Initial Setup (Setup Assistant)

The Setup Assistant guides you through the complete initial setup of your Conbool system after creating a tenant. It ensures that all necessary configuration steps are performed in the correct order so that your email traffic is reliably routed through Conbool.

You can find the assistant under Home → Setup (path: /home/[account]/setup). The assistant is divided into four sequential steps: domain registration, mail server configuration, DNS records, and final verification.

Prerequisites

Before starting the Setup Assistant, make sure the following requirements are met:

1. Tenant created – A Conbool tenant must already be set up. If not yet done, follow the guide: Create Tenant.
2. Access to your DNS management – You need access to your domain's DNS provider to create and modify TXT, MX, and CNAME records.
3. Exchange Online administrator rights – To set up connectors and transport rules, you need admin access to the Microsoft 365 Exchange Admin Center.
4. Active membership – A valid Conbool membership is required.

Step 1: Register Domain

In the first step, you add your email domain (e.g., yourcompany.com) to Conbool and verify that you are the owner of this domain.

Procedure

1. Enter your domain in the Setup Assistant and confirm the entry.
2. Conbool generates a unique verification code in the form of a TXT record.
3. Log in to your DNS provider and create the displayed TXT record:

4. Return to the assistant and start the verification. Conbool checks whether the DNS record has been set correctly.

Depending on the DNS provider, propagation can take up to 24 hours. In most cases, however, the record is available within a few minutes.

Detailed information can be found under Domain Registration.

Step 2: Configure Mail Server

After successful domain verification, you configure the connection between your mail server and Conbool. With Exchange Online, this is done via connectors in the Exchange Admin Center.

Inbound Connector (From Conbool)

Allows Conbool to deliver processed emails to your organization.

• Connection from: Partner organization
• Connection to: Office 365
• Authentication: Certificate verification via mail.conbool.com
• TLS: Enforced

Outbound Connector (To Conbool)

Routes outbound emails from your organization through Conbool.

• Connection from: Office 365
• Connection to: Partner organization
• Smart host: mail.conbool.com
• TLS: Enforced with trusted certificate

Additionally, transport rules must be defined to control the mail flow and prevent loops. The assistant displays the required settings.

A complete guide with screenshots can be found under Configure Mail Server.

Step 3: Set DNS Records

In the third step, you adjust your DNS configuration so that inbound emails are routed through Conbool and outbound emails are correctly signed.

MX Record

Change the MX record of your domain so that inbound emails are first delivered to Conbool:

More details can be found under MX Record.

SPF Record

Add include:mail.conbool.com to your existing SPF record so that Conbool is authorized to send emails on your behalf. Only one SPF record may exist per domain.

DKIM Record

After domain registration, a DKIM key is generated in the Conbool dashboard. Add this as a TXT record under conbool1._domainkey.yourcompany.com to cryptographically sign outbound emails. Details can be found under DKIM.

DMARC (recommended)

Check whether a DMARC record exists for your domain. DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM and instructs recipient servers on how to handle emails that fail verification.

Step 4: Verify Configuration

In the final step, the assistant performs automatic checks to ensure all settings are correct:

• Domain verification – Is the TXT record set and valid?
• MX record – Does the MX record point to mail.conbool.com?
• SPF – Is include:mail.conbool.com included in the SPF record?
• DKIM – Is the DKIM key correctly configured?
• Connector test – Can emails be exchanged between Exchange Online and Conbool?

If a check fails, the assistant displays an error message with troubleshooting instructions. Correct the setting and run the check again.

After Setup

Once all checks have been completed successfully, your tenant is fully set up. Your email traffic is now routed through Conbool. You can now activate and configure the following features:

• SecureMail – Encryption and signing of outbound emails
• MailGuard – Spam and virus protection for inbound emails
• Disclaimer – Automatic email signatures and disclaimers

Detailed information on all configuration options can be found in the Configuration section.