G Suite (Google Apps) Integration
This article explains how to configure G Suite to use Spambrella/Proofpoint as your secure email gateway service.
What Is G Suite?
G Suite (also known as Google Apps) is a cloud-based solution from Google which offers email, messaging, security, archiving and other capabilities delivered from Google’s worldwide network of cloud data centers. For more information please see: https://gsuite.google.com/together
Before You Start
Before continuing with the provisioning and configuration of the Spambrella service, it is recommended that you have the information listed below.
Information required for configuring Spambrella
- MX record(s) for domain(s) you are configuring
Information required for configuring G Suite
- Spambrella/Proofpoint IPs, Smart Host and SPF
- Google admin account
Setup Inbound Mail Flow
Spambrella is deployed between the customer’s G Suite environment and the Internet. Inbound mail is routed to Spambrella by changing the customer’s MX records. After email is processed by Spambrella it is routed to G Suite.
Configure Spambrella
Locate your MX record for the domain in G Suite
- Sign-In to the Google Admin console.
- From the dashboard go to Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Advanced Settings.
- While on the General Settings tab, scroll down to Setup > MX records and make note of all the “Points to” values (you can also enter MX records in the search field).
These values will be necessary when you add your domains to Spambrella.
Sign-in to the Spambrella user interface. Adding domain(s) to Spambrella
- Click the Domains tab.
- Click on New Domain.
- Enter the domain name you wish to configure.
- Ensure “Relay” is selected for domain purpose.
- Enter the delivery and failover destinations values.
- Choose the method you wish to use for domain verification.
- Click Save.
- Repeat if you are adding more than 1 domain.
The delivery and failover destinations refers to the “points to” values captured in the previous section.
Configure G Suite
Configure Inbound Mail Gateway
- Sign-In to the Google Admin console.
- From the dashboard go to Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Advanced Settings.
- While on the General Settings tab, scroll down to the Spam > Inbound Gateway (you can also enter Inbound Gateway in the search field).
- Hover the cursor to the right of Inbound Gateway. To create a new inbound gateway setting, click Configure.
- Under Gateway IPs, enter the Spambrella IP addresses.
- Check Automatically detect external IP.
When this setting is enabled, Gmail scans the message header to locate the first occurrence of an IP address that is not listed in the Gateway IPs. This is referred to as the “external IP.” Gmail considers the “external IP” as the sending IP and uses this IP for SPF checks and spam evaluation.
- Check Reject all mail not coming from gateway IPs.
- Check Require TLS for connection from the email gateways listed above.
- Click Add Setting
OPTIONAL Update Safety Settings
GSuite’s safety settings allow organizations to enable or disable policies related to viewing and accessing email. If you have enabled some or all of these settings you may experience some delivery issues. Please review the following steps to ensure your settings are supported.
- While signed into the Google Admin console, go to Apps > GSuite > Gmail.
- Click Safety to expand options.
- If you have Spoofing and authentication settings enabled (either all or customized) consider the following setting:
– ‘Protect against any unauthenticated emails‘ - Spambrella has already scanned incoming emails for SPF and/or DKIM issues. Emails with issues are scored accordingly and quarantined if they exceed your spam threshold.
- This setting can be disabled. If it is enabled it may cause unexpected delivery issues for incoming email.
Setup Outbound Mail Flow
Spambrella is deployed between the customer’s G Suite environment and the Internet. Outbound mail is routed to Spambrella by configuring an outbound mail gateway. This will route all outbound mail to Spambrella.
Configure Spambrella
Enable Outbound Relaying
- Sign-in to the Spambrella user interface.
- Click the Features tab.
- Check Enable Outbound Relaying.
- Click Save.
Add Service IP addresses to your Inbound Gateway
- While logged into the Spambrella user interface, click the Domains tab.
- Click Managed Hosted Services.
- Choose Google Apps.
- Click Save.
Configure G Suite
Configure Outbound Mail Gateway
- Sign-In to the Google Admin console.
- From the dashboard go to Apps > G Suite > Gmail > Advanced Settings.
- While on the General Settings tab, scroll down to the Routing > Outbound Gateway (you can also enter Outbound Gateway in the search field).
- In the Outbound Gateway text field, enter the Spambrella Smart host value.
- Click Save.
Update Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
When sending outbound email through the Spambrella gateway, recipients receive mail sent from Spambrella rather than G Suite mail servers. If the recipient’s mail service attempts to verify that the message came from your domain, it must confirm that the gateway server is an authorized mail server for your domain.
To enable this, you need to add the Spambrella SPF record to your domain.
Related
Related Case Studies
It doesn't require an arcane knowledge to set the Spam filtering up, the guides are straight to the point and support staff are very helpful. Functionality wise, in short: we do not get spammed. Thanks to Spambrella.
Archiving wise, the new solution is easy to use, searches well and fast and is by far the cheapest we could find at the time. Ten year retention rocks!
The service is great at filtering bad email as well as junk email out while allowing clean email though. I have used a few other options over the years and this is the best I have found. Clients sometimes have trouble configuring their settings to how they want it to be. Or tag emails as approved when they shouldn't and need IT interaction to resolve. Maybe just ease of use or having a more clear way for clients to resolve basics on their own.
Robust, versatile, and reliable...
The reliability of the service and the level of protection that it provides. My spam levels immediately dropped to near zero.
There are almost no false positives. And I'm easily able to customize the level of protection with whitelists, blacklists, and sensitivity settings. I'm also a big fan of the antivirus and URL scanning features.
Used the software for: 2+ years - 5/5 Overall
With an ever overloaded department, and with cybersecurity skills shortage getting worse securing the I.T infrastructure.
Offloading the task of e-mail filtering to Spambrella has dramatically helped in the department's performance. The only drawback in our case is that the service is hosted outside of our territory and thus out of the legal jurisdiction.
I found spambrella to be easy to set up and has dramatically reduced the number of spam emails hitting our inboxes. It was easy to 'train' the software to release any genuine emails that were caught or add any spam that was not picked up.
Within a couple of weeks of use virtually no spam arrived to our mailboxes. Spam and phishing emails are a growing problem for everyone I'm sure. I now get a very low incidence of spam.
Easy to onboard my customers from another spam filtering system. Very fast and haven't had any downtime in the 9 months since I have moved to Spambrella. When I have had to use support, responses where quick. I had to move all my customers from another filtering system with little notice. After I moved my customers I realised how bad the old solution I used was. Contact with Sales and Support always been professional
