ExchangeDefender Encryption Survey
As discussed on our quarterly webinar, we are rolling out an upgrade to our encryption package and adding lexicon encryption (custom dictionary), pattern matching (account, date of birth, ssn, credit card numbers, etc) and more. The standard free encryption that is triggered by the user (by putting [ENCRYPT] or [CLEARENCRYPT] in the subject) will continue to be free but the more advanced features will come at a price and we are looking for feedback on what would be the most valuable to a small business.
ExchangeDefender Encryption Survey
The whole thing is 11 questions and only 4 of them will require some creative thinking (the first 7 are all contact info). It will take you 2 minutes – tops.
Here is what we are trying to figure out.
We have no problem selling ExchangeDefender to the high end enterprise, corporate environments and organizations that have government regulators threatening them with fines. That part is easy.
What we want to target is small business that might pay for encryption as a part of it’s organizational management. Allow me to explain.
Let’s assume you just hired a sales person. They do not have a huge technical background so you want to help them by screening their outbound emails. How? Set ExchangeDefender to route their sent messages to you for approval. Before the message from them can go out you must sign of on it.
Down the road you grow and now you have lots of sales people. Instead of approving and babysitting all of them for quality control you want to just stay in the loop on the deals they are working on. So you set ExchangeDefender to copy you on all their activity. You keep a folder in your Outlook that holds every message sent by your sales staff to potential leads and don’t have to ask who they are talking to or did through CRM, you see it in front of you in realtime.
What we would like to figure out is if there is enough interest out there among small businesses to better control client communications. I know from managing a small business and dealing with lots of small business owners that the concern for data leakage is significant but is it significant enough to spend a few bucks a month to safeguard it? That’s the question I hope you can help us answer!
Please help us out by filling out the survey. We might be nice and throw you a discount on some of the encryption subscriptions in return 
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO
Own Web Now Corp
Quarterly Meeting Summary
On Tuesday we held our quarterly meeting and announced our new roadmap for the rest of 2012 season. If you missed it by any chance don’t worry, it was recorded and I encourage you to watch it.
ExchangeDefender & Shockey Monkey Quarterly Meeting
Length: 45 minutes, 1:10 with Q&A
You may need a GoToMeeting codec (download)
This is the most important webinar we’ve ever held. You need to see it.
Everything that was announced will be launching over the next 30 days and just about everything will impact you.
In short, ExchangeDefender Security now includes advanced encryption (lexicon, pattern matching, recipient policies, smart routing and compliance officer support). ExchangeDefender organizationally is launching Managed Messaging, a full 360 online communications product that includes presales, onboarding, email migration, Outlook setup and 24/7 support. We’re also enhancing our security and extending the capabilities of Level 1 support to open tickets and help troubleshoot issues over the phone (previously reserved to higher tiers). We are making our tech savvy partners more equipped to take a larger share of the communications pie while enabling companies that don’t want to run into the cloud a way to have us do it all on their behalf.
We’re effectively doubling our scope of services and our business. All in hope that it makes us your biggest partner.
Over the next two weeks we will be introducing you to the concepts here as well as my take on my personal blog. The feedback on our direction has been amazing so far – and on behalf of the ExchangeDefender teams, I look forward to working hard for you to continue making you successful.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
vlad@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x500
Outlook 2007 SMTP Security Add-in (Fixed)
Here at ExchangeDefender, we have finally resolved the issue with our Outlook 2007 SMTP Security add-in. This project has been a thorn in our side for quite some time and I’m proud to announce that our development team has finally got it working! We spent the good part of the week going over and over Outlook 2007 & 2010 documentation and implementation methods for Outlook controls. After hours and hours of troubleshooting and testing new scenarios we’ve finally got all the pieces to fit together correctly. I’ll briefly describe the development cycle of this project, to help enlighten those who think bugs/feature requests get brushed aside and forgotten about.
Our original Outlook 2007 add-in was created years ago and was at a time where Outlook add-ins weren’t really supported NATIVELY. So part of the conflict was restructuring our code to take advantage of the native Office 2010 hooks, since they are backwards compatible for 2007. We had to phase out all of our old methods that had a heavy dependence on a 3rd party Outlook .dll called (Redemption). That was our first hurdle.
Then we found out while everything would compile without any conflict, the add-in still wouldn’t load correctly inside of the Outlook application. So we went back to the drawing board and examined what was happening on a lower level. To our surprise, the compiler (Visual Studio 2010) kept replacing the Outlook 2007 included references with the newest 2010 files. This was completely unexpected and unwarranted behavior in comparison to what we were expecting. So to keep things on par, we moved the development environment to a virtual machine running Windows XP, Office 2007 & Visual Studio 2010. This resolved the conflict of Visual Studio fetching incorrect .dll files and replacing them at compile time.
