RollerNet Help | Additional Mail Sources

Mail is normally delivered directly to us by SMTP. However, you can define additional mail sources where we can gather mail using POP3 or IMAP. Mail gathered in this manner is delivered to our mail servers and is handled like a normal delivery via SMTP - all mail settings, forwarding, mirroring, and filtering is applied.

Please take a moment to read and understand this feature before using it. Unlike other providers that offer a similar function, the Roller Network additional mail sources feature does not deliver directly to mail boxes. Mail collected from external sources through this feature is delivered to our incoming mail servers (mail.rollernet.us and mail2.rollernet.us) and handled as regular incoming mail.

Warning: Mail collected from POP3 or IMAP mail boxes may contain messages that violate our acceptable use policy if resent using mail forwarding or other methods resulting in transmission to a third party. Unsuitable sources will be removed.

Click on the "Add New Mail Source" button to add a source. Basic configuration requires the following information: the source server name and mail box protocol (POP3 or IMAP), username and password used to log in to the source server, and the email address to deliver retrieved messages to. You may optionally select to have retrieve messages left on the server or deleted after retrieval.

The server name setting must be a DNS host name; IP addresses are not permitted. Please note that due to the nature of this type of service, the username and password are stored in clear text in order to transmit them to the source server. This is not unique to our service.

Duplicate mail source definitions are permitted. Note that when connecting to a POP3 account for the first time, all messages will be downloaded. This is because a POP3 account does not store message status (rather, the client remembers which messages were already downloaded and skips them later).

Polling Interval Configuration

After all configured mail sources are polled for messages the system will sleep for the number of minutes configured for the polling interval before the next check. The default is 15 minutes. The allowed polling interval range is 1 minute to 1440 minutes (24 hours).

Allow Content Filter

Because all mail retrieved using this feature appear to be coming from a trusted internal source, by default all filters (except anti-virus) are automatically whitelisted. You may choose to re-enable the SpamAssassin content filter by setting Allow Content Filter to "Yes". However, be aware the SpamAssassin will not be as effective since connections are still from an internal source and thus are "trusted" by SpamAssassin. Messages rejected by content filtering can be deleted without log entries if this option is enabled.

It is not possible to use other filters (DNSBL, SPF, Greylisting, etc.) on additional mail sources since they rely on testing the connecting server. It is generally expected that the source ISP or mail box host has already filtered messages to be retrieved by this tool. Roller Network is not responsible for lost mail due to applying content filtering to additional mail sources.

Send Error Notices

If the Send Error Notices option is enabled (default) the injection process will email errors to you if our servers refused to accept an externally sourced message. The most common error is content filter rejections (such as antivirus). Setting this option to "no" will prevent these error messages from being sent by email, but they will still be logged in the mail logs.

The background process that handles the configured mail sources will only check for changes to its configuration file at the end of the polling interval. This means that if you make changes the system won't pick up on them until it "wakes up" at the beginning of the next polling interval. You can speed up this process by toggling it to "disabled" and back to "enabled" if you have a long polling interval.

Advanced Configuration Options

There are several advanced configuration options that may be specified for an external mail source.

If you are retrieving messages using IMAP, you can specify an IMAP Folder instead of the default of INBOX. Separate multiple folders with a comma, e.g. "folder one, folder two, folder three" up to 255 characters. This option is ignored if the retrieval method is POP3 as it does not support server-side folders in the protocol. The double-quote character " is not permitted.

An alternate Server Port may be used. When left blank, the default port is determined by the protocol (POP3/IMAP) and the Force SSL setting (IMAPS/POP3S). The valid port range is between 1 and 65535.

You may choose to use an SSL connection instead of opportunistic TLS negotiation by setting Force SSL (defeats TLS negotiation) to "Yes". The default setting of "no" only enables TLS if the source server advertises its capability.

To retrieve all messages on the source server regardless of their read/unread status, set the Retrieve all messages (ignore "seen" status) option to "Yes". The default setting of "no" skips messages that have been marked as read. However, when connecting to a POP3 mail box for the first time, all messages will be seen as unread since a POP3 server doesn't store message status server side.

Do not use Retrieve all messages (ignore "seen" status) with Leave copy of message on server unles you know what you're doing; setting both of these options to "yes" will cause a download loop.

This service is actually a limited front-end to the Fetchmail remote-mail retrieval and forwarding utility (fetchmail.berlios.de). Normally we endeavor to use open source tools unmodified, however during our testing with fetchmail we made a few changes to the source and released our patches online in the spirit of full disclosure. Our patches are not part of the fetchmail source, although we have submitted them to the development team with our test results.

Here's how our fetchmail is configured behind the scenes:

A dedicated server is used to run the "fetchmail" daemon processes.
One daemon process is run per Roller Network account.
The daemon process is started/stopped using the enable/disable button.
When a source is added or removed a configuration builder writes the "fetchmailrc" run control file.

The following global and default directives are used in our configurations:

set daemon XX
set no syslog
set logfile /var/lib/fetchmail/#/log
set idfile /var/lib/fetchmail/#/uidl
set no bouncemail
set spambounce
set postmaster "fetchmail+#@bounce.rollernet.net"

defaults
    pass8bits
    smtphost mail2.rollernet.us,mail.rollernet.us
    antispam 554

The # symbol is replaced with an internal account identification number and XX is replaced with your configured polling interval (in seconds). For more information see the fetchmail manual page.

Please Note: The behavior of our fetchmail and the set spambounce option has been altered; see our fetchmail patches for details. Notices are only sent to the postmaster address.

Submitting a Custom Fetchmail Run Control File

Since we're using fetchmail behind the scenes, you can also submit your own fetchmail run control file to our technical support staff in order to create more complex configurations than our basic interface will allow.

In order to submit a run control file you must already be familiar with configuring fetchmail manually. For security purposes, we reserve the right to reject or modify submitted configurations for our environment. Our configuration builder will read custom files and append them to the ones created by the basic web interface in our account control center, allowing both configuration methods to coexist.

Due to the inherent unreliability with multidrop mail boxes we do not recommend them; use multidrop at your own risk.

Please allow up to 48 hours for submitted configurations to be reviewed and installed on your account, although in most cases the wait time is substantially less.