Mindsystems Amode V2 allows every user to schedule up to 35 email alerts per day, for delivery even if your PC is off. Set and forget. This service is typically used for short and long term scheduling, group communications, task reminders and as part of your daily workflow. It is great for keeping project deadlines on track in an interactive way, and ensuring your team is kept up to date. Every Amode user automatically gains access to this service as an added benefit of owning their Amode license. 35 email credits per user are available each day (limits reset at midnight UTC). If you do not have a corporate SMS account setup with Mindsystems, this can also integrate with an email to SMS solution to act as a mobile phone paging system. Key aspects: To use the Queue Service you must have access to the Internet when setting the Alarm or updating the Alarm. The email alarm will sit securely on the Mindsystems Network until it comes time to send it and then our system connects to your mail server. SSL connections are also possible for enhanced security. The connection to the Mindsystems Network is a standard outbound connection, so unless you have very restrictive firewall policies this should not pose an issue. In cases of connectivity issues ensure ports 80, 88 and 8110 for the Queue Service and for the Alarm Manager App usually 25 (but this can vary if you select another non-default port). If you operate in a heavily locked down environment, network or application permissions may also interfere, but this is something only your IT support will be able to determine.

How does it work?

There are two ways to send Email Alarms:

1) Via the Alarm Manager App (located in your bottom right system tray). This requires a connection to the Internet and for your PC to be on at the time the Alarm fires.

2) Via the Mindsystems Queue Service. This enables you to schedule email alerts into the future without your PC needing to be on at the time the Alarm fires. You need an Internet connection at the time you set the alarm so the details can be transmitted to the Mindsystems Network.

The Email Setup Popup is activated by pressing the 'Email Setup' button in the main Alarms area. This Popup is used to control how your email alarms are sent.

The Popup is divided into 4 functional areas.

1. Alarm Manager Config: This area stores connection information for Email Alarms sent locally via your Alarm Manager App. Using this information, the Alarm Manager App running the bottom right system tray will connect to your email server and send as you normally would send from your email client (ie. Outlook or Thunderbird).
   
   

   Alarm Manager Fields
   Email Address:	Your email address (no white space at start or end)
   SMTP Server:	Your mail server, usually a domain name but an IP address is acceptable. Example: mail.mycompany.com (domain) or 111.111.111.111 (IP) Common Service Provider Setup: Gmail, Yahoo Biz, Hotmail / Win Live
   Display Name:	Your name as you would like it to appear in the Email Title.
   Username:	Your SMTP username
   Password:	Your SMTP password
   Port:	The port that the Alarm App will use to connect to your server (default 25)

   
   
   
2. Email Queue Server Config: This area stores connection information for Email Alarms that are queued and sent via the Mindsystems Queue Service (see diagram at bottom of this help page). This information is securely stored on the Mindsystems Queue server and at the time the Alarm is due to fire, is used by the Mindsystems Server to connect to your mail server. In this scenario the Mindsystems server acts as the sending point, sending on your behalf but with the advantage of you not needing to have your PC on for the message to be transmitted.
   
   

   Email Queue Server Fields
   Checkbox:	Check if you wish to use the same connection info as the Alarm App
   Email Address:	Your email address (no white space at start or end)
   SMTP Server:	Your mail server, usually a domain name but an IP address is acceptable. Example: mail.mycompany.com (domain) or 111.111.111.111 (IP) Common Service Provider Setup: Gmail, Yahoo Biz, Hotmail / Win Live
   Display Name:	Your name as you would like it to appear in the Email Title.
   Username:	Your SMTP username
   Password:	Your SMTP password
   Port:	The port that the Alarm App will use to connect to your server (default 25)
   SSL Checkbox:	Check if you need to connect to your SMTP server using the SSL protocol. Considerations: In most cases you should also need to change the 'Port' number to 465, but you should contact your IT support to verify this as Mindsystems cannot determine this information for you.

   
   
   
3. Send Config: This determines how Alarms will be sent. When the first option to send via the Alarm App is selected the connection information in the Alarm Manager Config is used. Similarly the config in the Queue Server section is used if the second option to send via the Queue Service is selected. Alarms created while the Queue Service is the selected method will effect the Daily Send Limit (see below).
   
   
4. Email Queue Daily Remaining Balance: In the main Alarm Tab area there is a Email Limit indicator icon. This shows the number of emails left that you may send via the Queue service for today. The limit is reset each day at Midnight UTC.

Considerations:

• To use the Queue Service you must have access to the Internet when setting the Alarm or updating the Alarm.
• The connection to the Mindsystems Network is a standard outbound connection, so unless you have very restrictive firewall policies this should not pose an issue. In cases of connectivity issues ensure ports 80, 88 and 8110 for the Queue Service and for the Alarm Manager App usually 25 (but this can vary if you select another non-default port).
• If you operate in a heavily locked down environment, network or application permissions may also interfere, but this is something only your IT support will be able to determine.

To setup an alarm:

1. First check your Alarm Manager is running in the bottom right system tray (if not start it using the Alarm Manager shortcut in the Mindsystems folder in All Programs),
2. Highlight the topic in the Tree area that you want to associate the alarm with,
3. Go to Alarms Tab,
4. In the top section (Alarms for Topic) you can see a list of alarms for this topic,
5. Type a name for the Alarm in <Enter Alarm Name>,
6. Select the Date and Time you wish it to fire (SMS/Email based alarms should not be set closer than 3 minutes to allow for time sync differences),
7. Select the type of alarm you want (if you pick Standard Desktop Alarm you can 'Add New' and save at this point and you are done),
8. If you want to send to a individual choose 'No List - Enter Manually'. Enter details in box to the right, separating multiple with ; and remembering if you chose a Email alarm you should only use email addresses in this field. Similarly if it is only a SMS alarm you should only enter phone numbers separated by ; (all phone numbers must be in full international format - for example if your cell number is 555-222-5555 and you live in the US, it would be entered as 15552225555,
9. If it is an email alarm you need to enter the Email Title and fill out the message body (it can be plain text or properly formatted HTML),
10. Click Add New,
11. You will be prompted to Save - make sure you do this as this transmits the alarm data to the Alarm Manager for processing in your bottom right system tray.

** SMS Alarms while Offline: When offline or when the Mindsystems Gateway cannot be reached, you will notice the SMS credit balance icon will display 'Offline'. You cannot set new SMS alarms or update existing ones until connectivity is restored. SMS alarms that where previously successfully setup will fire as normal as they will already be lodged with the Mindsystems Gateway.