Perfect right? Everything should work…
Nope, the next issue was the worst! The add-in would not load and didn’t generate any errors…
A developer’s worst nightmare: Trying to figure out what’s wrong with absolutely nothing to formulate a reason for the failure. We’ll apparently there was a slight conflict between the old way of handling the .manifest file and loading the ribbon controls. So after we tweaked the registry controls and load behaviors, we then rewrote some of the ribbon controls to support the newest version of VSTO. That’s when things started to work!!!
So, as you should be able to conclude, it was no walk in the park. We would have loved to get this working a very long time ago, but at the time we simply didn’t have the time or resources to address the issue directly.
Hank Newman
VP Development, ExchangeDefender
hank@ownwebnow.com
New Changes Coming to our Hosted Exchange
Today is a very exciting day for our Hosted Exchange team as we have finally approved the use of Address Book Policies in our provisioning process (Introduced in Exchange 2010 SP2).
Address Book Policies
Address Book Policies allow Exchange Administrators to easily assign and separate address lists for clients so that clients only see objects from their organization without using ACLs or AD splicing. Prior to the approval of ABP we’ve always used ACLs to control address list segregation in our Hosted Exchange offering. In short, when a new “company” is added to Exchange, we take their primary domain and group all users based on original domain. For the most part, this approach worked well. However, there were certain situations that this would not fare well. For instance, if a new company was split into two sub companies and they joined hosted Exchange then each sub company would only be able to see their own users UNLESS all mailboxes were added with the same primary domain in the order.
With Address Book Policies we now have the ability to create an overall policy for the “Company” which links the appropriate address lists and offline address books to each user. This change will allow companies to utilize multiple primary domains and still see all users in the company. By default we will still create companies as “separate” organizations, but partners can now request that domains for a company be linked together.
The change to automation will be introduced to Rockerduck and LOUIE this week and monitored for a week before rolling the change to all 2010 servers.
Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com
ExchangeDefender and Shockey Monkey Quarterly Meeting
With Q1 in the books we are ready to announce everything we have been working on to make your life easier and business more profitable. Several huge announcements will be made during the webinar so please attend live to ask questions or watch it later at your convenience. To register simply click the link below:
Tuesday, April 24th, Noon EST
Topics that are going to be announced:
Announcing: Managed Messaging
Changes to ExchangeDefender Support
Shockey Monkey Web Site Extender
Shockey Monkey RMM Update
ExchangeDefender 2012 Roadmap
Shockey Monkey 2012 Roadmap
Sign up for the Webinar NOW!!!
How Does ExchangeDefender Compare?
How does ExchangeDefender compare to others in the industry? Check it out for yourself here!
ExchangeDefender is an Internet-based message hygiene and business continuity network that can secure and save your business by providing AntiSPAM and Antivirus protection, Web File Sharing, Web Filtering, LiveArchive, Encryption, Archiving and Compliance, Reporting, and so much more. ExchangeDefender is a complete mail solution, and nothing reinforces that statement more than LiveArchive. For the ultimate peace of mind, LiveArchive provides always-on, real-time, secure web access to your email when your mail server is down, disconnected or undergoing maintenance – all without sacrificing your corporate identity. The best part of about LiveArchive is that it is included in the price of ExchangeDefender. So, you receive the protection and reliability of LiveArchive without the additional cost.
ExchangeDefender is completely partner-centric and works hand in hand with our partners to not only provide hosted solutions but to maintain a successful partnership. Together with the world-class support and product offerings and features for the cost, ExchangeDefender is a head above the rest!
All of our products and services come all-inclusive and backed by our 24x7x365 Technical Support. All of these features and support come without any software to install or maintain. Keep your mail server running as it is and deploy ExchangeDefender in less than 5 minutes at the fraction of the cost of other antivirus licensing alone.
ExchangeDefender has so many wonderful benefits and features, if you are interested in knowing more or have any questions, please let us know! How do we measure up for you? – Let us know!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
Shockey Monkey–SOAP Callback
This week our development team here at Shockey Monkey has finished the SOAP Callback framework and has published this new release to all portals. This new framework enables you to configure automatic code level responses when certain conditions are triggered. Current the only supported triggered events are related to tickets (create, update, close). Over the course of this year we will expand the available list of triggerable events as demand for them increases.
The most elegant design feature of this entire framework is the dynamic interface structure that allows virtually any SOAP interface to communicate with our software. Let me briefly walk you through the process for configuring the callback mechanism.
Settings -> Callback
The first time you visit this page, it will seem fairly empty but these two fields you should notice at the top. Simply provide the remote SOAP WSDL location and press “Validate”.
Now, the system will examine the URL and fetch any valid methods that exist inside of the requested module. You should notice the section below; it will become populated with new fields.
You should now see that you have three sections.
One for (Create Ticket, Update Ticket, and Close Ticket).Select a method from the dropdown list. You will notice these are all valid methods from the request API that we defined above in the previous step.
Once you have selected a method from the dropdown list, you will notice additional (parameter) fields. These fields are loaded dynamically depending on the parameters available in the provided SOAP API.
Note: One thing to keep in mind is complex types. If your method requires complex parameter types such as (arrays, objects, etc.) they will not be supported at this time. Basic types like (strings and integers), should be used mostly for parameter types.
