LuxSci has significantly improved the automatic checking for new email messages in its WebMail application.

Previously, automatic checking was lacking: you had to manually enable automatic checking, messages were checked for only every 5 minutes, and checking stopped as soon as new messages were detected.

Now, automatic checking works with the speed and usability of a desktop email application:

• Automatic: WebMail will always check for new email messages — you never have to “enable” anything.
• Fast: Checking for new messages happens as frequently as once/minute*
• Multiple Folders: WebMail checks for new email messages in your current folder, your INBOX, and any other folders that you have added to your “QuickCheck” list (you can have up to 5 folders on this list in addition to your INBOX).  You can be informed of new messages in any of your important folders, even if you are currently working in other folders.  Many folks have requested automatic checking for new messages in multiple folders — it is finally here!
• Notifications: WebMail will notify you of new email
  • Icons are displayed next to folders with new messages in them in your folder tree
  • The “Get Email” button pulsates yellow if there are new messages in the current folder
  • An audible “new email” sound is played (you can turn that off — you can also upload your own new email sound)
  • A pop-up window can be displayed if you have new messages in your INBOX (good if your WebMail window is minimized or hidden — use of this, too, is a Preference).

Combined with our recent turbo charging of WebMail, you will find use of web-based email at LuxSci a productivity booster.

*The frequency of checking depends dynamically on how long the checking actually takes and can very from 1 to 5 minutes.  The speed of checking may be slower than once/minute if you are checking many folders, large folders, or if your email server is responding slowly at the moment (i.e. due to a usage spike). For most people checking will be close to once/minute.

Users of LuxSci’s WebMail have a new message notification – sound! When the LuxSci WebMail interface detects that new messages have arrived,* the interface will play a “new email” sound to alert the user of the new messages.

No, it does not actually say “You Have New Mail” — it plays a simple, standard Windows notification sound by default.  However, you can upload your own sound file (in your Preferences area) so that the reminder tone can be anything that you like.  Your custom sound file can be an mp3, wav, or mid file and can be up to 250KB in size. If you do not like sound effects, you have the option to turn them off in your Preferences.

Sound effects work in all of our supported browsers: Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

*The sound will be played when new email is detected in your current folder, your INBOX, or any of your “QuickCheck” folders — as all of these folders are automatically checked for new messages every minute or so.

Faster WebMail access!  LuxSci’s WebMail solution has been enhanced to make access to email folders is much faster. The response time and usage of WebMail is now much closer to that of a desktop email program.

How did we do it? In addition to recent hardware upgrades, we have implemented some aggressive data “caching” mechanisms to make sure that your message data is ready for you when you want it.  This includes:

• Pre-caching: As soon as you access an email folder’s status, i.e. from your login Welcome page or from WebMail itself, LuxSci’s Web Mail application will automatically (and in the background) read the contents of your folder and get it ready for quick access.  Thus, when you go check you folder or page among your messages, the messages will likely have already been prepared for you and access to them will be very fast.
• Long-term caching: LuxSci’s WebMail application keeps your cached message data ready for you for up to 7 days after your last access to each folder.  So even if you do not check your email for a few days, when you return access will remain fast.
• Progress Feedback: When WebMail requires time to process your email message data before displaying it to you (i.e. because it is the first time you have accessed a folder in a long while, or because the folder is very large), you will see a progress bar that gives you visual feedback on the progress of that operation.  No more wondering “how long is this going to take?”
• Unread Messages: Determining the number of unread messages in a folder has been optimized to be up to 35x faster.  This makes folder status checks much quicker and lighter on the system overall.

LuxSci has released a number of new features in the past few weeks.  These include:

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LuxSci has updated its privacy policy with the help of TRUSTe to ensure that LuxSci abides by the EU Safe Harbor Framework as outlined by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Union.  Read LuxSci’s privacy policy.

Lux Scientiae is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent organization whose mission is to build users’ trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the Web site www.luxsci.com. Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact the Lux Sceintiae Privacy Officer. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at TRUSTe. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns

Lux Scientiae complies with the EU Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.

TLS stands for “Transport Layer Security” and is closely related to “SSL” (Secure Socket Layer). TLS is one of the standard ways that computers transmit information over an encrypted channel. In general, when one computer connects to another computer and uses TLS, the following happens:

1. Computer A connects to Computer B (no security)
2. Computer B says “Hello” (no security)
3. Computer A says “Lets talk securely over TLS” (no security)
4. Computer A and B agree on how to do this (secure)
5. The rest of the conversation is encrypted (secure)

In particular:

• The meat of the conversation is encrypted
• Computer A can verify the identity of Computer B (by examining its SSL certificate, which is required for this dialog)
• The conversation cannot be eavesdropped upon (without Computer A knowing)
• The conversation cannot be modified by a third party
• Other information cannot be injected into the conversation by third parties.

TLS (and SSL) is used for many different reasons on the Internet and helps make the Internet a more secure place, when used. One of the popular uses of TLS is with SMTP.  See also:

• How Does Secure Socket Layer (SSL or TLS) Work?
• The Case for Email Security (Why normal email is insecure)

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LuxSci’s SecureLine end-to-end email filtering solution has been augmented with a new, optional, outbound email encryption option: “TLS Only”.

SecureLine accounts that enable “TLS Only” can have their outbound email delivered over an SMTP TLS encrypted channel to recipients whose email services support it.  This mitigates the need for using PGP, S/MIME, or SecureLine Escrow message pickup service for many secure outbound email messages — if TLS message transport encryption is “good enough” for your organization (i.e. it is for HIPAA compliance and it is for most bank-to-bank communications).

SecureLine TLS-Only Outbound Encryption:

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LuxSci has added two new features to help administrators manage the forwarding of email in their accounts so that they can meet HIPAA and other regulatory requirements and at the same time easily control the actions of their users:

• Globally restricting email forwarding to only recipients whose email servers support SMTP TLS for message transport encryption, and
• Globally restricting users from managing their own email forwarding settings.

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This article is Part 5 of our series on Internet Programming. See the Introduction and Part 1, Introduction to HTML. This article covers the Perl "list" data type.

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LuxSci customers who require HIPAA Compliance to safeguard electronic protected health information (ePHI) that is stored in or transmitted through their accounts can now display a “HIPAA Compliance Seal” on their web sites or in their email signatures/tag lines/disclaimers.

For example, your compliance seal may look like (click on it to see an example verification page):

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