Mail Providers

Mail providers host emails on their servers and make them accessible to their owners using public mail access protocols.  They offer functions to send, receive, store and manage emails using Web applications such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo or software clients such as Microsoft Outlook. The virtual assistant must connect and communicate with mail providers to access emails, calendar and contacts on behalf of its users.

The system comes already provisioned with major mail providers such as Google, Exchange, Yahoo and Hotmail. In addition, new entries are automatically added when users configure their mail access connection successfully.

System Administrator are responsible for managing the mail providers defined on the system.

Some mail providers such as Google Apps or G Suite and Microsoft Exchange or Office 365 provide access to their emails, calendar and contacts, while others such as Hotmail and yahoo store and provide access to emails only. The virtual assistant can access emails, calendar and contacts hosted by the provider.

From the Mail Providers page you can:

  1. Create mail providers.
  2. Delete mail providers.
  3. Modify mail providers.
  4. Export a list of mail providers to a CSV or PDF file.
  5. Filter, sort and search mail providers.

Interface Overview

This page displays the list of mail providers defined on your system with the following information:

COLUMN HEADING

DESCRIPTION

Checkbox

 Check the box next to one or several items to apply certain actions (ex: export list).

Provider Name

 Mail provider name. Click the provider name link to access the mail provider settings page.

Domain

 Domain name hosted by the mail provider. Click the domain name link to access the mail provider settings.

Is Hosted

 Indicates if the email domain is hosted on a public server with other email domains ( ) or alone ( -- ) on a dedicated server. 

Protocol

 Protocol used to access emails hosted by this mail provider (POP3, IMAP, etc.)

Mail Server

 Internet address (URL) to connect to the mail provider's servers. Click the URL link to access the mail provider settings.

Options

 Click the  Options icon to view the folders accessible to the virtual assistant on this mail provider: email, calendars, personal contacts, shared contacts, etc.

Delete Icon

 Click the  Delete icon to delete the mail provider. See Delete Mail Provider for details.

Create a Mail Provider

To manually add a new mail provider:

  • From the main menu, click Mail Providers.
  • Click the New button. The Mail Provider Properties wizard starts.
  • Read the instructions and click Continue.
  • Fill in the fields as required. See Mail Provider Settings for details.
  • Click Save to create the new mail provider.

Delete a Mail Provider

Warning: Deleting a mail provider may affect new mail access configurations.

To delete a mail provider:

  • From the main menu, click Mail Providers.
  • Click the  Delete icon in the row of the mail provider you want to delete.
  • A confirmation window opens.
  • Click OK to confirm the deletion.

Modify a Mail Provider

To modify the settings of a mail provider:

  • From the main menu, click Mail Providers.
  • Click any information in the mail provider row to open the Mail Provider Properties wizard.
  • Modify the data in the fields as required. See Mail Provider Settings for details.
  • Click Save to update the mail provider settings.

Mail Provider Settings

To access the settings of a mail provider,  click on its name on the Mail Providers page.

Name (English and French)

Enter a descriptive name for the mail provider in English and in French.

Domain Hosting

  • This provider hosts multiple domains: Select this option if the mail provider is a mail hosting company. When configuring their mail access, users who select Hosted Mail will see this mail provider in the dropdown list. They will only need to provide their username and password to configure their email access.
  • This provider hosts only the domain: Select this option if the mail provider is dedicated to this domain (NOT a hosting company). Enter the hosted domain name in the field below (example: mail-access-domain.com). Users who have an email address with the same domain will only need to provide their username and password to configure their email access.

Mail Hosting

If you are configuring mail access for a customer using a mail hosting provider already defined on the system, then check the option The email account is hosted and use the dropdown list to select the hosting company.

Mail Access Protocol

The mail access protocol is the mail access standard supported by the mail provider to enable users to access their email messages using compatible programs. 

Use the dropdown list to select the mail access protocol used by the mail provider.

  • Google G Suite: Select this option if the mail provider is Google G Suite (previously known as Google Apps). This protocol enables the virtual assistant to access emails, calendars and contacts.
  • Microsoft Office 365: Select this option if the mail provider is a Microsoft Office 365, Outlook or Exchange server. This protocol enables the virtual assistant to access emails, calendars and contacts.
  • Outlook Web Access: Select this option if the mail provider is a Microsoft Exchange server that uses the Outlook Web Access (OWA) protocol. This protocol enables the virtual assistant to access emails, calendars and contacts.
  • IMAP: IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) the two-way mail access protocol. This protocol enables the virtual assistant to access new and read emails only. It cannot access contacts and calendars.
  • POP3: POP3 (Post Office Protocol) the old one-way mail access protocol. This protocol enables the virtual assistant to access new and read emails only.
  • Google Gmail: Select this option if the mail provider is Google Gmail. This protocol enables the virtual assistant to access emails, calendars and contacts.

Incoming Server (POP3 or IMAP)

Enter the address of the email server. Example: mail.companyname.com or https://webmail.companyname.com.

Incoming Port

Enter the port number used by POP3 or IMAP protocols. Usually 110 (non-SSL) or 995 (SSL) for POP3, and 143 (non-SSL) or 993 (SSL) for IMAP.

Use SSL

Check this box if the connection uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to encrypt email for added security.

Outgoing Server (SMTP)

Enter the address of the server that manages outgoing emails. Example: smtp.companyname.com or https://webmail.companyname.com. 

Outgoing Port

Enter the port number used by POP3 or IMAP protocols for outgoing emails. Usually 25 (non-SSL) or 465 (SSL) for both POP3 and IMAP.

My Outgoing Server Requires Authentication

Check this box if the mail server requires you to enter a username and password. This is usually the case for SSL connections.

Outlook Web Access URL

Enter the URL address of the Exchange Server that manages emails using the OWA protocol. Example: https://webmail.companyname.com/exchange or http://206.200.104.1/exchange.

Test and Validate Access to Server

Check this box if you want the system to send and receive test messages to validate the mail access connection settings.

Export a List Mail Providers

You can export lists of mail providers to a CSV or PDF file.

Export to a CSV File

To export lists of mail providers to a CSV file:

  • From the main menu, click Mail Providers.
  • Select the mail providers to export:
    • One or several mail providers: Check the box next to each mail provider to export.
    • All mail providers: Check the box at the top of the list. All mail providers will automatically be selected.
  • Click the  CSV button to open the export window.
  • By default, the file is named MailProviders.csv and ready to be saved to a directory on your computer.
    • Change the file name if needed but keep the CSV extension. Example: rename MailProviders.csv to MyMailProviders.csv.
    • Make sure that you are saving the file to the desired directory.
  • Click Save.

Export to a PDF Document

To export lists of mail providers to a PDF file:

  • From the main menu, click Mail Providers.
  • Select the mail providers to export:
    • One or several mail providers: Check the box next to each mail provider to export.
    • All mail providers: Check the box at the top of the list. All mail providers will automatically be selected.
  • Click the  PDF button to open the export window.
  • The PDF document will automatically open in a new window ready to be saved to a directory on your computer.

Search and Filter Mail Providers

You can quickly find mail providers using search keywords.

Enter a keyword in one of the blank fields on the first row of the list to show the mail providers that have this keyword. For example, type "gmail" in the Provider Name column and press enter to view all mail providers containing the word "gmail".

Use the dropdown lists to filter the list based on the selected options.

To remove the search filter, erase the keyword and press enter.

Sort Mail Providers

Click on any of the column headings to sort the list of mail providers alphabetically or numerically depending on the type of data in the column.