Tag Archives: Office 365

Apr 04

Block Outbound Email for Specific Users

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Overview

There are a few situations where you may need to restrict certain users from sending email to external users.  For example, you may have part time employees that only need to send email to internal users OR you might have an employee who’s about to get terminated and don’t want them emailing clients.  Fortunately, in Office 365 Exchange you can create a Mail Flow Rule to accomplish this.

Create Distribution Group to Define Users to Block Outbound Email

In order for the mail flow rule to see the group, it must be a distribution group.  However, you can easily hide it from the GAL so your users don’t see it.  Many organizations use CustomAttribute15 to define what displays in there GAL.  If that’s your case, simply do not define CustomAttribute15 or define it to a value so it does not show in your GAL; otherwise, set the attribute to Hide group from Exchange Address Lists.

  1. Create a new distribution group
    1. Name: Block Outbound Email
    2. Email: blockoutboundemail@<company>.onmicrosoft.com
    3. Members: Add any user you want to block from sending outbound emails to external recipients (They will only be able to send to internal recipients)
  2. If you are using Office 365 in a Hybrid Deployment, make sure you use dirsync to synchronizes your new group

Create Mail Flow Rule

In this example, we will prevent a user from sending emails to any external recipients, but they will still be able to send to internal recipients.

  1. Login to the Office 365 Admin Portal https://portal.microsoftonline.com
  2. Click Admin then click Exchange to open the Exchange Admin CenterOpen Exchange Admin Center
  3. Click mail flow then click on the Rules tab
  4. Click the + symbol and click Create a new rule       Create New Rule
  5. Name the rule Block Outbound Emails to External Recipients
  6. Under Apply this rule if, click the recipient is located
    1. Select Outside the organization and click OK
  7. Click More Options to add another condition
  8. Click Add Condition
  9. On the new condition, select the sender is a member of this group
    1. Search and select the group Block Outbound Emails and click OK
    2. Note: Despite the wording stating “member of this group”, you can select a user instead of a group.  However, it’s easier to manage and you do not need to wait for the mail flow rule to propagate on 365, which can take up to an hour in my testing.
  10. Under Do the following, select Block the message then click delete the message without notifying anyone, and click OK
  11. Click Save

IMPORTANT NOTE:  It can take up to 45 minutes for Microsoft’s back end to fully synchronize rules!  This means any new or modified rules can take up to 45 minutes to take effect!

Block Outbound Email

 

 

 

Apr 04

Delivery Report in Outlook or Outlook Web App

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Overview

When using Outlook or Outlook Web App (OWA) in an Office 365 or Exchange environment, you can track the message from the client side.  Both Outlook and OWA allow you to view a delivery report in order to confirm a message was delivered when the recipient claims they have not received it or if it’s taking a long time to deliver.  Delivery reports work for both internal and external recipients.

View a Delivery Report in Outlook

  1. In Outlook, go to your Sent Items folder
  2. Locate the message you want to track and open it
  3. Click File, click Info, and click Open Delivery Report

Outlook Message Delivery Report

View a Delivery Report in Outlook Web App (OWA)

If you are using any other email client than Outlook (mobile device, OWA, etc), you can use OWA to view a delivery report.

  1. Login to OWA at https://portal.microsoftonline.com
  2. Click the Gear Icon, then click Options
  3. Click Organize Email then click Delivery Reports
  4. Enter your search criteria, click Search
  5. Select the email you want to track and click the Pencil Icon to view the delivery report

OWA Delivery Report

Review Delivery Report

Internal delivery reports will show Delivered upon success delivering.  Also note, Office 365 Exchange only keeps message tracking data for 14 days.

Delivery Report Internal

External delivery reports will only show Transferred which means it successfully sent out from your mail server.  However, this does not guarantee the recipient received the email because there can be issues on the recipients email server.

Delivery Report External

Apr 04

365Licenses.ps1

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#=========================================================================
# 365Licenses.ps1
# VERSION: 1.0
# AUTHOR: Brian Steinmeyer
# EMAIL: sigkill@sigkillit.com
# WEB: http://sigkillit.com
# DATE: 4/4/20114
# REQUIREMENTS:
# 1) Microsoft Online Services Sign-In Assistant for IT Professionals
# -(http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=28177)
# 2) Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell
# -(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj151815.aspx#bkmk_installmodule)
# COMMENTS: This script is intended to retrieve Office 365 licensing information
# by accepted domains. It will provide the active license count by domain,
# estimate the cost per domain, and provide the number of unused licenses.
#=========================================================================

# ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
# Define License Unit Cost
$intCost = 3.88
# ------ END CONFIGURATION ------

# Connect to Microsoft Online
write-host "Connecting to Office 365..."
Import-Module MSOnline
Try {
Connect-MsolService -ErrorAction Stop
} Catch {
Write-Host $error[0].Exception -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black
Write-Host "Error Connecting to Office 365... Quitting Script!" -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black
Break
}

# Get Office 365 Accepted Domains and Active User Licenses
Try {
$arrDomains = @(Get-MsolDomain)
} Catch {
Write-Host "Error Retrieving Office 365 Accepted Domains... Quitting Script!" -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black
Break
}
$arrCompany = @()
$TotalLicenses = 0
$TotalCost = 0
foreach ($d in $arrDomains){
$domain = $d.Name
write-host ("PROCESSING: " + $domain.ToUpper())
$users = Get-MsolUser -All | where {$_.isLicensed -eq "True" -and $_.UserPrincipalName.Contains($domain)} | Select DisplayName, UserPrincipalName -ExpandProperty Licenses | Select DisplayName, UserPrincipalName, AccountSkuID
If ($users.count -ne $null){
$i = $users.count
$users | format-table
$users | Export-Csv ("365_Licenses_" + $domain.replace(".","_") + ".csv")
}
Else{
$i = 0
Write-Host "0 Licenses<code>n</code>n"
}
$objCompany = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Domain' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value $domain
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Licenses' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value $i
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Cost' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value ("{0:C2}" -f ($i * $intCost))
$arrCompany += $objCompany
$TotalLicenses += $i
$TotalCost += ($i * $intCost)

}

# Get Company Licensing Info
Try {
$companyLicenses = Get-MsolAccountSku | Select AccountSkuId, ActiveUnits, WarningUnits, ConsumedUnits
} Catch {
Write-Host $error[0].Exception -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black
Write-Host "Error Retrieving Office 365 Account Info... Quitting Script!" -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black
Break
}
$objCompany = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Domain' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value "TOTAL ACTIVE LICENSES"
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Licenses' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value $TotalLicenses
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Cost' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value ("{0:C2}" -f $TotalCost)
$arrCompany += $objCompany

$unusedLicenses = ($companyLicenses.ActiveUnits - $companyLicenses.ConsumedUnits)
$unusedCost = ($unusedLicenses * $intCost)
$objCompany = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Domain' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value "TOTAL UNUSED LICENSES"
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Licenses' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value $unusedLicenses
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Cost' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value ("{0:C2}" -f $unusedCost)
$arrCompany += $objCompany

$objCompany = New-Object -TypeName PSObject
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Domain' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value "GRAND TOTAL LICENSES"
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Licenses' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value $companyLicenses.ActiveUnits
$objCompany | Add-Member -Name 'Cost' -MemberType Noteproperty -Value ("{0:C2}" -f ($companyLicenses.ActiveUnits * $intCost))
$arrCompany += $objCompany

# Display Statistics
$companyLicenses | Format-Table -Auto
$arrCompany | Format-Table -Auto