Spam Bait
ISPs Rave About Vircom's Anti-Spam Capabilities — continued

Vircom has also started a grassroots anti-spam initiative for clients. Known as the Vircom Anti-Spam Consortium (VASC), it helps distribute and test the latest Sieve scripts and tracks the number of spam messages trapped by Vircom software. As of April 2002, Vircom claims its software had trapped over 46 million unsolicited e-mail messages, with only about 200 false positives.

The VASC is also working with ISPs to maintain "spam bait" e-mail accounts. When a user cancels service and does not request e-mail forwarding, the ISP can keep the account open to trap new spam. Maurice Sandri, Vircom's senior director of research and development, said that this is one way Vircom works with ISPs to thwart spam.

"Fighting spam is a huge effort. We need to work together to catch the newest variants and spam techniques," Sandri said. "We have a Spambuster team that works with ISPs to reward them for identifying and tracking Spam. They get 'Spam Miles' that they can use toward purchasing Vircom products."

Surprisingly, not all e-mail users want to avoid spam altogether, so Vircom divides the spam it catches into various categories, including money, health, good, adult, and hoax. Most e-mail users who ask to receive a specific category of unsolicited e-mail ask their ISP to deliver adult spam only. Vircom's modusMail allows ISPs to enable individual customers to receive specific categories of spam.

INWI
Houle is optimistic about the future of modusMail products. He expects that if ISPs start charging customers for extra storage capacity for e-mail in-boxes, they will also have to protect their customers from wasting valuable storage space. Houle is also enthusiastic about Vircom's next software innovation. The company soon plans to add the ability for ISPs' customers to examine their individual spam quarantine boxes.

Vircom hopes that its ISP customers will be able to pass some or all of the cost of its products on to their customers. One ISP doing just that is Inland Northwest Internet (INWI) in Chewelah, Wash. Operated by Gene DuCharme, INWI is yet another small, loyal ISP customer of Vircom.

INWI charges $1.50 per month for anti-spam and $1.50 per month for anti-virus services. Although most subscribers opt to use both services for just $2 a month. DuCharme said customers have embraced the new services.

"Twenty to 30 percent signed up for anti-spam and anti-virus immediately, another 5 or 10 percent signed up for anti-virus only," DuCharme said. "We started running banner ads on our site, and added another 10 or 15 percent that way."

DuCharme added that he was a bit surprised by the success of the program.

"Any user who actually gets a virus is usually eager to sign up," he said. "I'm surprised, though, that people get viruses because there are good free services out there, such as AVG Anti Virus and the browser-based HouseCall from Trend Micro. I guess it's because my server updates every fifteen minutes, but users can forget to check for viruses for a week or two, and that's a year in Internet time."

DuCharme says he also likes the new Vircom software because he doesn't have to baby sit the program. He adds that time spent on consumer service calls has been dramatically reduced.

"Since I installed the new software, [customer support] calls to me have dropped by over 90 percent," he said. "These days I get called by people wanting to sign up for service, by people who are new to the Internet and have basic questions, and, of course, by people who have forgotten their password."

Pricing and availability
Vircom Online Platform (VOP) products run on Windows 2000 clusters. Anti-virus is provided by Norman Data Defense through an alliance, allowing the software to be tightly integrated into Vircom products. Vircom's mail protection products are available now.

VOP modusMail for enterprises includes advanced Web mail, an exchanger, and POP3 migration service as well as one year of phone service and updates. U.S. pricing starts at $2,995 for 100 users, $3,995 for 300 users, and $4,995 for 500 users.

The service provider edition, VOP modusMail SP lists at $4,195 for a basic server package and $5,795 for a product suite that includes advanced Web mail, an exchanger, and POP3 migration service as well as one year of phone service and updates.

For mail relays that do not require full mail services, Vircom offers VOP modusGate software. For up to 50 mailboxes, it starts at a list price of $1,495. VOP For up to 500 mailboxes, it starts at a list price of US $2,095. For up to 20,000 mailboxes, it starts at a list price of $2,695.

—End

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