Use Outlook and Exchange/Office365 Offshore via Satellite

Using Your Microsoft-hosted Business Email Account with CruisersEmail and Outlook 2016

The following article goes through the steps of setting up your Microsoft Hosted Email (Outlook.com/Exchange/Hotmail.com/Office365), Outlook Email client, and CruisersEmail Software to work with your business email account while at sea as well as managing large emails.

Purpose:
      The purpose of the following instructions is to configure your corporate email, your local Outlook installation, and CruisersEmail (or Xgate) so that you can use Outlook to send and receive emails through CruisersEmail with the benefits of satellite email compression, large attachment handling, and mid-transfer restart features that would not be available without CruisersEmail.  Following this process also achieves the following:
  1. Incoming emails sent to your corporate email address are redirected to your CruisersEmail account to be downloaded and viewed in Outlook via satellite
  2. Your outgoing emails sent through CruisersEmail appear to come from your corporate email address
  3. Replies to the emails you send get routed back through your corporate email system, and then redirected through CruisersEmail
  4. A copy of all incoming and outgoing emails remains in your corporate email account for later archive/review/legal purposes
    1. (ie: Outlook/CruisersEmail copies of mails are duplicate and can be deleted later if needed)
This article applies to:
  1.       CruisersEmail or Xgate
  2.       Microsoft Outlook on Windows
  3.       Office365, Hotmail.com, Outlook.com Email accounts
  4.       Satellite, WiFi, and Cellular Connections
If your business email account is hosted in GSuite instead of Office365/Outlook.com, go to the GSuite version of this article. (Not yet published as of Dec 2019)
Step 1: Install and Configure CruisersEmail app on Windows

Install The Software:
  1. Download the CruisersEmail Client from Sea-Tech.com (Download Link)
  2. Install CruisersEmail on Windows following the prompts
  3. Activate the CruisersEmail Account using the registration code or Login/password provided by Sea-Tech (If you don't know your registration code or login/password, contact Sea-Tech Support
Configure The Software:

Note: This step sets up CruisersEmail to check for new incoming email, and send any new outgoing emails automatically in the background whenever Outlook or another email program checks CruisersEmail for new mail via POP3.

In the CruisersEmail Software, access the Options Menu and select Settings

Select Gateway from the left menu
      Enter your Real Full Name and double check the username and password to ensure they are correct
      Gateway should be left as default (Gateway: xgate.gmn-usa.com, TCP/IP Port 443)


Select Connection from the left menu
      In the "Connection Information" section,
            Set Default Connection to "Network Connection"
            Set Connection Type to the appropriate setting for your satellite terminal
                  Redport Glow or Aurora = Aurora
                  Iridium Go = Iridium Go
                  Iridium Pone with Optimizer = Optimizer Iridium Handset
      In the "Connection Paramaters" section,
            Uncheck "Leave network connection active when done"
            Check "Use another connection if already open"
            Check "Persist with connections until transfer completes..."
            Set "Number of times to attempt" to 3
            Set "Seconds to wait between" to 185


Select E-Mail Settings from the left menu
      In the "Mail Options" section,
            Check "Send and Receive mail concurrently"
            Check "Transparent Mode"
            Check "Send only when checking mail"
            Check "Do work silently"
      In the "Mail Launch Options" section,
            Select "System default mail application"
      In "Mail Server Options" section,
            Set POP3 Port to 110
            Set SMTP Port to 25

Select Miscellaneous from the left menu
      In the "Mail Relay Control" section,
            Select "Relay by network address"
            Set "Network Address" to 0.0.0.0


Select Mail Filtering from the left menu
      In the "Outgoing Mail Filters" section,
                 Select "Allow users to bypass outgoing size filter by appending +bigmail to address"


Click Ok to Save Settings
Step 2: Configure 2016 Outlook to use CruisersEmail on Windows

Prerequisites:
  1.       Outlook 2016 should already be installed on the computer
  2.       CruisersEmail should already be installed on the computer
  3.       CruisersEmail account should be active
Configure The Software:

Note: This step sets up Outlook to check for new incoming email, and send any new outgoing emails through the CruisersEmail app running on the same computer.   If you already use Outlook to check emails for your business accounts directly, it is advised to create a second Outlook Profile for CruisersEmail use so you can select regular email (or) CruisersEmail each time you launch Outlook, depending on whether you are on normal Internet or using limited connections (ie: satellite) on a passage or in remote locations.

1.) Find and Launch the traditional Windows Control Panel Mail Settings App

Open the search box from the Windows task bar, enter "Control Panel" and then click the Control Panel result.


In the search bar in the upper right of the Control Panel window, type "mail" and press enter to find the Mail settings app.


