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Thunderbird + MS Exchange + Google Calendar + SMS/Email notifications !

Riaan Nolan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:16:53 +0000

Mozilla Thunderbird with Microsoft Exchange Mail, Calendars, Address Book and Meeting Requests
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Gmail and Google Calendar integration with Google SMS and Email Notifications.

Operating Systems:

This how-to will work on both Windows and Linux, for this tutorial we use Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Benefits:

The software we have chosen are Licensed under the GPL (General Public License) it’s absolutely, 100% FREE of charge. It runs on all Operating Systems.
You can now use Thunderbird to search your Microsoft Exchange Address Book, Accept meeting requests, AND in addition, you’ll be able to sync your Calendar
to your Gmail Calendar and receive FREE SMS and Email Meeting Alerts.

Serving Suggestion:

Create a New Calendar, give your team members read/write access to that Calendar. Enable their Mobile Devices to receive SMSs. Now everyone in that team have a Share Calendar, which will notify every one in your team of new events. Viola!

ETA:

30 Minutes

Windows XP Install Mozilla Thunderbird:

01. Open your Internet Browser and go to http://www.mozillamessaging.com
02. Download Thunderbird and save it to your Desktop
03. Once the download has completed, double-click on the download or click run, to install Mozilla Thunderbird
04. Accept the Terms and Conditions, and click Next,
05. Select Standard Install
06. Click Finish to Launch Mozilla Thunderbird
07. If Thunderbird detects Email from Applications it can import, it will guide you through it, on mine however, I have only to create a New Account
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Windows XP Mozilla Thunderbird MS Exchange Email Account Setup:

01. Enter your Name and Surname and Email Address
02. Enter your incoming and outgoing Microsoft Exchange Server Address, You would have gotten this from your Systems Administrator
03. Enter your user name and click finish you will be prompted for a password
04. Your Exchange Email Account has now successfully been added
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Windows XP Mozilla Thunderbird MS Exchange Address Book Setup:

01. Click on Tools -> Address Book
02. Click on File -> New -> Ldap Directory
03. Enter your Company Name, Your Exchange Server Address, for the Base DN enter, this, CN=Users,DC=company,DC=com, Substitute company with your Company’s
Domain, eg. domain.com is “CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com” or domain.co.za is “CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=co,DC=za”
The Bind DN is your MS Exchange user name, Now click on Advanced, enter the following as a search filter, (objectclass=*)
Click Ok, and your done, when composing a new email, in the address field you will see your Exchange Groups and Users.
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Windows XP Mozilla Thunderbird Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar Extension Setup:

01. Open your Internet Browser and go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313
02. Download Lightning and save it to your Desktop
03. Open your Internet Browser and go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4631
04. Download Lightning and save it to your Desktop
05. In Mozilla Thunderbird, click on Tools -> Add-ons
06. Click Install, Browse to your Desktop and Select your Lightning Add-on that we downloaded, Install Now, you will be promoted to Restart Thunderbird
07. Thunderbird has now been restarted, immediately you’ll see, Bottom Left, Mail Calendar and Tasks
08. In Mozilla Thunderbird, click on Tools -> Add-ons
09. Click Install, Browse to your Desktop and Select your Provider for Google Calendar Add-on that we downloaded,
10. Install Now, you will be promoted to Restart Thunderbird
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A bit of chit chat:

So at this stage you have Mozilla Thunderbird installed, hooked up to your Microsoft Exchange Server for Company Emails,
You have both the Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar extensions installed, with the default calendar now being for your Company Meeting Requests

Now we have to integrate our Gmail Email and Calendar, WITH Google SMS and Email Notifications, Exciting
Let’s move right along and Configure your Current Gmail Calendar Settings,

Common to Both Windows and Linux Installs:

Google Calendar Setup and Configuration on the Web:

01. Open your Internet Browser and go to http://mail.google.com
02. Login to Gmail
03. Click on Calendar, top Left Navigation
04. Click on Settings, top Right Navigation
05. Click on Mobile Setup, Next to Calendars
06. Now Select your Country, and enter your phone number eg. +27xx xxx xxxx
07. Click on Send Verification Code
08. You will Shortly receive an SMS with the Verification Code, Enter the code in the field provided and Save your Settings.
09. Now click on Settings, Calendars and Notifications for your Calendar
10. Now click on Settings, Calendars and Click on the name of one of your Calendars, Scroll down to bottom, Look for Calendar Address
11. Click on the XML button, and copy the Private Address
A bit of chit chat:

Now we have enabled SMS and Email Alerts on your GMail Account, We have to now link that account to your Mozilla Thunderbird.
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Windows XP Mozilla Thunderbird Calendar Setup:

12. Now we go back to Mozilla Thunderbird, Click on Calendars bottom Left, and right click by Your existing Calendar to select, New Calendar
13. Select on the Network
14. Select Google Calendar and Past the URL that we have copied in step 11.
15. Now Select a name for your Calendar, eg. My Gmail Calendar
16. You can now create a new event for your Gmail Calendar via Mozilla Thunderbird.
17. Go to your Gmail Calendar on the web and see the New Event !
18. You are now Finished
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The Following is just for Linux Users

