The Paradise announcement about their new spam ad virus filtering contained heaps of markespeak but little info, so I asked some more questions, which others might be interested in too.
In short, it is not possible to opt out of the filtering between 8 Sep and 8 Oct, but is after 8 Oct. "Hit-mails" are quarantined into a separate folder which is only accessible via webmail (and that won't change). They were very helpful, and even sent me 2 pdf brochures about the software, which can also be downloaded from brightmail. Volker -----snip----- Please be advised that ALL customers will be enabled with this filtering come September 8 - there is no opt out option at all, the exception only being to cancel the account. 1) Which product do you use for filtering, and how much filtering is implemented by yourselves? The Application used is supplied by Brightmail. Information on the product (but not specific to TelstraClear can be found at http://brightmail.com). I have included some other information below: How often do the anti-spam / virus detection algorithms get updated? Our spam algorithms or signatures are updated every 10 minutes. We receive these updates directly from Brightmail. 2) Can you elaborate on the filtering process? Baynesian, rule based B. 3) What happens to those emails which are detected as spam or virus? Please read our policy below: Can I be sure that paradise.net will not delete valid messages? Firstly, we do not delete any messages: For spam - Spam messages are sidelined into the Spam folder. They are only deleted from your Spam folder once they are older than 30 days. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that no valid email will be considered spam, and sidelined. However Brightmail quote a "one in one million" record (ie. only one email is every one million is incorrectly classified as spam). So the chances are low. For viruses - Emails containing attachments with viruses will not be deleted, however in certain circumstances the virus-ridden attachment may be deleted. In particular if an email contains an attachment that cannot be cleaned, the body text of that message will be delivered to the your inbox with a note advising you that the attachment could not be cleaned, and has therefore been deleted. 4) How do I know when and how many messages have been detected as spam or virus? Is there any kind of report offered for them? As above, a folder will be created server-side where customers can view mail that was filtered as spam. There will be no reporting tool avialable - it will be avaiilable for you to see via webmail. 5) What rate of false positives do you expect? The Brightmail anti-spam technology is not based on customers "teaching" the system what messages are to be considered as spam (see link above for details of technology). In other words, there is no need for customers to point out false positives or false negatives. One of the strengths of Brightmail's technology is its extremely low false positive rate. The claimed false positive rate is 1 false positive in 1 million messages. Any false positive will be side-lined in the customers' Spam folder. False negatives will appear as "normal" in the customers Inbox. 6) In case I don't like the filtering being done, how can I turn off the virus filter? How can I turn off the spam filter? After September 8, as mentioned at the beginning, all customers will be enabled with virus and spam protection and there is no opt out before 8 October. Unfortunately, the only way to opt out is to cancel your account with Paradise Net. It is worth mentioing that after October 8, the individual products can be turned off or on but the pricing does not change. For example, if you were on a $10.00 plan and paid $4.00 for protection, you can have both Virus and Spam, just spam or just virus, but it still costs $4.00. [...] These are all the answers we have been given to respond to customers questions. There are no more. Should you want to know anything more technical, please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] as this Team is not technically based. Should you not be happy with the global enabling and wish to cancel your services, please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----snip----- The one remaining issue I have is that quarantined emails are put into a folder which is only available via webmail. Sorry, but webmail is for emergencies, otherwise it's a PITA. The problem would go away if you offered imap, at least for downloading (I'm not really interested in uploading mail back onto your server). [...] The Clear.Net sister to Paradise Net does offer IMAP access for customers. The 2 month FREE Promotional Account offer is still open to customers also if you were interested. This ends though next week and the contact number is 0508 701 701. I have asked if Paradise Net would be getting IMAP enabled on Mail Boxes but there are no plans to do this at all, so unfortunately the Pain In The A will prevail. -----snip----- -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
