Regimail

You can find the answers to the most common and frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the website of regify.

Additional General regimail and regipay FAQ

Isn't there a way to do some action on the recipient side without installing some software?

As long as no regify software is installed on the recipients machine (PC or mobile), the operating system does not know about regify or the file extension RGF. Thus, it will display a message saying that it does not know how to handle the file. This software is developed by Microsoft or Apple and therefore we have no chance to change the way this is handled.

• There is also no magical way to automatically forward the attached file to some website. If this is possible, every virus developer would be very happy.
• There is also no way to send the encrypted message as an executable file, as all executable files are blocked by Operating Systems and e-mail clients because of security reasons.
• We can not make the Operating System decrypt regify messages without installing any regify software because the Operating System does not know regify technology, algorithms and file formats.

Why don't you ask Microsoft/Apple to integrate regify?

Until today, Microsoft did not add any third party software to Windows. Adobe asked to include Acrobat Reader for PDF and Flash player, but they refused. Oracle asked to integrate JAVA - no chance. There is no chance to convince Microsoft to include regify software in Windows by default. The same for Apple.

Why don't you integrate regify into "whatever" software/app?

Mostly, the software does not offer sufficient API or AddIn capabilities. This is a list of software we know that the API is not sufficient or even existing: Outlook for Mac, Mac Mail, GMail App (Android, iPhone), Samsung E-Mail App, iOS Mail App, Yahoo Mail, most other email apps from the iTunes/Google app store, any webmailer, Outlook Web Access (OWA) (*), Windows Phone Mail, Blackberry Mail, WhatsApp, WeeChat (*), Threema. Also, we found no sufficient API in Tobit David, Evolution and Zimbra (*).

(*) There are some upcoming API, but yet (Nov 2018) they are still not yet sufficient or available. For Outlook Web Access there are Office-AddIns. But the API is still not yet capable of such deep integration (completely re-build the message reliably). For WeeChat there seem some PlugIn API for Chinese companies only, but we do not yet investigated further. We do not have any Zimbra experience yet.

My Anti-Virus scanner detected regify software as virus/trojan!

This is a false positive. Today virus scanners are using many methods to identify problematic code and sadly sometimes they simply fail. In history, anti-virus scanners detected even popular software like Google Chrome as virus. If we get notice about such false positive, we try to report this false positive to the anti-virus vendor as fast as possible.

Why don't you stop or prevent such false positives?

Because no one is aware of such. Each time an anti-virus vendor is updating his software, it might happen that one of the million rules accidentally matches the regify software. There is no way to work around that. The regify software is connecting the Internet and accessing the file-system and therefore, there is always a risk of being the target of a false positive.

Additional Mobile App FAQ

Why does the e-mail app xyz does not open rgf files?

We tell the Operating System to open RGF files with the regify client app. Sadly, some vendors of other e-mail client apps (eg GMail) do not follow the Operating System guides for handling attachments and file types. If the e-mail client software simply ignores the file types registered in the operating system, it will not know how to open a RGF file.

If you believe you are using the original Android e-mail client, please try to un-install and re-install the regify client app. Maybe this is fixing the missing assignment?

Why don't you fix this?

Because we can not fix the software written by other developers than us. We can neither fix the behavior of the operating systems nor the behavior and functionality of any other third party software.

And why don't you ask the vendor to fix this?

We did, but we do not even get answers (e.G. Google, XING).

Why is there no "Send regify" or "Answer with regify" button in my e-mail app?

Because we can not change or enhance the software written by other developers than us. Especially if the end-user installed an alternative e-mail client (K9, Aqua Mail etc.), we have no chance to integrate regify functionality there.

More details on Android: Some e-mail apps allowing extensions but sadly most mobile device vendors are changing the Operating System default e-mail app (e.G. Samsung, Huawei, ...). Thus, even such extension would be useless on many mobile devices.

More details on iOS: Apple does not offer any way for extending the default e-mail app.

I have connectivity issues if not connected to WLAN. Why don't you fix?

If your device is having problems to reach the Internet, regify can not help you as you have to solve this by checking your mobile plan, device settings, roaming capabilities etc. Sadly, missing Internet connectivity can not get solved by regify software.

Additional Desktop Client FAQ

Why do I need to install software?

Please read the answer to the question above "Isn't there a way to do some action on the recipient side without installing some software?".

How do I use regify client in standalone mode?

Just start the regify client from your start menu. Upon this, it starts in standalone mode.

There you can enter recipients, subject, some message and attachments. If you then click on the "send" button, it will send the email directly using your SMTP credentials.

To make this work, you have to enter your email account settings once in the settings -> email tab. In most cases you only have to enter the SMTP server, your email address as sender and username and the password of your email account. The port can be left blank in most cases and you should tick the TLS checkbox. If you do not know the SMTP server, please try to google it using mail smtp and your email provider name (eg "google mail smtp" or "yahoo mail smtp"). If you are using some popular service, you may have success looking here. If you are in a company, please ask your administrators / IT-department for this information.

Can I use regimail with a Google Mail account/Gmail?

First to understand is, if you locally installed the regify client, all RGF files will get opened by regify client. No matter if it comes in by Outlook, Thunderbird, a webmailer like Google Mail or Yahoo or by a USB-stick or CD-ROM etc. It will get opened by the local regify client as soon as you ask the OS to open the RGF file (usually a double click). Reading is no problem at all. No AddIns needed.

Secondly, GMail offers normal SMTP/IMAP access and can get used with any traditional e-mail software like Outlook. If you use Outlook, you can use the regify AddIn, too. It is exactly the same as using a GMX or Yahoo e-mail address with Outlook.

