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Frequently Asked Questions
Implementation:
- What is involved in implementing DRx Spam's service?
- What is an MX record?
- Is there any downtime necessary to implement DRx Spam's service?
- How soon will we start seeing results?
Reliability and Server Back-up:
- How reliable is DRx Spam?
- Will we experience delays in receiving messages?
- What happens if our mail server goes down?
- What if I need access to E-mail while our organization’s mail server is down?
Security:
- How secure is the privacy of my e-mail?
- Can DRx Spam improve the security of our E-mail
Spam Detection and Handling:
- How does DRx Spam determine which messages are spam?
- What happens to messages that are detected as spam?
- What percentage of junk E-mail does DRx Spam catch?
- What are white lists and blacklists?
Virus Detection:
- Is DRx Spam a substitute for our current antivirus software?
- How often are DRx Spam’s antivirus definitions updated?
Compatibility:
- Does DRx Spam work with Microsoft Exchange?
- Does DRx Spam support Macintosh, Linux, or Unix environments?
- If my company hosts E-mail at an external provider, will DRx Spam work?
Integration:
- Do we need to integrate DRx Spam with our existing mail server?
- What options for integration does DRx Spam provide?
- Are there any extra charges for integration?
Billing:
- Are there any setup fees or implementation costs?
- How is my organization billed?
- Do I have to pay for aliases?
Implementation
- What is involved in implementing this spam & virus filtering service?
All that is necessary is a change in your DNS records, so that the 'MX' (mail exchanger) entries for your domain point to DRx Spam's systems. After that change has been made, your E-mail will be redirected through DRx
Spam's filters before being automatically delivered to your mail server.
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- What is an MX record?
A mail exchanger (MX) record identifies the location of a domain’s mail server. The record directs computers on the Internet where to send E-mail for a specific domain. Unfortunately, the record also informs spammers of
the location of a domain’s mail server. By changing the MX record, a company can reroute its inbound E-mail to DRx Spam, which filters messages for spam and viruses and then delivers the clean E-mail to the
company’s mail server.
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- Is there any downtime necessary to implement DRx Spam's service?
There is no downtime involved in implementing DRx Spam. The setup process is fast and completely seamless, and does not affect or delay your inbound or outbound E-mail.
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- How soon will we start seeing results?
Typically DRx Spam spam and virus filtering system begins working within a few hours of the DNS change, and often within a few minutes of that change, for a significant percentage of your inbound E-mail. In order for all
of your inbound messages to be filtered, the changes to your domain's MX record must fully propagate through the Internet. The Time-To-Live (TTL) setting within your domain's DNS specifies how quickly these changes
should take effect; TTL values generally range from one hour to 24 hours. There is no interruption to your mail flow during any of this time.
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Reliability and Server Back-up
- How reliable is DRx Spam?
DRx Spam's network and software architecture have been designed to handle both the rapidly growing volume of E-mail and the heavy peak loads that are characteristic of SMTP traffic. DRx Spam has no single point
of failure and provides a 99.999% uptime guarantee.
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- Will we experience delays in receiving messages?
No. DRx Spam typically processes a message in less than a second. Customers do not notice any delays in the delivery of E-mail.
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- What happens if our mail server goes down?
In the event that a customer's mail server is inaccessible, the DRx Spam system acts as a message queue so that E-mails will be forwarded to the customer once the mail server is back online. DRx Spam uses a timing
algorithm to gracefully deliver those queued messages, to ensure that the customer's mail server is not overwhelmed with a sudden barrage of inbound mail.
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- What if I need access to E-mail while our organization's mail server is down?
In addition to the queuing described above, DRx Spam can provide full-fledged backup mail service so that customers can rapidly regain full inbound and outbound E-mail communications in the event of a prolonged
outage or other problem with their primary E-mail system. Please contact Cord Hosting to establish this service feature.
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Security
- How secure is the privacy of my e-mail?
The DRx Spam service does not affect your email's security. First of all, E-mail itself is inherently not secure. E-mail messages are sent in clear, unencrypted plain text format across many networks and often through
multiple mail servers before arriving at their destination. Essentially, DRx Spam's service represents only an additional 'hop' on the Internet before E-mail is delivered to a company's mail server.
Moreover, DRx Spam does not back-up or make copies of E-mail messages, other than temporarily queuing messages when a customer's mail server is down. Your E-mail messages are not accessed by anybody other than
the intended recipients, and the log files maintained by DRx Spam contain only message header information rather than message contents.
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- Can DRx Spam improve the security of our E-mail
Yes, DRx Spam can provide E-mail encryption services via the StartTLS protocol, so that E-mail messages are transmitted in a secure, encrypted fashion rather than in plain text. Please contact Cord Hosting to establish
this service feature.
