It’s official! Smartermail public beta 15.x went live on 1st Feb 2016 as announced by SmarterTools. The release of SmarterMail 15.x offering new features and back end improvements as part of the move for SmarterMail 16.x – SmarterMail.NEXT which is to be available later this year with complete new interface and the first mail server in the industry which is fully API-driven. So what’s new on SmarterMail 15.x?

Better Mail Spool Management Monitoring

A global view which allow administrator to take control of the mail server spool and giving them ideas where traffics comes and goes so necessary actions could be taken to maintain the mail server stability and being blacklisted should the mail server being compromised for large outbound of spam mails.

Monitor common aspects of the email spool, such as Message activity, top outbound senders, top inbound domains and more. In addition, administrators can take action on any messages currently in the spool. For example, they can block a sending IP that is inundating the mail server with unwanted messages, thereby preventing issues from becoming problems for email users.

Simplify Spam Configuration and Prevention Across SmarterMail Setup

Maintaining the mail server setting especially antispam configuration for enterprise organizations such as Web Host or ISP that span across 10s and 100s of SmarterMail installation has never been easy until SmarterMail 15x. With SmarterMail 15x, administrator can simply have the setting apply on one mail server and duplicate the same configuration throughout the remaining of SmarterMail installation by simply copy and transfer one single XML file.

As an added bonus, email administrators can even work together to create and share their antispam XML files files, combining their experience and understanding to create the most reliable settings available. Those files can then be easily uploaded to any SmarterMail server, right from the Web interface!

Never Miss A Meeting Again

Too often, meeting requests or event invitations can get lost or overlooked when you’re inundated with emails. SmarterMail’s introduction of tentative meeting requests makes managing appointments a breeze!

When a meeting invitation is sent, a tentative appointment will be added to the invitee’s calendar. They can then either accept or decline the invitation. And even if a meeting or event is tentative, the invitee will STILL get the reminder, if one was added to the invite! Having ALL requests and appointments shown on their calendar allows a person to be prepared by quickly glancing to see what lies ahead.

Exchange Web Services (EWS) Update

The implementation of EWS for SmarterMail 15.x is a complete re-write that supports the new EWS protocol released by Microsoft. With this version SmarterTools were able to remove an entire layer of processing, resulting in a much faster user experience. In addition, SmarterMail 15.x now works seamlessly with eM Client and Outlook 2016 for Mac, including PUSH functionality for Outlook 2016. Additional improvements mean that using EWS for Outlook, Apple Mail, eM Client and and more is a much smoother experience. (Though not currently available in the initial BETA release, the EWS rewrite will be available in an upcoming BETA or the final version release.)

Improvement of Spam and Recovery Protection

The built-in antispam protection by SmarterMail with proper setup could give your mail server protection by filtering up to 97% of spam mails and with any premium spam filtering such as Commtouch Antispam/Antivirus as well as Message Sniffer, it boost the filtering up to 99%. With SmarterMail 15.x release, there’s even more protection are added in. Example – DKIM for message signing can now be managed through the SmarterMail API! This is a great addition because signing messages with DomainKeys has been deprecated because it’s become obsolete.

Additionally, there are times when a SmarterMail installation needs to be moved to a new server or potentially restored from a backup. Improving on SmarterMail’s backup recovery, all settings files that contain a backup file will automatically load from that file if the primary fails. For example, if a user’s config file was corrupted during a migration, rather than the system administrator having to manually swap the corrupted file with the backup to load the user information, SmarterMail will automatically load the backup file instead. This will save administrators valuable time in getting the user back online.

Other cool features..

There are a variety of other changes throughout this version, including the ability to sync more than three email addresses and multiple phone numbers of the same type, drag-and-drop functionality for adding attachments in webmail, the ability to cancel disposable addresses, notifications from email clients connected via IMAP for when users are nearing their mailbox size limit and more! However, we’ve restricted many of the planned features that include, or coincide with, any interface changes, as we are concurrently developing SmarterMail 16.x, which will have a completely new interface and an entire architecture that is API-driven.