If someone does not use one of those e-mail programs (web-mail only), he still can use the regify client in standalone mode. Here you can enter the SMTP settings to directly send the regimails using the regify client. (Some extra Info about using gmail accounts)

FINALLY: It depends on the company use:

• Do they use their GMail accounts with Outlook (SMTP+IMAP/POP)? Then it should work with no problem with our Outlook AddIn.
• Do they use Web-mailer only, it is not that comfortable for writing as you may need to use the standalone regify client for writing.
• If they do not want to install anything at all, the only solution is the regify portal and on-line reading/writing.
• If they have any background setup with SMTP flow, which allows the usage of regigate, this may be a solution, too. But only if they become at least their own sub-provider. Please contact regify sales for more information.

Why do I need administrator rights to install the regify client?

We like to install the Outlook AddIn, too. Sadly, Microsoft decided to not allow the installation of Office AddIn's without Administrator permissions. Thus we need Administrator rights by default.

Why do I need to say "yes" or "continue" that often if I start the setup after downloading?

Because many viruses are downloaded from the Internet. The Operating System wants to make sure that you are aware of the risk and asks you several times about your decision to open this file.

Why don't you turn off these questions?

Because we can not change the way how Microsoft (IE), Mozilla (Firefox), Google (Chrome) or Apple (Safari) developed their Operating Systems and Web-browsers. If there would be a chance to easily work around these dialogues, every developer of viruses would do the same, right?

Can I change the citate character? The "greater than" is boring...

With regify client V4.3, the citate character can get changed in the regify client ini file (%APPDATA%\regify\regify_client.ini). Just replace the character in the citateCharacter setting value. The next time you do a reply, this character is used on the beginning of every line in the citate.

Why don't you support SSO solutions?

In general, Single Sign On (SSO) allows people to login on websites using a small set of general credentials. The aim is to reduce the need for many passwords and reduce the number of authentication procedures a user has to complete. Sometimes we get asked, why we do not support such SSO solutions like oAuth, OpenID and others.

The short answer: SSO concepts do not support important security aspects that are needed for trusted e-communication transactions such as different levels of authentication or simple usage on mobile devices. We're also having automated validation processes in the back-end that have to work without user interaction. If we were using SSO, this would not be acceptable to a user as, for example, he would be forced to know his regify provider URL in detail.

The long answer:

This is how SSO works in general for login to a web portal (simplified):

This is the environment that regify needs:

In theory, the green line would work in a similar way to the standard SSO scenario above. Sadly, for all other purposes below, this is not sufficient.

The orange lines showing critical authentications. For this, the regify provider needs to authenticate the user inside of the encrypted regify protocols. They need e-mail address and password. If we would replace using SSO, we would have to do the complete SSO process at every time. This would force the user to enter his credentials each time he uses regify client software. And on mobile devices this is a pain (especially with slow connectivity).

The red line shows communication between the PLS (Provider Lookup Service) and the regify provider. The PLS is needed for every initial installation of regify client software and enables the process to identify the regify provider the user has signed up and automates customization. A similar process is also used for password reset, as a password reset can get initiated at every regify provider in the world. PLS makes sure that he password reset e-mail is then sent by the correct regify provider. All of this is fully automated during PLS calls of the clients and this needs authentication using hashed user credentials, too. The main reason is to prevent misuse. As there is no way to do this using SSO, this is functionality that will not work at all.

A possible solution to ease password handling for the user is to synchronize the regify password with the other SSO passwords. This may be done with automated scripts using our regify provider SDK (software development kit).

Additional WEB-Portal questions

Why is it so complicated to open an RGF file on the portal?

We at regify want you to be protected against security risks. Thus, we decided to send the regify messages end-to-end encrypted. By following this principle, we encrypt the message on the device of the sender. Upon this, the encrypted message (RGF file) is sent directly to the recipient. It is not transported by any regify infrastructure. It is sent using your e-mail account directly to the addressee. The addressee receives the message in his inbox. There is no copy of the message on a regify web-server. Opening the RGF file using an installed regify software/app is easy (double click). But using the regify web portal is more complicated because the web portal does not own your RGF file. You first have to upload the RGF file to the web portal in order to ask it for opening.

Why don't you make it more easy?

The behavior you are experiencing is the way how Microsoft/Apple designed it. We tried to make our portal as easy as possible by allowing Drag&Drop and writing some helping text, but the need for uploading is still there.

Why can't I use Drag&Drop for uploading?

Because you may use Outlook or some web-mailer as e-mail client. Microsoft and many web-mailers do not support Drag&Drop of attachments to a web-browser (even IE). Mozilla Thunderbird, Interlink Mail, Lotus Notes and many other e-mail clients are supporting this - but sadly not Outlook.

Why don't you make the e-mail such that it uploads automatically?

We can't do this because we can not change the way how third party software (e.G. Outlook) handles e-mails. Many options are simply blocked because of security. Others are not working on all e-mail clients. We do not see a way to change this behavior.

I don't like the design/colors/dialogues

We know as many opinions on this issue as we have people in the room. The current regify portal is the result of continuous development on a growing product that only started with registered e-mail. Today, the same portal structure handles more than 5 products and a lot of new functionalities and settings. We realized the problem in 2013/2014 and the regify provider is now offering a complete redesign of the whole user interface (since version 4). It is less complicated, more lightweight, modern and showing the most used functions on prominent positions. It is also responsive for the usage on mobile devices.