Emergency Inbox

The Emergency Inbox service is for mail continuity. Users accessing this feature are able to use a web mail based mail feature while their mail server is down.

What It Does

Proofpoint Essentials will continue to try and check the customer's mail server, as per the standard set-up. As we are unable to relay the email from our system to the customer's server (as it is down), we are required by RFC to send a deferral notice to the sending mail server that we have been unsuccessful in delivering the email. As long as the customer's mail server is down, we will continue to send deferral messages for some time (we set 30 days) then bounce the message back to the sender. The customer's mail server should be repaired as soon as possible to not lose email.

Emergency Inbox provides access to email in the event that a user's mail environment is unavailable. Once this occurs Proofpoint Essentials automatically begins to spool mail for the affected domain and the Emergency Inbox will immediately show the spooled mail. Users are able to send new messages and reply to received messages. When an email is sent from Emergency Inbox it is treated like any outbound message. The email will show in another internal user’s Emergency Inbox.  Users are unable to see messages that were successfully delivered prior to mail delivery being impacted.

How To Access Emergency Inbox

End-user Access:

1. Log into the interface (you will be at the Account Setup page).
2. Under Account Setup, click Emergency Inbox. 

Admin Access

1. Navigate to Users & Groups > Users.
2. Click the desired end user's name/email address, or click Edit under Actions for that user.
3. Click Emergency Inbox.

Testing Emergency Inbox

For testing the Emergency Inbox, you can deadhead the SMTP delivery address by changing the delivery server to 1.2.3.4 This will spool and defer the messages to the Emergency Inbox. To test the inbox:

1. Navigate to Company Settings > Domains.
2. For the desired domain, click the Pencil icon near the right edge of the row.
   
3. For Delivery Destination, enter 1.2.3.4 or any other bogus IP address. 
4. Click Save.
5. When your done testing, reverse the changes made. 

Note that Strategic Partners and Channel Administrators cannot access other customer's Emergency Inbox's but their own. When attempting to launch an Emergency Inbox that you do not have permission to view, a blank window will be displayed.

Spooling Alert

 The below instructions explain how to turn on spooling alerts and get notifications to an Email address and/or mobile number:

1. Navigate to Company Settings > Alerts.
2. Under Notification Settings there are three options:

1. Enable spooling alerts: Toggle to turn alert on or off.
2. Send To: 
   1. Admin Contact
   2. Tech contact
   3. Both
3. Alert delivery Method: 
   1. Email
   2. SMS
   3. Both

Admin Contact and Tech Contact can be modified by going back to Company Settings > Change Profile Information.

SMS is only sent to mobile numbers for Admin Contact and/or Tech Contact.

To make sure mobile details are correct, go to Account management>Profile  then click on Change profile  Information button and modify Admin/Tech contact info and update Mobile Number.

If alert is turned on after spooling has already started no alerts are sent . This must be setup prior to your mail server going down and spooling starts.