LINUX PART

Ubuntu Linux Install Mozilla Thunderbird, Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar Extensions:

01. Open Synaptic Package Manager, by going to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager
02. Click the Search button and search for “thunderbird”, tick the box and select “Mark for Installation”
03. Click the Search button again and search for “lightning-extension”, tick the box and select “Mark for Installation” it will show Additional software
that will be installed, “Calendar-Google-Provider”
04. Synaptic Package Manager will now download and install your software.
05. Changes Applied, means the software has been installed.
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Ubuntu Linux Mozilla Thunderbird MS Exchange Email Account Setup:

Ubuntu Linux Mozilla Thunderbird MS Exchange Address Book Setup:

A bit of chit chat:

Now we have to integrate our Gmail Email and Calendar, WITH Google SMS and Email Notifications, Exciting
Let’s move right along and Configure your Current Gmail Calendar Settings,

Common to Both Windows and Linux Installs:

Google Calendar Setup and Configuration on the Web:

A bit of chit chat:

Now we have enabled SMS and Email Alerts on your GMail Account, We have to now link that account to your Mozilla Thunderbird.

Ubuntu Linux Mozilla Thunderbird Calendar Setup:

A bit of chit chat:

Create a new event for yourself on both your local Exchange Calendar and in your Gmail Calendar, familiarize yourself with Meeting Requests,
and enjoy the new SMS notifications, I usually set mine, to Email me a day before the event, and SMS me 2 hours before the event.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, Open Source is Cool Stuff man !

Signing Email with Domainkeys and DKIM

Winston — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:31:25 +0000

I am the administrator of several high volume email servers.
All of these servers use Domainkeys and DKIM to sign outgoing emails. I have put together this HOWTO in an effort to make your life a little easier. If you can’t do it, for some reason, hire me, and I’ll set it up for you.

Why do we need Domainkeys and DKIM?

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) lets an organization take responsibility for a message while it is in transit. The organization is a handler of the message, either as its originator or as an intermediary. Their reputation is the basis for evaluating whether to trust the message for delivery. Technically DKIM provides a method for validating a domain name identity that is associated with a message through cryptographic authentication.

What Operating System Will we be using?

Any Linux Distribution (Ubuntu, Gentoo, RedHat, Centos)

What software will we be using?

dkim-milter
dk-filter
postfix
openssh

Let’s begin,

First we need to install our Postfix server. This you should already have done.

Install dkim-filter

sudo aptitude install dkim-filter

Simply accept the defaults when the installation process asks questions. The configuration will be done in greater detail in the next stage.

Configure dkim-milter

dkim-milter configuration consists of two files:

/etc/dkim-filter.conf
/etc/default/dkim-filter

Use your favorite editor to edit those files. Here’s an example of /etc/dkim-filter.conf file already edited to suit my needs:

# Log to syslog
Syslog yes
# Required to use local socket with MTAs that access the socket as a non-
# privileged user (e.g. Postfix)
UMask 105 # 'id postfix' in your sheel

# Sign for example.com with key in /etc/mail/dkim.key using
# selector '2007' (e.g. 2007._domainkey.example.com)
Domain ubuntu.ro
KeyFile /etc/mail/dkim.key # See bellow how to generate and set up the key
Selector mail

# Common settings. See dkim-filter.conf(5) for more information.
AutoRestart yes
Background yes
Canonicalization simple
DNSTimeout 5
Mode sv
SignatureAlgorithm rsa-sha256
SubDomains no
#UseASPDiscard no
#Version rfc4871
X-Header no

###############################################
# Other (less-standard) configuration options #
###############################################
#
# If enabled, log verification stats here
Statistics /var/log/dkim-filter/dkim-stats
#
# KeyList is a file containing tuples of key information. Requires
# KeyFile to be unset. Each line of the file should be of the format:
# sender glob:signing domain:signing key file
# Blank lines and lines beginning with # are ignored. Selector will be
# derived from the key's filename.
#KeyList /etc/dkim-keys.conf
#
# If enabled, will generate verification failure reports for any messages
# that fail signature verification. These will be sent to the r= address
# in the policy record, if any.
#ReportInfo yes
#
# If enabled, will issue a Sendmail QUARANTINE for any messages that fail
# signature verification, allowing them to be inspected later.
#Quarantine yes
#
# If enabled, will check for required headers when processing messages.
# At a minimum, that means From: and Date: will be required. Messages not
# containing the required headers will not be signed or verified, but will
# be passed through
#RequiredHeaders yes

Actually /etc/dkim-filter.conf is the most important file. It provides our milter with required information about selector (used for DNS requests and email verifications) and used signing key (the key is used for signing the outgoing emails).

