It's Better with Backstage

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Sharing Contacts in Backstage Mail

The best way to share contacts in Backstage Mail is via the web interface.

First, login to the webmail interface at your company’s server address, which should be backstage.<yourcompanydomain.com>

Once logged in, navigate to the Contacts pane.

In the left bar, you will see various contact folders, including your own, any folders that are shared to you, as well as the server’s public folders. Click on the ‘+’ next to Folders and create a new folder, I’ve called mine “Sharing”.

After populating the new group with some contacts, we’re going to share it to another user. Hover over the folder’s name in the list, right-click (or left-click on the ‘▼’), and click on Sharing.

Click on + Add and begin entering the name of the user you wish to share with. Assign them a role of either Reader, Editor, or Owner. Readers can only view the contacts, Editors can add, edit, and delete contacts, and Owners can do all of the above, as well as share the list to other users.

  Click on save. Now have the other user sign in to enable the shared folder. When the other user sings in, a small gear icon is displayed next to Shared Folders. Click on that icon, and check the box next to the shared folder. After clicking Save, the shared folder will show up in the list.

This should automatically make these contacts sync down to all of your devices as well. If you do not see the shared contacts folder on your phone, tablet, or computer, you may need to check your sync settings. This can be found in the webmail interface as well.

While logged into webmail, your name will be displayed in the top right corner. Click on your name and you will see Settings.

Now, in the left side bar, you will see a number of options. Click on Folders to Sync.

In the main panel, you will see all the folders you can sync down to your devices (calendar, contacts, email).

Unless there is something that you specifically do not want to sync down to your devices, you should be safe to click Check all for both CalDav/CardDav and Exchange ActiveSync. Then click Save.

That’s it! We’ve successfully created a folder, shared it to another user, and ensured the folder will show up on all synced devices.

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Encrypting Messages in Backstage Mail

In order to setup email encryption, you’ll need to import a personal email certificate. If you don’t already have one, you can get a free certificate from Comodo. The certificate must be in .p12 or .pfx format.

Importing your personal certificate

Start by logging into Backstage webmail. Open the dropdown menu by clicking on your name, and go to Settings. From there, select Secure Messages from the list on the left. 

Select Create unique Secure Messages password (more secure) and enter a password. This password is will be required any time you want to access your certificate store (i.e. to add a certificate, or to use the certificate from another device/email client). Click on Initialize.

Now you’ll have the option to Import a certificate. Browse for the .p12 or .pfx file on your system, and enter the passphrase used to protect it. For security purposes, webmail will always display the path to your certificate file as “C:\fakepath\”. Click on Import to upload the certificate.

Note the options under Mail settings:

Display encrypted messages directly - automatically displays the contents of an encrypted message. When disabled, webmail will indicate that a message is encrypted and requires you to click a Display button in order to read it.

Sign all outgoing messages - automatically signs all outgoing emails with your certificate’s public key.

Signing and encrypting emails

Now that your’ve added set up your certificate(s), you’ll be able to click on Security when composing an email, and select the following:

Sign - Digitally signs the message using your certificate’s public key. By doing this, the recipient will get your public key and can use it to send you encrypted messages.

Encrypt - Encrypts the message using the recipient’s public key. By doing this, only the intended recipient can view the contents of the message because only they posses the private key required to decrypt it. 

NOTE: You cannot send an encrypted message to someone unless you have their public key. Webmail automatically stores the public key for another person’s email address when you receive a signed message from them. 

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Connecting eM Client v5 for Windows to Backstage Mail / Calendar / Contacts

You can download eM Client for free from: https://www.emclient.com/download

Upon Launching eM Client for the first time you will be prompted to add your email account.

Simply enter your Backstage credentials and domain under “Automatic Setup”

Then click “Next”

In this pane you can enter your name, and the name you would like to use to identify your Backstage account - eM Client can handle multiple accounts.

Select which services you would like to connect to with eM Client, then click “Finish” and in a few moments your Backstage account information will be downloaded.  You can begin sending and receiving email while your account synchronizes.  You are now configured for Backstage with eM Client v5.

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Connecting Outlook 2016 for Windows to Backstage Mail

Launch Outlook 2016 - if this is your current email client, click “File” and choose “Add account” next to the large green plus.  If you are new to Outlook 2016, you will simply be prompted to create a new account.