Launch the Mail settings app


2.) Create a new Outlook Profile for CruisersEmail

Click on "Show Profiles" to access the Profiles


Click "Add..." to create a new Profile.


Name the Profile something that indicates to you it's for CruisersEmail and click OK.


3.) Create a new Email Account setup in Outlook for CruisersEmail

Now we add an Email account to the Profile, use the Manual Setup option, click Next.


Select POP or IMAP, click Next.


Now we add the details for Outlook to communicate with the CruisersEmail app on your computer
  1. Enter your name so that others see it on emails you send
  2. Enter the business email address you are using with your CruisersEmail account, don't enter your CruisersEmail address here.  Note: Without performing this step, outgoing email sent from Outlook using CruisersEmail will have the From: address for your CruisersEmail account (ie: myboat@cruisersemail.com) and recipients will see that email as the sender of the email, rather than your business email address.
  1. Select POP3
  2. Incoming and Outgoing Mail Server = "localhost"
  3. Under Logon Information, Enter your CruisersEmail username and password, select remember password.\
  4. After filling out the fields, Click "More Settings ..."


In the General tab, your email address is all that is needed.


in the Outgoing Server tab, DESELECT "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication"


In the Advanced tab, ensure that the incoming port is 110 and outgoing port is 25.
Do not select any encryption options.  Set the Server time out to the longest setting (10 minutes)
DESELECT "Leave a copy of messages on the server".  click OK


Back to the Add Account window, click Next and Outlook will test the connection.  As long as CruisersEmail is running, this test should complete successfully.


In the Mail window, change the setting to "Prompt for a profile to be used", then click OK


3.) Close and Relaunch Outlook to test.

Choose your new CruisersEmail profile when prompted


Set send/receive schedue to manual (this way you can control when Outlook and CruisersEmail sync's email.
Also, Disable Perform Send/Receive when Outlook starts



Finally, Test sending an email from Outlook to ensure that it appears to come from your work account.

Step 3: Configure Outlook 2016 to automatically CC your business account when you send outgoing emails through CruisersEmail and Outlook

Prerequisites:
  1. Steps 1 and 2 Complete and Tested
Configure an Outlook Rule
 
1.) From the Outlook Menu/Ribbon select Rules, Manage Rules, then click New Rule...


2.) Select "Apply rule on messages I send" and click Next


3.) For "Step 1: Select Conditions", leave all boxes unchecked and click Next.  then select Yes when prompted




4.) For "Step 1: Select Actions", check the box for "CC the message to people or public group", then in the lower Step 2 box click on "people or public group".


5.) In the "To" box at the bottom of the "Rule Address" window enter your business email address, then click OK, and select Next to continue.



6.) In the "Step 1: Select Exceptions" leave all boxes unchecked and click Next.


7.) Give the rule a name that you will recognize later, check the box for "Turn on this rule" and click Finish. Click OK to close the Rules and Alerts window.




Step 4: Configure Email Redirection from Outlook.com/Office365.com

Prerequisites:
  1. Steps 1 through 3 Complete and Tested
Configure The Software:


Note: This is different from traditional forwarding.  When an email is forwarded, the new email shows as if it was sent by the email account that did the forwarding, not the original sender.  And hence, if you reply to that email, you are replying to the forwarder, not the original sender.  With "Redirect" the new email appears to come from the original sender instead, and replies will go TO the original sender.

1.) Login to Outlook.com or your corporate Office365 Webmail


2.) Select the Settings (Gear Icon) from the Webmail menu bar, then select "View all Outlook settings"


3.) Select Mail > Rules.  We are going to create two new rules.  Click the Add new Rule link


3a.)  First Rule will Redirect your incoming emails to CruisersEmail
      Condition:
            Apply to all messages
      Action:
            Redirect to: <your cruisersemail email address>
(Optionally, add an action to mark these emails are Read or move to a folder so you can quickly tell that they were sent to CruisersEmail when you access your standard mail server/Outlook profile later)
      Exception:
            From: <your business email address>


3b.) Second Rule will move the sent mails that are CC'd from CruisersEmail into your Sent Items folder
      Condition 1:
            From: <your business email address>
      Condition 2:
            I'm on the CC Line
      Action 1:
            Move to: Sent Items
      Action 2:
            Mark as read


Step 5: Test the process

1.) Restart computer and login to windows
2.) Check Windows system tray to verify that CruisersEmail started automatically (mailbox icon)
3.) Launch Outlook and choose CruisersEmail profile on launch
4.) Click Send/Receive

CruisersEmail should initiate a connection to download new email and send any outgoing email in queue, then Outlook should load any received email into the Inbox when complete.
Switching between Normal (Shore) and CruisersEmail (Ship) Modes

Switching to Shore Mode
When you are on shore or staying within normal Internet access of WiFi/Cellular and do not want emails to be sent to CruisersEmail, you can use your Corporate email as you normally would.