The text box next to each listed textbox is where you will enter the desired value for this parameter. If you would like your method to use TICKET variables (“which is most likely”), they are provided in the dropdown menu to the right of the text field. Click the list and select the desired variable and it will prefill that variable into the text field to the left.
Also keep in mind each trigger is optional. You don’t have to assign a method for every section, only the ones you want to use. After you have finished assigning each of your methods and their corresponding parameters, click “Save”.
That’s it, callbacks are now enabled and you should begin to see the results!
Hank Newman
VP Development, ExchangeDefender
hank@ownwebnow.com
2 More Days!
*Attention!!! There are only 2 more days left of our Valentine’s Day promotion!
You don’t want to miss the chance to get a great pricing discount on our best full featured offerings. Take advantage of this offer for our Hosted Exchange solutions for one flat, all-inclusive rate per mailbox per month. You can offer your clients a hosted messaging solution that is flexible enough for their varying needs today and tomorrow, and robust enough to enable you to turn a profit on every mailbox every month.
With Hosted Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 from ExchangeDefender, data is stored on our globally-redundant infrastructure and accessible via Outlook Web Apps, Outlook desktop client, and mobile devices. Hosted Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 from ExchangeDefender is protected by the world-class ExchangeDefender security suite, so in addition to being reliable, messages will be free of malicious code and safe for consumption anytime, anywhere, and also comes with the LiveArchive service built right in.
Hosted Exchange Essentials is a budget-friendly security solution that covers the basic needs of many small businesses.
Whatever your clients’ needs are, you can get your foot in the door and start or continue building a strong relationship with the powerful combination of Hosted solutions and ExchangeDefender. Now you can offer your clients an attractive combination of rich features, affordability, security and flexibility on our globally-redundant infrastructure that even most large enterprises cannot build in-house.
Hosted Exchange 2010 + SharePoint 2010 – $8.00/mailbox/month
Hosted Exchange Essentials 2010 – $6.00/mailbox/month
Be sure to use the coupon codes that are associated with the offers to receive the promotional pricing.
Stay tuned to your mailboxes and also our ExchangeDefender Promotions page, www.exchangedefender.com/promotions.php to always be on top of all of the great offerings available to you!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
ExchangeDefender Password Synchronization
Password synchronization was first implemented inside of ExchangeDefender about 2 months ago. It was also at the same time we released a new version of XDSYNC that also included a password synchronization option. This has been a little confusion among a few partners on how exactly this works and what to expect with password synchronization.
There are two primary configuration models, which are described below.
Hosted Exchange & ExchangeDefender Synchronization.
If you have a Hosted Exchange mailbox with ExchangeDefender, password synchronization happens automatically. This is because both the Exchange mail account and the spam protection layer both exist within servers that we own/operate. So anytime a password is changed through our management portals, that password is now updated in both places. After a chance occurs it may take up to 5 minutes for the Hosted Exchange password to update across our servers.Private Server & ExchangeDefender Synchronization.
If you operate your own private Exchange mail server and use ExchangeDefender as your SPAM protection, password synchronization will require the XDSYNC tool. XDSYNC will automatically push new accounts into ExchangeDefender minutes after they are added to the mail server. You also have the option to enable password synchronization. In this case, it’s a one way push and will update password changes from within ExchangeDefender back down to your mail server. Keep in mind anytime a change occurs it will typically take about 5 minutes for that modification to be applied to the server.
Hopefully this will help define the two configuration models a little better and what you can expect with each configuration.
Hank Newman
VP Development, ExchangeDefender
hank@ownwebnow.com
Choosing Your Customers!
Can you choose your customers???
Yes, you can choose them, not always the other way around. You can choose your customers with your pricing, your content, your promotion, your marketing strategies, and your product line.
When choosing your marketing efforts, and thus your customers, you should consider:
Based on what you are offering, how much does this type of customer need you/depend on you?
How difficult is this sort of customer to find/reach?
What does this type of customer need?
How valuable is a customer like this?
How demanding will this customer be?
It’s not a matter of who can benefit from what you sell. It’s about choosing the customers you’d like to have and helping them benefit from what you have to offer.
By asking yourself these questions you can better attract the types of customers that you would like to work with.
At ExchangeDefender, our efforts have brought us a partner base that we truly enjoy working with! All of our partners know what to expect from the partnership upon their signup. We clearly state and outline what they get as part of partnering with ExchangeDefender. Our terms of service, TOS, outlines the way that our technical support and business support works, and the best way to get assistance when it is needed. Also, all of our products and services are heavily promoted, documented, and made available for partners to have access to and we provide materials which make it easier for you to be profitable.
Also, we make it easy for customers to choose us. We work closely with partners and are available for help and questions 24x7x365! Also we offer great deals and promotions that help our partner base benefit! Check out www.exchangedefender.com/promotions.php to keep up with promotions that we are running! Currently we are running the Valentine’s Day Hosted Exchange and Exchange Essentials Promotion!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com