Simply click “next”

Here we see the “add account” screen.  Simply click next

At the auto-configuration screen choose “manual setup” and select “next”

Use the “Exchange ActiveSync compatible service” option to allow your system to connect to Backstage

In the manual configuration pane you can fill in all the details provided to you. Pro Tip - your username is your Backstage email address, minus the portion that comes after the @

Outlook will test the server settings before it allows you to proceed.  This should only take a few seconds

You are now ready to use your Backstage account in Outlook 2016

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Connecting Outlook 2016 for Mac to Backstage Mail

Open up the Outlook application and navigate to Outlook > Preferences.

Select Accounts from the new window.

Click on Add Email Account.

Enter your email address and Continue.

In the next window, you’ll want to click Not IMAP/POP? in the top right.

Now select Exchange.

Enter your username, password, and server (backstage.<yourcompanydomain.com>), and click on Add Account.

Now you’re all set to use your Backstage Mail account in Outlook!

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Connecting Thunderbird to Backstage Mail and Chat

Thunderbird is a free, open-source, and cross-platform email client from Mozilla. It also supports chat using the XMPP protocol.

Mail

To get started, download Thunderbird (if you haven’t already), run the application, and go to File > New > Existing Mail Account. In the new window, enter your name, Backstage email address, and password, then click Continue.

Next, Thunderbird will ask for more detailed configuration. Configure each setting as shown below, but use your company’s Backstage server address for the Server hostname fields (backstage.<yourcompanydomain.com>), and your own username (as it appears in your email address) for the Username fields.

Click done, and you should be ready to use your Backstage Mail account in Thunderbird. If you have a bunch of emails on your account, it will take some time to download them all so that they show up in Thunderbird.

Chat

To set up your Backstage Chat account in Thunderbird, go to File > New > Chat Account and select XMPP as the Chat network in the new window that appears and click Continue.

In the next window, enter your username (as it appears in your email address), and your domain (the part that comes after the @ sign in your email address). Click Continue.

Enter your password in the next window and click Continue.

In the next window, set your Alias. This is the name that will display in conversations with other chat users.

Next, open the XMPP Options dropdown. Set Connection security to Require encryption, enter your Backstage server address in the Server field, and set the Port number to 5223. Click Continue.

Verify that the configuration shown is correct, check off Connect this account now, and click on Done.

You’re now ready to start using your Backstage accounts with Thunderbird!

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Sharing Folders in Backstage Files

Sharing individual files and folders is simple from the Backstage Files webapp. Navigate to https://backstage.<yourcompanydomain.com>:8443/owncloud to get started.

Once you’re logged in, find the file or folder you wish to share. Hover over it, and click on the icon resembling three connected dots to open the Sharing menu.

To share with another user on the same Backstage server, click on the text field in the Users and Groups tab, and begin entering their name. The field should auto-complete. Click on their name when it appears.

Now you can set the permissions this user has for your file/folder.

Can share - allows the user to share the file/folder to other users.

Can edit - allows the user to edit the file/folder and its contents.

Create - allows the user to create new files or folders inside of the folder.

Change - allows the user to make changes to existing files.

Delete - allows the user to delete files.

Tip: the delete feature is useful because it means a user can’t get rid of the file, and any changes they make to it will be visible in the file’s Activities tab. Changes can be reverted by choosing an older version of the file in the file’s Versions tab.

To share with a user who isn’t using Backstage, go to the Public Links tab and click on Create public link.

This window will allow you to set permissions for users who access the file/folder using the link, set a password required to access the file/folder, set a date for the link to expire on, and send the link directly in an email. Click Save when you’ve configured the link to fit your needs.

Now you can see the link you’ve created. Click on the clipboard icon to copy it to your clipboard for pasting.

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Connecting Gmail for Android to Backstage Mail

This article covers setting up a Backstage email account in Gmail, the default email client for Android.

Start by navigating to Settings > Accounts on your Android device and selecting Add account and then Exchange.

Enter your Backstage email address and select Manual setup.

Select Exchange.

Enter your password and tap on Next to continue.

On the Incoming server settings page, enter your Backstage server address in the Server field, and ensure Port is set to 443. Tap Next.

You should see a Remote security administration prompt informing you that setting up the account will grant the Backstage server some administrative rights on your device. Tap OK to proceed.

The next screen provides some detail on the administrative rights being granted to the Backstage server. Most notably, the permission to Erase all data allows you to remotely erase all files stored on your device in the event it is lost or stolen. Select Activate this device administrator to accept and proceed.

That's it! You're ready to start using your Backstage email account on your Android device. 

However, there is one setting you may wish to change... Tap on Account Settings for your newly configured account and find the Sync emails from setting. By default, it is set to Last week. This means that only emails from the last week will show up on your mobile device. Many users will want to sync more emails than that, so we encourage you to set this to your own preference. Selecting All will have all of your emails from any point in time show up (if your account already contains a lot of emails, it will take some time to download everything).

