LOUIE Upgrades
Last night we successfully updated the LOUIE cluster to Exchange 2010 SP2. This service pack upgrade provides a lot of fixes to sync issues experienced by clients. Along with the service pack, we’ve finalized the DAG setup for LOUIE to provide automatic fail over for Mailbox Roles instead of acting independently. The addition of the DAG to LOUIE completes the High Availability upgrades for LOUIE and now all roles have redundant fail overs.
Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com
Quarantine vs. Search
For the sake of allowing end users and partners ultimate control over their mail flow and logging, we have two solutions for tracking down mail. However, folks often confuse them and thus frustrate themselves based on their own pre-conceived notions on how X should work versus Y. So I’m going to take this opportunity to show you how each part works in hopes of alleviating some of these misconceptions.
The User Level offers a link to the Quarantine and there’s a search box.
The Quarantine holds items that are stored and available for release.
The Search (AND Spam Czar) hold a listing of all mail items, regardless of SPAM action taken. Meaning some of these cannot be released because they were either deleted or delivered based on your settings.
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
Making Sense of ExchangeDefender SMTP Alerts
For the past week we have been running the newly updated version of the ED SMTP alerts and I’ have got to say this is probably the most overwhelming response to a product that I’ve designed since being with ExchangeDefender. There were many partners who forgot they had the feature enabled, and for the first time, received alerts about issues connecting to their clients. My biggest fear when re-enabling the alerts was possibly upsetting partners with emails that they may consider useless or something they “don’t” want. Surprisingly, the response from every partner I spoke with since enabling the feature was positive and I heard many partners say “We’ve been waiting for this.”
Throughout last week and yesterday I’ve made minor modifications to the alerts to include more verbosity and to have threshold values for failures. Now, alerts will wait for three consecutive failures before sending an alert to the partner. Alerts will only be sent once per hour for consecutive failures. Once the connection error is cleared, the admin email on file for the domain will receive an “up” email.
Now, alerts will contain more helpful, verbose information.
For example, here is an alert about backpressure
ExchangeDefender had trouble communicating with the MTA (xx.xx.xx.xx) for domain.com MTA Experiencing Backpressure To resolve this, please review the following articles:
Exchange 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201658.aspx
Exchange 2007: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201658(v=exchg.80).aspx
And here is an alert about the SMTP connector rejecting emails because authentication is required
MTA Rejected Mail From Command. It is possible that anonymous relay is not enabled for the SMTP connector and that authentication is required.
Currently the alerting system will alert for:
– Incorrect IP restrictions (MTA answers, but rejects the connection because the IP restrictions do not allow ExchangeDefender)
-SMTP Authentication Required, not allowing anonymous relay
-Exchange experiencing Backpressure
-Connection failed / timed out
The next upgrades will save the SMTP test debug output to SQL to allow partners to review the SMTP transaction logs and allow partners to control the threshold values for failures.
Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com
Memorial Day Promotion!!!
In honor of Memorial Day we are running another promotion!!!
Check your mailbox for a special postcard about the promotion as you can see below!
We really value our partners and always want to provide you with additional ways to have a more profitable and successful partnership with ExchangeDefender.
The Memorial Day promotional offer is for our Hosted Exchange solution. Our Hosted Exchange solution is offered with a generous 10 GB mailbox. This is a great promotion to take advantage of. Also, the postcard reminds you of our Exchange Essentials offering which is a more cost-effective alternative to the full Exchange solution. Also, our ExchangeDefender Essentials offering is mentioned which provides the basics of our SPAM and Virus Filtering protection.
Our Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 solution comes with:
-Exchange 2010
-SharePoint 2010
-ExchangeDefender
-ExchangeDefender LiveArchive
-10 GB of Storage per user
-Encryption, Web File Sharing, Web Filtering, Reporting
-Public Folders
-Mail-Enabled Contacts
-Distribution Groups
-ActiveSync & Mobile Device Support
-Split Domains & POP3 Access
-Branded Experience
-Much, Much, Much More!
