What are the Basics?

Mailive! creates a round-trip email transaction. We send you a test message and you forward it back to us at mailive@knowledgefront.com. We track the round trip time, record any errors, and alert you to problems or delays. Check out the features page for additional details.

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How much does Mailive! cost?

$360 per year for each server or transaction monitored by Mailive!. Discounts begin at 5 servers online - contact us for details on bulk pricing.

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What needs to be set-up on my server?

You will need to set up what is commonly known as an auto-forwarder or auto-responder. We have instructions for several of the most popular email servers:

• Exchange 2007
• Exchange 2003
• Exchange 2000
• Exchange 5.5
• Lotus Notes
• Groupwise
• Sendmail

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How do I find my mail server's name or IP address?

In order to deliver email directly to your server Mailive! needs to know the external address of your email server. Either IP address (123.123.123.123) or FQDN (fully qualified domain name) may be used. This may be discovered by using our free Mail Server Look-up Tool.

Optionally Mailive! can perform an MX record look-up in order to more closely mimic the method standard email servers would use to deliver messages to your domain. Simply enter the letters MX for the IP Address while configuring the server.

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What if I have multiple servers?

No problem, Mailive! can handle multiple servers (each server is $360/year). Once you have signed-up, simply login and select Servers from the configuration menu. You can add or edit servers/transactions. We have clients who test more than a dozen server/transactions.

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When does Mailive! start working?

Mailive updates its running configuration every 5 minutes. After signing up or making any change to currently monitored servers or alerts it may take up to 5 minutes for the change to go into effect. If you do not see the change take effect after 5 minutes please contact us for assistance.

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How does the free trial period work?

You will be invoiced $360 US dollars per server/transaction upon the first calendar day of the second full calendar month proceeding acceptance of the agreement for Mailive! service to be provided for a 12 consecutive month period.

Example: If you sign up for Mailive! on July 20th, your billable service period would be September 1st 2009 - August 31st 2010 and you would be billed $360 on September 1st, 2009 (assuming one server). You could cancel service at anytime before September 1st by contacting support@knowledgefront.com or calling 952-851-0950.

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What forms of payment do you accept?

We accept credit card or checks in USD and are great at processing Purchase Orders. Feel free to contact us if a quote or any other information is needed.

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What if I want to remove a Server/Transaction?

The account administrator, usually the person who initiated the account, has access to remove servers at any time. Under Configuration while editing a server's settings is a remove link if the user has the necessary permissions. If this link is not present, and should be, please contact us and we will help you right away.

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What statistics can I see?

Mailive! measures how long it takes from the time the message is sent until we receive the message back in seconds. Mailive! reports on response time, error codes and tracks your success ratio. In addition to statistics Mailive! archives every outgoing SMTP session as well as captures the incoming message. This can be very helpful in determining where problems may be occurring.

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Does spam filtering software affect Mailive?

Spam software does not affect the ability of Mailive! to work properly. In fact, the ability to test delay in spam systems is one of the most common reasons for using Mailive. In general, sending an email message through a spam or virus center will increase round-trip response time. Many clients set up multiple Mailive! servers/transactions: one is routed through the spam system and the other is routed direct - bypassing the spam system. The direct route often requires you to add a rule into your mail server or firewall. Knowledge Front has the ip addresses 71.5.105.193 - 71.5.105.198 (netblock 71.5.105.192/29 or 71.5.105.192/255.255.255.248). By using this configuration, if you receive an alert from the Mailive! spam server/transaction, you will know the delay is spam system related, whereas if you get both alerts, you will know the delay is related to something inside of the spam system.

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How frequently are test messages sent?

How often Mailive! sends test messages is defined by you. The default is 10 minutes and you can change this by logging into Mailive! and clicking on Servers under the Configuration menu. In order to prevent false positives and to ensure accurate reporting Mailive also has an automatic retry system.

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Why am I receiving more test messages than I think I should be receiving?

Before Mailive! counts a test message as undeliverable, it will attempt to send a retry message to your server. This increases the likelihood we will get a test message back from you and decreases false-positive alerts. How many times Mailive! sends a retry depends on several things, including the frequency setting for the server, and how long it has been unresponsive.

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How do I add a user name and what are my options?

Users can be added by the main account contact, usually the person that initiated the account. Under Configuration and Settings the main account contact can administrate users.

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How are alerts triggered?

Rather than alert on individual message delay, Mailive's unique alerting system is based on a period of inactivity. Every minute, Mailive! checks the last time we heard from your server (by checking the Time Received in the Event History). Based on your Alert Timeout setting, Mailive! trips a down alert if your Timeout period has been exceeded. As soon as we get a response (to any outstanding test message) Mailive! recognizes that your system must be up, and will trip an up alert. Adjusting your alert settings is a matter adjusting either your Test Frequency or your Alert Timeout - or both. If we send Test Messages more frequently, we should be receiving responses more frequently.

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From where are alerts sent?

Alerts are sent from mailive01.knowledgefront.com (71.5.105.197), or fs01.knowledgefront.com (71.5.105.194) by the account mailive@knowledgefront.com.

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How do I email my cell phone?

Most cell phones these days have an e-mail address to which a text message can be sent. This varies depending on the cell phone provider. We suggest you contact your cell phone provider to ask how this can be done for your phone. You are also welcome to contact us and we will help out in any way we can.

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How can I test alerting to make sure it is working?

Once an alert has been saved in Mailive! a Test this alert button becomes available under the alert's configuration page. Pressing this button will trigger both up and down messages and log the event in the system.

An alternate way to test the system is by changing the account setting of the server in Mailive! to be your personal email address. By responding or not responding to individual messages you can see how the system works overall and how the alerts are triggered.

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Can I add multiple destinations to my alerts?

Yes, separate your alert destinations with commas.

Can I add multiple alerts?

Yes. It is common for clients to set-up a 10 minute alert to go to destination X, and a 30 minute alert to go to destination. X, Y, and Z. This serves as an excellent escalation procedure.

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