“Microsoft on Friday quietly took the wraps off a free online storage service that it says is the final piece of its Windows Live Internet services portfolio…”

Windows Live SkyDrive is releasing a new version Friday, emerging from Beta. The biggest news is that the free space allotment has been increased to 5GB in password-protected servers.

“That contains more room for all your media and other necessary files, and represents a significant increase from the previous amount of a mere 1GB.”

Users of the service can also create folders accessible to friends, colleagues, or the general public. They can also access their folders from any computer connected to the Internet by signing on to their Windows Live account.

“Finer control is offered with the capability to set different permission levels for each user, allowing read-only or editing access.”

“The product is a really important building block in our software plus services vision and is part of our overall goal to give people anywhere, anytime access to their files across their PC, the web and other devices,” he added.

Microsoft said the new SkyDrive release fixes an assortment of bugs found in the beta release along with other improvements, making it “faster and more reliable.”

“File uploads to SkyDrive are limited to 50MB, Microsoft said.”

Microsoft has steadily increased the amount of storage available to each user, and what began as 500MB of “cloud” storage has ballooned to 5GB. Given the anemic upload speeds most of the US is stuck with, SkyDrive’s roomy storage pool should keep most everyone happy. If you do happen to need more than 5GB of online storage, you are probably willing to pay for it.

Accessing SkyDrive simply requires the end-user to log on via their Hotmail address, Passport login, or Windows Live ID and password to view protected files hosted by SkyDrive.

“Data transfers are secured via Secure Sockets Layer technology, it said.”

Microsoft says that this was a feature that users frequently requested, so a big jump from 1GB to 5GB is certainly one way to deflect attention away from the fact that SkyDrive is looking to compete with Gmail?

“Even though SkyDrive is not an email offering, people often compare the two, for the simple fact that the race for free storage offerings is an ongoing one.”

The UK beta of SkyDrive has come a long way since its unveiling back in August last year, having previously been available in the US under the name Windows Live Folders, while Google’s long-rumored storage offering has yet to emerge.

Source:news.ebrandz.com/content/view/1736/532/

PostPath, creators of the email and collaboration server, or in other words creators of alternative to Exchange server, have unveiled PostPath Email Server 3.1.

It offers easy deployment and messaging infrastructure for the Small and medium enterprises (SME) on the level of what Fortune-100 companies use. PostPath supports Outlook webmail, mobile integration, big mailboxes, and high availability. It also eliminates all the hassle like build costs, migration challenges, closed architectures and complex management associated with Microsoft Exchange.

Here are some of the main benefits:

Rich, native Outlook support with no need for desktop software changes
Seamless fit into existing Active Directory installations and public-folder architectures – no reconfiguration required

Drop-in interoperability with existing Exchange server farms; plus, Exchange 2007 interoperability certification to enable mixed deployments where desired

High-performance I/O implementation that allows large mailboxes on low-cost storage

Modest server requirements, with no need for hardware upgrades

Easy-to-implement backup/restore with newly enhanced restore tool

Free and flexible high-availability and disaster recovery. Exchange recovery takes hours or even a full day for most companies, but the PostPath Server can be recovered in minutes. What’s more, no additional software licenses or expensive proprietary tools are required for redundant or clustered high-availability configurations.

New-generation, web-based, easy-to-use graphical management tools that can displace desktop-based Microsoft tools completely if desired

Comprehensive mobile device support for BlackBerry, ActiveSync, Windows Mobile, IMAP (for iPhone support), and more. Mobile support is optimized to enable a high density of mobile users as SMEs roll out mobile more broadly

Enhanced browser-independent webmail client, with newly added public-folder access for web-based document sharing. The overall ease-of-use and enhanced functionality of the WebMail client provides a highly responsive user interface that can be used in place of Outlook without sacrificing Outlook-webmail interoperability

Enhanced quota management with automatic reporting configurable via Active Directory for straightforward management of user mailbox size, for those customers not providing “bottomless” mailboxes

Source:iphoneworld.ca/news/2008/02/15/new-postpath-email-server-31-supports-iphone/

Continuation of Part 5

After a long search now I found a tool that can do this job automatically. You can use this software to backup Outlook Express, IncrediMail and some other email clients. It's an email saver program that can backup and restore emails, addresses, folders, signatures and options.

to be continued...

Continuation of Part 4

If you want to backup Outlook Express by hand, you have to save registry keys and DBX files. Saving messages, signatures and the address book can be done within the email client, but for settings you have to search through Windows registry. It can be pretty difficult to do it for a beginner.

to be continued...

