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SmarterMail 6.x has become one of the most anticipated releases in SmarterTools history.  Although we provided most of the features that will be available over a month ago, we had not released when the BETA will start.   

SmarterTools is proud to announce the BETA for SmarterMail 6.x will be available on July 7th, 2009.

The current feature preview for SmarterMail 6.x can be seen on the SmarterMail 6.x preview page at:  http://www.smartertools.com/landing/upcomingproducts/smartermail6.aspx

On June 26th, SmarterTools will be updating the preview page with additional information.

There will be a lot of changes coming within the next couple months with regards to pricing, licensing, and upgrade protection that have been based on customer requests over the years.  These changes will apply to SmarterMail 6.x and all SmarterTools products going forward.  SmarterTools assembled a focus group to review and help shape these changes in an effort to ensure the effectiveness for our customers, partners, and the entire SmarterTools community.  This focus group is operating now and is comprised of customers who have actively participated in the community forum.  The members of this group are under a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to not publicly discuss these items until they are announced by SmarterTools.  We are nearing the end of this process and will soon release the information. When we do, we hope these focus group members share their experiences and the information they learned through the evaluation process.  We think that the results of this effort will be well received.

SmarterTools is excited at the changes and upcoming release and look forward to working with you all.

Finally, i'm very excited to test this new release !!

I would like to participate in the beta, but I cannot do this without knowing the potential upgrade costs.  This is especially true since once you go to 6.x you cannot roll back to 5.x or other previous versions.

Since I know nothing about version 6.x other than what has been posted all I can do is speculate.  If the Commtouch add-on is going to realistically be a needed add-on this alone will over double the cost of SmarterMail (assuming the Commtouch pricing is in line with their existing pricing).

In other words I need to know the costs up front.  If I approach Exchange prices I might as well use Exchange.

-Joe

More information will be forthcoming very soon with regard to pricing and upgrades.  I persoanlly think that most will be very pleased with our efforts and the input from our focus group.  SmarterMail--and SmarterTools products in general--has a solid reputation of not only being stable and feature-rich, but also of being an exceptional value.  We do not anticipate this coming release to negatively impact that reputation.

As far as MS Exchange is concerned, our current marketing line for SmarterMail is "The Cost-effective Alternative to Microsoft Exchange."  I see no reason that we would have to modify that.

More will be coming soon so stay tuned.  You can also follow us on Twitter.

Joe,

As defined in the features page, SmarterMail 6.x includes additional built-in spam protection at no additional cost.

For customers who are trying to get as close to 100% spam protection as they can, Commtouch will be available for a VERY reasonable price (you will be surprised).

Pricing should not be an issue for the majority of customers.  The changes are very much in favor of the customer and have been very well received by the focus group.  When we finalize this information, we will pass it onto all customers.  

csimo:

This is especially true since once you go to 6.x you cannot roll back to 5.x or other previous versions.

For the most part, you can revert. However, it's not as foolproof as 3->4 or 4->5. Absolutely no email will be lost if you do go back to 5.x. You will just lose some settings:

Domain forwards and SmartHosts will be lost.
Any mailing list changes (or new lists created) while on version 6 will be lost.
Some other minor settings may get lost.

Also, as already pointed out, SmarterMail 6 has some awesome spam improvements that will make it pretty good out of the box. Commtouch will not be required to get good spam filtering. But if you never want to see spam again, Commtouch is a good option. At a very fair price, I might add. I was quite surprised when I saw the numbers.

ST-JLance:

For the most part, you can revert.

James, I was just going off the following statement in the pre-release info: "SmarterMail 6.x will change configuration files, eliminating the ability to uninstall and reinstall to a previous SmarterMail version"

I'm glad to hear that we can in fact roll back if needed.

-Joe

ST-JLance:

Commtouch is a good option. At a very fair price, I might add.

I hope you're right.  I got a quote from Commtouch about a year ago for 1000 users. They quoted me $1.50 per user per month or $7.50 per user yearly.  To some that may seem reasonable, but to me that's an insane price. 

