Getting Started

Access Hermes SEG Administrator Console

Using a browser, access the Hermes SEG Administrator Console at https://<IP_ADDRESS>/admin/ where <IP_ADDRESS> is the IP address of your server.

If you have recently rebooted your system, you may get a 500 Internal Server Error when attempting to access the Hermes SEG Administrator Console. This usually means that the Authentication Server has not initialized yet. This error usually goes away on its own. Wait a couple of minutes and try refreshing your browser again.

Login with the following default credentials

    Set Network Settings

    Figure 2

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    Set System Certificates

    Hermes SEG Community Version

    Hermes SEG Community Version will allow you to create Certificate Signing Requests to submit to 3rd party CAs and import certificates from 3rd party CAs.

    Figure 3

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    Hermes SEG Pro Version

    Hermes SEG Pro Version will allow you to create Certificate Signing Requests to submit to 3rd party CAs, import certificates from 3rd party CAs as well as Request Lets Encrypt (Acme) Certificates.

    If you wish to import a 3rd party CA certificate, please follow the Hermes SEG Community instructions above to import a certificate. If you wish to request a Lets Encrypt (Acme) certificate, follow the instructions below:

    Before requesting Acme Certificates ensure that BOTH ports TCP 80 and TCP 443 are open to Hermes SEG from the Internet and the domain you are requesting the certificate is pointing to the Internet accessible IP address of your Hermes SEG machine. We recommend that you test using the Acme Staging server first to ensure the request works before attempting to use Acme Production. The reason we initially Request Acme Certificate utilizing the Acme Staging server is because Lets Encrypt is much more lenient with rate limits with failed requests in their staging environment than their production environment, click here for details.

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    Set Console Settings

    The Hermes SEG Console Settings sets the method you wish to access Hermes SEG machine which includes the Admin Console, User Console and the Ciphermail Console. By default, the Console Mode is set to IP Address, however, an IP address is not contusive to using SSL certificates. Therefore, if you plan to use a SSL certificate to access the Hermes SEG machine without getting certificate errors, you must set the Console Mode to Host Name. The Host Name you set does NOT necessarily have to the the same Host Name you set in Network Settings above. The Host Name and Primary Domain Name you set in the Network settings is used for SMTP transactions such as SMTP TLS and it's not related to Hermes SEG console access.

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    After clicking the Submit button and you changed the Console Mode from IP Address to Host Name, your browser will NOT automatically redirect you to the new console address. Ensure you enter the new address in your browser as https://<HOST_NAME>/admin/ where <HOST-NAME> is the new Host Name you set above.

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    If you follow the above recommendations, you should be able to achieve an A+ rating on the Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Test (Figure 12):

    Figure 12

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    Set SMTP TLS Settings

    It's important to set SMTP TLS in order to transmit e-mail messages between your Hermes SEG machine and other e-mail servers using TLS encryption.

    Before you can set SMTP TLS, you must first have either imported or requested a SSL Certificate in the Set System Certificates section above for the Hostname and Primary Domain Name you set in the Set Network Settings above.

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    Change admin System Account Password

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    Setup Domains

    In order for Hermes SEG to deliver email, you must first set the domain(s) that Hermes SEG will process email for along with their corresponding destination email server(s). You can add as many domains and destination email servers as required. An email server can be configured as an IP address or a Host Name as long as the Hermes SEG can reach it over the TCP port you set. Multiple domains can be pointed to the same email server if necessary.

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    Add Internal Recipients

    If you have setup any domains in the Setup Domains section above with the Recipient Delivery field set to SPECIFIED, then you MUST add either Internal Recipients or Virtual Recipients in order to process incoming e-mail and relay that email to the correct recipient mailboxes which are located on the destination email server(s) for the domain(s) you setup in the Setup Domains section above. This section will guide you with adding Internal Recipients.

    Figure 19

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    In the Add Internal Recipient(s) page, in the Recipient(s) field, enter an e-mail address each in each own line, select the appropriate options in the SVF Policy to Assign, Quarantine Reports, Quarantine Report Frequency, Train Bayes Filter from User Portal, Download Messages from User Portal, PDF encryption, S/MIME Encryption, S/MIME SIGNATURE, PGP Encryption drop-downs and click the Submit button (Figure 20):

    Figure 20

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    Set Postmaster, Admin E-mail Address and TimeZone

    Figure 21

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    Set Relay Networks

    In addition to inbound email, if the email server(s) you added will also be sending outbound email through the Hermes SEG (recommended), you must allow their IP address(es) to send (relay) email through the Hermes SEG.

    Figure 22

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    Initialize Pyzor

    Pyzor is a collaborative, networked system to detect and block spam using digests of messages. Vipul's Razor is a distributed, collaborative, spam detection and filtering network.

    Hermes SEG uses both of these components for better spam detection. Both of these components must be initialized before Hermes SEG can use them.

    Figure 25

    Initialize Vipul's Razor

    Before attempting to initialize Vipul's Razor, ensure the Hermes SEG has outbound Internet access. Initialization can take a few minutes to complete, so please be patient.

    Figure 26

    Clear Bayes Database

    The Bayes Database tries to identify spam by looking at what are called tokens; words or short character sequences that are commonly found in spam or ham.

    On a new Hermes SEG installation, it's always best to ensure a clean Bayes Database before you start processing email.

    Figure 27

    Set Encryption Settings

    Figure 28

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    Change the Ciphermail admin Account Password

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    Recommendations

    Register for Barracuda Central Account

    Hermes SEG comes pre-configured to use the Barracuda RBL (Realtime Block List), however you must first register for an account and provide your DNS Server IPs at Barracuda Central before you will be allowed to use it.


    Revision #39
    Created 17 November 2020 12:23:49 by Dino Edwards
    Updated 5 June 2022 19:02:13 by Dino Edwards