Continuation of Part 3

Well, we all know how reliable Windows is. There is no person that can say he never saw a "blue screen". Because most of the email clients store email, account and settings data in My documents, Program files or in Windows registry. When you reinstall the operating system you loose them all. Even Microsoft CEO Bill Gates acknowledged that they counted 5 percent of total Windows based computers to crash twice every day. A small report can be found on the NY Times website.

to be continued...

Continuation of Part 2

Viruses are increasing their numbers day by day. It's hard to keep up even for the big players like Symantec or Kaspersky. They reduced the response time for a new virus, but if you are unlucky, the virus crashes your computer before you can apply the antivirus.

to be continued...

Continuation of Part 1

Hard Disk can fail from several reasons: logical problems like bad partitions, hardware problems caused by dropping them or something on them, or, sometimes they just stop functioning. You can use several data recovery tools like GetDataBack or Acronis, which might save your day. But you might not be able to get back any byte.

to be continued...

How often do people loose their email data?
Is this important to backup your email client before loosing important emails?
Are you thinking it won't happen to you?

Well, for those who use an email client and loosing their emails is one of the worst nightmares. Unfortunately this situation is quite probable.

There are several causes for this:
- Hard disk failure
- Viruses and Trojans
- Windows crashes
- Some time un-expected things

to be continued...

Source: Article Blotter
 

Continuation for Part 1

Furthermore, as your business changes and evolves, you can change and update your email signature accordingly.

Here is an example of an email signature:

Your Name Your Company Name Your Website Address

If you are using Microsoft Outlook, you can even use advanced functions to add images to your email signature.

However, a note of caution regarding images as part of your email signature. Some email clients will block the image. If the image is not displayed, it is probably worse than not having an image at all. In addition, if your email recipient uses a mobile email device, for example, a BlackBerry, then your image signature will not be part of your email but will show up as an attachment. So if possible use only text in your email signature, to ensure that the information you want to convey can actually be seen by the recipient of your email.

Source: Ezine Aritcles

How effective is your email signature?

There are so many things you can do with your email signature and you may be missing out.

You can add your promotional message to your email signature, to raise your company's profile.

Also add links to your website and to your blog.

Whenever you send an email containing that email signature, all the links will display and the recipient of the email is free to click through it.

The links on your email signature last, even when the email is forwarded to others. It can therefore capture more leads for you, when people click through the links to your website.

You can set up email signatures on web-based email accounts, and also on email accounts held on Outlook and Outlook Express.

to be continued....

Source: Ezine Aritcles

Most organizations over look this very important security tool. How can an organization or an individual verify the authenticity of an in coming mail? Attaching a signature to your mail should be a standard practice. Your E-mail Signature is an electronic business card and as such is a very important security tool in e-mail verification.

Here is a sample of an e-mail signature:-

Customer Consideration Ltd    info@customerconsider.comhttp://:www.customerconsider.comNo 20 Ibadan Road, Opposite Yemi Book Shop,Kaduna, Nigeria, West Africa.GSM:, Tel No:We Sell Affordable Baby Clothes<+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++>
 
This is an example. The design of the e-mail signature is based on choice. The e-mail signature must contain the following;

All the ways by which your organization can be contacted; phone numbers, fax number, mailing address, e-mail address, url address.

The particular designation of the individual or the department's name sending the mail. Example if it's the CEO of a bank it should be stated. ceo @ xyzbank.com

Every e-mail address must have an e-mail signature. Example ceo @ xyzbank.com

info @ xzybank.com Each e-mail address should have an e-mail signature.

The organization's logo and slogan should also be added.

As A Weapon Against E-mail Fraud
A mail stating that, they must not honor any mail not containing the attached e-mail signature must be sent to all clients. A copy of all e-mail signatures must be forwarded to the company's lawyer.

How Do You Set Up An E-mail Signature
All standard e-mail programs come with the ability to set up an e-mail signature. The e-mail programs also give you the option of attaching the e-mail signature to every outgoing mail.

Advantages Of E-mail Signatures
Any Organization or Individual, claiming to have received a fraudulent mail from a well established organization, should be made to send a copy of the fraudulent mail for verification. Once the e-mail signature is not attached to it. The lawyer can always sue for name defamation, if the said organization is not aware of the company's e-mail signature.

Advice:
In information security, the little things we over look counts. How many companies in Nigeria are aware of e-mail signatures?

A copy of the e-mail signature or signatures must be registered with the appropriate copyright organization.

Website development must be accompanied by an it security consultant. Recently a disclaimer Advertisement was placed in one of the widely read newspapers stating "scams involving illegal reference".

The question now is, how can people identify legitimate mails?

Source: Ezine Articles