For the Smart Money Cookie

Microsoft Email Server - How to handle Spam

By: George H. Biwit

The increase in the number of spam e-mails raise the need to monitor and eliminate unwanted messages - ensuring that the MS Exchange system function properly

In todays business world, mail spam has emerged as the biggest evil that is cutting productivity and adding troubles. Thousands of deceptive and indecent e-mails are sent to companies in bulk on a daily basis. The term Spam is a commonly used jargon to explain promotional and undesirable e-mails. It is not an acronym so it does not really denote something. Actually, a spam e-mail is usually a commercial mail sent to the recipients who did not request any kind of information from the company or the individual sending it.

Getting huge volume of unwanted commercial e-mails can significantly cost the individuals and businesses a lot of time and resources as they have to sort out the legitimate mails, removing the unsolicited messages and this process, at times, become very exhaustive and frustrating, thus hindering efficiency.

Getting rid of spam is a lengthy process, it hurts e-mail server performance and malevolent e-mails are a threat to network security Furthermore, the company also faces the risk as these spam mails might lead to irreparable harm to the systems, thus causing disorder and big loss of work and capital to the company.

Professional help and assistance is the most effective way to avoid the threat from spam and ensure protection and safety. Thus, the server should be shielded to assure that all the passing information is filtered and fire-walled against spam. A spam filter for e-mail servers is typically an intelligent application that filters all new messages, finds spam on the basis of a chosen configuration and blocks all unwanted e-mails preventing them from passing all the way to the users inbox. One of the often used mail servers is the Exchange Server developed by Microsoft, and this product from Microsoft makes core mail services fast and reliable.

Anti spam plugins for Microsoft Exchange is a great help filtering and avoiding unwanted mail. A server side spam filter enables users to automate the procedure to sort and remove spam at the server level i.e. before it reaches the internal network and each user’s personal computer. Making this process automatic is recommended as it protects each personal computer, it protects the internal network and prevents work loss and users’ downtime.

As the anti-spam technology cant be taken as perfect, conducting a manual checking by network administrator is a suitable measure to scrutinize the periodically filtered out messages to ensure that the exchange server spam filter is not detecting messages that are not really spam.

Symantec runs a server high availability training in Las Vegas, among other sessions, and all of these are highly recommended for those people that wish to learn more about server high availability and figure out how to take their Windows storage and availability infrastructure to the next level with high availability and enterprise level storage management. The session will take you through the storage foundation for Windows high availability and its core product features. By using simple to use configuration wizards, it will teach you how to setup disk groups to show support for iSCSI, manage storage layouts and configure snapshots and work with dynamic multi-pathing.

Virtualization adds a layer of complexity to systems as they become more integrated and interdependent. This leads to a wider area for potential failures and outages for the virtual and physical environments. By attending the session you will be able to learn how to use Vertias Cluster Server for VMware ESX and use it to simplify administration and use this virtual and physical environment for a higher level of availability and comprehensive disaster recovery coverage. You can then protect your critical applications from both planned and unplanned downtime by just monitoring the application, virtual machine health and dependent components.

The notification server is the heart of the entire Altiris Infrastructure and any downtime you make will be challenging. The Vertias Storage Foundation and high availability for Windows will help you maximize your existing storage investment and reduce your risks and complexity for data centers by using advanced online storage management capabilities for Microsoft Windows Server environments, including the Windows Server 2008. You will also learn how to optimize your physical disks and arrays so that you can configure, share and manage your storage. You will also be able to avoid interrupting availability to your servers and important applications like Exchange, SQL Server and SharePoint Server.

In a brick and mortar store, having a salesperson follow you around the shop asking if he can help you find something is commonplace. On the Web, however, a web hosting provider has just introduced an online version of this practice which is touted to become another interesting and somewhat irksome trend.

Rackspace Managed Hosting, a hosting solutions provider based in San Antonio, Texas has introduced proactive live chat that works like the persistent offline salesperson. This live chat is embedded into the company’s website and is activated thirty seconds after a user lands in any one of the site’s pages.