Here’s an example of /etc/default/dkim-filter. This file is used to literally connect the milter to MTA:

# Command-line options specified here will override the contents of
# /etc/dkim-filter.conf. See dkim-filter(8) for a complete list of options.
#DAEMON_OPTS=""
#
# Uncomment to specify an alternate socket
# Note that setting this will override any Socket value in dkim-filter.conf
#SOCKET="local:/var/run/dkim-filter/dkim-filter.sock" # Debian default
#SOCKET="inet:54321" # listen on all interfaces on port 54321
SOCKET="inet:8891@localhost" # Ubuntu default - listen on loopback on port 8891
#SOCKET="inet:12345@192.0.2.1" # listen on 192.0.2.1 on port 12345

In my case, this file needs no additional editing.

Now, to tell the Postfix about the existing milter, and where to connect with it, edit your Postfix main.cf file /etc/postfix/main.cf, and append to it’s content the following data:

# DKIM
milter_default_action = accept
milter_protocol = 2
smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:8891
non_smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:8891

milter_default_action = accept
milter_protocol = 2
smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:8891,inet:localhost:8892
non_smtpd_milters = inet:localhost:8891,inet:localhost:8892

Key generation for dkim-milter and it’s setup with DNS

Actually it’s not big deal. Generate an OpenSSL RSA key as you do it always, then move it private part to the location you indicated in your /etc/dkim-filter.conf:

openssl genrsa -out private.key 1024
openssl rsa -in private.key -out public.key -pubout -outform PEM
cp private.key /etc/mail/dkim.key

The DNS record should look like this:

mail._domainkey.ubuntu.ro. IN TXT "k=rsa; t=y; p=PpYHdE2tevfEpvL1Tk2dDYv0pF28/f 5MxU83x/0bsn4R4p7waPaz1IbOGs/6bm5QIDAQAB"

Where everything after p= is actually the content of the public key we generated above, public.key. To use it, strip out the comments inside it, this:

-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----

and this:

-----END PUBLIC KEY-------

Startup and testing

Once configuration above was done, the daemon can be started with:

sudo /etc/init.d/dkim-filter start

If it doesn’t start, search the logs for problems and see what it requires more:

grep -i dkim /var/log/mail.log

Also you can test your config file:

dkim-filter -x /etc/dkim-filter.conf

If you get the error like: dkim-filter: milter socket must be specified Then try manually specifing the socket, in our case it is local:

dkim-filter -x /etc/dkim-filter.conf -p local

Now restart the Postfix MTA, and check for email signing:

/etc/init.d/postfix restart
/etc/init.d/postfix restart

For testing purposes, I recommend you tools like:

* http://www.sendmail.org/dkim/tools
* or just send an email to autorespond+dkim[at]dk.elandsys.com

Open Source at Buyx Online

Riaan Nolan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:32:17 +0000

As one of my first posts on our shiny new website, I thought I’d highlight some of the technologies we use. Many of them, if not most, are licensed under some or another Open License, such as the GNU Public License.

To give you an example, Linux, is Open Source. The meaning Open Source, literally means that the application’s Source Code is available to anyone. This is an important fact. Another term to describe Open Source, is “Free Software”.

“Open Source” and “Free Software” in this context mean’s, that you are “Free” to change the code of the application. It does not refer to the price of the software. That said, many Open Source software are absolutely Free, it does not cost anything, and you are Free to change the source code.

Now, many people are not familiar with the Development Process that Software follows, and Open Source are no different. Code gets written, checked into a “Version Control” server, where some other developers “Check-out” the code, and then make changes to that code, it could be improvements, or bug fixes. That code is then again “Checked into” a “Version Control” server where the process get’s repeated.

What the above means is that Open Source code is generally very stable, and secure, and has been worked on by many people, until finally, you, the end user, can download and install the program. Examples of such programs are,

Firefox, Open Office, Java, Gimp Image Editor, Ubuntu Linux and many more ..

We at Buyx Online use Open Source applications. In fact, Open Source plays a pivotal role at Buyx Online. All our servers run Ubuntu Linux, our Database Servers run MySQL, and our Web Servers run Apache.

Our eCommerce websites are build on Magento eCommerce Platform, running on the Zend Framework. Absolutely the latest and gratest.

Our Monitoring solution, runs on an encrypted laptop, it’s only accessible to our Systems Administrators, the application runs on Nagios Network Monitor and Cacti RRD Graphs.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be posting more articles, and take a look at each solution in depth

Buyxonline.com - eCommerce | eMarketing | Linux Systems » Email Marketing

Thunderbird + MS Exchange + Google Calendar + SMS/Email notifications !

Operating Systems:

Benefits:

Serving Suggestion:

ETA:

Contents:

A bit of chit chat:

Common to Both Windows and Linux Installs:

The Following is just for Linux Users

A bit of chit chat:

Common to Both Windows and Linux Installs:

A bit of chit chat:

A bit of chit chat:

Signing Email with Domainkeys and DKIM

Open Source at Buyx Online