Unitrends and Office365
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@Dashrender said:
@ajstringham UH WHAT? I'm not sure how adhoc AD came into this?
email is a point to point protocol - sent by you to one or more other points. When you send an email from your Outlook client it goes to an Exchange server who then makes a MX call for the destination server, then connects to said server, who then waits for their client to pick up the mail.
My question is, Why does Outlook (or any end user client) need to send to a local(ish) server first (i.e. Exchange or your ISP's email server, etc) other than providing flow control or SPF abilities or other business related requires (think saving all copies of email sent and received in a company), it isn't required. Outlook can use SMTP to send the email itself to the end users email server directly because it understand how to talk SMTP - which by default has ZERO authentication - (think about it, my exchange server does not authentic with NTG's when I send you an email. At best NTG's server checks a SPF record and allows email to come from my server based on the SPF lookup, otherwise there's no authentication what so ever.)
Now I can understand why a company would want their email clients (outlook/thunderbird, etc) to go through a centralized outbound SMTP because of the aforementioned controls it provides. But what I don't understand is why manufactures like Unitrends don't make life easy for themselves and just install a full blown SMTP server in their devices that can deliver mail without the help of an outside SMTP host/relay.
I suppose some might say - well someone could compromise that unitrends box and start using it to relay spam - is that really that much more of a risk than your Exchange server? Especially when it only sends and doesn't receive therefore there's no reason for any holes in the firewall to gain access to that box?I could probably go on and on.. but I need to get back to solving my MediaWiki issue.
They do have a full blown SMTP server (Sendmail) installed. It is just crippled. They have all the overhead of a full server. Any normal Linux box does.
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@ajstringham said:
@Dashrender You're talking about using a program that you use to view email as a server. Outlook is basically just a GUI to Exchange or whoever's email you're connecting. What you're saying just makes no sense. I'm sorry.
Only sort of. Outlook is only unable to send SMTP as hoc peer to peer because it uses a single SMTP destination rather than an MX lookup. Or is a few lines of code away from doing that. But doing so would obviously be bad.
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@scottalanmiller And that's my point. At best, in the consumer world, you gain nothing. At worst, in the business world, you lose everything. This feature should not exist. If it does, it should never be used.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@ajstringham said:
@Dashrender You're talking about using a program that you use to view email as a server. Outlook is basically just a GUI to Exchange or whoever's email you're connecting. What you're saying just makes no sense. I'm sorry.
Only sort of. Outlook is only unable to send SMTP as hoc peer to peer because it uses a single SMTP destination rather than an MX lookup. Or is a few lines of code away from doing that. But doing so would obviously be bad.
Exactly. Now I can see how this would be bad from a business perspective, but from a consumer one I don't necessarily agree.
The reason I think the consumer should have the option is because of the possibility of censorship. Your ISP's SMTP server gets to choose what is and isn't forwarded on. If you take them out of it, you gain that control back.
FYI I'm a pretty big personal rights person.
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I brought all of this up originally thinking that it might make life easier for IT admins if devices like Unitrends box or a fax gateway utilized full SMTP, thinking that you wouldn't have to build accounts on the email server of the company to get those messages because they were only ever incoming. But in thinking about it... you'd probably want the email address to appear to be coming from a specific address that is on your own network, and the good email servers probably deny emails from it's own domain from none authenticated devices... so it's all a moot point.
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@Dashrender said:
I brought all of this up originally thinking that it might make life easier for IT admins if devices like Unitrends box or a fax gateway utilized full SMTP, thinking that you wouldn't have to build accounts on the email server of the company to get those messages because they were only ever incoming. But in thinking about it... you'd probably want the email address to appear to be coming from a specific address that is on your own network, and the good email servers probably deny emails from it's own domain from none authenticated devices... so it's all a moot point.
Exactly. Unitrends does what you thought. Just not as useful as you'd hoped.
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@ajstringham Thanks for posting about this. Will you let me know if you run into any challenges?
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We need to make a how to on the relay server. We've done this before. It works fine that way.
Although honestly using Gmail is so easy...
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@KatieUnitrends said:
@ajstringham Thanks for posting about this. Will you let me know if you run into any challenges?
@thanksajdotcom it's been a long time but there was never a follow up on this one. How did it go?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I brought all of this up originally thinking that it might make life easier for IT admins if devices like Unitrends box or a fax gateway utilized full SMTP, thinking that you wouldn't have to build accounts on the email server of the company to get those messages because they were only ever incoming. But in thinking about it... you'd probably want the email address to appear to be coming from a specific address that is on your own network, and the good email servers probably deny emails from it's own domain from none authenticated devices... so it's all a moot point.
Exactly. Unitrends does what you thought. Just not as useful as you'd hoped.
Might be a better question for @art_of_shred or @Minion-Queen . I haven't been an installer for a year and a half and have no idea...
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In case someone stumbles upon this based on the SEO of the title, Unitrends has since this time started supporting backing up of Office 365 data as well, not just sending email through it.
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@scottalanmiller Thanks for updating this thread. Our Office365 support includes protection for email, Sharepoint & OneDrive. More information is available here.
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Office365 backup always seems to get a thread started every month or so...
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@BRRABill said in Unitrends and Office365:
Office365 backup always seems to get a thread started every month or so...
Mostly people asking if they should.
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@scottalanmiller said in Unitrends and Office365:
@BRRABill said in Unitrends and Office365:
Office365 backup always seems to get a thread started every month or so...
Mostly people asking if they should.
And isn't the final answer (after much of the same wandering) usually backup if you can?
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@BRRABill said in Unitrends and Office365:
@scottalanmiller said in Unitrends and Office365:
@BRRABill said in Unitrends and Office365:
Office365 backup always seems to get a thread started every month or so...
Mostly people asking if they should.
And isn't the final answer (after much of the same wandering) usually backup if you can?
It's "do the right thing for you."
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@BRRABill said in Unitrends and Office365:
@scottalanmiller said
It's "do the right thing for you."
Isn't everything in life?
Pretty much.
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When is doing a backup incorrect and when is not doing a backup correct in this situation?
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@wirestyle22 said in Unitrends and Office365:
When it doing a backup incorrect and when it not doing a backup correct in this situation?
What?
