[sims] FMS - Setting up the Mail Server to Send Electronic Remittance Advices

[Koldov]

Emailing BACS remittance from FMS....

 

So, it's 2019, I've been here about 10 years and I'm just being asked to sort all this out now. I tend to keep out of SIMS/FMS as we have Capita support, but I'm not sure it will cover this!

 

A little search on here seems to suggest that most people had this sorted between 2012 - 2014, but with a lot of people using onsite exchange servers.

 

One or two have had some sort of mail relay with their GfL and a few managed to sort out GMail or Outlook, but I can't find anything specific.

 

We use a third-party email provider (itslearning - which uses an OWA based service, but verified through the itslearning interface).

 

I'm looking for instructions on how to set this up for that scenario if anyone has done it, particularly what to enter in these boxes:

 

 

Or at least how to find this information out...

Edited November 20, 2019 by Koldov

[Edu-IT]

Looks like it is Office365 so option 1 should work.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow-best-practices/how-to-set-up-a-multifunction-device-or-application-to-send-email-using-office-3

[Koldov]

Well, still going round in circles with this I'm afraid...

 

It 'appears' that as we are with LGfL, the 'only' way I can get this to work is to request an email relay to be set up (apparently 'an unauthenticated relay based on IP addresses').

 

Unfortunately I came in to IT rather late and missed the whole running your own Exchange Server and everything was cloud based email, so I'm having trouble getting my head round the need for a relay etc.

 

Now the info that LGfL have asked me for is an IP address of the sending machine (FMS CLIENT?) and the email address to send from...

 

Once they have set this up, I need to put the following details into FMS.

 

Mail Server - (lgfl mailrelay)?

Port Number - (25)?

Use STARTLS Encryption - (no)?

Requires Authentication - (no) so no username and password?

 

Now, can somebody please give me a really simple explanation of how this enables FMS to send an email from our finance Outlook account (i.e. why we don't need a username and password)?

 

Also should these emails be encrypted (and will anything need to change if so)?

Edited November 29, 2019 by Koldov

[Edu-IT]

That is unlikely. Have you tried the SMTP details with an LGFL email address?

[gh5000]

So with the LGfL they restrict you sending out through port 25 and it needs to go through their mail relay. This is to protect against their external IP addresses which are shared between schools potentially being marked as spam.

 

You have two options.

 

1 set up every computer to speak with the lgfl mail relay directly. So in FMS you would set the mail settings but the LGfL would need to know the IP address of every client computer running FMS that will potentially send an email. To make this practical you would probably have to set reserved IP addresses in DHCP. If you get another computer in a year or so it's another ticket to the lgfl to set up.

 

2. You set up an SMTP feature on a Windows server which has a static IP address. You give that IP address to the lgfl. The lgfl allow emails from your domain to be routed through the address. You then set FMS to point to that mail relay on the server. No reserved IP addresses are necessary. That mail relay server can be used for photocopiers and any other internal program needing to send emails.

 

If you still need on Monday I can give you a more step-by-step guide on setting this up

[gh5000]

Note on my step one I think it's the client computers that sends the emails. They aren't routed through the SIMS server (I think but can check Monday)

[mavhc]

Do they block port 587?

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow-best-practices/how-to-set-up-a-multifunction-device-or-application-to-send-email-using-office-3

 

Pretty sure option 1 is what I used. Created a BACS o365 account with long random pw to c&p into FMS

[Koldov]

That is unlikely. Have you tried the SMTP details with an LGFL email address?

 

I didn't try an LGfL email address, mainly because we don't use their email system (and we have already set-up the Finance Team to use the email we created in O365). It 'may' have worked as it would keep it all internal to the LGfL network (?), but as they block port 587, possibly not.

 

Note on my step one I think it's the client computers that sends the emails. They aren't routed through the SIMS server (I think but can check Monday)

 

Yes, it is the client that sends the email (not the server). We have decided for ease of use, to go with the LGfL relay (your Option 1) as it is now set-up and working. The other alternative is to open another support case to have port 587 open for the Finance computer's IP, but I've been told that it isn't necessary to have the email encrypted (also, it appears from LGfL that 'lots of their schools' use this method for FMS).

 

Do they block port 587?

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow-best-practices/how-to-set-up-a-multifunction-device-or-application-to-send-email-using-office-3

 

Pretty sure option 1 is what I used. Created a BACS o365 account with long random pw to c&p into FMS

 

Well, this is from the horse's mouth...

 

"Port 587 is indeed blocked by default which is why this wouldn't have worked. The only ports open by default are 80 and 443, all other ports would need to have a request done."

Edited December 2, 2019 by Koldov

[mavhc]

Main handy thing about Nottingham CC running the school internet, and forcing us to use FMS was they were forced to make sure it all worked together.

 

You don't need a password to send email, it's weird, you can just connect to any smtp server and say you're sending an email from [email protected]

 

Which is why you don't need to put a pw into FMS.

 

Of course that leads to spam, so they're only letting specific from addresses with specific IPs connecting through.