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 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 your 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.

Administrators of LuxSci accounts now have the ability to specify exactly from what locations their users are permitted to login to WebMail.  I.e. administrators can choose to allow WebMail access only from the Office or certain other places.  This is good for general account and information security.

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LuxSci has added many new features to the email folder display widget.  The email folder widget is available to all LuxSci customers whose email is hosted with LuxSci.  This widgets can be added to any workspace so that the contents of any email folders, even shared ones, can be viewed and managed along side other information such as address books, calendars, notes, file storage areas, blogs, custom widgets, etc.

The email folder widget has been updated to include:

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We are often asked by our users to help  them determine from where an email message has originated.  In general, it is fairly easy to do this if you have access to the “headers” of the message.  In this post, we will show you how to determine a message’s original location yourself and also how you can protect yourself from others determining your location when you send email messages to them.

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LuxSci WebMail now allows users to delete or strip attachments from email message(s), keeping the rest of the email message content. This saves space and makes your email faster.

I.e., lets say that your friend sent you a message and attached 20 pictures.  You could use the “Download all attachments” option to save these pictures in bulk to your computer, then the new “Delete attachments” option to remove them all from the message, keeping online just your friend’s message text and not the sizable attachments.

“Delete Attachments” can be found in the “Message” submenu in WebMail and can be applied to all selected messages — i.e. you can delete attachments from many messages at once.

Note that users can also create custom email filters that auto-delete attachments from messages meeting certain criteria upon arrival to their accounts.

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.

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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Many of our clients prefer and sometimes require the use of  “Distribution Lists” to send email messages to multiple recipients.

We are often asked if LuxSci supports “Distribution Lists”.  The answer is “Yes”, and we have three different approaches to send email messages to pre-defined lists of recipients.  We feel that is helpful to present each solution using the same requirements and to compare the relative merits of each.

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