A friend still uses a Message Sniffer subscription (won't work with SmarterMail unless you use Declude) and gets virtually zero spam, and no false positives.  Message Sniffer costs $450 - $500 yearly per server (unlimited users).  I think this is too high, but it's an exceptional product.  There would never be a reason to pay any higher rates for any other service.

-Joe

ST-TUzzanti:

For customers who are trying to get as close to 100% spam protection as they can, Commtouch will be available for a VERY r

I dont think so...

For sure It will cost our arms and legs , just as usua as dictate  "big company with big investment with superior products need big money..."

Maybe we can look at MXUPTIME new beta release for Smartermail which is for free right now :)

============================================

MXSCAN:: AntiSpam and AntiVirus Suite

For MailEnable & SmarterMail Email Servers

** Latest Update: MxScan for SmarterMail Beta has just been released!

==========================================

You probably could use message sniffer as it is just a command line scanner. Set it as a virus scanner in SmarterMail should work though it will probably delete the mail rather than flag it as spam,

aguk:

You probably could use message sniffer as it is just a command line scanner. Set it as a virus scanner in SmarterMail should work though it will probably delete the mail rather than flag it as spam,

Unless they've significantly changed Message Sniffer in recent months it won't work that way.  You need to take action on the return codes.  It's possible to write a script that would handle it, but then you still have the same problem with SmaterMail command line as always... it doesn't differentiate between inbound and outbound messages. 

The SmarterMail command line scanner is virtually useless unless you want to treat inbound and outbound the same.  We don't.

-Joe

aguk:

You probably could use message sniffer as it is just a command line scanner. Set it as a virus scanner in SmarterMail should work though it will probably delete the mail rather than flag it as spam,

While extremely effective, i would still score the spam messages instead of outright deleting the messages as this could lead to false positives.

csimo:

Unless they've significantly changed Message Sniffer in recent months it won't work that way.  You need to take action on the return codes.  It's possible to write a script that would handle it, but then you still have the same problem with SmaterMail command line as always... it doesn't differentiate between inbound and outbound messages. 

The SmarterMail command line scanner is virtually useless unless you want to treat inbound and outbound the same.  We don't.

-Joe

While not always accurate a middle ground would be to check if the messages are authenthicated vs non-authenthicated and treat the  Authenthicated messages as outbound and vice versa. Works in most cases in a default setup.

However, i agree with you that it would be more helpful programatically if SmarterMail was to provide a status code in the command file that indicates outbound/inbound

Cheers

I don't want to get completely off topic here but Declude is not the only way to run Message Sniffer. MxGuard does it well and is much more affordable.

ramiss:

I don't want to get completely off topic here but Declude is not the only way to run Message Sniffer. MxGuard does it well and is much more affordable.

You're correct.  I have a MxGuard license, but I can't use it with SmarterMail for the same reason I can't use many of the other add-ons.  The only way to enable them is to use them via the command line option and SmarterMail does not allow you to call the command line differently on inbound vs outboud messages.

We have no reason to tie up resources doing spam filtering on outbound messages.  Virtually all the spam checks don't apply to outbound messages, but there's no other way to do it in SmarterMail. 

I brought up Message Sniffer for the simple reason that it's probably one of the mose effective spam filters out there and has fixed costs about $450 per year per server (not per user).  SmarterTools has mentioned Commtouch being supported in v6.x.  I don't know the SmarterMail pricing for Commtouch but if it's even 1/10th of what I was quoted it's nothing but a waste of time and money to support it.  Why pay thousands of dollars per year for Commtouch when something much better (such as Sniffer) is available for a fraction of the cost?  If you want Commtouch you can have it via Declude at no extra charge above the outrageous Declude pricing.

SmarterTools mentions a tool similar to SpamAssassin in 6.x, or even once says they have built their own port of SpamAssassin.  I'm not sure what any of that means... is it SpamAssassin or not?  Can we use all the third party tools that plug into SpamAssassin (DCC, Razor 2, Sought rules, and any of the other hundreds of rule sets available)? 

I don't know what SmarterMail 6.x will bring.  Additional details were supposed to be posted last week, but if any were posted I don't see them as being different. 

-Joe