SMTP/MIME remote machine considerations

General considerations

The following are standard methods of encoding audio messages in a compressed format. Message Networking can directly process audio files of these types when they are received as .wav files that are part of an SMTP/MIME message:

GSM: In the Windows Sound Recorder, this file type has an audio format of GSM 6.10 8.000 kHz, Mono.
A-law: In the Windows Sound Recorder, this file type has an audio format of CCITT A-Law 8.000 kHz, 8 Bit, Mono.
Mu-law: In the Windows Sound Recorder, this file type has an audio format of CCITT u-Law 8.000 kHz, 8 Bit, Mono.

In cases where a sent SMTP/MIME message is larger than a receiving non-SMTP/MIME machine can handle, the message is failed with a large message failure code.

Message Networking does not support Group 4 fax transcoding.

The Message Networking VPIM module does not support variable-length mailbox IDs on the same SMTP/MIME mail server.

Message Networking supports a maximum mailbox ID and network address length of 10. In addition, Message Networking supports a uniform dial plan whereby the length of the network address must be the same number of digits (from 3 to 10) network-wide. None of the Avaya message servers that Message Networking supports can have a mailbox ID or network address greater than 10 digits. Additionally, it is expected that every Message Networking system with an SMTP/MIME connection will have at least one legacy Avaya message server in its network. However, Message Networking does support E.164 conformance addressing from SMTP/MIME senders in the format of user id@domain. The user ID is alphanumeric and can be greater than 10 in length. Message Networking then takes this address and maps it to a numeric network address whose length cannot exceed 10.

Certain sending SMTP/MIME systems can generate what is known as a multistrip fax that Message Networking does not support. Specifically, a multistrip fax is a fax with one or more pages each stored as multiple strips of image data. An example of a system that can generate a multistrip fax is Microsoft Exchange 2000.

Message Networking does not support the ability to change a remote machine administered as AMIS or Octel Analog (such as Unified Messenger with MS Exchange) to SMTP/MIME. The remote AMIS/Octel Analog machine must be deleted and readministered as an SMTP/MIME remote machine on the Message Networking system.

Virus detection and are virus detection software platform-specific. Fortunately, virus infection is generally limited to binary attachments intended to execute in a PC environment. Current Avaya message platforms that support binary files do not attempt to run any binary attachments on the server, so the risk of infection occurs only in the client environment. There is NO virus detection support on Message Networking. Virus detection support should be applied at the binary file detach operation on the client. Because Message Networking is provisioned as an email receiver, customers must ensure that a firewall exists between Message Networking and the Internet. In addition, customers should deploy a virus detection solution, such as a standalone server that sits on the LAN between the Message Networking server and any incoming email. This kind of solution adds an extra transmission, but filters out viruses from incoming email. Most large corporations are already running a similar service at their publicly accessible incoming email gateway.

If SMTP messages being sent via a sound card have static, check the users' microphone settings. You might need to adjust the microphone settings.

Note the following considerations for voiced and ASCII names on non-LDAP-based systems:

Messages delivered to SMTP/MIME recipients from Message Networking include the ASCII name, but not the voiced name, in the appropriate sender's name field. How the names are presented to the recipient (if at all) depends on the receiving SMTP/MIME vendor's implementation. When the ASCII name is received by Message Networking, that sender's directory entry is updated, if necessary.
Message Networking can register the SMTP/MIME subscriber's voiced name in the directory using the Self-Registration Agent feature. Once recorded on the Message Networking system, the voiced name can then be presented to the rest of the network.

These considerations do not apply to Avaya Modular Messaging (MM) systems because they use LDAP-based utilities for subscriber directory updates, which occur automatically (similar to AUDIX TCP/IP and including ASCII and voiced name).

Unified Messenger considerations

There are several known considerations when using SMTP/MIME as the message delivery mechanism to Unified Messenger with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes:

Voiced name: For Unified Messenger subscribers, the remote subscribers on the Message Networking system have a text-to-speech name rather than the self-recorded voiced name.

No blind addressing: When numerically addressing a Message Networking recipient, that recipient must be preadministered as a remote subscriber on the UM/Exchange or UM/Lotus Notes system.

Manual directory initialization: On Unified Messenger systems (with either Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes), SMTP/MIME provides the message transport between the Message Networking system and the Unified Messenger. However, SMTP/MIME does not inherently provide automatic subscriber directory updates. Message Networking requires the directory entries to perform a mapping between the unique numeric Network Address (often the phone number) and the email address of the Unified Messenger subscriber (for example, 303-555-1234 is [email protected]). In addition, each subscriber residing on a system supported one of the other protocols supported by Message Networking also has a unique numeric Network Address and an email address (for example, 303-555-6789 is [email protected]). The Unified Messenger application requires the directory entries to map between the numeric Network Address and the email address of the Message Networking recipient.

