Domain Password Expiration
A major feature folks have been requesting from ExchangeDefender for a long time is better password policies. The first step in that direction is going to be having the ability to support password expiration. We have moved forward with this request as we realize the importance of forcing password changes on a security platform. One feature that was implemented recently that you guys might have seen pop up in your admin portal is domain Password Expiration.
If you navigate to a specific domain’s configuration you can see you now have the option to implement 30, 60, or 90 day password expiration for all the users on a domain. Initially when the feature is enabled it will tag all the current accounts on the domain / domain aliases, then depending on what option you selected 30,60,90 days out upon logging into the admin portal it’ll require the user’s to change their password before allowing any other functionality. Clients can be proactive about changing their password regularly and avoid the prompt by using the Password Change in their own settings after logging into the portal.
However, I think we know that that will not generally be the case. Once their password has expired upon logging into the Admin Portal they will be redirected to change their password before they will be allowed to login.
If you have any questions regarding this feature email me at cody@ownwebnow.com
-Cody Savage
St Patty’s Day Promotion
Come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with our promotion going on, starting March 17th and ending April 17th. We are offering $3.00 off Full Hosted Exchange with an order of 5 mailboxes or more. Just use the code: XDLUCKY16 when ordering your mailboxes. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free emailing us at partners@exchangedefender.com or calling us at (877) 546-0316.
Support Portal Maintenance
We’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for the lengthy outage that our support portal had. We were doing a massive backend software upgrade that did not go as planned and took longer than expected. Any changes made by our staff on your behalf will be added into the portal to ensure the continuity of what was created/modified. Again, I’d like to thank you all for your patience.
Take full advantage of our Holiday Promo before it’s too late!
It’s time for the holidays and we want to help you end your year on a strong note. Don’t forget to take advantage of our current promotion running from Deceber 17th- December 31st! When ordering 5 mailboxes or more, just type in the code “XDHoliday and you will receive $4.00 off your order of 5 or more Hosted Exchange plus SharePoint mailboxes. Happy Holidays from all of us here at ExchangeDefender!
Billing Compliance & Reporting Changes in 2016
ExchangeDefender has always been a partner-focused organization and we’ve always done everything in our power to assist partners when bill payments became difficult. Unfortunately, with 2016 our upstream vendors are implementing stricter controls which will see some of our services stop to function on accounts that are seriously past due. Here are current policies as they stand:
Payments for all services are due on the 1st of the month. Any users with active service subscriptions at this point make us liable for licensing fees.
If your credit card is declined it will be automatically attempted on 1st, 2nd and 3rd of the month (regardless of whether it’s a weekday or the weekend).
By the 5th of the month you will receive an email, a support ticket and a personal phone call alerting you to the problem with the billing with an option to pay for the service with a new credit card, Paypal or check (United States only).
If the invoice is not paid by the 10th of the month, services are suspended and there is a $10 late fee.
If the invoice is further ignored by the 15th of the month, all services will be suspended with the account subject to deletion. Logging into the support portal will show you the following:
While we regret the inconvenience these changes will be causing, they are not up to us. Our vendors, who control and own licensing that you may be renting on a monthly basis as a subscription, can deactivate their license if it is not paid. While we are liable for the entire license count, there are certain promotional licenses for trials, educational, non profit and special licensing and new management software (that come with new servers) give some vendors advanced control over their licensing.
But we really cannot pay because _____.
Unfortunately, there is no way to get around not paying the bill for the services rendered. The only way to maintain service is to transfer the service directly to us or one of our partners for billing.
What if we disagree with the invoice / items?
You have 30 days to contest items on an invoice. Pay for the seats you do not have an issue with to keep legitimate services free from any restrictions.
Thanksgiving Promotion
Starting today (November 11th) till December 11th, we will be running our Thanksgiving promotion. We are offering $3.00 off Full Hosted Exchange with an order of 5 mailboxes or more. Make sure to enter the code: XDThanks in order to get the promotion when ordering. If you have any questions please feel free emailing us at partners@exchangedefender.com
Labor Day Promotion
Come celebrate Labor Day with our promotion going on, starting September 7th and ending October 7th. We are offering $3.00 off Full Hosted Exchange and $1.00 off Compliance Archiving with an order of 5 mailboxes or more. The compliance accounts will then correspond to those 5 mailboxes. If you have any questions please feel free emailing us at partners@exchangedefender.com or calling us at (877) 546-0316.
Disclaimer: In order to receive the $1 off Compliance Archiving you must purchase Full Hosted Exchange of 5 mailboxes or more. The compliance accounts will then correspond to those 5 mailboxes.
Hosted Exchange:
Our world class Hosted Exchange offering is our most requested product due to it being all inclusive enterprise business grade solution. This product is an affordable and reliable method of communicating for your business. Included in the product
- A free copy of Microsoft Outlook 2013, Outlook Web App 2013 which is compatible with most mobile browsers. Depending on the platform you select you will receive the corresponding outlook licence key (either 2010 or 2013). Also, Activesync for Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android, with powerful scheduling and messaging functionality.
