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E-mail

Information about Rhombic Networks' e-mail services.

Do you check SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records?

Samat - Saturday, December 1, 2007 - 13:21 Tags: •  •  • 

Yes, we check SPF (Sender Policy Framework) DNS records before a message is accepted.

Messages that pass the SPF check, or messages that “soft fail” the SPF check (i.e. no SPF DNS record for the domain exists) will be delivered.

Messages that “hard fail” the SPF check (i.e. are sent from e-mail servers not specified in their SPF record) will be rejected before they can enter Rhombic Networks’ mail processing queue, reducing the amount of spam our users get.

I get the error "There is no root certificate for this server" when trying to check my e-mail with Mail.app

Samat - Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 19:49 Tags: • 

If you’re using Apple’s Mac OS X and Mail.app and try to check your e-mail via IMAP, you may intermittently get the error:

There is no root certificate for this server.

and:

This certificate was signed by an unknown authority

which can be seen in this screenshot:

Mail.app certificate error

Our certificates are valid, signed SSL certificates, so this appears to be an obscure, hard-to-reproduce bug with OS X not being able to authenticate their validity. This can be fixed by installing the necessary SSL root certificates into your OS X installation. Download both these files to your desktop:

Once downloaded, you can install them into MacOS X by dragging the files to the Keychain application (located in /Library/Applications/Utilities).

Do you support "catch-all" e-mail addresses?

Samat - Friday, January 20, 2006 - 22:46 Tags: • 

No, Rhombic Networks do not support “catch-all” accounts.

We do not support these type of accounts because they cause a significant increase in the amount of spam a domain receives. You should plan out what e-mail addresses that you need and create the required accounts/aliases instead.

However, given a request and valid reason, we can still set up a catch-all account for your domain.

How do I send e-mail?

Samat - Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 00:06 Tags: • 

SMTP Server

Rhombic Networks provides authenticated SMTP over TLS/SSL for sending e-mail.

Configure your e-mail client’s SMTP server to mail.rhombic.net. Enable authentication, using your Rhombic Networks login information as your username and password.

If the location you are at lets you connect to remote servers at port 25, use TLS. If it does not, you will need to use SSL and port 465. This is configurable in most e-mail clients.

Misconfiguring anything will result in error messages such as “Relaying Denied,” so double check everything if it does not work.

Outbox folder

If you do not have access to Rhombic Networks’ e-mail server, you can send e-mails by using the Outbox folder.

In your Inbox, create an Outbox folder.

When done writing your message, save your message into this Outbox folder. Messages saved or copied into this folder will be sent by the Rhombic Networks’ e-mail server, without the need for a working SMTP server with your client.

For more documentation on this, see Sending mail via an IMAP connection, part of the Courier IMAPd documentation.

How do I check my e-mail?

Samat - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 23:55 Tags: • 

Rhombic Networks supports e-mail access using IMAP over SSL (port 993), as well as through a web interface.

We do NOT support IMAP with TLS, nor normal unencrypted IMAP.

Please check the Internet for your specific client configuration.

IMAP mail server: mail.rhombic.net

What RBLs (realtime blackhole lists) are used to filter e-mail?

Samat - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 06:22 Tags: •  • 

Rhombic Networks uses the following fairly conservative RBLs when checking incoming messages:

How does Rhombic Networks reduce e-mail spam?

Samat - Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 06:21 Tags: •  •  • 

Our anti-spam countermeasures can be divided into two types: pre-acceptance and post-acceptance. Pre-acceptance methods are used before our systems accept an e-mail—if the check fails, you do not receive the e-mail. Post-acceptance methods are used after a system accepts an e-mail—if the check fails, it will be marked as spam and placed into your inbox’s “Spam” folder.

The pre-acceptance methods we use include:

  • realtime blackhole lists
  • greylisting
  • SPF DNS record checks

For post-acceptance spam filtering, we use SpamAssassin and Bogofilter.

If you are only forwarding mail to an e-mail account hosted elsewhere from Rhombic Networks, e-mail will only go through pre-acceptance checks. If your mail arrives to a Rhombic Networks-hosted Inbox, it will also go through post-acceptance checking.

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