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newsletter://mv.com
June 2003
Webmail update and feedback
We spent a lot of time designing, developing, and testing the Webmail
interface, trying to make it as intuitive to use as possible yet still pro-
viding the needed functionality. When we announced both the Webmail and
DNS blocking facilities in last month's newsletter, we were ready to try to
help people use it and field problems. If there was a major bug, we were
ready to suspend the utility until it was fixed. Incoming email from the
feedback area was being monitored constantly so any problems could be
addressed almost immediately.
This may sound strange, but one of the problems with being a service
provider is that you often only hear from your customers when the customer
has a problem of some kind. MV has been providing our own in-house support
since we began in 1991, and we encourage you to contact us if there is an
issue to be solved. Unfortunately, this means that our customer service
representatives receive calls and emails that are mostly about problems.
So, to all our customers, let us say THANK YOU! We had an overwhelm-
ingly positive response. We received notes from customers explaining how
they were using the new utility. We received updates on how much spam had
already been caught. We received not complaints, but requests for new fea-
tures.
In that light, we've taken as many of the suggestions as we could and
added them to Release 2, which should be available by the time you receive
this newsletter. We've added color coding of messages for what is new,
deleted and unread. We've made the size of the index selectable in your
profile and added a way of selecting multiple messages on the index. New
help and FAQ files have been created and this release allows shell users to
take advantage of the spam processing.
More changes will be coming over the next few months. Please be sure
to read the release notes on the opening MV WebMail splash page. On behalf
of MikeU, MikeD, Erik, Sue, and Dave in the customer service department,
"Thank you for the very positive feedback."
Spam stuff
We've also gotten positive feedback about the initial spam filtering
facilities we have put into place. As we've said, though, this is just the
beginning. Our approach is to provide this initial function (which uses a
small part of the mail handling facility we're building) and continue open-
ing up new features as they become available. It helps that the DNSBL fea-
ture that we chose for the initial function exercises many of the other
components of the tool as well.
We chose for the initial function one that we expected to make a rea-
sonable dent in the amount of spam you receive, but the results have been
even better than predicted. The webmail service has also been well
received and continues to be enhanced. (If you missed reading about both
of these, please go to http://webmail.mv.net/ and check out the new facili-
ties for accessing your mailbox via the web and for setting up some basic
spam filtering.)
There are a couple of things that we would like you to be aware of
when you use the DNSBL spam filtering tool -- this will also apply to other
kinds of mail filtering that become available.
One of the things that you can choose to do with potential spam is to
file it into a folder called "Caught Spam" that you can access via IMAP or
via the webmail tool. Be sure that you don't let this folder grow without
end -- it's possible to get a lot of spam stored into this folder, and that
can cause your mailbox account to go over its storage quota.
We will be treating the "Caught Spam" folder specially, and pruning
messages from that folder on a periodic basis. This pruning will be done
to limit the folder to a maximum number of messages and maximum storage
amount in that folder. So be aware that any messages filed into this
folder are not guaranteed to stay around permanently.
Our Anniversary
MV Communications was incorporated as an ISP on June 21, 1991. We're
celebrating our 12th anniversary this month. Thanks to everyone!
Convert to MV DSL
If you have Verizon DSL service in NH that is not provided by MV
(e.g., provided by Verizon Online or by another ISP), did you know that in
many cases you can switch your service to MV? Perhaps (as in some cases we
know of) you wanted to use MV's DSL service but were lured to another ser-
vice by modem giveaways or other promotional attractions, and now you'd
prefer to use MV as your ISP. It's easy to switch back to MV, and through-
out the summer we're making it even easier! As long as your current ser-
vice is a Verizon DSL service, we can help you with the provider switch.
And if you switch by August 31, we'll waive the normal $60 conversion fee
charged to us, and give you $20 in non-refundable credit to be used against
future charges. See our special page for details (go to www.mv.com and
click on the specials link).
Dispute settled
On an end note, we'd like to give you an update about how the situa-
tion with our old (now discontinued) dialup numbers worked out. As a
reminder of the situation, here's a brief paraphrase of the report from our
March newsletter:
One day in the last week of February, we were given about 24 hours
notice that some of our dialup service was being turned off over a
billing issue with one of our suppliers. Indeed this issue was not a
new one: we had been working to resolve it for perhaps 18 months, and
in fact were told that we had an agreement in place as long ago as
last August.
...
Without going into great detail, we feel that our long-term and honest
efforts to come to terms with this issue were abruptly and summarily
discarded. The agreement we had in place would have benefited both
parties. With the action taken, no such benefit can be had: the ven-
dor decided that burning bridges was better than building them. We
still have this issue to work out, and we expect that it will take
considerable time and resources to do so. For our part, we will be
dedicated to resolve in in a way that is fair to both parties.
The situation has indeed been worked out amicably. That doesn't mean
we are switching back, though -- for one thing, we feel that would be far
too disruptive. We're also very pleased with the way the new vendor came
through with the new service, not to mention with the new coverage we
gained in the process.
MV Communications, Inc. PO Box 4963, Manchester, NH 03108 (603) 629-0000