OfficeMail Overview

Claris OfficeMail is complete LAN and Internet email solution for small offices and schools. It was designed for sites which do not have full or even part-time system administration help. As such, ease of configuration and use are its primary goals.

Configuring a traditional LAN email system for LAN and Internet use involves many steps:

  1. Selecting a LAN email system.
  2. Selecting an ISP.
  3. Purchasing an Internet Gateway (UUCP? SMTP? etc.)
  4. Configuring the LAN system.
  5. Configuring the Internet gateway
  6. Registering an Internet domain.
  7. And on and on..

Most small businesses do not have the time or expertise to tackle this job. OfficeMail puts all of these pieces into a single box.

OfficeMail Configuration

The user first chooses the kind of connection. ClarisLink connections are completely pre-configured. A generic UUCP configuration is available if the user already has a UUCP account.

Next, the user enters contact information.

Now the user enters in the names of all of the email users. OfficeMail will automatically assign email names and preliminary passwords. These can be changed at any time.

Next, the users selects a modem from the list.

Now things get a bit complex. In order for a customer to have "instant gratification" with the product, we need to activate a domain name right away. To do this, we hand out domains from Claris' own "clrs.com" domain. The customer can request a personal domain and activate it later (like "foobar.com").

Finally, the users is prompted for billing information. When the "Sign Up Now" button is pressed, OfficeMail connects to ClarisLink, verifies the registration information, and activates the account. The customer has setup a LAN email system with an Internet gateway and custom domain in six easy steps!

The last "step" really isn't a step at all -- it just summarizes the setup information so that the user can install all of the email clients on the LAN desktop machines.

For ongoing server administration, OfficeMail generally takes care of itself. It monitors all important aspects of the email system, and send the system administrator mail warning of impending or persistent problems. For day to day administration, OfficeMail has a couple of important screens. First, it summarizes disk usage:

In addition, OfficeMail lets the administrator control Internet mail exchange frequency.

All contents are Copyright © 1996 David Z. Creemer . All rights reserved.
Last updated 1-October-1996.