Mail Service Changes

We have been hard at work on upgrades to our mail system, and we are now almost ready to implement the new system. We expect to roll out this system in the coming weeks. There will be some changes, which are explained here.

Upgraded Webmail Clients

1. There are now two upgraded Webmail clients, called "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced", and "SnowCrest Webmail". "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced" is the new default client.
   
   
2. The former default Webmail client is now called "SnowCrest Webmail Classic". This client is still included, but it does not support all of the new features.
   
   
3. "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced" has been renamed from its old name of "Portal Webmail".
   
   
4. "SnowCrest Webmail" has also been renamed from "AJAX Webmail".
   
   
5. Both "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced" and "SnowCrest Webmail" are very capable, supporting advanced drag-and-drop features, sieve filtering, whitelisting/blacklisting, and anti-spam settings.
   

Mail Control Panel

1. The "Mail control panel" will be replaced by features integrated into "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced" and "SnowCrest Webmail"
   
   
2. Spam Control Settings
   
   
   1. Whitelist/Blacklist. You can put addresses in the whitelist and blacklist to allow or reject incoming messages from these senders, respectively. You can whitelist or blacklist an entire domain by adding the domain beginning with the @ symbol. For example, "@example.com" in the blacklist will block the domain "example.com", and "user@example.com" in the whitelist will allow "user@example.com", but other names at "example.com" will still be scanned.
      
      
   2. Note that the "Kill Level" and the "Tag Level" should be between 2 and 15 for most situations. Lower numbers are more likely to block spam, but also are more likely to block legitimate mail. A good strategy is to start at around 5 or 6, and reduce the number gradually until you feel comfortable with the amount of mail being blocked. Check your Spam folder as you lower the number to make sure good mail isn't being blocked. You can add your friends to the whitelist to ensure that you receive their mail.
      
      
   3. Greylist enable/disable. Greylisting is a spam filtering technique that requests that sending servers send the message a second time before allowing it to be delivered. Many spam hosts use a "fire and forget" technique and do not respond to requests to re-send mail. Mail from these hosts will be blocked by the Greylist filter. You may want to disable the Greylist filter if you find that mail is taking too long to get to you.
      
      
   4. Blacklist enable/disable. Disabling this will allow hosts on Blackhole lists to send mail to you. Note that the spam filter still uses blacklists to compute the spam score, even with Blacklists disabled.
      
   
   
3. Disable Spam checks. This will disable the calculation of a spam score for messages addressed to you.
   
   
4. Disable Virus checks. This will disable the built-in mail virus scanner. Disabling this is not recommended.
   

Spam Folder

1. Mail classified as spam is now being delivered to your Spam folder, where it is kept for several days before being automatically discarded by the mail system. This replaces the previous quarantining system and the mailrobot emails. If you wish to keep a message that has been placed in your Spam folder, you should move it into another folder, such as your Inbox. Moving legitimate mail out of the Spam folder, and moving Spam messages into the Spam folder, will help "train" our system to identify similar messages in the future. Note that if you use a mail client configured to use POP instead of IMAP, you will not have access to the Spam folder except through Webmail.
   

Trash Folder

1. Mail in the Trash folder will now be automatically expunged by the mail system after 30 days.
   

Quotas

1. The quota is calculated by the sum of the mail in all folders, except for the Spam and Trash folders.
   

Sieve Filters

1. "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced" and "SnowCrest Webmail" now support sieve filters.
   
   
2. Vacation message
   
   
3. Mail forward
   
   
4. Automatically sort messages into different folders
   
   
5. Reject mail from certain senders
   

Support for tablets and mobile

1. "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced" has support for tablets and mobile devices.
   

Login from homepage

1. "SnowCrest Webmail Advanced" and "SnowCrest Webmail" will now login and logout directly from Snowcrest's home page
   

New recommended settings

1. There are new recommended settings for mail clients such as Windows Mail, Mac Mail, or Thunderbird:
   
   
2. Incoming:
   
   
   1. IMAP Server (POP is not recommended)
      
   2. Your email address: youremail@snowcrest.net
      
   3. Server Name: imap.snowcrest.net
      
   4. User Name: youremail
      
   5. Use Secure connection: STARTTLS (or TLS)
      
   6. Port: 143
      
   
   
3. Outgoing:
   
   
   1. SMTP Server
      
   2. Server Name: smtp.snowcrest.net
      
   3. Port: 587
      
   4. Use secure connection: STARTTLS (or TLS)
      
   5. Username and password required: yes
      
   6. User Name: youremail