IMail® List Owner's Manual

This manual was last updated on: 11-28-06 Anti-Spam Policy

Throughout this manual, replace domain with the domain used by the list (e.g. bizhelps.com), replace listname with the name of the list (e.g. ClientNewsletter), and replace subscribedAddress with the email address used to subscribe to the list (e.g. chris@whathelps.com). The List Address is the email address one sends their email to in order to have it distributed to the list's subscribers. The List Address is a combination of the listname and the domain used by the list (e.g. ClientNewsletter@bizhelps.com). Sending an email to the List Address is sometimes referred to as "posting to the list." In IMail®, the terms "administrator", "owner" and "moderator" are interchangeable.

We use IMail® 2000. IMail® is a registered trademark owned by IPSwitch. To view the IMail® List Server Online Help file provided by IPSwitch, click here.

Overview

An email list can be a mailing list (a.k.a announcement list, newsletter) - where only the list owner can send mail to everyone subscribed to the list, or discussion list - where everyone subscribed to the list can receive mail from and send mail to all other subscribers. Think of mailing lists as one-way communications and discussion lists as two-way communications. Email lists are widely used on the Web to share and distribute information.

Lists can be completely open -- allowing postings by anyone Lists can be public, meaning anyone can get on the list by subscribing to it Lists can be private. A private list does not accept a subscribe command; only the list administrator can add people to the list. Lists can be unmoderated (any message sent to the list is immediately posted to all users on the list) or moderated (all messages are viewed, and then posted, by the list administrator/moderator) Postings to the list can be further controlled by using a password Messages to a list can be accumulated and periodically mailed out as a digest The list administrator can enter an identifying text string to appear on the subject line of all messages (and/or a digest) posted to the list The list administrator can enter header or trailer text (containing information such as the subscribe and unsubscribe instructions) to appear with all messages (and/or a digest) posted to the list A Posters can be added. Email addresses designated as Posters can post to the list without subscribing and without going through a moderator. They must, however, use the list password, if applicable.

List Management

IMail® List Management Tools are located in the IMail® List Manager. To access your IMail® List Manager, login to your Account Manager, click the Email List Manager link, then click IMail® List Manager link. We recommend you use your IMail® List Manager to manage your list, because this management interface is integrated with our database. Therefore, changes you make will properly display in your IMail® List Manager.

You can access WebMail List Administration by logging into WebMail at http://mail.webhelps.com/Iclient using the Admin's email address and then clicking the List Admin (Web Admin if using a custom domain) link near the top right corner of the WebMail screen. With the exception of Archives management, you can perform almost all list management functions from WebMail. The Archives feature, however, can only be managed via the IMail® List Manager. In the event your IMail® List Manager is inaccessible, WebMail List Administration provides an excellent workaround.

Types of Lists

Open List Anyone Can Post Anyone can post to the list by sending an email addressed to listname@domain.com Anyone can become a subscriber by sending an email addressed to imail@domain.com with subscribe listname firstname lastname entered in the body of the message

Subscriber List Only Subscribers Can Post Anyone can become a subscriber by sending an email addressed to imail@domain.com with subscribe listname firstname lastname entered in the body of the message Subscribers can post by addressing an email to listname@domain.com from their subscribedAddress

Moderated Lists Only the List Moderator/Administrator or a Poster Can Post Only the moderator/administrator or a Poster can post by sending an email addressed to listname@domain.com from the Admin's or Poster's email address Emails sent to the list by anyone other than the moderator/administrator or a Poster (see below) are forwarded to the Admin's mailbox for review and forwarding to the List Address if the email is acceptable The moderator/administrator can forward an email to the List Address for distribution to subscribers, after making any changes to the email deemed necessary. Or the moderator/administrator can delete or return an email, thereby preventing it from being distributed to the list. If the moderator/administrator has set a policy for the list that emails containing certain words or phrases will not be accepted for distribution to subscribers, he/she can use the Inbound Rules tool in the Admin's WebMail to automate the rejection of these emails.

Posting to a List

To post to a list, a subscriber sends an email to the List Address. Example: From: subscribedAddress To: listname@domain Subject: India Pale Ale ... body of message ...

Passwords

The posting of messages to each type of list (see above) can be restricted by enabling a password requirement. Everyone, including the list owner/administrator and Posters (see below), must use the password to post to a password-protected list. This prevents non-subscribers from "impersonating" subscribers by using their email addresses. If Use Password is enabled, anyone not using the password will have their posts automatically returned. The list administrator is notified of the attempt to post If Use Password is enabled, even the moderator of a moderated list must enter the password when forwarding posts to the List Address.