Compliance Archiving:
ExchangeDefender’s Compliance Archiving is a secure, long-term storage recovery and eDiscovery system that ensures you are compliant with regulatory requirements established by IRS, HIPAA, SOX and SEC. Some of the highlights of this product are:
- Flexible long-term archiving (up to 10 years beginning at the life of the mailbox), exchange journaling technology ensures full archiving of all inbound, outbound, and internal email, quick search results in emails as well as in attachments and affordable archiving with storage fees that grow with your business.
Copyright © 2015 ExchangeDefender All rights reserved.
Contact information
Toll-Free USA: (877)546-0316
International: +1 (407) 546-6800
United Kingdom: 0800 8620149
Australia: 3 9001 0641
Fax: (954) 839-8737
Email: partners@exchangedefender.com
XD Bug Fixes / Updates
Hey guys,
Over the past two weeks we’ve been fixing some of the little bugs and initiating some error trapping to improve the overall experience within Exchange Defender. We’ve been focusing on error trapping the account creation stage, making it easier to set up accounts correctly, and other stuff of that nature.
Updates:
• Account creation will now check for aliases before submitting, if an alias for the email address you are trying to create already exists and is tied to another account it will notify you of an issue. We’ve also configured it to check Distribution Groups, External Contacts and everything else to avoid having problems such as those pop up on account creation.
• All columns in the Service Manager are sort-able by their names, email addresses, domains.
• The Distribution Group tab now alphabetizes the list of users to make it easier to search through and search for users that are added or need to be added. The list is divided, the top of the list is email addresses added to the user group and the bottom of the list has External Contacts that have been added to the Distribution Group (each one is organized alphabetically).
• We fixed a bug with the CC Expiration Date for card holders using the year 2020. It would revert the CC Expiration date to show 2018.
• The Spam Quarantine for users now has a few options to make checking, deleting, or approving spam easier. It also has had some visibility tweaks / improvements to the message description format.
• We’ve gone through and fixed some of the errant CSS Style errors that were prevalent on some of our lesser used webpages and fixed some of the branding issues that existed on some of the pages in the admin portal.
New Marketing Initiatives
As I’ve been saying for several years now, the face of modern IT Solution Provider is changing. For over a decade Own Web Now and ExchangeDefender have been regular sponsors of IT events including Microsoft Big Day, Microsoft Technet, Microsoft Developers Conference, Autotask, ConnectWise, TigerPaw, SMB Nation, ASCII, HTG, Datto, nAble as well as many vertical specialty shows, product user groups and so on.
Around this time last year I wrote a post explaining that we are changing the way we help our partners grow and manage their clients. In the past it was enough to merely present the product and the partner would literally do everything else. But as the industry, partners (channel) matured the responsibilities have shifted in a way that makes ExchangeDefender far more than just an isolated vendor – today we provide billing, support, onboarding, troubleshooting, backoffice, direct sales and support as well as integration and audit services. We have some new people here to help us push our partners in the new direction.
As a result, our marketing budget has been reallocated to help serve your needs better. In the survey sent to our partner base only 3% of you indicated that you will personally attend one of the shows we planned to sponsor in 2015. But given the option to present an event, run a joint marketing campaign, assist with RFP and presale process, attend and sponsor lunch & learns… well, let’s just say nearly the entire marketing budget got moved to it.
I’m sure you want to know what I will do with my collection of white suits? Where will we get updated ExchangeDefender tshirts and Shockey Monkey USB chargers? Rest assured the answers are coming soon, but if you would like to get involved please get in touch with us.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, CEO
LocalCloud – Update
Today I’ve published an update for LocalCloud, which addresses a few issues that would result in a failure to upload a file. This issue would only occur under certain conditions and was only prevalent in large files It’s turns out this was a result of a known bug inside the .NET framework and how it handles event notifications for the filing system. In addition to resolving this bug, I’ve also implemented a few performance enhancements that should make the application run smoother.
Download: http://www.exchangedefender.com/software/XDStorage.exe
If you’re running a previous version make sure to uninstall it first. However, we’ve upgraded to a new installation platform and all future updates will be patched automatically.
Several months ago we added the LocalCloud feature set into our ExchangeDefender mobile application for both the iPhone and Android. Now you have the ability to access your files from your desktop, mobile workstation and practically any mobile device!
If you have never heard of LocalCloud, it’s a cloud based storage solution for documents. It recognizes multiple file types and is 100% compatible with office applications. You can share documents between computers and even allow other individuals access to your files. With multiple access points comes great responsibility, for this we have access control. This feature allows you or another individual to “check-out” files to prevent accidental overwrites while the data is exchanged in the cloud.
