How to Login to a User Accounts Using Login Tokens

Login tokens can be used to allow your support staff to log in to end-user mailboxes without knowing the password, so that they can diagnose POP3, IMAP4, Webmail, and SMTP problems.

You can create a login token through the Email section of the Control Panel or through the MAC.

To create a login token in the Control Panel

1. In the Email section of the Control Panel, navigate to the user for whom you want to create a token.
For more information, see "Viewing Email user accounts"

2. Click the user name.

3. From the Actions drop-down list, choose Generate Token.

4. From the Type drop-down list, choose a session type:

• Normal session—Used to access IMAP, POP, SMTP, and Web Mail via a standard login process; valid until the duration of the token expires.
• Normal session with Admin—Used to access IMAP, POP, SMTP, and also Webmail, where a domain administrator gets access to the Domain Manager Admin tab.
• SSO session—Used to create a standard login token for a single sign-on login request, bypassing the login page; becomes invalid after it is used once.
• SSO session with Admin—Used to create a token that allows a mailbox set as a domain administrator to be logged using single sign-on methodology with access to the Domain Manager Admin tab.
• Admin-only session—Sign on as administrator.

5. In the Token field, enter the token that you want to use. The token behaves like a password. If this value is not submitted, a random token is generated.

6. In the Reason field, enter the reason that you need to create a token.
We recommend that you enter a problem ticket number, if available.

7. In the Token Duration drop-down list, choose the number of hours for which the token is valid: 1, 2, 4, 8, or 24 hours.

8. Click Generate Token.

9. Click the generated link, Login to webmail, to open Webmail in a new tab, or use the login token that you specified to authenticate to POP3 or IMAP4.

To create a login token in the MAC

1. Log in to the Mail Administration Console (MAC).
For more information, see "What is the MAC?"

2. Locate the user that you want to view. For more information, see “Searching in the Mail Administration Console (MAC)”.

3. Click the user name.

4. On the Settings page, expand the Tools & Status section, and click Generate Token.
The Generate Token dialog appears.

5. From the Type drop-down list, choose a session type:

• Normal session—Used to access IMAP, POP, SMTP, and Web Mail via a standard login process; valid until the duration of the token expires.
• Normal session with Admin—Used to access IMAP, POP, SMTP, and also Webmail, where a domain administrator gets access to the Domain Manager Admin tab.
• SSO session—Used to create a standard login token for a single sign-on login request, bypassing the login page; becomes invalid after it is used once.
• SSO session with Admin—Used to create a token that allows a mailbox set as a domain administrator to be logged using single sign-on methodology with access to the Domain Manager Admin tab.
• Admin-only session—Sign on as administrator.

6. In the Token field, enter the token that you want to use. The token behaves like a password. If this value is not submitted, a random token is generated.

7. In the Reason field, enter the reason that you need to create a token.
We recommend that you enter a problem ticket number, if available.

8. In the Token Duration drop-down list, choose the number of hours for which the token is valid: 1, 2, 4, 8, or 24 hours.

9. Click Generate Token.

10. Click the generated link to open Webmail in a new tab, or use the login token that you specified to authenticate to POP3 or IMAP4.

If the token cannot be created, you might see one of the following error messages:

The login token can be created by a MAC URL with proper credentials and the email address of the user for whom you are creating the token.

The format of the MAC URL is:

https://admin.<cluster>.hostedemail.com/tools/sso?
[email protected]&pass=
adminpassword&[email protected] 

There are two optional parameters you can use:

• life
• locale

Login token creation works for Mail, Domain, and Company Administrators.

Mail Administrators are the recommended creators, as they have the minimum privileges required for the task.

Wherever a password would normally be entered, the token can be used instead (that is, to load the Webmail main UI by passing the token for the password field.)

Login tokens can be used for Webmail, POP3,  IMAP4 and SMTP logins.

The only service for which they will not work is SMTP AUTH, as it performs its own encrypted password comparisons.

Implementing login tokens is not compatible with the Password Change option.

The following example sends the user to Standard AJAX Webmail if their browser is supported by the AJAX interface (otherwise, you get the Basic interface, if it is supported).

By using mail.<your_domain>.<tld>, the user is brought to your branded login page when they log out.

https://mail.[CLUSTER].hostedemail.com/?_task=login&_action=login&user=USER@DOMAIN&pass=PASS

Note: The '@' sign must be encoded as %40 or else it won't work.

The following optional parameters can also be included:

• logout_redirect=URL—Sets the logout redirection.
• direct=1—Suppresses the logo on login.

Note: The logout_redirect parameter can only be used in conjumction with the direct parameter. Otherwise, the URL could be hijacked to direct an end user to another location instead. Logout redirects can be configured via branding as well, without this limitation.