• Change the account being impersonated from within the domain’s users grid.
• Rename a domain or username within webmail (without stopping the SmarterMail service).
• Customize an installation by uploading a favicon image.
• Grant additional permission to other system administrators so they can manage domains and impersonate accounts.
• View administrative logging that has been updated to log more efficiently and be easier to read.
• Create temporary passwords for user accounts in order to troubleshoot issues. A user’s actual password will no longer be displayed in webmail.
• Prevent previously used passwords from being utilized when changing an expired password.

SmarterMail 15.x will be available for FREE upgrade when it become public stable release for any existing SmarterMail with Active Upgrade Protection. Not sure if you are eligible for the upgrade? Fill in your existing SmarterMail license key below and we will have it check for you.

Update :  30/03/2016

SmarterTools officially announced the public stable release of SmarterMail 15.x. Full release notes and features as below.

• Added: A disk usage indicator has been added to the logout dropdown menu to display a user’s disk usage versus what is available.
• Added: Certificates for DKIM can now be managed through the API.
• Added: Dashboard page for the spool showing top sending and receiving email and IP addresses. Actions can be taken to delete or move spool messages for a particular IP or email address, as well as to block more messages from those addresses.
• Added: Disposable addresses can now be cancelled.
• Added: Domains and user accounts can now be renamed through the web interface without stopping the SmarterMail service.
• Added: Exchange ActiveSync Ping connections are now displayed on the Current Connections page.
• Added: Global spam settings are now found in a spamConfig.xml file and can be uploaded, allowing them to be easily moved over from one server to another.
• Added: Meeting requests from email messages are now automatically added to a user’s calendar in webmail with a tentative status.
• Added: Multiple phone numbers of each type can now be added to contacts in webmail.
• Added: Permission settings have been added for system administrator accounts for allowing them to manage domains and impersonate accounts.
• Added: Spam settings importing now displays a modal window with a drag and drop area.
• Added: Support for the IMAP Children extension.
• Added: Support for the IMAP Quota extension. IMAP clients can notify users when they are getting near their mailbox size limit.
• Added: Syncing contacts with clients that support multiple phone numbers of the same type or more than three email addresses will now properly save and sync those extra fields.
• Added: System administrators and domains can now upload a favicon icon to use for webmail.
• Added: System administrators can now change the account they are impersonating from the domain’s users grid.
• Added: System administrators can now create temporary passwords for user accounts to troubleshoot issues. The actual user’s passwords can no longer be displayed in webmail while managing a domain.
• Added: The type of a phone number in webmail now includes iPhone.
• Added: Uploads in webmail now support a drag and drop area.
• Added: Webmail now supports adding more than three email addresses to a contact.
• Changed: Administrative logging was updated to log more efficiently and to be easier to read.
• Changed: All settings files with a _bak file will automatically load from that _bak file if loading of the primary file fails.
• Changed: Previous passwords can no longer be used when changing an expired password.
• Fixed: A scenario where IMAP migration could fail.
• Fixed: Adding a contact using Exchange Web Services now properly adds email address 2 and 3.
• Fixed: Blanking out fields in a contact now syncs properly using Exchange Web Services.
• Fixed: Domain extensions longer than four characters are no longer cut off when adding attendees to calendar events.
• Fixed: Exchange Web Services now includes HomePhone2 and BusinessPhone2 when a client requests the default fields for a contact.
• Fixed: Messages added to sent items when sending from Mac Mail using Exchange Web Services are now marked as read.
• Fixed: Non all day appointments synced with CalDAV that have a UTC start time of 12 AM no longer sync as all day appointments.
• Fixed: Notes now delete properly from clients synced using Exchange ActiveSync.
• Fixed: Scenario where some messages imported using IMAP migration would get added with the current date and time instead of the correct one for that message.
• Fixed: Searching in webmail now functions correctly on servers with FIPS compliance enabled.
• Fixed: The algorithm for determining if a message part is an attachment when syncing with Exchange Web Services is now the same as webmail.
• Fixed: The max weight setting now functions correctly for any URIBL check.
• Fixed: The start and end times for all day appointments synced with Exchange ActiveSync are now set properly to be 12 AM to midnight in the given time zone.
• Fixed: Users now save properly when using Active Directory authentication and a Windows username that is different than the SmarterMail username.
• Removed: DomainKeys verification is no longer included as part of the spam settings that are automatically created during the getting started wizard.
• Removed: Signing messages with DomainKeys has been removed as that signing method is obsolete. Message signing should be done with DKIM.