A pop-up chat window comes up on the user’s screen with the header announcing a live conversation. The online salesclerk will probably type in something like, ‘Can I help you with managed hosting solutions?’

Marketing is a crucial ingredient to any product’s success. The primary goal of this concept is to create demand. In many cases, marketing can even be better than the product itself. Live chats have been used for customer service for a long time but they are usually initiated by the customer.

Rackspace co-chairman Morris Miller says a third of all users activated the chat client to talk to a salesperson and half of those conversations usually moved on to the next level in the sales flow. With the new chat feature, Rackspace is becoming more proactive. We can efficiently guide our customers around the site to help them find what they are looking for, he explains.

The good thing about the hosting provider’s chat medium is that users can easily click it off or tell the online sales agent that they are just browsing. Miller admits that there are users who are put off by this perceived intrusion but this form of communication actually offers better chances at landing a deal.

In a new move to bridge the ‘digital divide’, six million people, who have low household incomes and do not have internet access, will be provided with broadband connections, according to Martha Lane Fox. Fox is the government’s new Digital Inclusion Champion.

Fox making her first public speech in this role focussed on the need to connect the bottom of the pyramid six million people as a measure of development and as there is already a lot of information about these people and their whereabouts.

She added that barring this 25 percent of the population from accessing internet would keep the government’s cost high. The underlying principles behind this new strategy of prioritizing internet access to the needy is to enable them to use the internet so that they are able to communicate with the government conveniently through the online media and vice versa. This will bring down the communication costs that the government incurs in reaching out to these people - need information on broadband costs, click for cheapest UK broadband.

The UK government commenced the Digital Britain project in 2008. It announced the role of the Digital Inclusion Champion, while releasing its latest Digital Britain report. The BBC has reported that Fox has already visited UK Online Centres and met first-time internet users. Fox, a contributor to several charity organisations, is also a member of social networking site, Twitter. Her progress in this key role can be followed at twitter.com/Marthalanefox.

Are you celebrating a special occassion? Want to surprise someone on their special day? Or just merely want to show someone you care. What better way to do this than to surprise them with freshly cut blooms. Surprising someone, men or women with flowers often brings a smile to their face.

Flowers with an accompanying card or soft toy provide an outstanding pick as gifts for occasions such as birthdays, days of remembrance, Valentines Day or celebrating a new arrival of a baby. With the advancement of the internet, there are now internet sites that allow you to buy flowers on-line and get them delivered to your loved ones. Buying freshly cut flowers that are professionally arranged and packaged has never been simpler.

There are various advantages of using the internet to get flowers. Convenience is the obvious advantage, imagine not needing to drive out and get stuck in traffic just to get a bouquet of flowers and a greeting card. You will be able to pick out what flowers you want, the arrangement and have them mailed without ever departing the house. All you need are an internet connected computer and a credit card and away you go. You can even have flowers delivered to your relative in a different country across the globe. That is how convenient buying online is.

The next advantage of buying online flowers is the price. You will find that online florists are in general more affordable than a brick-and-mortar florist shop. This is because on-line flower stores have less operating costs compared to a traditional florist shop. Without a big overhead, websites can pass on these savings to the end users.

Another advantage is quicker service, the days of standing in a queue just to be served are long gone. Most online flower stores accomplish orders nearly straightaway. This ordinarily leads in quicker delivery of your order, sometimes they even offer same-day delivery service. Online flower stores have links with many delivery experts who can deliver your order locally as well as internationally.

Sending flowers to your beloved ones have never been easier. All you need to do is do a quick search in the search engines, open up the website that sells flowers, place an order ” done! Wait for the all important phone call giving thanks to you for the gorgeous flowers and for being so thoughtful.

Is it just me or do sales people in the UK just not trust their product? I was called by a telesales rep today about some deals on broadband and mobile Internet for a company (who shall remain nameless). The deal he was pitching sounded great but I told him that I wouldn’t proceed without doing a broadband comparison.