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Connecting Spark to Backstage Mail

If you haven't already, grab Spark by Readdle from the AppStore.

Launch the app, and select Login as New User.

You will then be prompted to allow synchronization. You'll want to enable this if you plan on using Spark on other devices such as a Mac or iPad, but can otherwise leave it disabled and proceed.

Next, you'll see a prompt to let Spark to send you notifications, and then another to let it access your contacts. Select Allow at both of these prompts.

At the Connect to Service screen, select Kerio Connect.

Enter your login details. The Server field should contain your company's Backstage server address.

Verify your Account Details and Notification Preferences and select Done.

Now you're up and running with Spark! You'll want to check out the Settings menu to see all of the customizations Spark has to offer, such as the ability to choose what shows up in the sidebar, set swipe actions for quickly sorting through emails, and set custom email signatures.

For more info on Spark, its settings, troubleshooting and tips, see the Spark Knowledge Base.

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Congress Renews Warrantless Surveillance—And Makes It Even Worse

The House of Representatives strengthened spying powers authorized under Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act Thursday.

There has never been a better time to host your data with a Canadian provider. With congress not only renewing FISA but strengthen it, now - more than ever - American companies are compelled to hand over information without a warrant. The FISA Amendments Act goes even further by allowing the FBI to search NSA (America’s digital spy agency mandated to ONLY collect intelligence outside US borders), databases without a warrant.

Backstage is 100% hosted in Canada and subject to this country’s laws, which require a warrant for us to hand over data to law enforcement.

If you are concerned about your privacy and the security of your data, we’re ready to host your email and your files north of the 49th parallel.

Check out https://hostedbackstage.com/features/hosted-in-canada or get in touch: [email protected]

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Domain Footers

Keep company-wide email signatures uniform and simple with domain footers, another feature built into Backstage!

Domain footers allow your company to standardize the format and appearance of email signatures by appending the same footer (or signature) to the end of all outgoing emails. Domain footers can be formatted in plaintext for basic use, or in HTML for coloured text, highlighted text, hyperlinks, various font sizes, and images. When a domain footer is created, user-specific fields can be defined such as <full name> and <job title> (see end of article for full list of possible fields). Upon sending an email, these fields are filled with the corresponding info for the sender.

For example, here is the defined format for a domain footer:

When I send an email, the footer is appended as such:

If you are interested in having a domain footer implemented for your company's Backstage server, please see the configuration options below, and open a new support request detailing how the footer should look. We can provide mockup images and make adjustments before enabling the footer, ensuring that it only starts being appended to emails when you are happy with it.

Configuration Options

Font: Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman Font size: 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 Font styling: Bold, Italic, Underline Text colour: (any of the following colours)

Text highlight: (any of the following colours)

Text alignment: Left, Centre, Right Hyperlink: (please provide URL and indicate which phrase should be the link) Image: (please provide images) Fields: <full name>, <first name>, <middle name>, <last name>, <prefix>, <suffix>, <description>, <company name>, <mobile>, <phone>, <country>, <state>, <city>, <ZIP/postal code>, <street>, <company phone>, <company URL>, <job title>, <department>, <office>, <work email>, <fax>.

Note that we will require info for each user in order to fill specific fields such as <phone>, <job title>, <department>, etc. Please provide a list of info for each user for any fields you wish to use.

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Seeking Backstage reseller partners

Successful IT consultants tend to recommend products and services that protect their bottom line. This isn’t easy. For years, the margins on hardware and software have shrunk from triple, to double, to low single digits -- to the point that they’re too slim for most consultants to survive on. Many folks in our industry saw the move to cloud computing and SaaS as a return to dependable recurring revenue and healthy margins. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out that way.

Google and Microsoft’s SaaS offerings are good examples of this trend. Both companies are huge players in cloud services. Both operated very aggressive reseller programs that boasted fat margins and big bonuses for resellers. Over time, as they gained more and more customers, both began to sideline their reseller partners.

Resellers have no place in Google and Microsoft’s long term strategy for cloud services. From the beginning, their goal was to use reseller partners until they gained critical mass, and ultimately phase them out in favour of direct sales. Pricing for G-Suite, Google Apps, Office 365, SkyDrive and Azure are constantly changing, and margins continue to shrink. The heyday for selling Google and Microsoft cloud services is over. In the long term, migrating your clients to these providers is at odds with the viability of your business.

