Providers of network appliances for small- and mid-size companies.

Configuring Cuckoo Email

What Is It?

This feature allows your Cuckoo device to notify an administrator whenever notable events occur. Examples would be when device is reset (i.e. power is lost) or the device loses GPS signal for a period of time. If Cuckoo detects those events it can send an email to an address of your choice. Typically that email would go to a Blackberry, email-capable phone, or pager so that someone could correct the situation if required.

Cuckoo Firmware Version

To use this feature, make sure your Cuckoo has at least revision 1.24 of the firmware or later.

Email Settings

The email configuration settings for your Cuckoo device are set under Configuration | Email on the web browser interface. That screen looks like this:

Here's what those settings mean:

SMTP Server

The name of your email server. Note: If you are using a named mail server, you must make sure there is an entry for DNS set on the Configuration | Network page. The DNS setting is a new configuration item that was added in Version 1.24 specifically to allow use of named mail servers. Setting DNS is not required if you configure your mail server using an IP address.

SMTP Port

This is the port used for sending SMTP email. The default is 25, which is the standard SMTP port. Change this if your email server uses a non-standard port for SPAM avoidance or other reasons. Other typical choices are 587 or 2525. Note: If your email port is 465, you are most likely using an SSL encrypted port. Cuckoo does not support using SSL encrypted SMTP.

Send Email To

This should be the address that you want to receive emails. Note that this must be a single name; you cannot provide multiple email destinations. To have multiple email recipients, you must configure a distribution alias on your email server to route the mails appropriately, and enter that alias here.

Report Email As From

This is an arbitrary name that the email will appear as originating from. This does not necessarily have to be a valid email address, since you cannot send any replies to your Cuckoo. Some mail servers may be configured to perform validation checks on this name. To pass those checks, you will want to make sure that the name is structured as originating from your domain.

Email Subject

You can title your incoming emails with whatever subject you want. The default subject is "Cuckoo SNTP Device Status Alert".

SMTP Authentication

If your SMTP server requires authentication, you can set the login and password here. Please note that AUTH LOGIN is the only supported authentication type. Servers that require AUTH PLAIN, CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, or another authentication method will not work with Cuckoo.

Events to report via email

The various events to report are set independently. Here is an explanation of the triggers.

Device Reset-- Sent whenever the device reboots or has power applied. This cannot be sent when Cuckoo loses power because there is no way for the device to react before loss of power. However, you'll know as soon as power is restored.
Unrecoverable System Error-- Sent if there is an internal code error that could not be corrected. You should never see this error. If you do, please report this to moc.xetihcria@troppus. It would also help to send us your event log if possible.
Administrative Login Failure-- Sent if you have enabled the Administration | Security password, and someone fails an attempts to log into the HTTP web configuration. (The attempted user name and password are not sent in case the actual administrator mistypes or forgets the password.)
Device Configuration Change-- Sent whenever any Cuckoo device settings are changed. The body of the email will identify if the change was made via the web page or the face plate. If you have unanticipated changes via the face plate, this means that someone has acquired physical access to the unit.
Password Change-- Sent if the password is changed or reset. The body of the email will identify if the change was made via the web page or the face plate. If you have unanticipated changes via the face plate, this means that someone has acquired physical access to the unit.
Loss of GPS signal-- This allows notification of GPS dropout events. An email is sent after the specified number of minutes of continuous GPS signal loss. A value of 0 indicates that you want immediate notification of any GPS loss, whereas a value of 2 means you want to be notified of any loss that exceeds 2 minutes. If a GPS loss notification email is sent out, you will also receive an email as soon as GPS signal is restored. Note that this setting is completely independent of the Configuration | GPS setting that controls NTP "primary timestamp" reporting.

Apply and Send Test Email

The Apply button saves the settings. Click Apply before sending any test email.

The Send Test Email button allows you to send an email to make sure your settings are correct. If they aren't correct, you'll get a page that shows the exchange between Cuckoo and the SMTP server, which you can use to determine the cause of the problem.

As an example, you might get this information after clicking the Send Test Email button:

Result:
Invalid SMTP authorization

SERVER EXCHANGE:
Recv: 220 localhost.localdomain ESMTP Sendmail 8.12.5/8.12.5; Sat, 23 Feb 2008 05:12:54 -0500
Send: HELO cuckoo.airchitex.com

Recv: 250 localhost.localdomain Hello [10.0.0.148], pleased to meet you
Send: AUTH LOGIN

Recv: 504 5.3.3 AUTH mechanism LOGIN not available
Recv: 504 5.3.3 AUTH mechanism LOGIN not available

Lines prefixed with Send: indicate commands that Cuckoo sends to the SMTP server. Lines starting with Recv: are responses that Cuckoo received back from the server. In this case, this exchange indicates that the email settings were configured for SMTP Authentication although the SMTP server did not support using authentication. This specific problem was resolved by clearing out the Login Name and Password fields.

What do the Cuckoo generated emails look like?

Here's a sample email:

From: <moc.xetihcria.1ookcuc@toor> "moc.xetihcria.1ookcuc@toor"
To: <moc.xetihcria@toor> "moc.xetihcria@toor"
Subject: Cuckoo SNTP Device Status Alert
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:57:29 GMT

Dear System Administrator,

This is an automated report from your Airchitex Cuckoo Time Server
(R&D Lab) at Sat Feb 23 07:57:29 2008 UTC.

Your device lost GPS signal 2 minutes ago.

Thank you for your attention.
----
http://airchitex.com/cuckoo.html

Note that if you have multiple Cuckoo time servers in your network, the Administration | Name field (in this case "R&D Lab") is used to identify which Cuckoo is reporting the problem.

Please Note:

Airchitex has been acquired by Intuitive Circuits as of August 16th, 2008. All Airchitex products will now be supported by Intuitive Circuts. For sales and support for any Airchitex products, please contact Intuitive Circuits at (248) 588-4400.

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