August 2008
Welcome to
News@Alt-N. Each month we bring you the latest information about products, recent developments, and tips intended to keep you informed with what is happening at Alt-N Technologies.
In This Issue:
New Customer Profile
Moscow Oil & Gas Company
|
Scattered among multiple offices in a city of 20 million people, Moscow Oil & Gas Company (MOGC) is a growing Russian firm that serves approximately 40% of the fuel market of the capital city and the surrounding region. With over 100 email users among its operations, which include exploration, refining, production, and delivery, the IT needs of MOGC are growing rapidly. With such growth, also comes the challenge of ensuring the company’s communications flow as smoothly as the fuel from its many MTK petroleum stations.
Like many companies in Russia, MOGC was experiencing an alarming rise in spam and viruses into its network. Compounding this problem was an ever increasing demand to manage the complexities of the company’s Exchange server. The result was a growing frustration by both end users and the IT department.
|
|
MOGC Director of IT, Yury Rubtsov |
Consequently, Director of IT, Yury Rubtsov, found he was spending more and more of his time managing email with less time to address his other IT responsibilities. "I was receiving a lot of complaints from end users and the spam problem was slowing our mail service considerably," said Mr. Rubtsov. "I needed a platform that was easy to manage with a solid history of security and performance."
After reviewing a number of alternative products, Mr. Rubtsov replaced his Exchange server with the MDaemon Email Server and also added the SecurityPlus plug-in application. The results could not have been better.
"Spam has been filtered by more than 98% and viruses are now blocked. Our mail is processing at a much faster speed and my users have stopped complaining," Mr. Rubtsov said. "MDaemon with SecurityPlus has performed very well for me. I now spend less time on email and more time on the other IT needs of my organization."
Do you have a story to tell? Drop us a note at
marketing@altn.com.
What's New?
Important Notice to All MDaemon Anti-Virus Customers
Alt-N Technologies’ partner, Kaspersky Lab, has recently announced that it is making a change to its virus signature updating process. Consequently, customers using MDaemon Anti-Virus (MDAV) and SecurityPlus will need to update their software to
SecurityPlus for MDaemon version 4, which is scheduled to be released on August 26.
This Change Will Need To Be Made Prior To December 31, 2008 To Continue Protection Of Your MDaemon Email Server With The Latest AV Signature Updates.
We will be providing additional reminders throughout the year in this newsletter, as well as contacting customers directly about this very important change. Please stay tuned.
New Spam Tactic Uses Macromedia Flash Files
During the last week of July, a new spam tactic was identified as it began to spread across the Internet. Spammers made use of hyperlinks to Macromedia Flash. The Flash files contained a function called “getURL” which simply redirected the user to the spam site.
The files themselves are hosted on a neutral, and legitimate, third-party image-hosting site (in the initial outbreak, Image Shack was used to host the files). In a 24-hour period, over 7000 URLs were created and distributed within millions of spam messages.
This is one more way spammers experiment with bypassing traditional content-based filters, and it’s probably only a matter of time before similar messages will be used to distribute malware as well.
Customers using SecurityPlus for MDaemon are less vulnerable from these kinds of emerging threats because of the product’s integration with Commtouch technology’s Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD™), which quickly identified the outbreak.
Visit the
SecurityPlus for MDaemon product page to ensure your business is using the strongest protection for the MDaemon Email Server.
Recent Alt-N Knowledge Base Articles
01967 — How do I move the RelayFax logs to a different directory or drive?
01993 — Recall messages sent to email list (causing flood of "Recall failed" messages).
01994 — Compact the Outlook Connector database file.
01995 — Sending a message to all users logged in to WorldClient.
01996 — Outlook shows "on behalf of" in the From Header for messages from mailing lists.
01997 — Double clicking the ComAgent icon does not open inbox in default browser.
02012 — Many incoming SMTP connections show Winsock Error 10054.
02052 — Unable to delete Public Folders with Outlook Connector.
02070 — Unable to delete Shared Folders with Outlook Connector.
Did You Know?
Using Security Certificates Issued by a Third-party Certificate Authority with MDaemon is simple!
If you have purchased or otherwise generated a certificate from some source other than MDaemon, you can still use that certificate by using the Microsoft Management Console to import it into the certificate store that MDaemon uses. Simply follow these instructions:
- On your Windows toolbar, click Start → Run…, and then type "mmc /a" into the "Open:" text box.
