1.3.2.3                        Email Server

The Email of alarms and reports requires access to an SMTP server. For Alarm Notification and Scheduled Reports, WebAccess SCADA nodes and will send an email through an SMTP compatible mail server. Clients can also send email via scripts through the SCADA node.

This package was written to be as portable as possible and is known to work on Windows systems. Email is sent from the Project Node, even if sent by a Web Client.

This MAIL package provides only the text transport mechanism -- no provisions have been made for attachments or other fancier email features.  SMTP is supported.  MIME and attachments are not supported. MAIL attempts to be as RFC-compliant as possible.

The MAIL Action commands put a simple interface around mail sending, requiring options for specifying the host (mail server), port, From, TO and SUBJECT.  A Body option specifies the body of the message directly. One or more recipient email addresses should be specified using the to, cc, or bcc respective list-oriented options.

SMTP Service in Windows IIS is not required by WebAccess if you are using an external SMTP server and account (for example, your corporate email server or an ISP).   

The recommended method is to use a corporate email server, with an account name and password assigned to the Webaccess SCADA system.  This is similar to an individual account. If WebAccess will only send email of Alarms and Reports, then access to an SMTP account is all that is necessary. If the Users will acknowledge alarms by return email, then access to a POP3 account by the SCADA node is also needed (i.e. pop3server name, account name and password).

Optionally the SMTP service of Windows IIS can be installed on the Project Node or a SCADA Node to send email. This might be acceptable for a LAN or Intranet that sends mail locally only within the same domain or workgroup. To use the SMTP Server on the Project Node to send outside of a local domain, a user account and password is configured to connect to a SMART HOST in the SMTP Properties of Windows IIS on the Project Node or a SMART HOST  (your corporate email server)  needs to accept relay from the Project Node.  This is not recommended procedure.

See 3.2.8 Outgoing Email Server - SMTP for more discussion on SMTP to send email.