Home → BoxMinder → Misc. → Message Sent to SaaS Customers 5/18/2023

11.2. Message Sent to SaaS Customers 5/18/2023

As mentioned yesterday, the BoxMinder email servers are still down. The email server has been suspended due to the many bounced emails being sent out. These are emails or notifications being sent out to invalid email or text accounts. 

Email bounce back is the condition when your emails fail to reach the recipient’s inbox. This happens when a certain email address you tried to send mail, did not exist or was invalid. It is also possible that the person does not have a valid email address or there has been some typo mistake in providing the correct email address.

They informed me to implement a process to alleviate this from happening before they turn the servers back on. That is all and well good, but it will take time to actually clean up all your customer emails and cell number service providers. Since this is a crucial process and service to your customers, we cannot allow this delay to take place. As this may take weeks to complete and well, cannot wait that long.

We have spent a considerable amount of funds getting the new servers up and new email accounts for all of you, and this just bit us in the backside. As this is not an easy or cheap undertaking when dealing with so many separate accounts and policing what you are all sending out.

To resolve this issue and to get you all back up and running, we had to make a decision on what to do moving forward. This is the result as follows.

1. You will need to start using your own email account and servers to send out the emails and notifications.

If you do not have this capability, then I suggest creating a new free Gmail account for this purpose. Just go to Create your Google Account and create a new Gmail email address. If you already have one, you can use it. Just need to create an Application Password as described below.

After you have created an account, you will need to create an Application Password for the account. This is needed to be able to send out the emails for this purpose. 

To use a Gmail account with BoxMinder, where 2-step verification has been inaugurated, you simply need to create and use an application-specific password. To do this, log into your Gmail account using a web browser, then visit the following page for details on how to create an application specific password:

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/185833?hl=en&visit_id=636785160880778800-2766845104&rd=1

You then simply use the provided application-specific password in BoxMinder (instead of the password you would use to log in to Gmail) with your normal Gmail address for the account in question.

2. You will need to download and upgrade/update the BoxMinder Application again. Here is the direct link to the portal: https://www.starresoft.com/starlogin.php

Download and install this version.  Then run the application.  Of course it should not be able to connect to the servers because the settings are still pointing to the old one that have us shut down.

After the messages have been cleared, click on the Setup menu, then System Options. Click on the button that says Email Setup.  This will display the settings that are currently being used.  You will need to change the following fields.

Mail From: - Key in or paste your new email account
Reply To: - Key in or paste your new email account
User Name: - Key in or paste your new email account
Password: - Key in or paste your password or if using gmail - the Application Password that was generated from above as discussed.
SMTP: your smtp server. If using Gmail - smtp.gmail.com
Port: 587 - unless something else is needed.
Connection: SSL

Press the tab key to go to the next field, then click on the Close button. Then Close again, and Exit.

You can now run the application again.  If all went as planned, you will not be using your new account to send notifications.

As mentioned, if you already have your own email account from your franchise, you can use that instead of a free Gmail account.  Up to you.  Contact your systems administrator for information needed above if you do not have these.

This has been determined the best and fasted route to get back up and running. It may seem like a lot of work, but it is actually not too difficult. I believe in your abilities to perform this task.

We will be coming up with changes and procedures to help clear up your invalid email accounts as soon as we can, but this is a big undertaking as many of you have hundreds or even thousands of boxes to manage.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask via our Help Desk located at https://help.starre.com