Sending Files - Using the standard Compose Window
Instructions
This is how the main compose window looks in Secure Document Exchange:
- Select recipients in the same way as a web-based email system, please select To, CC, and BCC email addresses to your recipients.
- Type the Subject and Message to your recipients.
- Add Files, you can add files up to the max size displayed in the limitations section 11.
- When you’re ready, please hit Send. If uploads are taking a long time, you can check the checkbox to “send when uploads are done”.
- If you have sent any files previously, you can send them again without uploading them again.
- Select Download Permission for your recipients. See the Forwarding Permissions section for a complete description.
- When the message expires. After this day, the attached files will be deleted.
- If set, each recipient can only download each file this number of times. If the download permission is set to “Anyone”, each download by anyone is counted towards the limit.
- Send a copy to your own email address (for storage in your sent folder).
- A Secure Message is a message where the message is not included in the email sent to the recipients. When sending a Secure Message:
- The recipients will get a generic email telling them to click on the link to view the message.
- You will get a read receipt when the recipient has viewed the message as well as when any attachments have been downloaded.
- You can send a Secure Message without any attachments.
- It’s not possible to send a Secure Message with the permission that Anyone can download — in order to send a Secure Message, authentication is required.
- Limitations. Message Size and File Extension Limitations.
Sending Files - via Web Browser
There are two methods for uploading files — HTML 5 and Legacy. The most commonly used browsers support the HTML 5 upload mechanism except Internet Explorer prior to version 10 and Safari prior to version 6. Please see the Browser Support section for a complete list of supported browsers.
When uploading using a HTML 5 compliant browser, files are uploaded as you compose the message, and looks like this:When uploading using a Legacy browser (Internet Explorer 9 and below, Safari 5 and below, and really old and unsupported versions of Firefox and Chrome), files are not uploaded when you select them. Instead, the bottom of the compose page will look like this:
Processing Uploaded Files
When large files are sent (with the HTML 5 method), they are split into 100 Mb blocks. All files are also scanned for viruses. This can take some time on a busy system and the files are placed in a queue for reassembly and AV scan. As per the notice beneath the files, you don’t have to wait for this to complete to send the message. In the unlikely event of an infected file, the file will be automatically deleted before anyone can download the file.
Forwarding Permissions
| Permission | Login Required | Download Receipt | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only Specified Recipients | Yes | When each recipient downloads each file. | Only the recipients you have specified in the To, CC, and BCC fields will be able to download the files. It won’t be possible to forward the email or message URL to anyone. |
| Only Specified Recipients and Local users | Yes | When each recipient downloads each file. | In addition to the Specified Recipients, any files sent may also be downloaded by any local users on the system by forwarding the email or sending the message URL. |
| Anyone after authentication | Yes | When each recipient downloads each file. | Anyone may download the files. Use this option to post the Public Message URL in public forums, on web pages or anywhere where you want to make the files available. When the user visits the Public URL, they will be asked to authenticate by providing their email address and a confirmation. |
| Anyone | No | Once per file, when someone has downloaded the file. | Anyone may download the files. Use this option when you don’t want your recipients to have to authenticate to download the files. The downside is that since we don’t authenticate the recipients, we don’t know who downloaded what. |
Checksum - How to verify the integrity of the downloaded files
A checksum or hash is a way to verify the integrity of the downloaded files, to verify that the download was successful. It works by applying a cryptographic calculation on a file of any size and it will output a short checksum, or hash, that represents the message or file.
The trick with checksums or hashes is that every time they calculate the checksum for the same file, they will produce the same checksum. And if the file changes only one single bit, the calculation will produce a different checksum. So when you receive a message from the Secure Document Exchange, and it displays a checksum like: 3d592a8930cc3d74b8f5c01a94559c44bddab15a you can use a Checksum Tool to calculate the checksum of the file you downloaded. Secure Document Exchange uses SHA-1 as its checksum function. If the checksum is the same, the file you have downloaded is identical to the one sent from the Secure Document Exchange. If the checksum is not the same, the file you downloaded is not the same as the one sent from the Secure Document Exchange.
So as an example, let's say that we received a message with the following attachment:
We use a Windows application from the list of Checksum Tools at Wikipedia to calculate the checksum of the file we downloaded, selecting SHA-1 as the checksum function (or hash type).
As you can see, the checksum in the message is the same as from the downloaded file. The file must be identical to the one on the Secure Document Exchange.