He then hit me with the hard pitch, a bunch of sales speak and some rubbish about the deal he was calling about only being available now. As it happens, I have been thinking about moving broadband provider and have been very tempted by the idea of getting mobile Internet, so I am really the ideal customer for him.

But he was determined not to let me go make my broadband comparison, worried, presumably, that I would realise that the deal he was offering wasn’t that good (actually it was a very good deal). Why is it these sales people have no faith in their products? If they are going to be pitching these goods and deals over the phone surely they have to believe they are good deals for me, if not they would simply be rip off merchants.

Either way the hard sell turned me off and I hung up on him, but I am looking at these broadband and mobile Internet offers trying to decide which to get. Broadband genie.co.uk has a great page that gave me all the info I needed.

His lack of faith has probably lost him a sale.

If like the rest of us you’re striving for ways to cut back on spending now the credit crunch is hitting our pockets, then a new mobile VoIP app from one of the mobile VoIP operators such as Truphone, JahJah or Fring could be just for you. Many offices around the country have already made the switch to internet telephony to take advantage of a dramatically cheaper way to make phone calls. Now the technology has been developed so you can make use of VoIP through your cell phone. Not only is this perfect if you’re on the move but it also has the potential to save your business a huge amount of money. Mobile phone bills can cost businesses a substantial amount of money especially when the nature of that business involves calling overseas.

One issue with mobile VoIP in recent times has been a lack of sound quality or problem with latency where a noticeable gap in the sound was audible when speaking to someone. However with the creation of better audio codec’s these complaints seem all but gone. Then there was the problem with the mobile VoIP client being very complicated to operate with a certain degree of technical knowledge needed in order to be able to use it successfully. Finally there was also a problem with what mobile handsets were compatible with the mobile VoIP client. All these issues combined made mobile VoIP quite an unappealing option.

It certainly seems like those days are well and truly a thing of yesterday with mobile VoIP clients such as Fring and JahJah now working with a huge array of popular mobile phones, including the iPhone and the BlackBerry - the obligatory mobile device in business. As well as this they are simple to install, and work in line with your existing phone book. For these reasons there is little excuse not to have a mobile VoIP client installed on your mobile phone not least because they are free to download and install. I have certainly made huge savings on making international phone calls

Using Mechanical Fish as Repeater Stations and Data Storage for information to complete OODA Loop and eliminate the issues of bandwidth problems in net-centric warfare. Mechanical fish are easy enough to build;

http://www.egr.msu.edu/~mcmaste7/proto1.htm

http://www.egr.msu.edu/~mcmaste7/fish.htm

http://web.mit.edu/towtank/www/pike/

http://robotics.caltech.edu/~kristi/

We can use these devises to assist us in data collection and since it is mechanical it will not bite on any fishing lines and be equipped with a cutter device to go throw local fishing nets. Provided the fish is large enough no few bigger fish will try to eat it and with razor fins, god help them if they try. The Net-centric component of the robotic fish can surface to receive data from UGV and Troops, Equipment maintenance data to be retrieved during non-peak usage times. Since we are building mobile cell sites for cellular phones in trucks, on boats and in spherical balloons, putting one inside a mechanical fish, but it would only receive the data and store it in a water proof, terabyte, underwater, fully operational swimming robotic mechanical fish.

Each robotic repeater fish will swim around in a grid pattern to the other repeaters laying down a perfect coverage pattern for marine communication. The military applications are obvious, but also consider the concept for marine environmental issues, marine communication, oil spill and dumping control and defense of our shore lines?

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Technology can be very confusing for a buyer, especially when there a hundreds of products to choose from and it is necessary to decide which will suit his or her needs. Knowing some basics about point of sale (POS) requirements will simplify things to a large extent. Here is some basic information about POS equipment for a beginner!

