Web Bugs are images in HTML-formatted email messages that, when viewed, tell the sender of the message that you read the message.  This mechanism of obtaining an essentially covert confirmation that (a) your email address is valid, (b) the email got past your filters, and (c) you actually read the message, is pervasively used by Spammers to identify what addresses are reading their messages.

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LuxSci’s Widgets just got better.  With this latest release, users can now access shared and/or personal calendars, address books, and tasks as widgets in any page of LuxSci, via custom hotkeys, and via their phone in our “Mobile Mode“.

All of these WebAide Widgets now support:

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LuxSci has increased the maximum size of a message that can be sent from WebMail from 50 megabytes to 70 megabytes.  This refers to the raw size of the message content plus all attachments.

The encoded maximum size of message that can be sent or received via SMTP remains at 100 megabytes; however, this can be increased for customers with dedicated servers.

WebMail does not have any limit on the number of attachments, just on the overall size of attachments.  WebMail supports receipt and viewing of messages that are up to 200MB in total (encoded) size.

Several months back, we discussed Enforcing Email Security with TLS when Communicating with Banks. This is a critical stipulation for many banks that have strict requirements that all email messages be encrypted in transit via TLS when communicating with them.

Bank of America

Bank of America (BoA) is a case in point.  Their requirements are as follows:

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LuxSci has offered an “Xpress” WebMail portal for many years.  The portal is fast, simple, and works with most devices because it does not use any JavaScript or cookies, and uses few images.  The Xpress portal is good for security, privacy, and access from legacy devices, as well as over very slow connections.

However, the mobile device landscape is quickly changing.  Starting with the iPhone and its full-featured Safari web browser, to the Android, the Palm Pre, and the availability of browsers like OperaMini on many phones, it is now the case that many “cutting edge” phones actually have fast web browsers that fully support JavaScript, AJAX, CSS, and broadband — all the technologies formerly the purview of the desktop.  Their major drawback, however, is still the very small screen. Many of these browsers work perfectly well with most web sites, including LuxSci’s full-featured WebMail portal; however, it can be problematic and painful to use and navigate sites designed for large displays on these device’s small screens.

Enter LuxSci’s new “Mobile Mode”.  Mobile Mode is a new feature of LuxSci’s regular WebMail interface that is available when it detects that you are accessing it using a mobile device, such as an iPhone.

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There is a lot of hype about Cloud Storage, Cloud Computing, Cloud Servers, and related things that can be accomplished in the pervasive land of distributed, abstracted computers.  LuxSci now also offers the option of running on dedicated servers in the cloud, in addition to the more common options of running on shared server(s) and on real dedicated servers.  However, this all begs the questions:  “What exactly is a cloud server?”, “How powerful is it?”, “How reliable is it?”, and “When is a Cloud Server a better solution than a Basic or Premium Dedicated Server?”

Here we answer those questions for you, at least in the context of the Cloud Servers within the Rackspace Cloud — which are the servers  offered by LuxSci. 

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SecureLine Escrow is the facet of LuxSci’s SecureLine service that allows users to send encrypted email messages to anyone with an email address.  With Escrow, the message is encrypted and stored in a secure database.  A notification message is sent to the recipient that informs them of a message waiting, along with the subject of the message and sender. The notification also provides a link to use to retrieve the secure message.

See “Send a Secure Email to Anyone” for more about how Escrow works.

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LuxSci has recently expanded its Dedicated Server offerings to now include many extremely scalable and cost effective choices for our customers.

A customer with Dedicated Server(s) has one or more servers, managed by LuxSci, whose sole purpose is to provide email, web hosting, and other services to that customer specifically.  This is contrasted with “Shared Servers” where many customers share the resources of the same servers.

Why Go Dedicated?

Many customers prefer Dedicated Servers to shared hosting for a variety of reasons, including cost and security.  The list below highlights areas you may want to consider before making a purchase decision.

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LuxSci has given its Task List widgets a complete overhaul, improving their usefulness as well as their usability.   The Task List Widgets provide a simplified and very slick window on your underlying Tasks WebAides, available to anyone with a WebAides license. Like all widgets, they can be included in any workspace, like the Welcome page or the Account Administration page.  They can also be accessed via user-specified hot keys from any page in LuxSci’s site.

Some of the enhancements to the Task List Widget, all of which operate using AJAX, include:

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In keeping with the recent updates to its Welcome page, LuxSci has updated its Account Administrator and Global Account Administration pages to use its new widgets.  New administrator widgets such as the “New User Wizard” and the “Account Summary and Notices” widgets are now available for use.  With these changes, administrators now have an additional workspace in which to organize and maintain their widgets and they can customize their administrative interface to make it more effective for their use.