Posting with a Password

To use a password, the first characters in the Subject line must be the password, enclosed by two colons and brackets: From: subscribedAddress To: listname@domain Subject: [:password:] India Pale Ale ... body of message ... Note: Passwords are case-sensitive

Posters

Regardless of the list type (see above), anyone on the Posters List will be able to post to the list. Here are the end results of combining a Posters List with each of the three types of lists: Open List w/Posters List Anyone can post Subscribers List w/Posters List You must be a subscriber OR you must be on the Posters List to post A person on the Posters List can post without being a subscriber. However, a Poster will not receive a copy of his/her posts unless subscribed to the list. Moderated List w/Posters List You must be the list moderator/administrator OR you must be on the Posters List to post Emails sent to the list by a person on the Posters List will go directly to the list, bypassing moderation

Requesting Help or Information by Email

To obtain information about a particular list, send an email to imail@domain. The subject of the email is not important. Put the desired command (see below) in the body of the email (and nothing else). Upon receipt, IMail® will then email the requested information to you. To get general help: help To get help for a specific list: help listname The list administrator can modify this Help file To get a list of subscribers: list listname Only the list owner will be able to get subscriber information, unless the owner has designated otherwise

Subscribing/Unsubscribing

Subscribing

There are several methods available for subscribing to your list: To subscribe via email, send an email addressed to imail@domain. The subject of the email is not important. Put this in the body of the email (and nothing else): Subscribe listname firstname lastname [You must enter something for firstname and lastname, or your subscribe request will be rejected. If you wish to remain anonymous, enter "anonymous" for firstname and "user" for lastname] Use a subscription form. Get the HTML code to put a subscription form on your web site by clicking the Subscription Form link in your IMail® List Manager. You may use the free site that came with your Specialty Package for this, if you do not already have a site with space available for this. Add subscribers one-at-a-time or in bulk by clicking the Subscribers link in your IMail® List Manager Use the online Subscription Manager. You can put a link on your web site or in emails to the Subscription Manager. The code for the link is: <a href="http://lists.whathelps.net/subscriptionmanager.html" target="_blank">Subscription Manager</a>-->

Unsubscribing

There are several methods available for unsubscribing: To unsubscribe via email, send an email from your subscribedAddress to imail@domain. The subject of the email is not important. Put this in the body of the email (and nothing else): Unsubscribe listname As owner/administrator, send an email from your Admin email address to imail@domain. The subject of the email is not important. Put this in the body of the email (and nothing else): Unsubscribe listname subscribedAddress Use an unsubscribe form. Get the HTML code to put an unsubscribe form on your web site by clicking the Subscription Form link in your IMail® List Manager Remove subscribers one-at-a-time by clicking the Subscribers link in your IMail® List Manager Use the online Subscription Manager. You can put a link on your web site or in emails to the Subscription Manager. The code for the link is: <a href="http://lists.whathelps.net/subscriptionmanager.html" target="_blank">Subscription Manager</a> In your IMail® List Manager, enable the option to Allow List Unsubscribes based on Subject line and the option to Reply-To List. When a subscriber receives an email from the list, he/she can reply to the email, changing the Subject to: unsubscribe, remove, or signoff and be removed from the list. It is *not* a good idea to inform subscribers of this option. Invariably, some subscribers will make a mistake and end up sending their unsubscribe request as a post to the list.

There is no way to change a subscription address (subscribedAddress). You must unsubscribe the old address and subscribe the new address.

Digest Mode

Digest Mode gives subscribers the option to periodically receive all messages to the list in a single email. It is most commonly used by discussion lists, but can also be used by newsletters to send a monthly compilation of daily/weekly newsletters to subscribers. To setup your list to allow digest subscriptions, you first enable digest mode, and then you set the digest options: Login to your IMail® List Manager Under Setup List, click Digest Options Choose a name for the Digest Mailbox in WebMail where digest emails will be stored until processed and mailed to Digest subscribers (the "digest posting"). Must be one word. No spaces or special characters. Choose a word or phrase to be used as the Subject of the digest posting Check Strip non-text attachments if you want attachments to be removed from the digest posting Check and specify characters (e.g. +++++++++++) to separate messages in the digest posting Check and specify the text you want added at the beginning of the digest posting Check and specify the text you want added at the end of the digest posting Check Include Headers/Trailers When Posting to Digest Mailbox if you want the headers/footers originally applied to the emails that make up the digest to appear on the digest posting (not recommended) For Periodicity select either a specific time period, or enter a specific size in kilobytes, that will determine when/how often the digest posting will be sent. Busy lists should set a size in kilobytes (a max size of 100kb is optimal) rather than using a time period setting. This prevents the digest from becoming so large that many subscribers will not be able to receive it and many more will not want to take the time to read a huge email. Click the Digest Subscribers link to add/delete the list of users subscribed to the Digest.