Backstage is different. We see reseller partners like you as indispensable, and we purposely avoid direct sales. As an IT consultant, you complete the trust chain between Backstage and your customers. You know your clients’ processes, culture, and pain points. Your product recommendations carry weight. Your clients trust you to migrate their data, implement their IT solutions, and manage their day-to-day account. Our goal is to empower you with a quality offering, training, support, and fair compensation.

Because you retain your clients, Backstage offers follow-on opportunities for training, expansion and general consulting. Because our pricing is based on storage used (and not user licenses or seats), you earn more money as your clients’ data footprints increase. Our reseller compensation package encourages you to continue actively managing your accounts, and to care as much about customer satisfaction and retention as we do. Backstage clients tend to stay long term.

Backstage is competitive with the best email and collaboration platforms out there. Moreover, it has several USPs: 100% Canadian data residency, zero-user licensing, no bandwidth caps or throttling, fine-grained control of user permissions, easy recovery of deleted data, unparalleled device and OS compatibility, seamless integration and provisioning – the list goes on. Our reseller commissions are also very competitive: we offer a minimum bonus for every Backstage package sold and, as long as your client stays with Backstage, you take home 15% each month.

Backstage is a competitive solution from a Canadian partner that values what you do for your clients. We know that you care about the long term viability of your business. We can help you stay competitive through unique selling propositions, increased margins, and predictable recurring revenue.

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

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We have recently made significant upgrades to our Backstage backup systems. While you won’t notice these improvements day-to-day, in the event of a serious failure, corruption or loss of data, our upgraded backup systems require only a fraction of the time previously needed to recover.

For our customers hosting Windows servers (Remote Desktop), we have some great news too! Our upgraded backup systems are now able to back up SQL databases on-the-fly (while they are in use). This is sort of a big deal. If something ever went wrong with the SQL database that powers your software, we are now able to recover far more data (meaning less potential loss), in far less time. These upgrades make your data and your workflow that much safer, at no additional cost.

We are constantly improving Backstage on both sides of the curtain. Hopefully this will give you that much more peace of mind that your data hosted with Backstage is safe and sound.

Another great reason to be a Backstage customer!

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Distributed Mailing Lists

We are pleased to announce another Backstage feature: distributed mailing lists!

Distributed mailing lists provide a simple means of sending mail to a group of recipients without exposing the recipients' email addresses, and can be used by any number of authorized users. For example, if I email the list [email protected] for which I am authorized to send mail, the email will be distributed to all members of the list. Conversely, the system would reject the message from an address that wasn't authorized to send, and it would not be delivered to the list members. Lists also have the option to allow anyone to subscribe by sending an email to the automated system.

To have a distributed mailing list created, please submit the following details in a support ticket. If your organization has IT personnel, we can work with them to provide administrative access for mailing list configuration.

Details

List Address: Reply-to: Allow anyone to subscribe via email (y/n): Allow members to email the list (y/n): Allow non-members to email the list (y/n): Reply-to: Hide sender's address and replace it with list address(y/n): Moderators: Members: Subject prefix (optional): Automatic message to new members (optional): Text to be automatically appended to each message (optional):

Let's look at each of these items in a bit more detail by creating a sample list.

List Address - the email address that will be used for sending mail to the list, and MUST use your organization's domain name. I will use "[email protected]".

Allow anyone to subscribe via email - possible values are "yes", "no", and "moderator must approve". Selecting yes will allow ANYBODY to subscribe to the list by emailing <list address>-subscribe@<organization's domain>. I am going to select "moderator must approve" so that anyone may REQUEST a subscription, but will have to be approved by me first. When an email is sent to [email protected], I will receive an email asking to approve or deny the request. Here is what that email would look like, followed by the email a new subscriber would receive after being approved:

Allow members to email the list - possible values are "yes", "no", and "moderator must approve". I will select moderator must approve here, because I typically only want moderators sending mail to the list members, but there may be an exception in the future, at which point I can allow a member to email the list.

Allow non-members to email the list - possible values are "yes", "no", and "moderator must approve". I will select "no" here, because I do not want non-members emailing the list at all.

Reply-to - where to deliver the message when a user replies to a list email. Possible values are "sender", "this list", "sender + this list", and "custom address". For custom address, please specify the email address to deliver replies to. I will set this to sender, so that replies only come back to myself when I send a message to the list.

Hide sender's address and replace it with list address - this will hide the email address of the sender and only show the list address in the sender field, possible values are "yes" and "no". I will set this to no, so when I send a message to the list the sender field reads "[email protected] on behalf of Jeff Turner <[email protected]>".

