[Network or Server Issues] Issues with Patron & Staff notices sent from Illume (SHAREit) are usually due to email providers increasingly designating automated SHAREit email messages as Spam.
Sometimes Staff may receive bounced-back or blocked email messages from various Internet providers (eg. Office 365 or Shaw.ca). Or your patrons may report that they never received a patron notification from the Illume (SHAREit) software to their email (eg. Gmail) service.
This unfortunately usually occurs because either patrons have marked messages as spam or email providers have blocked messages as spam/phishing due to the Illume (SHAREit) server not being authorized by your library's local email provider/domain. Even though it may appear that the emails are coming from your email address, the internet providers (eg. Gmail) can tell they're really coming from our Illume email server located at Simon Fraser University.
Tip: For patrons using Gmail, request they double-check their Spam folder for Illume (SHAREit) notifications and create a filter to "Never send it to Spam" for the email account your library is using (eg. "do-not-reply@illumebc.ca" or "enotice@vpl.ca") for your patron notices. And please contact us for further assistance or troubleshooting!
Patron Notices:
Because of the way the SHAREit software "spoofs" patron email notices as coming from your own library's email (eg. "enotice@vpl.ca") address -- the SHAREit software needs to be able to accommodate any email address or domain "anyuser@any-library-domain.ca", among the 100+ library domains that could be entered by all our Illume libraries/sites! But recently email providers like Gmail have been cracking down on this "spoofing" in an effort to block spammers and phishing.
If you have Illume patron system email message notifications activated (screenshot below) under your Staff Dashboard > ILL Admin > Participant Record > Patron Notices > EMail Notice Set-up, there's a couple solutions below to help ensure your patrons will receive their notices!
Solutions:
- Generic Illume Email Solution: If your IT Department is unable to authorize or whitelist the IP address of the SHAREit SFU email server in your library's local SPF record for your domain (eg. vpl.ca) described in solution #2 below -- then we instead recommend using our generic Illume email address as the "EMail Notice From Address" for your patron notices.
Within your Staff Dashboard > ILL Admin > Participant Record > Patron Notices > EMail Notice Set-up add the generic Illume email address "do-not-reply@illumebc.ca" in the "EMail Notice From Address" section (screenshot below). If desired, you can also add your local library's email address in the "CC EMail Address (optional)" section to receive a copy of all patron notices sent by SHAREit.
Since our domain (illumebc.ca) has been authorized to allow emails from our SFU SHAREit server, these email notices should not be rejected by email providers like Gmail. Please contact us if your patrons report any issues receiving notices from this generic email address or if you'd like any assistance setting up the generic email address in your Patron Notices.
If patrons reply to the "do-not-reply@illumebc.ca" email address they will receive an automated reply saying "Auto-response: This Illume mailbox does not accept emails and is not monitored. Please contact your home library directly instead for assistance with your interlibrary loan requests".
Tip: We also recommend you add your contact information/email directly into the text of each activated patron notice under Staff Dashboard > ILL Admin > Participant Record > Patron Notices. For example, to the top of your "Cancelled" patron automated notice add "Do not reply to this message, instead please contact us directly at <insert-your-email> for assistance."
. - Local SPF Solution: If your library wishes to continue sending Illume (SHAREit) email notices "from" your own local library email address (eg. "enotice@vpl.ca") instead, your IT Department must authorize or whitelist the IP addresses of our local Canadian SHAREit servers hosted at Simon Fraser University in your email address domain's SPF record. The IP address to currently authorize is: 142.58.232.166
The local SPF record for a domain (eg. vpl.ca) prevents email spoofing by designating IP addresses of servers that are authorized to send email on that particular domain's behalf. If the Illume (SHAREit) mail server has not been authorized to send on behalf of your local domain, then the Patron Notices sent from SHAREit won't pass SPF authentication and will be marked as spam!
Please Note: There are currently three (3) IP addresses (142.58.232.165-167) and two (2) domains (*.agshareit.com and *.auto-graphics.com) in use by Illume, and we recommend authorizing all three IP addresses (+ip4:142.58.232.165 +ip4:142.58.232.166 +ip4:142.58.232.167) due to potential software updates/changes. Please contact us directly for assistance if whitelisting these IP addresses does not allow patrom email notices to be received correctly or you'd like assistance communicating with your IT Department.
Staff Notices:
Staff email notifications are normally sent from (eg. from "BCUCILLREQUEST@AUTO-GRAPHICS.COM") using the "auto-graphics.com" domain within SHAREit. As Illume maintains our own local Canadian SHAREit server instead of being hosted in the United States by the vendor Auto-Graphics, these staff email notices are also rejected as unauthorized spam.
To resolve this issue, the vendor Auto-Graphics has customised our local SHAREit software to send staff email notices from "staff-enotice@illumebc.ca" instead!
Since our domain (illumebc.ca) has been authorized to allow emails from our SFU SHAREit server, these staff email notices should not be rejected by email providers like Gmail. If you would like to activate or update your Staff Notices, please login as an administrator and update your notices under Staff Dashboard > ILL Admin > Participant Record > Staff Notices. Please contact us if Staff encounter any issues receiving staff notifications or would like assistance setting up Staff Notices.
Enhancements:
We've requested that Auto-Graphics also explore popular alternate notification options such as text messages and mobile apps with push notifications to add additional options for libraries to notify their patrons of interlibrary loan status updates. Please contact us if your library has additional enhancement suggestions or feedback!
If your patrons have marked messages from "do-not-reply@illumebc.ca" or your local library email address as spam, they may also need to contact their local Internet Provider (eg. Office 365) to request that they not block Library messages from the Illume servers. Provide them with the IP Address <142.58.232.166> and additional information on our services here: https://illumebc.ca