Smoothwall Filter & Firewall: Email Output for Safeguarding, System Alerts and Reporting.

This article applies to the Smoothwall Filter & Firewall On-Prem solution in either Hardware or VM form.

A Primer on Email Alerts

The Smoothwall Filter & Firewall may be configured to send email alerts pertaining to a particular system function or event directly to end users. 
For example, a system administrator may wish to be notified when a new system update is available, or when system resource use reaches a particular threshold.
Similarly, you may wish to set up Instant Safeguarding Alerts so DSLs can be notified of users accessing restricted content, or to permit scheduled reports to be sent directly to the intended recipient.

What is required?

In order to send emails, the Smoothwall must be configured with:

  1. An SMTP server or relay.
  2. A distribution group containing the email address of the recipients.
  3. System configuration for either System Alerts or Safeguarding Alerts that enables the function. 

Setting up the SMTP Output

The following steps outline how to set up the initial SMTP configuration on the Smoothwall.

  1. Log-in to your Smoothwall Filter & Firewall Admin UI.
  2. Navigate to Reports > Settings > Output Settings. In the bottom half of the page, under the 'SMTP (Email) Output System' heading, enter the hostname or IP address of your SMTP server or relay server, and the email address you wish to be attached as the 'sender address'. In the case of using an SMTP server, if your SMTP service provider uses SMTP Auth and/or SMTP TLS, enable these functions. In the case of SMTP Auth, provide a username and password for your SMTP provider so the Smoothwall may use that service. 
    NOTE: Some email providers require that third party applications (such as the Smoothwall) utilize a specially created 'App Password' to access their services. Please refer to any documentation your email service provider may have on this.  
  3. Click the 'Save' button to save the settings. 
  4. You may use the 'Send test to:' field to nominate a recipient email address and sent a test alert to verify correct functionality.

Setting up a Distribution Group

The following steps outline how to set up email distribution groups.

  1. Navigate to Reports > Settings > Groups. Select from the drop-down box an empty profile and click the 'Select' button. Once the page has refreshed, name the selected profile appropriately and click 'Save' to create the new profile.  
  2. With the newly named profile in the active slot, enter the name and email address of a recipient in this distribution group. Opt in/out of HTML Email content for this user and ensure the 'Enabled' option is checked. Click the 'Add' button to add this user to the new group.
  3. Repeat for any other users, or revert to Step 1 to create a new distribution group if required. 

Setting up System Alerts.

The following steps outline how to enable email alerting for system events:

  1. Navigate to Reports > Alerts > Alerts.
  2. In the 'Groups' section, select the distribution group to receive system alerts from the drop-down list and click 'Select'. 
  3. Ensure the 'Enable instantaneous alerts' option is checked, and mark the 'email' box on the right for any system alert function in the list you require. Click the 'Save' button at the bottom of the page to complete the configuration. 
  4. There are further alerting options held under Reports > Alerts > Alert Settings pertaining to system functions or events, and here you may fine-tune the settings of specific alerts. 

Setting up Safeguarding Alerts

The following steps outline how to create Safeguarding Alert policies with Instant Email Alerts.

  1. Navigate to Reports > Safeguarding > Notifications.
  2. Click the 'New notification' button in the top-right of the page to open the policy wizard and configure the following options:
    • User/Groups:  Select the User Group the policy applies to, or leave blank to default to all groups. 
    • Tenant: In multi-tenant environments, select the tenant this policy should apply to.  
    • Send Notification: Select here the frequency the Smoothwall should send out a full Safeguarding summery report. This selection also determines the date range of the report. 
    • Also send instant alert: Select 'Email alert' to enable instant email alerts for high-risk 'Danger' level breaches to the configured Safeguarding ruleset. 
    • Select Safeguarding ruleset: Select the Safeguarding category to watch.
    • Send notification / alert to email group: Select here the recipient distribution group for the safeguarding policy. 
  3. Click the 'Save changes' button to save the new policy.