you able to send me the EduLink IP address so I can check with them if it is the same for us?

 

Thanks

 

Here's the official Google guidance on setting up an SMTP relay service in your G Suite domain - https://support.google.com/a/answer/2956491?hl=en. We created a dedicated user in our G Suite domain specifically to authenticate with the SMTP relay service (it's only used for the authentication, not as the sending address or anything). 'Step 2: Point your on-premise outbound server to Google' is the bit where you'd be configuring your settings in EduLink.

 

Here's a screenshot of the G Suite end...

 

and the EduLink end.

[tj2419]

Here's the official Google guidance on setting up an SMTP relay service in your G Suite domain - https://support.google.com/a/answer/2956491?hl=en. We created a dedicated user in our G Suite domain specifically to authenticate with the SMTP relay service (it's only used for the authentication, not as the sending address or anything). 'Step 2: Point your on-premise outbound server to Google' is the bit where you'd be configuring your settings in EduLink.

 

Here's a screenshot of the G Suite end...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]50927[/ATTACH]

 

and the EduLink end.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]50928[/ATTACH]

 

Sorry hopefully last question, did you create the SMTP relay service which the root organisation was selected on the left?

 

Thanks

[jthompson]

Yes, I think you can only create them at the root organisation level.

[SouthCoastSaint]

we are just about to trial Edulink. Does anyone know if it will send a push notification to the app for detentions?

[tj2419]

we are just about to trial Edulink. Does anyone know if it will send a push notification to the app for detentions?

Yes, you can configure in under notifications and choose push, email, SMS.

[tj2419]

Yes, I think you can only create them at the root organisation level.

 

Just noticed that since making this change emails working fine in edulink but some suppliers are reporting our work emails now going into their spam and some are bouncing back completely.

[mavhc]

Sounds like you've removed your normal IPs from the approved senders list, send an email to your home account and check the headers

[jthompson]

Yeah sounds like a an issue with SPF, DKIM (and possibly DMARC if you have that configured at all). First thing to check is that the SPF record in your domain name's DNS records includes all the necessary IP addresses. Office365 and G Suite will be able to tell you what needs to be entered into your SPF record for each of those. One SPF record for all of it. You won't need the EduLink IP address in there - that's only needed in the settings for your GMail SMTP relay service.

If other email services (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.) are receiving email from you, but it's come from a source that isn't listed in your domain's SPF record, they'll consider it as not legitimate and will start scoring it as spam.

 

This will tell you if you're missing anything from your SPF for Gmail - https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/checkmx/

Edited November 27, 2018 by jthompson

[pooley]

Anyone get this working with an O365 email account ?

 

I have checked the account details but users aren't receiving emails.

 

Si

[Chrish5]

I did have it working with 365 but as mentioned by others the account kept getting blocked because it was sending so much so we've since switched to GovNotify for e-mails but that has other issues (no attachments and replies can't go back to the original sender, has to be one specific e-mail address).

[StephenPink]

We use Edulink (again still alongside SIMS Intouch) for emailing, but we do every so often hit the 10,000 in a 24-hour period sending limits. Had to write some Powershell to alert the data team when they are approaching the limit so they can inform staff.

 

All works well enough, but depends on how much your site sends out!

 

Cheers

[jthompson]

We use Edulink (again still alongside SIMS Intouch) for emailing, but we do every so often hit the 10,000 in a 24-hour period sending limits. Had to write some Powershell to alert the data team when they are approaching the limit so they can inform staff.

 

All works well enough, but depends on how much your site sends out!

 

Cheers

 

Similar here. We use Gmail, so I have some Apps Script which regularly checks the number of messages sent from the mailbox during the last 24 hours and posts it into a Sheets file. There's then a chart in that Sheets file which I've embedded into a Sites page for staff to check before sending any emails with ~100+ recipients.