RSF Mail: Spam Control and Web Hosting

Giant Step Communications is a primary reseller of SpamCurb spam and virus control services as well as their web hosting. The company is run by a Unix guru and former co-owner and Technical Director of a major respected ISP. After the business was sold, he decided to concentrate his energies on something he's passionate about, that being personal privacy, and the spam situation in particular.

Spam accounts for roughly 75% of all email on the Internet and affects almost all businesses in lost productivity, Internet pipe speed reduction, and mail server performance. Plus, there's the psychological aspect: the knowledge that they are using misspellings & other obfuscations of keywords and false source and destination addresses for one reason and that's to circumvent YOUR desires as to what mail to receive. Doesn't that just piss you off?

SpamCurb provides offsite filtering of your email before it gets to you. They are vehemently opposed to any kind of unsolicited email and their approach manifests this with at least 13 different tests applied to the mail. Virus scanning is also applied. Unlike other offsite providers, SpamCurb allows the user a great deal of flexibility in filtering the spam since each company or individual has different needs and ideas when it comes to how strict the filtering should be.

How Email Is Handled

Scan and Forward for your own mail server: if you have your own email domain (ie usernames@yourdomain.com) you probably have your own mail server. Rather than clogging up your pipe from the Internet with all that spam, let SpamCurb clog up THEIR pipe instead! A full T-1 with redudancy ensures fast, reliable, mail flow. The MX record for your domains email tells the world to send all mail for your domain to SpamCurb where it's processed according to YOUR rules, then only the GOOD mail is forwarded to your mail server.
Mailbox hosting: You may elect to have SpamCurb host your mail for you, as a POP3 or IMAP4 mailbox, eliminating the need for buying and maintaining a mail server. You can have a private mailbox (yourname@SpamCurb.com) or multiple private mailboxes with your own domain name. Each mailbox gets 1 Gigabye of storage! And, either way, your mail is processed by the same, almost militant, approach to spam and virus control before delivery. Are you on the road a lot? These mailboxes provide web access, using the excellent Zimbra collaboration email client (includes shareable calendar and contacts), that works from any web browser including web kiosks, library PCs, and machines at Internet cafes.

Aliases are free; they let you point multiple names to the same mailbox e.g. info@ and sales@ and support@ might all have mail sent to them dropped into your yourname@yourdomain.com mailbox. This is useful for filtering (using rules) on your mail client.

What Happens To Email Once It's Scanned

REJECT: mail that matches any test simply vanishes. Not only does this mean your inbox (and your mail server if any) don't get flooded with icky spam but it also feels good to know that you vaporized some slimebag's attempts to bypass your wishes and desires AND you didn't even have to look at it :-]
TAG: If you prefer to see all of your mail, even the spam, so you can check for false positives, you can have SpamCurb add header tags for each test which you can then filter (apply rules) on at your client. Typically, people will make a special mail folder called spam and will write a rule(s) that moves any mail with tag(s) to it immediately. Now your Inbox is free of most spam. Occasionally, they'll quickly peruse the FROM fields in the spam folder looking for good mail (now known as HAM) to move back to the Inbox.
COMBO: This system is so flexible that you can right out REJECT mail for SOME offenses and TAG it for others

Other Features of Note

White- and BlackListing: even mail from The Pope can be Rejected or Tagged because of content (certain words, though heavenly in intent, can look like spam) or because their ISP (not themselves) is listed as a spam source. When you get HAM you can just go to the SpamCurb Web Site, log in, and add the mailbox or domain (or even a subject) to the WhiteList for your mailbox. You can add nagging mail from a specific source or with a specific content that just seems to get thru (tricky sleazeballs) to the BlackList. Both are considered BEFORE all other tests so White mail will get thru even if it tests as spam. A special plugin for MS Outlook lets you register addresses to beed with just a mouse click!
A Smart Filter That LEARNS: Sounds a little scary, The Matrix and all, but this is a GOOD thing. The Bayesian filter actually learns both from results of other tests and your YOUR feedback! You can forward good mail examples to one special email address and, likewis,e bad email to another so the filter learns from your intelligence.
Individual or Companywide Rules: You may decide that you want one user's spam filter settings to be applicable for all users' mailboxes. This provides a single, consistant set of rules that can't be overridden (although all users can add to the White- and Blacklists).
Forwarding: to allow your mail to also be sent to your laptop, home, or Blackberry-style device, SpamCurb can send copies of all inbound mail to any email address
Out Of Office: You may have SpamCurb send a canned reply to inbound mail rather than doing it on your mail client (which would have to stay on the whole time you're gone). The downside to this is that some spammers use Auto-Replies of this sort to "backsplatter" their objectionable filth (did I mention that we hate spam?) out to the world via your friendly message.
Reports: Both so you can see what's being missed, what's being hit, and so you can feel good about bypassing the spammers, SpamCurb can send a daily, easy-to-read HTML report showing mail, the alias sent to, the dispostion (TAGGED, REJECTED, ACCEPTED) and the reason for rejecting or tagging.

Server-based IMAP folders: When a given filter hits on a message, the message can be filed (moved) to an IMAP folder, which is an advanced version of a simple POP3 mailbox which includes folders just like your mail client does, but the IMAP folders and mail can stay on the server all the time; great for organized folks who use SpamCurb on the road a lot. Examples:
- all mail from WhiteListed addresses can be filed in a folder called "Friends"
- Messages over 1MB can be filed in "Big"
- Messages with missing rDNS can be filed in "NoDNS"

Don't Flip Out!! Despite all the options mentioned, SpamCurb comes preset with an ideal set of default parameters so you can use it right away with no filter configuration. Later, when trepidation subsides, you can try tweaking the settings to your liking. A friendly web interface makes this easy.

For The Shamlessly Technical: SpamCurb can provide POP3 and IMAP4 mailboxes (the latter for those wishing to always keep their mail on the server). Road warriors can send their mail using SpamCurb as their ONE SMTP server via authentication. This means never having to change your outbound mail server as you move from site-to-site. Mui convenient, no?

Web Hosting

is offered via SpamCurb with excellent usage and hit reports at no additional charge. A full-T-1 (with cable backup) services your site and APC backup power keeps things running, and cleanly!

OK, so where does Giant Step come in?

We both sell the service to our customers (and make a minor commission on it) and we aid customers with setup and fine tuning at our usual labor rate.

Services and Fees

Service	Fee
Individual email box, 1GB	$4/box/month
Scan, Filter, & Forward (corporate)	$4/user/month
WebHosting: unlim traffic, 200MB, incl 2 mailboxes	$100/yr

DNS hosting free with any service, available for a small fee a la carte.
No Setup Fees!
Spam filtering always included
Virus scanning always included
Web Mail always included with accounts hosted at SpamCurb
Free trials, no obligation (not applicable to labor provided at your request to configure your end

Call or write Giant Step Communications to sign up or for more information. 858-549-2220