Email Solutions

Are you wasting your time every day with Spam and Viruses?

Virus and Spam Scanning from Host 100 provides:

Spam filtering based on content and known spammers

• identifies 80% of spam and junk email

Virus filtering:

• definitions of viruses are updated continuously
• stops the majority of email viruses ever reaching your system
• reduces your mail server processor loading
• provides a second line of defence

The above services:

• are quick to setup, typically completed during the same day
• can be applied to any domain we host
• can be used with any of our SMTP or POP services

Our virus filtering works to prevent viruses ever reaching your system:

The essence of our inline virus scanning service is to operate between the sender of an email and you as the customer to provide a second tier of protection against a virus attack. The system works by passing email destined for your system through a server dedicated to virus detection. If a virus is found, the server attempts to clean the virus from the message or attachment and, if successful, then deliver the message. If the virus cannot be cleaned, the system removes the attachment containing the virus from the message and delivers the remaining email with notification that an attachment with a virus has been removed. Pre-screening on email offers the following advantages over relying on virus detection at your local network level:

• The pre-screening service is continually updated, rather than on a set schedule, and as a result, is more likely to detect a virus in a message and deal with it appropriately than LAN based virus protection.
• The virus detection system uses a different scan engine to most LAN based systems. By working in tandem with your LAN based system the likelihood of a virus evading detection is significantly reduced.

We are only able to provide virus and spam scanning to email that is routed via our servers. To do this, we must have control of your domain and its associated dns pointers. If this is not the case, you will have to transfer your domain to Host 100. If you are unsure who controls your domain or if you need help transferring to Host 100, please contact us on 01276 673830.

Stop your inbox from being flooded by junk email

Our spam filtering works in multiple ways:

Firstly, it compares the sender of the email against public lists of spam mail sources. Any email from a known spam source is marked as spam and delivered.

Secondly, the email is checked, using an adaptive content scanning engine, to analyse possible spam content, abusive keywords or sexual content. If the email is found to contain dubious content it is again marked as spam and delivered.

In much the same way as virus definitions are updated continuously, the spam engine is continually updated to combat new sources and to react to spammers who vary their content to evade traditional spam protection solutions.

We are only able to provide virus and spam scanning to email that is routed via our servers. To do this, we must have control of your domain and its associated dns pointers. If this is not the case, you will have to transfer your domain to Host 100. If you are unsure who controls your domain or if you need help transferring to Host 100, please contact us on 01276 673830.

Pre-requisite

Email is delivered across the Internet to the mail server responsible for the end delivery of a recipient domain’s email.

Pointers to the relevant mail server are required for every domain. In the case of email, these pointers are known as DNS MX, mail exchange, pointers.

To enable us to provide virus and spam upstream scanning for your domains we need to have control of the domains so that we are able to set the DNS pointers. If this is not the case, you will have to transfer your domain to Host 100. If you are unsure who controls your domain or if you need help transferring to Host 100, please contact us on 01276 673830.

Host 100 offers a complete domain name management service, together with a range of other Internet services, at our website www.host100.co.uk.

Virus and Spam Scanning Pricing

Host 100’s virus and spam scanning service costs £150.00 (+VAT) per annum per domain.

Service Limitations

Anti-virus scanning by Host 100, or any other Internet based system, should always be seen as a supplementary safeguard to work in conjunction with a LAN or local PC based antivirus solution.

While we will use every reasonable endeavour to ensure the integrity and security of this service, we do not guarantee that this service will protect email, data, or servers from corruption by virus and we shall be under no liability for non-receipt or misrouting of email or for any other failure of email or damage to data or operations.

Remember that your systems are always at risk from other routes of infection such as local access, floppy disks, CDs, or unmonitored downloads. To provide effective protection your virus protection strategy should also include software on your workstation/s.

If you would like advice on an effective virus protection strategy please contact us and we will be happy to review your current systems and virus protection.

To understand how email is categorised as spam, it is necessary to understand the scoring process used by our spam scanning system.

Firstly, the email source address is checked to establish a source rating score. Sources such as hotmail, yahoo and other free email addresses score badly as they are the source of around 80% of spam.

Secondly, the email subject is checked against a continuously updated database to establish a subject rating score.

Finally, the content of the email is checked against a continuously updated database to give a content rating score.

If the final score against the test criteria is below the trigger threshold, the email is accepted for end delivery and is sent on to your mailbox or upstream server. If the score is above the trigger threshold, the email is marked as spam.

A white list is provided to define addresses that are allowed to override the spam filtering software so that messages passage through to your system even if the source is not verifiable as legitimate by our screening service.

Host 100 allow a white list service, as we understand that there are circumstances where email that may be detected as spam is to be considered legitimate email. Adding the sender of the email to our white list effectively bypasses the spam screening service to enable the mail to be delivered.

To prevent un-necessary additions to the list we ask that our customers only request additions to the white list in exceptional circumstances. Please also be aware that a request to add an email address to the white list may take 72 hours to complete as each address is verified by our team to ensure suitability.