Mail Server - noreply@... address and Dummy mailbox and Auto-Responder message?

[Scott Keen]

I have a Dummy mailbox called "noreply@..." for my domain.

Desired Behavior

I want a Dummy mailbox to auto-respond to anyone sending email to it with an Auto-Responder message such as, "This is mailbox does not receive email. Please call nnn-nnn-nnnn for assistance, or send an email to support@..."

This needs to be at the mailbox or domain level, because each mailbox or domain may have a different auto-respond message, and the noreply@... mailbox needs to be a Dummy so it does not receive and store email.

Observed Behavior

If i set the mailbox to Dummy and enable the auto-responder message, any mail sent to the mailbox is not received, as expected. But the auto-responder message is not sent.

Can this be done?

Thanks,

Scott

[ArGoSoft Products]

Hi Scott,

The idea of "dummy" account is that it is "dummy".  It does not do anything.  It pretends to be there, but actually does not do any processing.

Your suggestion - I guess, it could be done, and I will consider it.

Archie

[Scott Keen]

Hi Archie. I'm just trying to find the best way to setup up a "noreply@..." account that does not receive mail and auto-responds with a message if someone sends a message to it. 

I have some customers with noreply@... mailboxes for sending out SMTP, but they don't want the mailbox to receive email and if someone does send email to it, then it auto-responds.

Thanks for considering it.

[ArGoSoft Products]

I just looked at the code, and it seems it will be pretty easy to send back auto response from "dummy" account, as long as Autoresponder is enabled.

I will put it in the next pre-release.  Will email you when ready.

Archie

[ArGoSoft Products]

The build at

https://www.argosoft.com/rootpages/Prereleases

Will be returning auto responses from "dummy" accounts, if autoresponder is enabled.

Archie

[Scott Keen]

Hi Archie,

Thanks for doing this, that was fast. I'm going to upgrade my Mail Server this weekend and I'll write back how the changes go for this and the IMAP/993 change too.

[Scott Keen]

Hi Archie

In installed 1.3.0.2 from the Prereleases link but the auto-responder for Dummy accounts doesn't seem to work.

Do I have it setup correctly?

[ArGoSoft Products]

Hi Scott,

Can you make sure that Email Address on the Web Interface page is specified?

And, if it still does not work, can you send mail to that address, and send me a portion of log around that time?

Thanks

Archie

[Scott Keen]

Hi Archie,

Yes, I had the email address already specified on the Web Interface page.

But then that made me think you are needing the ArGoSoftMailServerWeb service to be running. You are using a component library in ArGoSoftMailServerWeb? I have the AGS Mail Server Web service Disabled because I am hosting some websites on port 80 and 443 in IIS. I found out if I stop my IIS web server and enabled AGS Mail Server Web service, then the auto-responder works for the Dummy mailbox.

But I still need to run my IIS web server on port 80 and 443 for my websites.

I figured out a workaround:

Enable AGS Mail Server Web service on a different port, like 8080 and 4443. I did not need to open these ports on the gateway firewall (external gateway).

Then I can still use port 80 and 443 with IIS.

Archie, I'm not sure if requiring AGS Mail Server Web to be enabled is what you intended for sending auto-responder for Dummy mailbox, but this workaround works so that I can still use IIS.

Thanks,

Scott

[ArGoSoft Products]

There is no need to enable Web Interface.  The server just needs to know which email address to use when sending auto response.

I am not sure why enabling web interface made any difference.

[Scott Keen]

I tested it like 3 times. It only worked if I enabled the Web service.

[Scott Keen]

Well, Archie, I guess I must be imagining things... I tried to reproduce the anomaly and now it works with Web service stopped. I swear it wasn't working earlier, only if I turned on Web service. Maybe a coincidence. That's why I kept turning things on and off, disabling and enabling Web service and IIS, trying to figure out why it didn't work. There was always the email address in the User/WebInterface tab, I did not change that.

The only things I changed for the noreply@... mailbox to clean it up:

• Web Interface tab / "Sent Items" folder name field = Changed it from "Sent Items" to "Sent"
  
  
• Anti-Spam tab / "Spam" folder (used by SpamAssassin) field = Changed it from "Spam" to "Junk"
  
  
• Filters tab / "Junk" folder field = Changed it from (empty) to "Junk"

Those probably had no effect?

Well, sorry for false alarm on this, not sure what happened but it looks to be working as expected now with Web service disabled. Thanks.

[ArGoSoft Products]

Possibly your account sent auto response earlier, and it was no expired.

The server stores expiry time, not the time when response was sent, and even if you change the time of Do Not Send to the Same Address settings later, it will affect only new responses, not to ones sent earlier.

Anyway, what is the most important - it is working.

Archie