Bypass SMTP Relay For A Single Domain In Exim 4

 HowTo  No Responses »
Feb 012016
 

I recently configured my cPanel/Exim installation to relay mail through SendGrid, using SendGrid’s official documentation and this page to supplement it.

After some tweaking, everything worked as expected, but I was left with one problem: I have scripted emails that include some large (>20 MB) attachments, and SendGrid does not support attachments of that size.

These emails are sent to a single domain, and I have no issue sending them directly, so I configured Exim (through WHM’s Service Configuration -> Exim Configuration Manager -> Advanced Editor) to send messages to that one domain without going through the SMTP relay, while keeping the relay as the default mail transport.

To do this, edit the PREROUTERS section of your Exim configuration file.  Before the relay transport block, typically “send_via_sendgrid” for SendGrid, insert the following lines:

 
to_example:
  driver = dnslookup
  domains = example.com
  transport = remote_smtp 
  no_more

You’ll want to update the router name (“to_example”) and the domain to suit your needs. It is very important to place this above the SendGrid router block, because order matters!  This code tells Exim that if the message is destined for “example.com”, that it should utilize the “remote_smtp” transport.

Any domains that don’t match this rule will continue down to the SendGrid transport code, so they will relay as expected.

How To: Creating Custom Vibrations in iOS 5

 HowTo  2 Responses »
May 132012
 

A little-known feature of iOS 5 is the ability to create custom vibrations for incoming calls.  In this tutorial, I will show you how to enable custom vibrations, create them, and assign specific vibrations on a per-user basis, in the same way you can assign custom ringtones to specific users.

Enabling Custom Vibrations

First, we must enable the “Custom Vibrations” feature. To do this, load Settings.app, and tap on “General”

Next, scroll a bit, and tap “Accessibility”

Scroll down in the Accessibility screen, and tap the slider next to “Custom Vibrations”, ensuring that it is set to “ON”

Now, we have enabled the option.

Create a Custom Vibration

To create a custom vibration, return to the main screen in Settings.app, and tap on “Sounds”

Then, scroll to the bottom to reveal a “Vibration” option

This screen presents you with an option of standard vibrate alerts to choose from, and the option to create a new one.  Tap the bottom selection to begin

As the screen suggests, tapping on your screen will enable you to simulate a vibration.  The longer you keep your finger pressed to the screen, the longer the resulting vibration lasts.  You can also lift your finger and reapply it in order to create a pattern

When you have finished, press the “Stop” button at the bottom

You may now playback the vibration, to preview how it will feel.  If you are not satisfied with it, you can tap the “Record” button to start over.  If you are satisfied, then you should tap the “Save” button on the top-right

This presents you with a prompt to enter the name which refers to this sequence.  When you have finished entering a name, tap the “Save” button

Back in the “Vibration” menu, you can now select your new vibration as the default

Note that if you’re interested in deleting a custom vibration, the typical swipe-to-delete feature works in this menu as well

Assigning a Custom Vibration on a Per-User Basis

To assign a specific vibration to a user, open that user’s entry in the Address Book or Phone app, and tap the edit button

Then, scroll a bit, and tap on “Vibration”

 

And in the resulting menu, set the vibration to your choosing (the default option will be the option selected above)

And that’s all there is to setting up and using custom vibrations.

How To: Disable Message Previews for iMessage and SMS on the iPhone with iOS 5

 HowTo  No Responses »
May 092012
 

It’s simple to disable message previews on iOS 5.  With iOS 5, Apple moved notification handling to a centralized place within the Settings app.  Therefore, to start, we open Settings.app, and tap on “Notifications”:

Next, select “Messages”

Then, scroll down a bit, and tap the “ON” switch next to “Show Preview”, so that when you are done it reads “OFF”

Now, when you get a text message, it will appear on your Home Screen without a preview of the message, as in the following image:

And that’s all there is to disabling message previews on iOS 5!

How To: Import from WordPress without using FTP

 HowTo  No Responses »
Apr 292012
 

Exporting data from WordPress in “WordPress format” (WXR) allows you to locally save an XML file with your blog’s data.  Upon trying to import that file, from “Tools” -> “Import” -> “WordPress” menu option, however, you are currently prompted for FTP server info during the plugin’s installation.  If you would like to upload the XML file directly, without an FTP server in the middle, the solution is to be found here, namely:

  • Browse to the WordPress Importer plugin manually.
  • Save the ZIP file.
  • Unzip its contents to the wp-content/plugins directory within your WordPress installation.