Because the subscriber directory updates are not automatically provided, the directory entries that map a Network Address and ASCII name to a Message Networking email address must be manually populated. There is a manual process that you can use to extract the directory from Message Networking and import it into the Exchange or Lotus directory. The UM subscriber records on the Message Networking side must also be built manually using one of the following methods:

Bulk Adding the Subscribers by File: Use FTP to import a file into the Message Networking system that contains the numeric network address and email address.
Self-Registration: Have each UM subscriber self-register on the Message Networking system by sending a voice name as a message and the network address in the Subject field to a predefined self-registration mailbox.
Subscriber Administration: Have a Message Networking administrator administer each UM subscriber on the Message Networking system using the administration interface.

No Directory Updates: On the UM for Exchange or UM for Lotus Notes system, there are no ongoing directory updates (ASCII name or voiced name). On the Message Networking system, only the ASCII name is updated.

Voice message is email (MS Exchange only): When a voice message is sent to a UM/Exchange system, it is treated as an email message (that is, a .wav file binary attachment) rather than a voice message.

On UM for Lotus Notes Release 5.0 or later systems, remote subscribers must be administered as users on the Lotus Notes/Domino system. This allows subscribers on the local UM for Lotus Notes system to send TUI messages to remote subscribers via Message Networking.

On UM for Exchange systems, remote subscribers must be administered as users on the Exchange system. This allows subscribers on the local UM for Exchange system to send TUI messages to remote subscribers via Message Networking.
Unified Messenger, with either Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, uses the GSM voice encoding format. The actual SMTP/MIME communication is between the Message Networking system and the message storage server (Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino).

Message Networking currently does not recognize faxes that are part of message replies or forwards because of the way that Lotus Notes designates this type of faxes and treats the faxes as binary attachments. Binary attachments are stripped on remote machines that do not handle binary attachments.

Avaya Modular Messaging considerations

There are several known considerations for Avaya Modular Messaging:

When administering multiple MM systems in a network, there are two scenarios for directory updates:

Each MM system provides updates directly to the other MM systems in the network.
Message Networking provides the updates to the MM systems in the network.

There are considerations for each scenario that you must be aware of before administering the MM systems.

When setting up an email client such as Outlook Express for use with Avaya Modular Networking, you must provide an email address for each subscriber. There are two ways that you can specify email addresses on the Avaya Modular Networking system:

Mailbox number (which is also used in the Account Name field in the Outlook Express administration setup) combined with the domain of the Avaya Modular Networking (for example, [email protected]).
ASCII name email address (for example, [email protected]).

However, to send messages from an Avaya Modular Networking mailbox through Message Networking, the subscriber's email address in Outlook Express must match the subscriber's ASCII name email address.

Replies to messages originating from an Avaya Modular Messaging system Enhanced List Application are not supported when the message is passed through a Message Networking system. The only way for the recipient to reply to the sender is to forward the message back to the originator.

Avaya Modular Messaging does not support private message marking when sending or receiving a networked message. This is important to note as a recipient can forward private messages sent from Message Networking to a another recipient. Priority message markings are supported.

When numerically addressing via the TUI to a remote subscriber (for example, a Message Networking recipient), that recipient must be preadministered on the MM as a remote subscriber. This means that the MM system must contain all of the remote subscribers in the network (full directory views in Network Messaging). GUI addressing can be set up to send directly to the network address (such as, ##########@Message-Networking.domain.com). In contrast, many other voice mail systems allow users to address a message to an address/extension within a valid range (blind addressing). When the message is sent through Message Networking, Message Networking resolves the address and delivers the message.

Avaya Modular Messaging supports a reply-all capability when are exchanged between MM subscribers. However, the reply-all capability is not supported for messages originating from non-Modular-Messaging senders that are passed through Message Networking.

Note: This consideration is not related to the reply-all feature of the Enterprise List Application supported in Interchange 5.4, which does support reply-all regardless of the sender or originator type.

The length of the Numeric Address for a Modular Messaging subscriber cannot be the same length as the Mailbox ID value for a subscriber when those subscribers are in the same Voice Mail Domain. The numeric Network Address value can, however, be the same length. This is important to note when the customer is planning the numeric dial plan for the network.

Modular Messaging allows a recipient of a message to call the sender of a networked message. The dial plan to call the sender must match the sender value used when the message is delivered. It is important to plan for the Mailbox ID length, Numeric Address length, and Network Address length when designing a network that involves Modular Messaging and Message Networking. For example, in some cases, depending on the Network Address length of the Message Networking application (that is fixed in length), it may be desirable for two Modular Messaging systems to send their subscriber directories directly to each other rather than route them through a Message Networking application. This is so that the Network Address value for a remote Modular Messaging subscriber on a local Modular Messaging system is not fixed in length as would be required with a Message Networking solution.

With the Reply to Call Answer Message feature in Modular Messaging, a recipient of a call answer message can reply back to the caller using Message Networking only when both the caller and recipient are in the same Voice Mail Domain.