Every POS system has some hardware requirements and needs physical input and output devices to carry out the commands of remote system software and to guarantee the smooth functioning of business transactions in a restaurant or a retail outlet. Some of the mandatory hardware includes computer terminals, receipt printers, cash drawers, magnetic stripe readers, check readers, monitors or screens, keyboards, barcode scanners, and customer display screens. These are aimed at time-effective and error-free sales transactions, where every activity is machine driven and manual input is minimal.

Computer terminals with operating systems like Windows or Linux are essential to map the software into Windows or Java and to integrate it with the mechanical devices. Receipt printers for retail outlets and hotels come with cash drawer ports and both the printers and the cash drawers share a single port with the PC, leaving other PC ports free for other peripherals of the POS system. Barcode scanners read product information from the price tag of the products and feed the information into the computer, which then processes it and prints it. Magnetic stripe card readers and check readers are essential for vendors who accept payment through cards and checks. Apart from drawing money from the customer’s account, these devices also prevent fake checks and credit card accounts from getting submitted. The scanners and readers are usually wedges in point-of-sale keyboards, which come with a maximum of 101 keys for industry-specific functions.

Monitors and touch-screen displays are used as both input and output devices depending on the individual needs of a vendor. Fourteen-inch monitors are most widely used, but nine- or ten-inch monitors are used in some cases, especially when they are used as display boards for product or menu information and pricings.

POS provides detailed information on POS, POS Software, POS Systems, Restaurant POS and more. POS is affiliated with Metal Store Fixtures.

Looking for bandwidth? That can be a daunting and frustrating
task even in the best of situations. There’s lots to consider in
order to make the right decision for your needs. Below you’ll
find some help when evaluating OC3 vs OC12 vs OC48. Factors
covered include Technology, Speed, Description, Application,
Pros, Cons, and Cost.

~~~~~~~~~

Technology: OC3

Speed: 155.52 Mbps

Description: Optical carrier (fiber) connected by equipment
capable of speeds up to 155.52 Mbps.

Application: Large enterprise or ISP backbone.

Pros: Extremely high speed and throughput.

Cons: Extremely high cost.

Costs: Expect cost of an OC3 to start at around a $10-30,000 for
a stable, reliable system (e.g. from a Tier 1 provider)…..not
including local loop or extensive setup. However….the pricing
for these connections can vary widely depending on the carrier,
location of service and the application for which the connection
is being used. For example…Tier 1 providers may cost more than
local/regional Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers but are much more
stable and reliable. A Tier 1 provider should always be the
provider of choice for any business serious about the quality of
their OCx network.

~~~~~~~~~~

Technology: OC12

Speed: 622.08 Mbps

Description: Optical carrier (fiber) connected by equipment
capable of speeds up to 622.08 Mbps.

Application: Large enterprise or ISP backbone.

Pros: Extremely high speed and throughput.

Cons: Extremely high cost.

Costs: Expect cost of an OC12 to start at around $1-300,000+ for
a stable, reliable system (e.g. from a Tier 1 provider)…..
plus several hundred thousand dollars in setup costs.
However….the pricing for these connections can vary widely
depending on the carrier, location of service and the
application for which the connection is being used. A Tier 1
provider should always be the provider of choice for any
business serious about the quality of their OCx network.

~~~~~~~~~~

Technology: OC48

Speed: 2.488 Gbps (Gigabytes per second)

Description: Optical carrier (multiple strands of fiber)
connected by equipment capable of speeds up to 2.488 Mbps.

Application: Large enterprise or ISP backbone.

Pros: Extremely high speed and throughput.

Cons: Extremely high cost.

Costs: Expect cost of an OC48 to start at around $3-500,000 for
a stable, reliable system (e.g. from a Tier 1 provider)…..
plus several hundred thousand dollars in setup costs.
However….the pricing for these connections can vary widely
depending on the carrier, location of service and the
application for which the connection is being used. A Tier 1
provider should always be the provider of choice for any
business serious about the quality of their OCx network.