Removing Subscribers and Unknown Users

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Using IMail Administrator (not Web Messaging or the Web Remote Administration Utility), a list administrator can create special aliases that:

• Subscribe the sender of a mail message to a list
• Remove the sender of a mail message from a list
• Remove unknown users from a list

Once these aliases are created, mail can be forwarded to one of these aliases to accomplish the desired task.

Setting Up an Alias to Remove an Unknown User

If you get "unknown user" or "unknown host" messages about subscribers to a list, you can create an alias to remove such users from the list.

To set up a special alias for removing unknown users or hosts (assuming Tools > Use Wizards is selected):

1. In IMail Administrator, expand a host and select the Aliases folder.
2. In the right panel, click Add Alias. The New Alias ID dialog box appears.
3. Enter an alias name (for example: Parrots_del), then click Next. The Type of Alias dialog box appears.
4. Select the Program alias type, then click Next. The Program Alias dialog box appears.
5. In the Program name and Arguments box, enter the alias properties in the following format:

   imailsrv -ruhost domain listname 
    
   

For example, suppose you create a program alias Unknown_del that resolves to:

imailsrv -ruhost exoticbirds.com Parrotlist 

6. Click Next, then click Finish.

After the properties settings are complete, you can forward a postmaster message that was sent to the moderator address (about an unknown user or unknown host) to parrots_del@exoticbirds.com. The email you forward must be sent from the owner's
email address. The owner's email address is located under the List properties' General tab in the Owner box. A confirmation, that the user was removed, is sent to the list moderator.

Note: The unknown user (for example, user@host.com) or the unknown host (for example, user@host.com) must appear at the beginning of the line in the message body. Make sure that the unknown user or unknown host address is not indented and does not include additional characters from the mail client. Examples: incorrect: > Unknown User: user@host.com correct: Unknown User: user@host.com

Setting Up an Alias to Automatically Delete a User

To set up an alias that allows users to remove themselves from a list (assuming Tools > Use Wizards is selected):

1. In the IMail Administrator, expand a host and select the Aliases folder.
2. In the right panel, click Add Alias. The New Alias ID dialog box appears.
3. Enter an alias name (for example: Parrots_del), then click Next. The Type of Alias dialog box appears.
4. Select the Program alias type, then click Next. The Program Alias dialog box appears.
5. In the Program name and Arguments box, enter the alias properties in the following format:

   imailsrv -remove domain listname 
    
   

For example, suppose that you create a program alias parrots_del that resolves to:

imailsrv -remove exoticbirds.com Parrotlist 

6. Click Next, then click Finish.

After the properties settings are complete, you can send an email to parrots_del@exoticbirds.com and the email address listed in the Reply To header (or the From header) of the incoming message will be removed from the Parrotlist subscriber list. The message body is ignored.

Alternately, in this example, you can set up an Inbound Rule to capture messages that contain a keyword sent to the moderator from a list subscriber. The rule forwards the trapped message sent to parrots_del@exoticbirds.com. Confirmation notices are sent to the email address being removed from the list and the list owner (moderator).

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