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Spam Detection and Handling
- How does DRx Spam determine which messages are spam?
DRx Spam employs an extensive range of tests on incoming messages to detect spam. These include traditional, widely used approaches for spam detection such as message authenticity checks, header analysis, message
signature analysis, an artificial intelligence Bayesian engine, databases of domain names and addresses used by spammers, and white lists and blacklists. DRx Spam has also developed advanced, industry-leading
techniques such as real-time message source analysis, graphics analysis, and user-based message profiling.
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- What happens to messages that are detected as spam?
You have several options for handling the spam messages detected by DRx Spam. Junk messages can be
1) redirected to a DRx Spam-hosted quarantine,
2) redirected to an alternative E-mail address such as spam@yourcompany.com,
3) identified as spam in the subject line and delivered to the intended recipient, or
4) deleted. These options can be configured company-wide or on a per-user basis, and can be changed at any time.
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- What percentage of junk E-mail does DRx Spam catch?
The detection rate varies by customer and is based on the E-mail traffic patterns for a given domain, and on DRx Spam's aggressiveness for that domain (customers can configure how aggressive the filter should be). On
average, DRx Spam blocks over 98% of junk E-mail and 100% of email-borne viruses.
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- What are white lists and blacklists?
White lists are rules that allow messages to be delivered based on their 'from' E-mail address or domain name, regardless of content. If you would like to guarantee that all messages from yourcustomer.com, for example,
will not be flagged as spam regardless of what those messages contain, you can simply add that domain to your white list. Conversely, blacklists are rules that block messages based on the domain name or E-mail address of the sender.
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Virus Detection
- Is DRx Spam a substitute for our current antivirus software?
We do not recommend that customers eliminate their current virus protection, in large part because viruses can be spread through means other than E-mail. That said, over 90% of viruses are transmitted through
E-mail. As viruses have become more prevalent and more damaging, organizations increasingly are adopting a layer of protection at their Internet gateway (as DRx Spam provides) as an additional defense.
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- How often are DRx Spam’s antivirus definitions updated?
DRx Spam's antivirus definitions are updated every five minutes. These frequent updates can protect an organization against fast-moving viruses that may not be caught with an internal antivirus solution.
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Compatibility
- Does DRx Spam work with Microsoft Exchange?
Yes. DRx Spam works seamlessly with any mail server that you are using. As a managed service, DRx Spam is compatible with widely used programs such as Microsoft Exchange, Novell Groupwise, and Lotus Notes, as well as
any other mail server software that a customer may be using.
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- Does DRx Spam support Macintosh, Linux, or Unix environments?
Yes. DRx Spam is a service rather than a product, and no software needs to be installed on your mail server or at workstations. Therefore, DRx Spam supports any mail server, any E-mail client, and any operating
system(s) in use at a given organization.
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- If my company hosts E-mail at an external provider, will DRx Spam work?
Yes. Many companies use an externally hosted E-mail server, in addition to or in lieu of an internal mail server. DRx Spam works correctly regardless of where a company's mail server or servers are located.
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Integration
- Do we need to integrate DRx Spam with our existing mail server?
No - DRx Spam will work successfully without any changes to an organization’s existing mail infrastructure and without any integration with that mail infrastructure. For ISPs and enterprise customers, we
recommend that DRx Spam’s user management and authentication functions be integrated with the customer's infrastructure to reduce the need for any ongoing management regardless of the number of end users.
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- What options for integration does DRx Spam provide?
DRx Spam has been architected to integrate seamlessly with a wide array of infrastructures. This ensures that E-mail addresses, aliases, user preferences, and authentication information can be automatically
synchronized between DRx Spam and an organization's internal system(s). In addition to integration via standard protocols such as LDAP and LDAPS, DRx Spam offers a web service that allows for programmatic domain and
user management from virtually any application.
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- Are there any extra charges for integration?
No. DRx Spam views integration as a means to ensure ongoing ease of management for customers, and all features related to integration are included in the standard pricing for the service.
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Billing
- Are there any setup fees or implementation costs?
No. Since DRx Spam is a managed service, there is no hardware or software to purchase and no one-time fees. There is simply a per-domain price, based on the number of users who are enrolled for filtering. To
receive a price quote, please contact us online or via phone at 860-408-9066.
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- How is my organization billed?
DRx Spam is a subscription service. Customers are billed monthly by credit card and Technology On Call will handle all of the charges. All credit card charges will appear on your monthly credit card statement as "Technology
On Call" If you do require an invoice for billing please contact Technology On Call.
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- Do I have to pay for aliases?
No. Alias accounts are filtered for spam and viruses, but they are not billed.
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