Do I Need to Smart Host?

If you cannot whitelist our mail servers, or if your mail environment includes a spam/content filter with limited whitelisting ability (that impacts deliverability of your Phishing Security Test (PST) emails), we can bypass your filter by smart hosting the phishing test emails.

Smart hosting should only apply to you if:

• You've already attempted to whitelist our mail server IP addresses in your spam/content filter(s).
• Your third-party hosted spam filter does not offer the ability to whitelist by hostname, IP or header.
• Your spam/content filter and mail server are separate entities 

What is Smart Hosting?

A smart host is an email message transfer agent allowing an SMTP server to route mail directly to another mail server.

By Smart hosting, we will create a static route from our mail server to yours, thereby bypassing your spam/content filter (i.e. where your MX records point to).

How Do I Set up a Smart Host?

You will allow this smart host connection by modifying your firewall and/or mail server rules to ensure that direct SMTP connections from our IP addresses are allowed to your mail server. Please see this article for a list of our IP addresses.

You will then submit a support ticket to the KnowBe4 Support Team, here. Please provide the following info in your smart host request:

• A screenshot of your connector.
• Your hostname or IP address (a hostname is preferred, in case your IP changes in the future)
  • The method to locate your hostname varies by mail client/server; if you're using Microsoft 365, you can follow the instructions, here.

  • If you have multiple allowed domains on your KnowBe4 account, we can provide the smart host connection to one hostname or IP, per domain.

    • If you do need a smart host connection for multiple domains, specify each domain and the associated hostname or IP address. 

Once a Support Representative receives your request, they will submit it to the appropriate team and inform you once this connection has been established. 

We will then be able to send the simulated phishing emails directly to your mail server without having them blocked by your spam filter.