After ensuring that your permissions are correct (which is to say, they probably shouldn’t deviate too drastically from the permissions on your other WordPress files), browse over to “Tools” -> “Import” -> “WordPress” again, and you should see a prompt to upload your file and continue.  From there, you should be set!

How To: Change the “New Mail” (and other) Notification Sounds in iOS 5

 HowTo  No Responses »
Apr 262012
 

One common question amongst iPhone users since the phone’s first release was “How do I change the new mail tone?” Although this somewhat natural feature was previously missing, this option is finally available, beginning with iOS 5 (available for the iPhone 3GS and higher). As we will see, users now have the option to set custom mail sent, mail received, and other notification sounds, using their choice of the iPhone’s built-in ringtones, custom ringtone files (which can include custom notification tones, of course), or custom ringtones available for purchase from the iTunes store.

To get started, open the Settings app, and tap “Sounds”

Now, after scrolling a bit, you will see the different notification sounds which you can customize. These include the New Voicemail alert, the New Mail alert, the Sent Mail alert, and more.

Selecting one of these alerts shows you the tones available to use in place of the default.

Select the sound that you would like to use, and you’re all set!

How To: Disable iMessage in iOS 5

 HowTo  1 Response »
Apr 262012
 

At least several people have ended up at this blog because they were searching for a way to disable iMessage. I recently warned about iMessage’s fallback to SMS, with the end-point being that such a fallback should be disabled. Some people wish to disable the use of iMessage completely. I think that disabling iMessage entirely is a bit extreme, and while I haven’t yet thought of a usage scenario to suggest that one stop using iMessage (feel free to comment below!), especially with the consideration that iMessage uses very small amounts of data and, in contrast, text messages are quite expensive, I will provide the instructions to disable it in this post.

First, load the “Settings” app on your iPhone, and select “Messages”:

Next, tap the word “On”, to the in the “iMessage” column, to move the slider from the “ON” position:

When you are done, the slider next to “iMessage” should read “OFF“, as seen below:

And that’s all! Note that to re-enable iMessage, simply slide the iMessage slider back to the “ON” position (you will need to accept the data use warning, and you may need to re-enter your Apple ID password, if you use iMessage through your Apple ID as well as phone number).

How To: Disable “Send As SMS” when using iMessage

 HowTo  1 Response »
Apr 262012
 

Update:I recently blogged about disabling iMessage. To view that post, see: Disabling iMessage.

One important thing to remember when using Apple’s iMessage in the recently-released iOS 5 is that, by default, your iPhone will fallback to SMS if the iMessage service is unavailable during a conversation with another iOS 5 user. While this may not matter much if you’re chatting with another iPhone user in your country and you both have text messaging plans, if youtext message any iOS user in another country, I strongly recommend disabling this option. Why? Because if your conversation falls back to SMS, then you will be charged for that international text message by your operator, and the fees are generally quite heavy (generally about $0.25/message, depending on the operator).

In this post, I will provide an example what you will see if you drop back to SMS from iMessage, and show you how to disable this option. Note: Disabling the option to “Send As SMS” does not affect regular SMS messaging, as far as I can tell. It should only stop your iPhone from sending an SMS in place of an iMessage, in the event that the iMessage service is for some reason unreachable when you’re already in an iMessage discussion.

A message sent as an SMS after it failed to send through iMessage.

A message sent as an SMS after it failed to send through iMessage.

To disable this option, load the “Settings” app on your iPhone, and select “Messages”:

Now, tap the slider by “Send As SMS” and ensure that it is turned OFF.

NOTE: In my testing, this still does not work as well as we might expect/hope. My test message with data disabled in an iMessage conversation did not seem to send (though it did not error out, and did eventually send when data was re-enabled), however, when I closed the Messages app and reopened it, the text bar went from “iMessage” to “Text Message”, and did send a new message as a text message without any other notification. Bottom line: Still be very careful when using iMessage with someone overseas!