Understanding the challenge

Before we explain how to configure Centipaid with Surgemail, it is important to describe why it is important to do so, and what are the challenges.

The use of Spam detection software to stop spam is not fool proof. Mail messages are designed by spammers to fool the best spam detection software, letting in spam messages. On the other hand the same software may falsely identify email messages as spam, generating false positives. False positives can result in the loss of important mail.

NetWin and Centipaid worked together to close the gap by allowing users to integrate the spam and friends features with email postage support. The addition of Centipaid email postage feature enables users to request email postage on received email, in combination with spam scoring and friends list.

Surgemail's email postage support enables recpients to shift costs associated with email delivery to the sender.  This is done by requesting payment to be made using Centipaid's Digital Stored Value Cards (DSVC).  Centipaid issues several DSVC cards including and not limited to CENTIPIX, YaPago, and KidSafePay brands.

Configuring Surgemail

Surgemail can be configured with email postage support (Centipaid) to work with the following configurations:

1. SmiteSpam (Spam detection) and Email postage (Centipaid)
2. Friends (Whitelist) and Email postage (Centipaid)
3. Other customized combination of all the features available.

How to configure surgemail with Centipaid (Administrator steps)

1. Log into the admin page of surgemail to access the system configuration. 
   This is usually https://localhost:7025/

   
    

2. Click on Global to access global settings, or use the search to find g_centipaid
   
   
    
3. Set up CentiPaid address and port by entering the receipt server and port number assigned to you by Centipaid in this format:
   
   pay001.centipaid.com:2021
   
   Advanced Notes: This is g_centipaid variable and it is set for all users of the surgemail.  It is assumed that all merchant accounts are using this receipt server and port.  Default is pay001.centipaid.com:2021
    
4. Surgemail has several domain level variables which are found in the main setting for each domain. These settings tell surgemail what options the individual users can change for themselves. To access a specific domain, click on Domains from the left panel, then select the desired domain to configure.
   
   
    
5. Proceed to set the Centipaid rules. Click on Edit Rules. These rules define the default Centipaid configuration for a given domain name.  This includes information such as the account number to which email postage should be deposited to, the email postage amount, and other information the administrator sees fit.  These values can be overridden by individual users if they are permitted by the user_centipaid settings (see  User Centipaid configuration options)
   
   Where
    

   • Match To Wildcard. If accounts match this wildcard, they will have the following settings.

   • Account Centipaid merchant account number.

   • Password Centipaid authentication server password.

   • HTTP(S) link Link to page that receives payment.

   • Language Language to display payment page in.

   • Amount Amount to charge per email. (0.001 >= amount <= $10)  in USD

   • Enabled Whether Centipaid is enabled for matching users by default.

   • Friends Whether message from friends are charged.

   • SmiteCRC Level at which messages are charged. (0 means all messages)
      

   
    

6. Proceed to configure the User CentiPaid configuration options by entering the names of  the options you allow users to change on their own.  Typically you want to allow users to change the email postage amount, whether to use it with friends, enable/disable, and smite score, hence you enter:

   amount, enabled, friends, smite

   When set, the user will be able to change the following options:
    

   acct	The merchant account number issued by Centipaid
   pass	The merchant receipt server password, which is provided when you sign up for Centipaid
   https	The link to the page that accepts payment from the user. i.e.  https://pay.centipaid.com/
   lang	The language of the payment shown when payment URL is clicked, i.e. en (English)
   amount	The email postage amount in USD, i.e. 0.25
   enabled	If set then CentiPaid is enabled for all matching accounts, otherwise the user may enabled it (depending on value of user_centipaid)
   friends	If TRUE then senders marked as Friends will be charged, otherwise they will be allowed.
   smite	SmiteCRC level, if an email receives more than this it is charged. A value of 0 charges all emails

   Advanced Notes:  This is user_centipaid setting.
    

7. That's it.  Surgemail is ready to accept email messages with postage depending on your configuration.
   If users are allowed to change settings, then they can custom tailor the email postage feature to fit their needs.
   
   Advanced Notes: The above steps can be quickly added to Surgemail by editing /etc/surgemail.ini and adding the following commands:
   
   global_settings
           g_centipaid "pay001.centipaid.com:2021"
   
   vdomain address="" name="foo.com"
           centipaid match="*" acct="AEF001" pass="adonis" https="https://pay.centipaid.com/index.php"
                                   lang="en" amount="0.001" enabled="FALSE" friends="FALSE" smite="0"
           user_centipaid "acct,pass,https,lang,amount,enabled,friends,smite"
   
   
   
   
    

How to configure surgemail with Centipaid (User steps)

1. Log into your mailbox
2. Click on Options
3. Click on Advanced Options
4. Click on Centipaid
5. At this stage you are in the Centipaid Settings page. 
   
   
   
   Depending on the permissions granted to you by the system administrator, you can set any of the following options.
   
   Merchant number:  The account number to which email postage will be credited, this is available on email accounts where the email holder has his/her own merchant account with Centipaid.  If it is not available to the user, then please assume that the mail administrator has set this value for the domain.
   Merchant password: The receipt server password assigned by Centipaid to the merchant ID above.
   Link to payment page:  Usually this is https://pay.centipaid.com/index.php unless told otherwise by Centipaid on signup.
   Payment page language:  The language of the payment page, default is english.
   Amount to charge: This is the email postage to request in US dollars.
   Enable CentiPaid:  If checked, you can enable email postage with your account, otherwise it is disabled.
   Charge friends:  If selected, surgemail will request email postage to be paid from everyone including friends emails.  If you do not want to charge friends then please unselect this option.
   Charge on SmiteCRC score: If the Smite score is higher than this number, then request email postage to be paid to accept for delivery.

Now that you understand how to configure your email, you can setup your account to handle spam and unknown senders in the following configurations:

SmiteSpam and Email postage:

In this configuration all email messages are assigned a spam score by SmiteSpam.  The user can choose the maximum score number to accept without requesting email postage.  This configuration eliminates false positives from being lost, so a user prompts the sender to pay instead of dropping the message.  The message will be held for delivery for a period set by the admin, before it is dropped, unless payment is received and message is delivered.

NOTE: Incoming email messages with postage bypass the SmiteSpam process and are delivered to the recipient.

To use this configuration make sure:

• Enable CentiPaid - Checked
• Charge friends - Checked
• Charge on SmiteCRC score is set to 1 or higher

Friends and Email postage:

In this configuration user who are NOT on the friends list are requested to pay email postage using Centipaid.   This configuration is ideal for business email account, where unsolicited email is not accepted and only known email from known senders are allowed to be delivered. Incoming email messages with email postage bypass the Friends process and are delivered to the recipient.

To use this configuration make sure:

• Enable CentiPaid - Checked
• Charge on SmiteCRC score is set to 0 or higher if want to combine with SmiteCRC