How to set up an Office 365 smart host connector to eEvidence.

Posted on October 25, 2017 • 5 min read • 911 words
Office 365 Connector Smart host Wildcard SMTP auth Exchange

Can I configure Office 365 to automatically send all my emails through eEvidence?

If you don't find the wildcard method convenient for delivering your emails through us, you can alternatively use eEvidence as your outgoing SMTP server. In order to do so, you must either choose from authenticating with us with a user name and password from your email client software (standard SMTP AUTH user authentication), or set up an smart host connector from your mail server.

Office 365 does not support SMTP AUTH for routing email messages through a third party email system. In order to achieve this goal, you will need to set up an smart host connector.

Use this guide to set up an eEvidence connector from Office 365. Once enabled, your outgoing emails will flow automatically from Office 365 to us so we can register its contents and delivery to the intended recipients.

This is a three-step set up. First you need to configure your connector and then define a mail flow rule for the connector to apply. Finally, you will need to contact the support team for enabling SPF authentication.

This configuration is only available for Extended plans. If you are currently subscribed to an Scale plan, please consider contacting sales to upgrade your plan.

Step 1. Set up the connector

  1. Open Office 365 Admin Center.
  2. Scroll down the left sidebar to display the Admin centers.

  3. Select Exchange to open the Exchange admin center.
  4. From the Exchange admin center dashboard, select mail flow and then connectors.

Office 365 will now guide you through a wizard to provide the connector details.

  1. Click on the + icon to open the connector wizard.
  2. In the From: field, select Office 365.
  3. In the To: field, select Partner organization.

  4. Click Next.
  5. Give the connector a name (i.e. eEvidence connector) and a description, if desired.
  6. Make sure the check box Turn it on is checked.

  7. Click Next.
  8. Select Only when I have a transport rule set up that redirects messages to this connector to tell Office 365 when you want the connector to apply.

  9. Click Next.
  10. Select Route email through these smart hosts to tell Office how you want to route email messages.

  11. Click the + icon to add an smart host.
  12. Enter smtp.mx.eevid.com as the Smart host fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

  13. Click Save to return to the previous window.
  14. Click Next.
  15. eEvidence uses a trusted certificate authority (CA) to secure connections. Select Always use Transport Layer Security (TLS) with a certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority.

  16. Click Next.

  17. In the summary page, click Next.

Office 365 will now attempt to validate the connector by asking you to enter a third party email address. Be aware that this validation process will succeed only partially: Office 365 will successfully connect with us through the connector, but will fail passing an email through. The reason for this is because Office 365 will run the test using an email address not registered at eEvidence. Don't worry about it.

  1. Click on the + icon to enter a partner email address.
  2. Enter support@eevidence.com or any address you wish (remember, this part of the validation process will not work, so any address will do).
  3. Click Validate and wait for the process to complete.

As mentioned before, the Validation process won't succeed fully. You can ignore the error in sending the test email.

  1. Click Save and Yes when warned about the connector validation issue.

The connector has been set up. Time to enable it for your outgoing emails.

Step 2. Mail flow rule for triggering the connector

  1. From the mail flow Exchange admin page, select rules.

  2. Click on the + icon to display the available options and select Create a new rule.

  3. On the pop-up window, click on More options down the page.
  4. Go back to top and enter a Name for the rule (i.e. eEvidence rule for <your email address>).
  5. In Apply this rule if, select The sender and then is this person.

    (Note. If you want to use the connector throughout all your organization's users, you may select [Apply to all messages] at the bottom of the first selector and give it a try: we haven't tried this option, so we can't assure this will work as expected.)

  6. Select the user address the connector will be applied to, making sure you add it to the list.

  7. In Do the following, select Redirect the message to and then the following connector.

  8. When prompted, select the connector you previously created and click Ok.

  9. Choosing to Audit this rule with severity level is up to your organization's security requirements, not ours. Proceed accordingly.
  10. Same applies with Choosing a mode for this rule. We suggest you select the Enforce mode, but it's up to you.
  11. In Match sender address in message, make sure you select Envelope. Otherwise we won't validate your connections and will reject any attempt from Office 365 to route your email messages to us.

  12. Click Save.

Step 3. Contact support to enable SPF authentication

In the absence of SMTP AUTH, we still require a way to authenticate that your emails are legitimate. This can be accomplished by verifying that your emails come from an authorized IP address. In order to do so, please contat support to enable SPF validation for your service.

This is it. Try to send an email from your registered address and see if you get it delivered and registered through us. If your account is set up to receive the evidence receipts via email, receiving back the receipt will confirm the connector is working properly.