Getting Started Guide for Email and Collaboration as a Service
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Getting Started Guide for Email and Collaboration as a Service
Important
Email and Collaboration has been retired from sale by UKCloud. We will continue to support all existing customers who are using this service, however, we are no longer providing this service for new workloads. This article provides existing Email and Collaboration customers with access to support documentation and we will continue to update it as required. For new requests, contact your Account Manager or Service Delivery Manager.
Important
PSN Email Relay provided by Vodafone is end-of-life as of 31 March 2021. After this date, anyone using the PSN will not be able to use email over this network, including all email services from UKCloud on the PSN. Internet-connected email services from UKCloud will continue to function after this date.
Overview
UKCloud offers an Email and Collaboration service, powered by Zimbra, to enable you to have a cloud hosted, secure email service, connected to government networks or the internet. You can connect this mail service through your normal mail applications (for example, Microsoft Outlook), to send and receive mail as well as use lightweight collaborative features.
This Getting Started Guide walks you through the process of configuring your Email and Collaboration service.
Intended audience
This guide is intended for users who want to set up their Email and Collaboration as a Service. To complete the steps in this guide you must have login credentials for an administrator account and access to the
Zimbra administration console.
Introduction to Email and Collaboration as a Service
The Zimbra Collaboration Suite that underpins UKCloud's email offering provides a wide range of client connectivity options.
An advanced webmail client allows the full feature set within the suite to be accessed from anywhere that internet connectivity is available and from virtually any platform via a wide-range of supported browsers
A cross-platform desktop application is provided extending the functionality of the web client by enabling email to be read and composed while offline
IMAP and POP3 clients are supported
Calendar and contacts can be accessed via the CalDav and CardDav protocols
Full Microsoft Outlook integration is supported using the Zimbra Collaboration Suite Connector for Outlook, which utilizes a full MAPI provider that leverages the Microsoft-standard MAPI interface for contacts, calendar, and other functionality not supported by IMAP or POP
The service provides enterprise-class functionality for end-users, on a per-mailbox, per- month pricing model. It offers several options for mailbox access, including POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP --- all with TLS (SSL)
encryption --- as well as HTTPS. Exchange ActiveSync is also supported.
Although the service was designed with end-users in mind, there's nothing to stop you using the supported protocols to allow an application to access a mailbox in order to send or receive email. This will generally be achieved via SMTP or POP3 over TLS.
It's worth noting that there's a minimum commitment of 25 mailboxes with this service --- but they don't all have to be used.
Before you begin
To start using the Email and Collaboration service, you first need to decide on a domain name, which must be a real-world, registered domain name. You can use a new domain name, or simply delegate a sub-domain of
your organisation's existing domain name.
You'll need to configure your chosen domain's MX record as mail.skyscapecs.net.
Once you've decided on a domain name and submitted your service request, UKCloud will configure your domain name on our platform and create an administrator account. You'll receive a welcome email with details of your administrator account with delegated rights for your email domain. This account will usually be in the following format:
admin@<yourdomain>
For example:
[email protected]
You'll receive the account details as part of the onboarding process; we recommend that you change the account's password immediately. This is the account you'll use to create mailboxes on the platform. You'll need to create a mailbox for each email address you want to be able to send or receive from.
Supported browsers
Refer to the Zimbra Collaboration Supported Systems document for the most up to date list, at:
https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases/8.7.0/Supported_Systems
Firefox and Chrome on Windows, Mac, Linux
Internet Explorer on Windows
Safari on Mac and Windows
Accessing the Zimbra administration console
The Zimbra administration console is a browser-based user interface for managing your mailbox server and mailbox accounts.
The Assured OFFICIAL console is accessible from the internet.
We'll provide you with the URL for the administration console along with your account details.
Creating a user account
Creating a user account sets up the appropriate entries in the LDAP directory server. When the user logs in for the first time, or when the first email is delivered to the user's account, the mailbox is created on the mailbox server.
To create a user account:
In the administration console, select Manage and then Accounts.
Click the gear symbol in the top-right of the main panel and select New.
Enter an Account name and the user's Last name (the other fields are optional).
If the new account will be an administrator, select the Administrator checkbox in the Account Setup section.
Scroll down to set the initial Password then click Next.
Enter the new user's contact information then click Next.
Enter any aliases required for the account then click Next.
Add the account to any required distribution lists then click Next.
If the account is an administrator account, you need to add it to the administration group at this point, to grant the necessary rights within the domain. To do this:
In the Find field under Add distribution lists to the account, enter admingroup and click Search.
Select the resulting admingroup@<yourdomain>, for example [email protected].
Click Add at the bottom of the dialog box to make the new account a member of the group.
Specify any forwarding rules.
Click Finish to complete creation of the account.
The user can log in to and use the account immediately. It will take up to an hour to add the account to the Global Address List, during which time the account name won't be listed as an auto-complete option for users composing emails.
Getting to know the Zimbra web client
Zimbra offers standard HTML, advanced JavaScript, and mobile web clients that you can log into. The web clients include mail, calendar, address book, and task functionality. You can select the client to use when you log in.
The advanced web client includes Ajax capability and offers a full set of web collaboration features. This web client works best with newer browsers and fast internet connections.
The standard web client is a good option when internet connections are slow or if you prefer HTML-based messaging for navigating within your mailbox.
The mobile web client provides an experience optimized for smaller screen formats available on mobile devices.
Typically when you log in, you'll see the advanced Zimbra web client. You can switch to a different version if you prefer by using the Version list on the login screen. If the Zimbra web client detects that the screen resolution is 800x600, you're automatically redirected to the standard web client. You can still select the advanced web client but will see a warning message suggesting the use of the standard client for a better screen view. When connecting to Zimbra using a mobile web browser, Zimbra will automatically detect and default to the mobile web
client.
To access the Zimbra web client:
Go to the following location:
https://mail.ukcloud.com/
Log in using your account's email address and password.
Installing the Zimbra desktop client
The Zimbra desktop client delivers a consistent user experience offline, so email, social media, calendar, contacts, files and documents are synchronized and locally accessible when on the road. Zimbra Desktop aggregates information across accounts (Zimbra, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail,
Hotmail, etc.) and social networks (Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc.) to help make communicating and sharing information easier than ever.
Download Zimbra Desktop from:
https://www.zimbra.com/downloads/zimbra-desktop/
Note
The desktop client is supported on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Once installed open the client and click the Add New Account button.
Complete the form as follows:
Account Type: Select Zimbra
Account Type: Enter a name for the account
Email Address: Enter your account details
Password: Enter your account details
Incoming Server: Enter mail.ukcloud.com
Port: Enter 443
Security: - Select SSL
When you're done, click Validate and Save.
The new account will be listed.
Click Launch Desktop.
Configuring IMAP and POP3 clients
A wide variety of IMAP and POP3 clients are available natively, or for download and use within Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. There are far too many to cover in detail so examples of setting up the more common desktop applications will be detailed here.
The following settings should work with any application that adheres to the IMAP or POP3 protocol standards. IMAP is the preferred protocol and should be used if available.
Incoming mail server (IMAP): mail.ukcloud.com
Encrypted connection type: SSL
IMAP/S port: 993
Incoming mail server (POP3): mail.ukcloud.com
Encrypted connection type: SSL
POP3/S port: 995
Outgoing mail server (SMTP): mail.ukcloud.com
Encrypted connection type: SSL/TLS