Exchange and Outlook UPDATE, Outlook Edition—brought to you by Exchange & Outlook Administrator, a print newsletter from Windows & .NET Magazine that contains practical advice, how-to articles, tips, and techniques to help you do your job today.
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January 14, 2003 — In this issue:
1. COMMENTARY
- What Is Spam?
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Windows Scripting Solutions for the Systems Administrator
- New! News, Tips, and More to Keep Your Network Humming
3. HOT RELEASE (ADVERTISEMENT)
- EAS: Enhanced Storage Management for Exchange
4. RESOURCE
- Tip: Sharing Custom Views
5. NEW AND IMPROVED
- Optimize Your Exchange Databases
6. CONTACT US
See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by Sue Mosher, News Editor, [email protected])
I got into a spirited discussion online last week about what constitutes spam that helped clarify my own ideas about spam and the methodologies available to fight it. The dispute started when someone stated that all bulk commercial email is spam and that "bulk" means any message sent to more than one person.
I argued that it makes no sense to classify as spam any message sent to two or more people. Furthermore, most of the spam sent today is sent to one address. Instead of sending one message to thousands of recipients, most spammers today send thousands of messages, each to one recipient. This change in tactics is one of the reasons spam has become a much bigger problem than it was a couple of years ago. You used to be able to just block most mail that didn't have your address on it. But now, with personally addressed spam, you have to make a determination based on the sender or the message content.
Not every commercial message sent to multiple addresses is spam. For example, this newsletter from Penton Media goes out to thousands of subscribers. But it isn't spam because you explicitly signed up for it. (Newsletter publishers call this process "opting in.")
The formal name for spam that you see most often is unsolicited commercial email (UCE). The first word is the key. A message is spam not because of the number of people it was sent to but because those people didn't ask for that message. Any commercial mailing that you didn't ask for is spam, according to a strict definition.
Some people would make an exception for mailings from a company that you have a prior relationship with, but I feel that exception applies only when the company gives you the choice of receiving their communications and you explicitly opt in. If you're getting mail from a company just because you ordered something from it in the past, that mail is spam.
I would broaden the definition of spam to include unsolicited solicitations of all kinds, commercial and noncommercial (e.g., political entreaties, chain letters, missing persons pleas). Personally, I also delete without reading all joke lists, Internet legend stories, and so on—even from people I know. (I guess I'd call those messages junk mail rather than spam because they don't ask me to take any action.) That said, I agree with the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE) that UCE is the biggest spam problem we face today.
So far, we have three basic approaches to fighting spam—blocking it based on the sender, blocking it based on the message content, and identifying, reporting, and eventually prosecuting the spammers. Many antispam applications combine the first two techniques. Some companies use both server— and client—based methods.
A server—based approach is particularly important when Outlook is the client. Antispam add—ons designed for Outlook must retrieve the message from the server first. Such tools can't just look at the message headers and delete the message directly from the server. Therefore, if you want to minimize spam traffic on your network and you have Outlook clients, you'll want to install a strong antispam solution at the mail server.
If a server—based antispam solution isn't an option for some reason, a client tool such as MailWasher can connect to the mail server, check headers, and identify likely spam without downloading the entire message. After such an antispam tool processes the mail, Outlook will have fewer complete messages to download. I'll look at other antispam methodologies in coming weeks.
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2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)
You might not be a programmer, but that doesn't mean you can't learn to create and deploy timesaving, problem—solving scripts. Discover Windows Scripting Solutions, the monthly print publication that helps you tackle common problems and automate everyday tasks with simple tools, tricks, and scripts. Try a sample issue today at
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Networking UPDATE brings you the how—to tips and news you need to implement and maintain a rock—solid networking infrastructure. We'll explore interoperability solutions, hardware (including servers, routers, and switches), network architecture, network management, network security, installation technology, network training, and WAN disaster recovery. Subscribe (at no cost!) at
http://www.winnetmag.com/email/networking
3. HOT RELEASE (ADVERTISEMENT)
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4. RESOURCE
(contributed by Sue Mosher, [email protected])
SHARING CUSTOM VIEWS
I migrated our sales force's contacts to public folders. Some users had views that I want the entire group to use. Can these views be shared or exported?
A: When users create a view, they can choose the scope of the view. If the user doesn't choose "Can be used on this folder, visible to everyone," the view is private to its creator and no one else can see it.
One solution is for the view's creator to use the File, Folder, Copy Folder Design command to copy the view to the new folder. If the view creator set the scope as "All Contacts folders," the creator can also switch to the public folder, apply the desired view, then make a copy of the view, this time specifying the scope as "This folder, visible to everyone."
An easy way to copy a view is to display the Advanced toolbar and enter the name of the new view in the Current View text box. You'll see a dialog box in which you can specify the scope of the new view.
See the Exchange & Outlook Administrator Web site for more great tips from Sue Mosher.
5. NEW AND IMPROVED
(contributed by Carolyn Mader, [email protected])
Lucid8 announced GOexchange, software that lets you optimize your Exchange message stores by reducing their size and correcting errors. GOexchange checks the consistency of Exchange databases, checks and cleans the Message Transfer Agent (MTA), and generates detailed and summarized reports. GOexchange is available in three editions: Small Business Edition for $995, Professional Business Edition for $1995, and Enterprise Business Edition for $3995. Contact Lucid8 at 206—521—0935.
http://www.goexchange.com
6. CONTACT US
Here's how to reach us with your comments and questions:
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- ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER IN GENERAL — [email protected]
(please mention the newsletter name in the subject line)
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