With our launch of Exchange 2007 come a few changes relating to SPAM filtering. Unfortunately, Microsoft launched Exchange 2007 with changes to the way that Exchange accounts are activated and the way that rules are created. As a result we’re no longer able to automatically insert our adjustable SPAM Filtering rule for Business Exchange 2007 users. However, we’re expecting that some of the changes and updates with Exchange 2007 SP1 will allow us to reintroduce this feature.
 
But just because we can’t automatically insert the rule for you, doesn’t mean we aren’t doing anything. All incoming email is still scored against our Anti-Spam system, and assigned a SPAM score from 0 to 10. The score that the email receives is inserted in the header of the email, and you can create a rule in Outlook or in any Email Client to take advantage of this. For example, you can create a rule which filters email with a score of 5 or higher by searching for the following header text:

X-Spam-Level: *****

Then move those emails to your SPAM or Junk Mail folder. Notice the 5 asterisks, which correspond to a score of 5 or higher. If you find that the rule is filtering too much non-SPAM, you can reduce the number of asterisks in the rule. If you find it isn’t filtering enough SPAM, you can increase the number of asterisks.
 
Further, both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007 include Junk Mail filtering options. In Outlook 2007 these options are available from the Tools menu by selecting Options, choosing the Preferences tab and clicking on the Junk E-mail button. As you’ll see, you have the option to choose 1 of 4 levels of junk email protection (either No Filtering, Low, High, or Safe Lists Only). You have the option of deleting suspected junk mail automatically, disabling links as well as adding warnings and postmarks. You can also create a Safe Senders list, a Safe Recipients List and a Block Senders list. You can even filter email based on the language it is encoded in, or the type of domain name it is sent from.

Using either or both of these options should help you keep your Inbox relatively free from SPAM. And we’ll continue to do our best to help keep you SPAM-free!

Thanks,

Tim Attwood
Product Manager
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.

We recently announced the launch of Exchange 2007 that has led to some question about our email road map. So I want to lay things out for everyone.

• Currently all NEW customers signing up for Business Exchange Hosting will have their account provisioned on Exchange 2007.
• For existing Business Exchange Hosting customer, we are finalizing a migration strategy. We want to ensure that the transition to Exchange 2007 is completed with limited down time and with as little inconvenience to our customer as possible. We will be contacting customers directly with more details shortly.
• For customers with Personal Exchange and mail2web.com LIVE accounts the move to Exchange 2007 will take a little longer. Microsoft’s licensing model for Exchange 2007 including the ActiveSync component is different than the one for Exchange 2003. Additionally, HMC 4.0, Microsoft’s provisioning platform for Hosted Exchange 2007  has some technical limitations when it comes to our Personal and mail2web.com LIVE products. We are working our way through these administrative and technical details. Currently we are exploring the possibility for extending our offering of these products with Exchange 2007. In the meantime, we will continue to provide and support both under Exchange 2003.

I hope this answers some of the questions that are out there about our email solutions and Exchange 2007.
 

Thanks,

Stephen Nichols
V.P. Sales and Marketing
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.

Today we have launched Exchange 2007 for all new Business Exchange Email customers.

Exchange 2007 is the latest version of Microsoft Exchange, the industry’s leading solution for e-mail, calendaring, and unified messaging. mail2web.com Business Exchange provides built-in protection to help keep your e-mail system up and running and insulated from outside threats while allowing employees to work virtually anywhere, using clients such as Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Web Access, and mobile devices.

One of the biggest improvements with the release of Exchange 2007 is the web interface. Outlook Web Access, (OWA) provides a rich, Outlook like experience in a browser.

New features in Outlook Web Access 2007 enable users to:

• Schedule Out of Office messages and send to internal and/or external recipients
• Use the Scheduling Assistant to efficiently book meetings
• Use WebReady Document Viewing to read attachments in HTML even if the application that created the document is not installed locally
• Access RSS subscriptions
• Search the Global Address List

Our Hosted Exchange model provides customers with competitive and predictable pricing as well as the security and features of more expensive in house email solutions. We offer even more flexibility with no minimum up front commitments, single seat pricing plans and 30 day free trial. This platform and model will allow us to remain as the leading email solution provider for Small and Medium Businesses word wide.

Existing Exchange 2003 customers with Business Professional Accounts will still be able to add and manage users on the 2003 platform. A migration plan is being finalized for business plan customers to move to Exchange 2007. More details will be announced shortly.

For more details about mail2web.com Business Exchange 2007 plans click here.

Thanks,

Stephen Nichols
V.P. Sales and Marketing
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.