- Click OK.
- In the Microsoft Management Console, click Console → Add/Remove Snap-in… (or press Ctrl+M on your keyboard).
- On the Standalone tab, click Add….
- Click Certificates, and then click Add.
- Choose Computer account, and then click Next.
- Choose Local computer, and then click Finish.
- Click Close, and click OK.
- Under "Certificates (Local Computer)", click the "Certificates" sub-folder under the "Trusted Root Certification Authorities" folder if the certificate that you are importing is self-signed. If it is not self-signed then click the "Personal" folder.
- Click Action → All Tasks → Import… and click Next.
- Enter the file path to the certificate that you wish to import (using the Browse button if necessary), and click Next.
- Click Next, and click Finish.
Note: MDaemon will only display certificates that have private keys using the Personal Information Exchange (PEM) format (PKCS #12). If your imported certificate does not appear in the list then you may need to import a *.PEM file, which contains both a certificate key and private key. Importing this file using the same process outlined above will convert it to the PKCS #12 format.
The following additional steps explain how to configure MDaemon to use the certificate once it has been imported.
- In MDaemon 9.6.6, go to Security.
- Select SSL / TLS / Certificates.
- Click on the MDaemon tab.
- Enable the desired SSL options.
- In the Select certificate box select the certificate that you would like MDaemon to use.
Note: If you would like to enable SSL options for WorldClient and WebAdmin you will need to repeat these steps on the WorldClient and WebAdmin tabs of the same dialog.
Product Updates
With two major product updates and a new product release coming
on August 26, your best source for the latest product information is
www.altn.com.
MDaemon 10 is Just Around the Corner!
Version 10.0 of the MDaemon Email Server for Windows is scheduled for general release on August 26. This major release will bring users the same reliable performance with an updated look and several important new features. Enhancements to the WorldClient web mail application and to the secure Instant Messaging application, ComAgent, deliver a user-friendly experience that continues to makes MDaemon a popular choice for businesses around the world.
Special Note:
MDaemon 10 contains changes to several of its configuration files and is NOT backward compatible with lower versions of MDaemon. The installation process will make a backup of your current MDaemon configuration settings but it is recommended that you read the Special Considerations Section in the release notes for additional information.
Be sure to renew your Upgrade Protection today so you can receive the latest updates to MDaemon.
Changes in MDaemon Standard
If you are using MDaemon Standard, be sure to review the version 10 Feature Chart for changes to items, such as gateways and mailing lists. |
|
|
Introducing MDaemon FREE for Small Office/Home Office Users
To meet customer requests for a free entry-level, small office/home office email product, Alt-N Technologies will release a 5-user version of its popular MDaemon Email Server for Windows. MDaemon FREE be released on August 26. To learn more, download the
version 10 Feature Chart.
SecurityPlus 4
SecurityPlus for MDaemon version 4, which is scheduled to be released August 26, 2008, provides antivirus protection for all MDaemon Email Server for Windows users. It also provides "Zero Hour" (real-time) virus and spam protection for MDaemon PRO users.
SecurityPlus 4.0 for MDaemon features:
- Updated Kaspersky antivirus engine
- Vista and Windows Server 2008 compatibility
- Improvements to virus definition updates and download speed
Renew your
Upgrade Protection today to receive the benefits of powerful antivirus protection for MDaemon Email Server for Windows!
Community
Help Spread the Word
CNET Download.com
Do you think the MDaemon Email Server is a great messaging product? Help tell others by submitting a review at the bottom of the
MDaemon page on Download.com.
SpiceWorks
Are you one of the 400,000 members of the Spice Works Community? If so, cast your vote to keep MDaemon at the top of the “Best Email Server” list by visiting
http://community.spiceworks.com/spice_list/show/9. (If not a member, you will need to register on the site).
Blogs
Be sure to add an RSS feed from the blog
Everything MDaemon to your list of resources. It’s another way to continue building of a strong user community.
Newsletter Archive
Missed the last edition of
News@Alt-N? Don't worry, because now all editions of
News@Alt-N are archived on our
Literature page. It's also a great place to find the latest product data sheets, white papers, product reviews, and case studies.
Comments
We would like to hear from you. If you have comments or suggestions on this specific newsletter, please let us know by sending an email to
marketing@altn.com.