Moderators - a list of names and email addresses of moderators. I want Joey and myself to be moderators, so my list will look like this:

Jeff Turner:[email protected] Joey Gilkie:[email protected]

Members - a list of names and email addresses of members. Because this list is only for testing purposes, it will only have one member:

Jeff Turner:[email protected]

Subject Prefix - a string of text that will be added to the beginning of the subject line for all distributed emails. I will use "Backstage: ".

Automatic message to new members - a message to automatically send in an email to new list members. I will use:

"Thank you for subscribing to the [email protected] mailing list! This mailing list is only for internal testing purposes with regard to distributed mailing lists. If at any time you wish to unsubscribe, simply send an email to [email protected]."

Text to be automatically appended to each message - a string of text to be added to the end of messages sent from the list address. I will use:

"You received this message because you are a member or moderator of [email protected]. This mailing list is only for internal testing purposes with regard to distributed mailing lists. If at any time you wish to unsubscribe, simply send an email to [email protected]." Here is an example of the appended text, also note the sender address not hidden and subject prefix:

Suffixes

The following suffixes can be added to the list address to perform a function. Fox example, [email protected] will send an email to only the list's moderators.

-subscribe: subscribe to the mailing list -unsubscribe: unsubscribe from the mailing list -help: receive help info for the mailing list -owners: send mail to the mailing list moderators

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Connecting ChatSecure to Backstage Chat

ChatSecure is an XMPP and Google Talk client for iOS and Android, and is our recommended application for Backstage Chat. To get started, download ChatSecure - Encrypted Messenger from the App Store/Google Play. Upon launching the application, select Add Existing Account and proceed with XMPP.

Enter a nickname if you wish to be visible as something other than the name on your Backstage account. For Username, enter your Backstage email address. Enter your Password. Hostname is your Backstage server address (backstage.yourdomain.com). Leave the other options as default and proceed by tapping on the checkmark. You should be prompted about an SSL certificate, select Save. Last, it will prompt you to enable push notifications.

Once that is complete you can begin sending messages to other users on your Backstage server, just click on the new conversation icon in the top left to see the list of available users.

To initiate an encrypted chat, tap on the i icon in the top right of a chat, hit the switch to Show Advanced Encryption Settings, and select OTR. The other user will have to be using a client that supports encryption, and will need to confirm your request to use OTR encryption in order to begin the encrypted session.

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Connecting Adium to Backstage Chat

Adium is a free instant messaging app for Mac that supports all kinds of chat protocols, it is our recommended desktop client for use with Backstage Chat. To get started, download the application from https://adium.im/, mount the downloaded .dmg file by clicking on it, and drag the Adium icon into the Applications folder. Unmount the Adium virtual drive and launch Adium from your Applications folder.

Click on Adium from the menu bar at the top of the screen and then select Preferences. Click on the + icon to add a new account, and select XMPP (Jabber).

Under the Account tab, enter your Backstage email address and password.

If you wish, set a personal icon and alias under the Personal tab, otherwise Adium will use the default icon and your full name. Other users will see your icon and alias when chatting with you.

Under the options tab, set Connect Server to your Backstage server address (backstage.yourdomain.com). Leave the rest default.

If you wish, you can enable Encryption by selecting Encrypt chats as requested or Encrypt chats automatically under the Privacy tab. Check Connect when Adium opens (unless you prefer to connect manually when you open Adium) and click OK. A connection to the server should be established and you can start using Backstage Chat from Adium.

To start an encrypted chat, click on the lock icon in a chat window and select Initiate Encrypted OTR Chat. The other user will have to be using a client that supports encryption, and will need to confirm your request to use OTR encryption in order to begin the encrypted session.

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Using Backstage Chat

Backstage now has an integrated chat feature, meaning you can start sending private instant messages within your organization with ease. To get started, login to the Backstage webmail interface by visiting backstage.yourdomain.com (where yourdomain.com is the same as your email address), or via the Kerio Connect Client desktop application.

Once you are logged into Backstage mail, click on the Chat tab. If you do not see the Chat tab, you will have to check Enable chat in Kerio Connect Client by clicking on your name > Settings > Chat. You can start chatting with other online users by clicking on their name from the list in the left pane. Click on the contact list header to toggle between showing all contacts, or only those who are online. Messages sent to an offline user will be waiting for them next time they sign in.

Backstage Chat uses XMPP (also known as Jabber), so you can login from various desktop and mobile clients, such as Adium for Mac and ChatSecure for iOS and Android - both of which support end-to-end encryption for XMPP chats.