The promotion will be running starting from this Friday, May 25th through June 25th, and will only be valid on any new Exchange + SharePoint 2010 accounts that are signed up during that promotional period. Also, the assigned coupon code must be used at the time of ordering in order for the promotional pricing to be applied to your order.
For more information about ExchangeDefender’s Exchange + SharePoint 2010, Exchange Essentials 2010, or ExchangeDefender Essentials, please visit our website, www.exchangedefender.com and visit the corresponding pages. Also, for more information on this promotion go to our promotions page, http://www.exchangedefender.com/promotions.php.
As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
ExchangeDefender Triple Launch
Next Wednesday, May 30th, ExchangeDefender will be hosting a huge launch of three new features being added to the core of our ExchangeDefender offering. The details of the new features are private at this moment which is why we are requesting more than usual discretion about the feature set, implementation, pricing and availability.
Please take a moment to register:
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
Two of the new features will be available in United States only (you can purchase, license and implement them worldwide but you might not want to). These features are new to ExchangeDefender and take us in a new direction so it is important to have our partners attend and understand how these offerings will impact the bottom line and expand market opportunities available with ExchangeDefender.
Important:
1) Unlike all of our other webinars, this one will not be recorded.
2) Unlike all of our other webinars, general attendance is not permitted, you must be a partner that is currently reselling our services.
3) Unlike all of our other webinars, information discussed will be provided under an NDA only.
If you register, Chelsea Richards will be contacting you tomorrow with the NDA paperwork that is required for the attendance to this webinar. You can sign it and fax it or take a picture and email it to us or even mail it in.
I look forward to meeting with you all and I hope you’re excited about this next step in the ExchangeDefender evolution. All the new stuff has been in heavy demand by our partners and I believe it will fuel a huge growth cycle for our partners. We’re extending all areas of our business – from the previously announced Managed Messaging that covers support to the better security with encryption, file storage, voice and management we hope that this is the best year you’ve ever had with us and we’re committed to keep moving it in the right direction. On a personal note: I want to extend a huge thank you to all of you that have brought us more business through ExchangeDefender Essentials, the $0.50/mbox price has been extremely popular and has unfortunately upset a lot of our competitors because it clearly beats them. As a result we have received several notices of unethical behavior or highly questionable sales practices so this webinar – while extremely positive – will be executed in private so we do not have to deal with the backlash. Frankly, all we do and everything we do here is for our partners and it is my responsibility to get you the best and most effective product possible – so you can choose and apply the right one as the business dictates. I hope you pardon us and accept the minor inconvenience of privacy while we get you off the ground and give you a huge market advantage as our partners!
Your Mail Server is Down, Really…
For about a year we have had a feature in ExchangeDefender called SMTP monitor. Although it was undocumented, many clients found the feature and enabled it. For months the script worked as expected — if we cannot hit the mail server via port 25, send an alert to the “Admin contact email” on file. Sadly, around January the script stopped sending out alerts to partners and the feature became rather useless. Today, we’ve revisited the script and updated it with new check logic and alert control.
Once enabled, the SMTP monitor will check your clients mail server every minute and will check for events like backpressure, broken pipes and server offline. If a critical event is detected the SMTP monitor will send an alert only if a previous alert was not sent in the past hour about the domain.
Emails get sent to the “Domain Admin Email” address under the domain configuration settings. To enable SMTP monitoring login to your XD SP account and select “Change configuration” on the desired domain to enable the checks.
Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com
The Snowball Effect of 123
Recently, we have had a rush of folks whose techs feel that user and user123 is an adequately secure set of credentials. I assure you my friends, it is not! But Carlos who cares it’s just a pop3 mailbox!? If it wasn’t part of the scope of my branch at ExchangeDefender, I’d probably think the same way.
However, accounts deployed with the old user123 or even better ‘password’ passwords are a huge problem. So here’s the chain of events in a worst case scenario.
1. Account is deployed with terrible password.
2. Account gets cracked
3. Account starts SPAMMING
4. Server gets listed on RBL
5. Mailflow is now affected.
Now generally we catch it between 2 & 3 and do a forced password change on the account which solves the issue. However, eventually that person will report to their provider that they can’t access their account and we pray that they read our notice and do not make the same insecure password, before we have to take more finite actions.
