Administering Microsoft MailSrv

The administrative tasks of running MailSrv on Windows NT Server include:

The following sections discuss each of these tasks.

Creating User Mail Accounts

MailSrv creates a mail account for each user account on the computer. You do not need to create separate mail accounts for users. The mail accounts are created by using the Windows NT Server local user account database on the computer running MailSrv. Because the local user account database is used, domain (or alias) mail accounts are not supported by MailSrv.

For information about creating local user accounts, see the Windows NT Server product documentation and the Windows NT Server Resource Guide.

No additional administrator action is required to create a user mailbox. The user mailbox is established the first time a user opens the Inbox on the desktop and then opens Mailbox - user name.

Important

The local computer name must be the same as the DNS host name, which is the default configuration of TCP/IP. If you need to return to the default configuration, display the DNS host name and change it by using the options on the DNS tab in the Microsoft TCP/IP Properties dialog box. For more information, see Help.

Deleting User Mail Accounts

A user's mail account is deleted when you delete the local user account by using either User Manager from Windows NT Workstation or Server User Manager from Windows NT Server. You do not need to perform any additional operation. Note that you must have administrator permissions to delete a local user account.

Deleting User Spool Directories

When a user's local account (and concurrently the user's mail account) is deleted, the user's mail directory remains. You can delete the spooled user directory on the local computer if you have administrator permissions on that computer.

Adding Address Rules (Transforms)

Transforms are rules that the administrator creates to add, remove, and modify domain names appended to inbound and outbound messages. Transforms also enable the administrator to mask host names and domain names.

When an administrator modifies the names and addresses that are attached to inbound and outbound mail messages, mail addressing becomes easier for users and secures the use of domain names. The transform is transparent to the user, who does not need to worry about the information that is appended to, or deleted from, the mail address.

For example, if MailSrv is used for a small intranet, the administrator can create a transform to automatically add the domain name to the address. Using this transform, a message addressed only as "Lydia" in the terraflora.com domain is actually transmitted with the address of Lydia@terraflora.com.

For detailed information about creating transforms, see Resource Kit Tools Help.

Using Event Viewer to Monitor MailSrv

MailSrv is designed to post any MailSrv event messages to the Windows NT Server Event Viewer. Service stops, starts, and other events are written to the system and application logs. To manually start and stop MailSrv services, double-click Services in Control Panel.

Note

To ask questions about the MailSrv tool, contact rkinput@microsoft.com.