Managing the Digest

All posts sent to the List Address are stored in the Digest Mailbox in the Admin's WebMail. The administrator can view all posts and can edit, delete or add emails at any time before the digest is sent. After a digest is sent, the Digest Mailbox is emptied and a copy (folder) is made in the format: digestmailboxMMDD.mbx (where digestmailbox is the name of the Digest Mailbox, MM is the month, and DD is the day the digest was sent to subscribers), containing a copy of the digest. Because you are limited to 10MB of storage space in your Admin WebMail account, you must periodically delete old digest folders. If you do not perform this maintenance regularly, your WebMail will fill up with old digests and new posts sent to the Digest Mailbox will bounce. You can easily download the contents of any folder in your Admin WebMail account to your computer's email program. Follow the instructions at http://webhelps.com/emailinstructions.html for setting up your computer's email program to send/receive email to/from your Admin WebMail account. You can retrieve the contents of a specific digest folder, just like you would from any subfolder.

Digest/No Digest

After you have subscribed to the list, you can use the following email commands to switch to/from digest mode. To enable digest, send an email addressed to imail@domain from your subscribedAddress. The subject of the email is not important. Put this in the body of the email (and nothing else): set mode digest listname To cancel digest, send an email addressed to imail@domain from your subscribedAddress. The subject of the email is not important. Put this in the body of the email (and nothing else): set mode standard listname

Using the List Inbound Rules (Filters)

You may filter emails sent to the List Address against criteria you have defined, and then dispose of emails that match your criteria in several ways. You can have IMail® automatically find emails containing certain text in their To, From, Subject, Header or Body, and then Delete, Forward, Bounce, Copy, or move them to a particular Mailbox. To access this feature, login to your IMail® List Manager and click List Filters under Setup List. If you have not yet created a Filter, click the Create Filter button. Use the steps indicated to create rules from criteria you enter. Alternatively, or if your IMail® List Manager is inaccessible, you can setup Inbound Rules (Filters) for your list via WebMail List Administration. First, login to WebMail at http://mail.webhelps.com/Iclient. Then click the List Admin (Web Admin if using a custom domain) link and select the list you want to work with by clicking the List Name link. Click the Inbound Rules link and follow the online instructions to create your filters.

Removing Bad Email Addresses

A critical, but time-consuming part of list management is the removal of bad email addresses from your list of subscribers. This should be done immediately upon receipt of notification of an invalid address, so no more list mail gets sent to that address. Bounce notifications can quickly fill up an Admin email account and start an infinite email loop that bogs down the mail server, possibly even causing it to crash. We can install, for a one-time per list setup fee, utilities to make removing bad email addresses quick and easy. With this installed: When you receive an bounce notification regarding an "unknown user" or "unknown host," you forward the email to DeleteUnknown-Listname@domain.com and IMail® will automatically remove the subscriber. When you receive an email asking to be removed from the list, you forward the email to RemoveUser-Listname@yourdomain.com and IMail® will automatically remove the subscriber.

Avoiding Infinite Email Loops

Probably the worst possible problem you may encounter with your list is an infinite email loop. When this happens, subscribers receive multiple copies of postings and/or the list administrator receives multiple copies of bounce notifications, etc. The end result can be that all of our customers' email, WebMail, and list mail ceases to be processed. If not caught quickly enough, the email and list servers crashes. It can take hours to clean up a mess created by an infinite email loop.

These are the most common causes of mail loops, and their solutions: Cause. The List Address is subscribed to the list. Solution. Unsubscribe the List Address from the regular subscriber list or the digest subscriber list, or both, as the case may be. Cause. The Admininistrative email account is full (exceeds 10MB) and bounce notices are bouncing. Solution. Empty the Admin email account by logging into WebMail and deleting messages or by downloading the messages in the Admin email account using your computer's email program [instructions/info]. Cause. The list moderator or administrator received an auto-generated email asking the recipient to click on a link or reply to the email to confirm a real person sent a particular post - and the moderator/administrator did what the email asked. Solution. Immediately remove the subscriber whose address generated the email. Other Things That May Cause Infinite Email Loops A list subscriber is using a program like Outlook Express to send mail to the list. The subscriber has setup the account from which he/she sends mail to the list, to have a Reply-To: address that is the same as the List Address. (The Reply-To: field in the account setup should either be blank, or should be the same as the From: address.) Forwarding your list's administrative mail to an email account away from the IMail® server. The receiving email server may mistake the list mail for spam and bounce it back, where it is again forwarded, then bounced back, forwarded, bounced back...

Avoiding Anti-Spam Filters

It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get list mail, which is bulk email, delivered to all/most subscribers due to the proliferation of anti-spam software on the receiving email servers. As a list owner, this will likely be your biggest challenge. Fortunately, there are techniques you can use to increase the likelihood that subscribers will receive their list mail. We have compiled a guide to avoiding anti-spam filters that is important for all list owners to become familiar with, whether using IMail® or any other list server. You will find the guide at: http://webhelps.com/info/avoiding-anti-spam-filters.aspx

Endora Users

Instructions for Disabling Eudora SMTP Check. You will find the guide at: Disable Endora SMTP Check