The payments program sends emails out using a smart host using SMTP
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and the smart host then delivers the email to the
destination clients. Often, the network on which the Payments Program is
being used is made secure with a firewall preventing direct connections to the
internet. If this is the case, then there are two options available to send the
email: - The smart host can be an email server within the local
network (e.g. Microsoft Exchange Server).
- If the smart host is outside the
local network (e.g. the Out of Hours Bookings Web Server), the firewall needs to be
re-configured to allow this access.
The following notes will help in
the configuration required in each case. Using an Internal Smart
HostIf an internal smart host is used, it is often necessary to configure
the smart host to allow internal SMTP connections and relaying of email from these
connections. If this option is used, it may be desirable to use a passord protected
sending account, to ensure that other applications are not able access the service.
This option is also supported by the OOHPayments program. In this case,
simply use the IP address of the smart host in the OOHPayments Program setup
and set the username and password for the correct access. Using an
External Smart HostIf an external smart host is used, then the firewall
has to be configured to allow outbound connections direct from the OOHPayments
PC on port 25 to the external server. If the external smart host being used is the
OOH Web Server and it is not possible to do this on port 25, an alternative port
2525 can be used instead. The external server will almost certainly have a
requirement for a login and password in order for it to provide a
"relaying" service, so this will need to be set up in
OOHPaymentsControl. Often, to make a firewall change such as the above
it is necessary to fix the IP address of the PC running the OOHPayments Program
(this is not always true, but does depend on the configuration options within the
firewall being used).
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