Message Processing

Create Individual Message Files for Each Valid Recipient: Specifies whether Alligate should create individual messages for each valid recipient listed in a incoming message. This means every valid RCPT TO recipient will be sent a separate copy of the message. This is helpful when you are using anti-spam filtering on the mail server and different users may use different rejection criteria.

Add Alligate and MXRate X-Headers: This option sets whether X-Headers from Alligate and MXRate should be added to each message bound for the local SMTP server. This can be useful to see how Alligate is functioning and diagnosing problems. These can also be used for filtering at the destination server or user mail client level.

Set Processing Directory for Stand Alone Use: Sets the directory name that appears in the "Alligate Processing Directory" field to the default that Alligate should use to process email when it is running in Stand Alone mode.

Set Processing Directory for Alligate Filter Use: Sets the directory name that appears in the "Alligate Processing Directory" field to the default that Alligate should use to process email when it is running with the Alligate Filtering plug-in.

Alligate processing Directory: This setting tells Alligate where to "Drop" incoming messages. The two default buttons will set this folder appropriately for your installation, however you can also set this manually if desired. This would allow use of the Alligate Gateway with third party or "home grown" external spam and/or virus filters. After any external processing, you will want to make sure that the message (both the .DTA and .CTL files) are delivered to the ..\Alligate\Spool folder for spooling and delivery.

A complete Alligate message consists of two files. The actual file ID is an integer number like 000000001, 000000002 and so on. They are sequential numbers and the file ID is incremented with each new message. The file pair consists of a .DTA and .CTL file. The .DTA file contains the actual message in a standard EML format. The .CTL file contains message envelope information as well as some internal control information.

Once a message is accepted by Alligate, it will be placed in the Alligate Processing Directory. If it is a folder other than the ..\Alligate\Spool folder, Alligate does no further tracking of the message until it arrives into the Spool folder again. Messages can be held, processed, scanned, logged, or whatever you want to do with them while they are "out of the loop".

File pairs can also be freely moved around. For example, you can manually move a message file pair to the spool folder at any time to put the message back in the processing loop. This includes any message in the Badmail or Route folders, or in any folder specified by the Alligate Processing Directory setting.