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Can GFI MailEssentials be accessed via the Internet?

Author: Luis Fernandes Updated

Answer

GFI MailEssentials exposes certain features via a web site which is hosted in Windows' web server Internet Information Services (IIS). Users can manage their own Spam e-mails through the GFI MailEssentials Spam Quarantine, as well as add emails to Whitelists and Blacklists using the GFI MailEssentials SpamTag for Microsoft Outlook. 

If the environment is configured in a way that this web site is reachable via the Internet, users with laptops can access those MailEssentials features even if not connected to the local network. 

After the installation of GFI MailEssentials the web site and IIS are prepared to be accessed from the local network. In most cases only three additional steps are required to publish the web site in the internet:
  1. Configure NAT on your firewall; create a Port Forwarding rule which routes traffic from the Internet to the IP of the MailEssentials server
  2. Setup a public DNS record for the MailEssentials web site e.g. spam.yourdomain.com and point it to the external firewall IP address
  3. Setup a local DNS record for the same hostname (f.e. spam.yourdomain.com) to point to the local MailEssentials server IP address

All of these topics refer to the specific network environment therefore no details are listed here. From a high level point of view the following should be considered:
  • Can the server be configured with a public IP address that is routable on the Internet? 
  • If the server is located in a Network Address Translate (NAT) environment with a private IP address, Port Forwarding could be configured on the NAT device (router / firewall) to the GFI server
  • Should the connection be encrypted using HTTPS instead of HTTP?
  • If the server is exposed to the Internet please ensure that it is hardened, secured as well as that current Windows Updates are regularly applied
  • Configure the client software (e.g. the Outlook SpamTag) to connect to the server using the URL which can be reached via the Internet as well as internally when connected to the local network
  • An alternative to expose the web page publicly would be to have clients connect to the network via VPN and then connect to the MailEssentials servers through the secured VPN tunnel
  • If MailEssentials is installed in a DMZ, quarantined emails can be previewed and released from the MailEssentials Spam Quarantine using the links from the MailEssentials Spam Digest. Direct access to the GFI MailEssentials Spam Quarantine and MailEssentials SpamTag requires MailEssentials to be installed in Active Directory user mode.


Note: Assistance by the GFI technical support team in regard of this topic is limited as network configuration falls outside of the scope of GFI. 

 



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MailEssentials::Anti-Spam::Anti-Spam Filters mailessentials_anti_spam_anti_spam_filters
MailEssentials::Anti-Spam::Anti-Spam Settings mailessentials_anti_spam_anti_spam_settings
MailEssentials::Anti-Spam::Public Folder Scanning mailessentials_anti_spam_public_folder_scanning
MailEssentials::Anti-Spam::Spam Actions mailessentials_anti_spam_spam_actions
MailEssentials::Anti-Spam::Spam Digest mailessentials_anti_spam_spam_digest
MailEssentials::Anti-Spam::SpamTag mailessentials_anti_spam_spamtag
MailEssentials::Content Filtering mailessentials_content_filtering
MailEssentials::Email Management mailessentials_email_management
MailEssentials::Email Security::Email Exploit Engine mailessentials_email_security_email_exploit_engine
MailEssentials::Email Security::HTML Sanitizer mailessentials_email_security_html_sanitizer
MailEssentials::Email Security::Information Store Protection mailessentials_email_security_information_store_protection
MailEssentials::Email Security::Trojan and Executable Scanner mailessentials_email_security_trojan_and_executable_scanner
MailEssentials::Email Security::Virus Scanning Engines mailessentials_email_security_virus_scanning_engines
MailEssentials::General Settings::Access Control mailessentials_general_settings_access_control
MailEssentials::General Settings::Licensing mailessentials_general_settings_licensing
MailEssentials::General Settings::Local Domains mailessentials_general_settings_local_domains
MailEssentials::General Settings::Notification Templates mailessentials_general_settings_notification_templates
MailEssentials::General Settings::Product Updates mailessentials_general_settings_product_updates
MailEssentials::General Settings::Proxy Settings mailessentials_general_settings_proxy_settings
MailEssentials::General Settings::Scanning Manager mailessentials_general_settings_scanning_manager
MailEssentials::General Settings::SMTP Virtual Server bindings mailessentials_general_settings_smtp_virtual_server_bindings
MailEssentials::GFI Directory mailessentials_gfi_directory
MailEssentials::Import/Export Tool mailessentials_import_export_tool
MailEssentials::Install/Uninstall mailessentials_install_uninstall
MailEssentials::Multi-Server mailessentials_multi_server
MailEssentials::POP2Exchange mailessentials_pop2exchange
MailEssentials::Quarantine gfi_comp_mailessentials_quarantine
MailEssentials::Reports mailessentials_reports
MailEssentials::Services mailessentials_services
MailEssentials::Switchboard mailessentials_switchboard
MailEssentials::Upgrade mailessentials_upgrade
MailEssentials::Web Interface mailessentials_web_interface