1. Layout and function

The Hornetsecurity Email Continuity Service stores incoming and outgoing emails via one period of three months and offers an alternative platform for sending and receiving emails in the event of a failure of your own mail server.

These instructions are intended to support you in the basic configuration of the Continuity Service and provide the most important information for using the Continuity Service. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the structure of the system and the way incoming emails are sent through the system. The system knows two operating modes:

• Normal operation
• Emergency operation in the event of a malfunction

In normal operation, emails are sent to the recipient's email server after they have passed the Hornetsecurity email gateway, which makes them available to the recipient.

In the event of a malfunction, emails are sent to the Hornetsecurity email portal instead of to the recipient's email server. The recipient can access them there via POP or IMAP or alternatively directly in the web mail interface of the portal.

Figure 1: Structure and data flow in detail with the Hornetsecurity email Continuity Service

After switching from emergency operation back to normal operation, all emails remaining in the inbox of the Hornetsecurity email portal are automatically delivered to the recipient's email server and deleted from the inbox in the Hornetsecurity email portal. Emails that were removed from the inbox during emergency operations (e.g. deleted or moved to other folders in the mail client) are not re-delivered.

Important: The emergency operation can be activated and deactivated manually or automatically. If the activation and deactivation are to take place automatically, this must be done by Hornetsecurity support.

In parallel to delivery to the recipient's email server or the Hornetsecurity email portal, copies of all emails sent are sent to the Hornetsecurity email archive and sent there for saved for 90 days. The same applies to all outgoing emails, provided that the customer's e-mail server sends email relays via Hornetsecurity.

Emails in the archive can be retrieved at any time, whether in normal operation or in emergency operation, and have them redelivered to the currently active email server.

2. Basic configuration

You order the Hornetsecurity email Continuity Service by activating the service under Security Settings >Continuity Service > Activate Continuity Service 

As soon as the service has been activated, it can be set up for all users of the domain or only for certain mailboxes.

Important: If the Continuity Service is to be used for the entire domain, all email addresses of the domain must be created in the control panel before emergency operation is activated. Otherwise, the system rejects emails to unregistered email addresses in emergency operation. (In normal operation, the recipient check is carried out via the recipient's email server).

If you would like to activate the service for individual users, simply use the email address for which the Continuity Service is to be used from the list and add it by clicking click on "Add". As soon as you confirm these entries with "Save", the Continuity Service is active for the selected mailboxes. From now on, sent and received emails will be saved in the archive and can be viewed and called up there.

Important: To save the outgoing email traffic in the archive, the outgoing email traffic must be routed from your mail server via Hornetsecurity as an email relay or "smart host".

3. Access to secure emails via the Control Panel

After activating the Continuity Service, emails are stored in the Hornetsecurity email archive for 90 days and can be found by administrators in the control panel and subsequently. If the sending via Hornetsecurity is also set up, outgoing emails in the archive can also be delivered to the sender. Users logged on to the control panel can search for their own emails in the archive search, in the work area of the control panel, display them and then return them to their inbox.

Alternatively, users of the Hornetsecurity Continuity Service can search, view and forward their emails in the Hornetsecurity e-mail archive using the Hornetsecurity Outlook plug-in or answer. Further information on the Outlook Add-In and documentation to assist you can be found via the following link http://www.hornetsecurity.com/downloads.

4. Advanced configuration

4.1. Automatic switching

In the event that the target server cannot be reached, the delivery is automatically made to the server that also provides web mail access (portal). The unavailability is given if the target server cannot be reached (timeout) or responds to a delivery attempt with a 400 error message. In such a case, incoming emails are automatically sent to the Hornetsecurity email portal if the recipient's email server cannot be reached.

5. Mail retrieval during a server failure

5.1. Access via the web mail service

During emergency operations, users can view and edit emails sent to the Hornetsecurity email portal there via web mail. To register for the Hornetsecurity Web mail Service, first follow the link "https://webmailer.hornetsecurity.com/". Enter your email address (user) and your password in the input mask. This corresponds to the control panel user password:

Administrators can set up the user password for their users in the Hornetsecurity Control Panel. To do this, first log on to the control panel as an administrator. Then select the "Customer Settings -> Mailboxes" module, select your desired postbox and click on the arrow at the end of the postbox line and click on "Change password". Enter your password and click on "confirm" to confirm your new password. Users can request a new password when logging on to the control panel.

Important: In this case, the new password will be sent by email to the address known to the system. In active emergency mode, the request for a new password therefore means that affected users no longer have access to the system.

In such cases, the password must be reset by an administrator or by Hornetsecurity Support.

5.2. Access by email client

As an alternative to web mail, you can use your own mail client if your mail server fails. To do this, set up an additional POP or IMAP mailbox in your mail client with the following connection data:

• POP server: pop.antispameurope.com
• Alternatively, IMAP server: imap.antispameurope.com
• SMTP server: smtp.antispameurope.com

Please always enter the full user name (your own email address) in your mail program and please note upper and lower case. As described in Section 1, any emails remaining in the inbox of the Hornetsecurity email portal are automatically delivered to your server when your mail server is “available” and removed from the inbox of the email portal.