GrumbleDook Posted September 28, 2011 Posted September 28, 2011 More work is being done to enable local access for Northants schools ... there will be an update on this tomorrow. Thanks to synaesthesia and others for their perseverance and for working with embc / Synetrix.
GrumbleDook Posted October 3, 2011 Posted October 3, 2011 Apologies for the delay in getting this out to folk. Northants schools can now access the Mail Marshall admin console if they want to and there are 3 ways to do it. 1 - Go directly to the web page and login with the user details you can get from the desk. 2 - Login to the Admin area of the EMBC portal and click on the SSO link. The first time it will ask for your login details (gained from the desk) and then take you in. 3 - Login to the EMBC portal, go to SUMS and click on the link from there to go straight in. I would recommend you ring the desk anyway to get you login details (which can be given to the technical or admin contact for the school, or to the Head ... it might also be an idea to check you details are up to date at the same time) as they will also give you the user manual ... without getting into the granny / egg-sucking situation, I would recommend you read the manual. Other LAs are sharing similar information via their standard communication routes so keep an eye out. If I get any other feedback today about how things are going with other MM changes I'll stick them up when I can. 1
synaesthesia Posted October 4, 2011 Author Posted October 4, 2011 Another quick query. Is it possible to have the ability to release emails that EMBC globally class as Spam? We've had 2 blocked in the last couple of days - thankfully as the text is still visible I can copy & paste it in an email to intended recipients but a release option would be nifty. 1
GrumbleDook Posted October 4, 2011 Posted October 4, 2011 Global Rules apply across EMBC and so are controlled by the desk only. We did have a long discussion about this at a recent tech meeting and the idea is that by calling the desk to get things released there is a better chance of continuing the get the rules tweaked so it doesn't get caught by them in the future. The same applies to viruses as well. In Northants we are also looking at whether certain domains might need to be globally allowed on the scanning of encrypted attachments. At the moment there is a view (held for a number of years) that if you can't scan a file how do we know it can be trusted? Some of the other LAs are more trusting as they know that there is better chance of up to date AV software and allow things like LA.gov.uk emails through ... but we don't, at the moment. This does cause some problems right now so we are looking at what might happen should we take a similar approach, remembering that the most commonly caught things are actually items which should not just be emailed about (even encrypted) but be uploaded via secure file transfer systems ... and this also applies to schools who are using external HR / Pay solutions too ... We don't like to dictate to schools (no ... stop laughing ...) but we are trying to be reasonable about what the impact might be on all schools should we make a change.
synaesthesia Posted October 4, 2011 Author Posted October 4, 2011 Cheers GD. Myself and Terry were pondering about encrypted attachments and obviously there is always a risk of "if you don't know what's inside, how do we know it's safe" - much like "suspect packages" when the bomb disposal squads are dispatched. And of course if you add an exclusion for certain domains, who's to say that a little tweakery of the headers can't bypass that (so it looks like mail is being sent from a trusted domain when it's not, commonly used in phishing scams) Will email through future globally blocked stuff to service desk, that shouldn't be an issue. Perhaps it's worth the consideration that even by giving schools the ability to control that/pass those messages through, the provider will still be able to monitor/audit those actions and use that in the same way to tweak the rules if necessary. You raise a good point about the documents that shouldn't be emailed anyway - that's certainly a user education thing rather than a need to "fix what isn't broken" our/ISP's end. I can't agree more about everyone being reasonable about it - it's good to have someone that listens to what's being said and it's only fair that schools do the same in return - it will benefit everyone in the long run. 1
synaesthesia Posted October 5, 2011 Author Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) Today we are entirely without email as another rule has gone tits up, deleting *every* email coming in or going out. Still can't understand why the same rule to quarantine works but as soon as "quarantine" is replaced with "delete" (certain obvious types of spam to help manage it better) it sees fit to apply it to every single rule. So my tip for today - DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SET UP ANY RULES TO STRAIGHT DELETE EMAILS! Currently going through the docs with a fine toothcome however I checked and double checked the rule before setting it last night, as did my NM. Still though, it fails. Gonzodad: can you PM me the contact details of the dev chappy from MailMarshal - I think a rule sanity check should almost certainly be in place for this sort of eventuality. *** Edit : Ohh someone at EMBC loves us and has managed to give it a poke by the looks of it! We're now back in business. When I break things, I do it properly! Edited October 5, 2011 by synaesthesia
gonzodad Posted October 5, 2011 Posted October 5, 2011 Hi - the dev chap is one of ours, he is already aware of your issue. 2
GrumbleDook Posted October 5, 2011 Posted October 5, 2011 I'm thinking that a bit more of a hands-on webinar might be needed on some of this rather than waiting for the next NetworkNorthants meeting.
synaesthesia Posted October 5, 2011 Author Posted October 5, 2011 I agree - it could possibly be too in-depth for the NN meeting - but hopefully with a better turnout than the conference call. 1
GrumbleDook Posted October 6, 2011 Posted October 6, 2011 The user guide is now updated and available from the EMBC technical library. 2
Edu-IT Posted October 14, 2011 Posted October 14, 2011 This used to be so easy on the old system! We're doing some work and I need to force all emails to stay in the filter until I manually clear them through. How can I do this? I tried using the 'park' rule but it seems not to work. Unless rules don't come into affect until some time after?
gonzodad Posted October 14, 2011 Posted October 14, 2011 yes, currently certain changes don't come into affect immediately. call the service desk and they can confirm the method you are doing is correct.
Edu-IT Posted October 14, 2011 Posted October 14, 2011 I did and it wasn't something they've done before, but, pointed me in right direction so I'm trying what they've said.
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