E-Pro: Sys Admin Newsletter Aug 2004
Tags :E-Pro Articles newsletters Domino 6 SPF OOO
Chris's 0.0000936768 XPD
I presented a Webcast for e-ProMag.com last week on spam control in Domino 7. I focused a bit of the presentation on the current initiatives that are being proposed by groups such as Microsoft and Yahoo!. All these proposals share one common thread: to defeat spoofing of the mail domain or server sending the message. None of them addresses the actual message content; but they all hope to curb spam by reducing the amount of mail you receive. Has e-mail moved to the point where so much control has been given to the spammers we now need to know who is calling our mail server before accepting mail? You actually do not screen your phone: people call, and you see who the "header" is using caller ID before opening (answering) the phone right? You don't deny their call up front unless they are known spammers (this would fall under a Do Not Call List in my opinion). Everyone else is dealt with when you get the message.
With Caller-ID, the Microsoft offered product, you have to modify DNS with some new XML to register your sending servers so that when a message is sent, the receiving server knows that the message truly came from a legitimate server, theoretically preventing spoofing. Changes on both ends of the mail system are required for this to work. With Yahoo! you have Domain Keys that are available with DNS to verify that the server signing the message header was the actual sender. This method takes changes on both ends also. Basically, you have to have both ends agree to enable, configure, and use one or all of these selections.
Imagine if a quarter of your customers/partners/suppliers chooses Caller ID, another quarter chooses Domain Keys, another selects Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and then the rest do nothing? How many servers will messaging require? Can one server do all four? Can two even exist on one box? What about outbound versus inbound? How is that configured? I think you see where this is heading.
But the most important part here is even a known domain can spam. Sure the odds are much less, but spammers are getting trickier and taking over a server, or sometimes finding an open one in a trusted domain. I understand the goal is to lighten the load on what the server actually receives, and then scan for content on those messages. It just seems as we create more elaborate means to reduce the mail, the spammer is two steps ahead in planning alternate ways.
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Rearrange the Columns Viewable in the Domino Administrator
A customer sent me an IM today asking a question that threw me off for a moment. The administrator needed to provide a printout of the mailfile templates for all the users with the user name. Well, the Person document viewable in the Domino Administrator does not contain this information. You can get version information from the Person document in Domino 6.x, but not what actual template they are using.
That led us to look further into the Domino Administrator, to see that you can find the template on the Files tab when looking locally or on the server.
However, the column to view the template is way to the right on the screen, far away from the username itself. You are also not able to drag and drop columns in the Domino Administrator. It took me a moment to recall if this was even possible and I just wanted to share where I found it.
From your Notes client, go to File, Preferences, Administration Preferences, and then select Files on the left. You will see all the columns that are available to view. Of course, just to the right is the columns you are actually using. You can move them in and out of your Domino Administrator with a simple arrow selection. Amazingly, I never realized the little arrows below that allow you to reorder the columns any way you desire. I never minded the default setup myself, but I can see the need to reorganize them in certain circumstances. So a few clicks and there was the order they needed.
But (there is always a but here isn't there?) you can neither print nor export from the Files tab on the Domino Administrator. You may be able to take screenshots, or create a custom view in the Domino Directory, but exporting the necessary information is not possible from the Domino Administrator.
One other tip, if you have the Domino Administrator open when you make the column changes, you will not see them right away. The Domino Administrator must be restarted to see the new column selections and order.
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Domino 6 Out of Office Agent
The Out of Office (OOO) agent in Domino 6 seems to be a hot topic recently. There was a design change made that will not allow anyone but the calendar profile owner to enable the OOO as shown in Figure 1. This has caused concern for many enterprises that if a user goes out of town, or on extended sick leave, they won't be able to go in and enable the agent for that user. Since e-mail, as we know, is now a huge part of business processes, missing that important e-mail could cost the company money. Enabling the OOO for someone else was previously possible through Domino 5 though.
In fact, the actual menu item under Tools, Out of Office is now missing unless you are the database owner.
Of course, as always, there is a way around this. The administrator can go to the mail file and sign the agent to run on behalf of another user (the database owner). Unfortunately this is not 'user friendly' and common knowledge. It would be great of Lotus to offer, as an option in the delegation selections, to have someone else have the ability to enable/disable the OOO for users, such as an assistant, help desk, or department manager.
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On Thursday, August 12th, 2004 by Chris Miller
