LuxSci is pleased to announce the latest release of our WebAideSync plugin tool for Microsoft Outlook — WebAideSync 5!

This update incorporates the long-awaited and much-asked-for feature of allowing automatic synchronization of Outlook contacts, calendars, and tasks with LuxSci WebAides. Create an AutoSync session, and WebAideSync will automatically keep your folders up-to-date without having you to run the tool again, even if you close and re-open Outlook.

LuxSci has long offered Basic and Premium dedicated servers for customers with requirements that are not ideal for our shared server offerings.  I.e. large numbers of users, large amounts of disk space, enhanced security and privacy, relaxed usage limits, and custom configurations.

The major differences between the Basic and Premium dedicated server offerings relate to:

• The quality of the data center and network infrastructure
• The security inherent in the infrastructure
• The SLA and privacy policies
• Dedicated HIPAA-compliant hosting is only available on Premium

So, while from a cost perspective, Basic dedicated servers offer a lot of capacity for a low cost entry point, customers who require a higher level of reliability and security really only have one option: Premium dedicated servers.

Enter “Private Cloud Servers”

LuxSci’s Private Cloud Servers are dedicated virtual servers running on VMWare ESX hosts in LuxSci’s dedicated Rackspace infrastructure.  These provide all of the advantages of a Premium Dedicated Server at a fraction of the price — if you only need a fraction of a server based on your requirements.

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LuxSci continues to offer premium shared email and web hosting services on premium servers in a premium data center for the best possible performance, security, and privacy.  This has the unfortunate side effect of making some of the services more expensive than if they were offered via a less premium environment.  In particular, the per-gigabyte cost of disk space.

In order to offer better pricing options to customers who need large amounts of disk space and who are able to be a bit less restrictive on security, privacy, and reliability, LuxSci now offers new customers a choice of “Premium” and “Basic Server Environments“.

• Basic Environment: Provides low cost disk space (15 GB included, upgrade in 5 GB blocks)
• Premium Environment: Provides a better SLA, better privacy policy, better security, and higher reliability.

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LuxSci’s standard prices have always included Premium Support.  However, many of our customers are very self sufficient and would like to translate that into savings.  For mostly self sufficient customers, LuxSci now offers “Basic Support.”

Choosing Basic Support results in a 10% discount on eligible services.

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LuxSci’s Premium Email Archival service offers the storage of an unlimited amount of email that is easily searchable and downloadable.

The period of time that email is retained in the archives is a customer decision.  Previously, the options were 1, 3, 5, or 7 years.  After that time period, messages auto-expire from the archives.

Now, customers may select from a broader range of retention periods — from as little as 30 days to as long as 10 years.

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LuxSci is pleased to announce the release of WebAideSync 4, the latest version of its collaboration plugin for Microsoft Outlook.

WebAideSync is a versatile tool that allows all LuxSci users to synchronize their Outlook address books, calendars, and task lists with LuxSci WebAides.  Paired with the MobileSync tool for synchronizing WebAides with your handheld or mobile device, it’s now easier than ever to keep your data maintained and up-to-date wherever and whenever you need to.  Some of the key changes and new features in this release are:

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LuxSci has updated its per-domain administrative controls, adding features that were previously only present in the global, account-wide configuration area.

Now, the following security and privacy features can be configured on a per-domain basis, unless they are already set up globally:

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To further improve account security, LuxSci has added an automated alert system to notify users of failed logins to their accounts.  These include:

• Failed logins to WeMail, POP, IMAP, SMTP, and FTP
• Failed message sending over SMTP due to limits exceeded or other issues.

The alerts are sent out within 5 minutes of the failure event.  Successive alert digests are sent out no more frequently than once/hour and are quickly rate limited to once/day for situations where the failures keep coming (we don’t want to flood people’s mail boxes with alerts, but we also want to be timely).

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LuxSci’s SecureLine end-to-end email security system enables allows customers to enable use of TLS for email delivery, without any further encryption, when TLS is supported by the recipient email servers and the customers’ needs only include transport encryption (i.e. for HIPAA).  This provides security with maximum usability, when available.

However, TLS is not as secure as SecureLine Escrow for email communications.  For cases where enhanced security is desired, even to a recipient whose email servers support TLS, LuxSci’s WebMail email composer now permits users to override the use of “TLS Only” so that “SecureLine Escrow” can be used instead — on a message-by-message basis.  I.e., users can now use Escrow “on demand” to provide enhanced security over TLS.

Additionally, users have a new preference (under “Email Composition > SecureLine” preferences), where they can alter the behavior of WebMail so that “TLS Only” delivery is NOT used for them unless requested — Escrow can be used by default if desired.

These new security settings only apply to SecureLine customers who have “TLS” enabled as a viable secure email delivery method in their account.

LuxSci’s High Volume Outbound Email service now supports the optional use of VERP / Variable Envelope Return Path for simplified bounce message analysis.

Normally, when an email message is sent, but fails to reach its destination, a “bounce message” is sent back to the “Envelope Sender” (i.e. the “Return path” address, which may or may not be the same as the “From” address).  These bounces inform senders of delivery issues and allow for the management and pruning of mailing lists.  However, there is no uniformity in the format of these bounces messages.  It is even sometimes the case that it is not possible to tell to whom the message was originally sent!  This makes analysis of bounces both difficult (no standard format) and imperfect (can’t always tell).

Enter VERP – “Variable Envelope Return Path”

With this method of sending, the address to which bounces messages are sent (the Return Path) is customized for every recipient, so that it contains the failed address.

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