newsletter://mv.com May 2003 SPAM filtering preview As you know from previous newsletters, we have been actively restruc- turing our email environment for some time now, working on user interface and spam filtering tools. Our efforts will allow you to access a broad range of controls for the way your mail is handled. While we're still working on the entire package, we've now opened up one facet of the spam blocking suite. You may now select spam blocking (or spam tagging) based on certain DNSBL registries. A DNSBL registry is a col- lection of IP addresses that have a particular attribute that makes them eligible for blacklisting, should you choose to do so. There are many DNS- BLs operated by many different individuals or organizations, and we have identified some of the more popular ones for you to choose from. Our own tests have indicated a fairly high success rate using just one or two of these registries. Note: use of this feature is completely up to you. We are not enabling it by default for anyone. You must actively choose to enable this feature for your mailbox. Note also: this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have been working arduously on mail processing functions that will bring you such things as being able to select or reject a message based on who sent it, what kind of mail it is, who it's sent to; to drop, tag, or forward mail based on these criteria. Other advanced functions will follow. To learn more about the DNSBL function and to enable it for your mail- box, please visit the new webmail tool described in the next section. New tool: webmail The last thing we needed to add to the mailbox server foundation was the user interface. We've developed a new tool that will allow you to read your mailbox and send email using a web browser. Unlike our old poppeek tool (which allowed you to simply delete some mail out of your mailbox), this is a multi-purpose email application. You can use it to maintain your mailbox while you're away from your computer or (as with the older poppeek tool) simply to preview mail and delete messages you don't want to see. In addition, you can use the webmail application to set up your filter- ing preferences. As we mentioned above, the first filtering option we have enabled is DNSBL processing -- this feature is available now. The reason that mail filtering preferences are bundled into the webmail application is that the webmail application knows how to set up things related to filter- ing, including creating folders for filing SPAM. Visit the new webmail application at http://webmail.mv.net/. Log in using your mailbox name and password. While you are there, spend a couple minutes configuring the web-based email program so if you find you need it, it's ready for you. This program uses IMAP as the protocol, using flags which are compatible with both Outlook Express and Netscape Messenger. Both the webmail and the filtering applications should be considered as being in beta test mode, i.e., there is a small chance that you will encounter bugs. If you find problems with either one, please report them. New Dialup Numbers including MA, VT, ME Our dialup numbers went through some flux over the past few months, but the new numbers have now been finalized. One piece of great news is that we now have local dialup numbers throughout Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine. Check out our web page at www.mv.com for the complete rundown. During the transition period we established some backup numbers to help us while we were waiting for some new digital lines to be installed. Those numbers (all ending in -2477) were only temporary and should be going away shortly. Please make sure you are no longer using one of these backup num- bers. New Dialup Promotion To celebrate our new access numbers we're bringing back a promotion we've run before, as well as adding a referral bonus for new out-of-state accounts. Please let your friends and acquaintances know! Anyone signing up for a new full-rate (e.g., not dormant) dialup account will receive a matching $25 credit when they send in their $25 deposit. Further, the standard $10 setup fee will be waived. So the $25 deposit will turn into a $50 non-refundable credit against usage. For existing customers who refer a new out-of-state dialup account: we'll add an additional $10 to our standard referral credit for any new full-rate dialup account from Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont. (This is in addition to our standard $20 referral credit!) New DSL/V rates In response to lower wholesale rates, we've lowered our DSL/V pricing effective May 1. Our standard DSL/V offering is now $45/month. All current customers will see the new pricing immediately. Some of you have no doubt read that a certain local telephone conglomerate has also lowered its price, so we'd like you to consider: Their pricing does not include taxes and surcharges, which appear as separate line items on the bill. Many people either do not notice those extra fees, or dismiss them as somehow irrelevant. Nevertheless, our rates are all-inclusive. (There is certainly a chance that, if the state of NH follows through on plans to charge taxes on Internet ser- vices, we may have to list those kinds of charges separately. However, that would only affect the way we present the prices.) New Web Account Type We're also pleased to announce a new, lower priced exclusive web host- ing offering. This applies to our exclusive web service, which provides web hosting for your private domain name (e.g. www.example.com), and allows up to 10MB of storage and 50GB of transfers per month. Up until now this web service has required that we assign an individual IP address to your web site. This was needed by older web browsers that did not send the domain name along when making the underlying website request. Use of such web browsers is now very rare, and a unique IP address has been less and less of a requirement. The new "name-based" (rather than "IP-based") exclusive web service has the same parameters (10MB of storage, 50GB of transfers per month), but is priced at $15/month. Plus you get $5 off when combined with a standard (not dormant) dialup account! The original IP-based exclusive web server is still available for those who need or want a unique IP address for your web- site. If you have an IP-based exclusive web site and would like to convert it to the lower-priced name-based exclusive, please contact us. Mailbox frequency: too much checking? As we continue to enhance our mailbox services we note that there are some users who log in to fetch mail extremely frequently. We all understand that this is what email is about: you want rapid access to your new mail messages, especially when you are sitting at or near your computer. How- ever, when you are away from the computer or don't otherwise have a need to be notified instantly about the receipt of a new message, it doesn't make sense to be continually polling for new mail. If you have 5 mailboxes and you check them each once per minute (as some do!) -- multiplied by thousands of users this starts to add up. If this ever becomes enough of a problem that it affects everyone's service, we will have to add controls to prevent abuse. MV Communications, Inc. PO Box 4963, Manchester, NH 03108 (603) 629-0000 .