AFTER YOU REGAIN INTERNET:
  1. When you Launch Outlook, select the original Profile instead of your CruisersEmail Profile
    1. The original profile maintains the data and connection type of your standard corporate email system
    2. The CruisersEmail Profile ONLY contains the emails redirected to CruisersEmail and/or Sent FROM CruisersEmail
  2. Edit your Outlook Rules and disable the Redirect Rule you created, this stops the redirection of emails to CruisersEmail

Switching to Ship Mode

BEFORE YOU LEAVE INTERNET:
  1. Login to your corporate email system and Edit your Outlook Rules, re-enable the Redirect Rule, then exit Outlook
  2. Launch CruisersEmail and Outlook, choose the CruisersEmail profile and perform an initial sync while still on fast Internet.
    1. This is simply to ensure you don't have a large backlog to download over slow satellite
Testing and Troubleshooting
Once you've completed this process, you can send an email to bizabroademailtest@sea-tech.com from your cruisersemail.com account.   You will get an automated reply with the details of your message, including:
      date:
      mail from:
      mail to:
      cc:
      reply to:
      subject:
listed in the body of the response.   You can use this feature to ensure that your outgoing settings are correct.

If you need help, you can contact Sea-Tech Support



Appendix: Managing Large Emails

By default CruisersEmail sets an email size limit of 50KB for incoming and outgoing email.   Any email that exceeds that size is queued and held.  This size limit is highly recommended for slow satellite connections such as Iridium Phone, Iridium Go, Inmarsat Phone, Redport Glow, Redport Aurora, and GlobalStar Phone connections.   You can adjust the size limits if desired, which you may want to do if you have a faster satellite connection and are not concerned about data consumption costs.

Large Incoming Emails
For incoming emails larger than the set limit, emails are sent to the BigMail queue in CruisersEmail.   A notification email is sent to you indicating that a large email was received, with the sender, subject, and size of the email.   If you decide you want to download the email anyway, you can reply to the notification email.  Next time CruisersEmail does a sync it will move the email out of Bigmail and download it to your Inbox like any other email.   If you ignore the notification, the email will stay in the BigMail queue for later.  You can choose to download it when you have a faster Internet connection such as Marina WiFi or cellular hotspot.

Dealing with multiple Large Emails at once
In the CruisersEmail app GUI you can also view the BigMail queue by clicking the BigMail button.  All large emails that have been put in the BigMail queue and not yet downloaded or deleted will be listed there.  You can select one or more messages and have them remotely deleted on the CruisersEmail server without downloading (Server Delete), or Downloaded on the next connection (Retrieve).   You can also "Drop from List" which removes the email from the BigMail list, but leaves it in the BigMail queue.   You can later resync the list if needed by clicking "Configure...", check the box for "Synchronize BigMail on server with local list" then clicking OK.   The list will resync on the next connection.




Sending Large Emails
If you need to send an email that is larger than your configured limit, you can do so by adding +bigmail to the end of the receipients email address.  This instructs CruisersEmail to ignore the size limit for that outgoing email.  You can also set a higher limit for outgoing messages if you want, while leaving a lower limit for incoming email.

Adjusting Incoming/Outgoing Size Limits
Within the CruisersEmail App, select the Filters menu, and select Configure...
      Check the box for "Set In Bound E-Mail Cutoff Size to"
            Select a new size from the dropdown.  (50KB is recommended for slow Iridium Go/Phone and Redport Glow connections)
      Check the box for "Set Out Bound E-Mail Cutoff Size to"
            Select a new size from the dropdown.  (This can be a higher value since you control what you send and can decide to leave it as draft or send immediately after reviewing the email and it's size.)
      Click OK to save settings.   These new size limits will be set on the CruisersEmail server the next time you perform an email send/receive.


Using CruisersEmail and Outlook with TripMode
If you are using TripMode to control data usage on high cost connections like broadband satellite, you need to ensure that only CruisersEmail is communicating over the connection, and Outlook is not.
  1. Connect to the appropriate Wired or wireless network for your high-cost connection
  2. Enable TripMode if it is not automatically enabled
  3. Launch CruisersEmail and Outlook
  4. In TripMode application list
    1. Ensure Outlook is disabled (greyed out), click to disable if necessary
    2. Ensure CruisersEmail is enabled (Not greyed out), click to enable if necessary
Purchase and Download TripMode Here (link www.tripmode.ch) (Sea-Tech has no affiliation with TripMode, we just like it)

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