Therefore, please tell your team to avoid using such “temporary” passwords at all since they’re so easily left and forgotten.
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging
The sites are done and marketing campaign starts towards the end of next week. As we’ve told you in the last webinar, we’re going to be extremely aggressive in bringing the most complete messaging solution to market.. and it starts now.
ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging (click here for details) is ready to go.
It’s the the best technology around. Email. Security. Compliance. Instant messaging. Desktop Sharing. Online Conferencing. Encryption. Business Continuity. Exchange. SharePoint. Portals. Web File Sharing. Web Filtering. Geographic Redundancy. File Storage.
It’s so much more than technology. 24/7/365 Phone Support. Billing, service, management and support from the single provider. Unmatched service levels and a diversified service portfolio. Onboarding assistance. Migration assistance. Remote user management. Outlook deployment.
It’s designed for business. No anonymous service. No lack of human contact or support availability. No fingerpointing.
In a nutshell, if your organization needs communication services we can help. It’s just $20 / user / month. That is the total cost of ownership – we handle the Outlook deployment, email migration, SharePoint setup, ExchangeDefender setup and account provisioning, ongoing maintenance and the full suite of Microsoft and ExchangeDefender technologies for security, business continuity, email, chat, online presentations and more.
If you have not spoken to us about the partnership opportunity around this product there is no time like the present. Feel free to reach out to me directly. We are taking it upon ourselves to usher our partners into the cloud business model without risk, without expensive training, without commitment and without losing your client to a third party.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
vlad@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x500
LOUIE Mailbox Server Reload
Last week we successfully upgraded the OS on LOUIEMBOX1 to Windows Server 2008 R2 (From 2008 RTM SP2) as part of the outline to bring automated, native DAG redundancy to LOUIE. This weekend we will be reloading the OS on LOUIEMBOX2 and LOUIEMBOX3. In preparation for the reload we’ve performed the following steps:
· Updated the ExchangeDefender delivery location away from LOUIEMBOX2 to LOUIEMBOX1
· Moved all offline address books generated by LOUIEMBOX2 to LOUIEMBOX1
· Ensured all public folders were replicated between LOUIEMBOX2 and LOUIEMBOX3 to LOUIEMBOX1.
· Moved all users off LOUIEMBOX2 and LOUIEMBOX3 to LOUIEMBOX1
The OS reload will be transparent to users and is expected to be completed by Sunday evening.
Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com
ExchangeDefender–Lexicon & Pattern Matching Encryption
This week our main focus has been implementing more advanced encryption methods. These new additions will be available sometime next week and will require an additional fee to enable these features. This new system implements two new types of encryption “triggers” that will flag the messages and send them through the encryption process.
Lexicon Encryption
The first method is called Lexicon Encryption. This feature works by examining a pre-defined set of keywords that act as encryption triggers anytime they are encountered inside a message. Once a keyword is located inside of a message, that message is sent through our encryption process.
The [Default Action] determines the action that occurs once the message hits the encryption system. You can choose one of the following:
Encrypt
*This is the normal encryption process, which will deliver a secure link to the user’s mailbox and require a password to view the message.
Clear Encrypt
*This method is similar to the normal encryption method, except a password is not required to view the message.
Alert Administrator
*This method, delivers an encryption summary to the domain administrator and will require them to (view, deliver, delete) the message before it reaches the user.
We understand that some users may already have a predefined list from another 3rd party or software provider. So we have implemented a very simple “import” process which will allow you import these keyword definitions.
The format is .CSV and is implemented in the following sequence: (keyword, category)
Pattern Matching
The next method is called Pattern Matching. This approach examines the message for a series of common patterns found when referencing things like (credit card numbers, social security numbers and birthdays.) Later in the year we also plan on implementing custom pattern matching, which will allow you to enter your own custom defined patterns.
Once any of these patterns is located inside of a message, the same encryption process will occur. Unlike Lexicon matching, each individual pattern is allowed to have a different action. This will help route crucial and confidential information more accurately.
Hank Newman
VP Development, ExchangeDefender
hank@ownwebnow.com