The Official Rackspace Blog » Ben Hubbard

Rackspace Business Productivity Rx: Organize Your Inbox with Email Filters

Ben Hubbard — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:51:46 +0000

The problem: I recently gave in and joined Facebook. Nearly all of my friends, family, and co-workers were already avid users. Right away, I was flooded with emails from Facebook letting me know someone requested me as a friend, accepted my offer to be a friend, commented on my wall, or did anything connected to my account. I received hundreds of messages within the first 24 hours.

The solution: I created a folder (named “Facebook”) and a mail filter (supported by most email clients, including the Rackspace Webmail interface).

Now, when I get an email about my Facebook account it bypasses the inbox and goes straight to the “Facebook” folder. This saves me time because I can avoid investing time in emails that aren’t urgent.

I filter email from co-workers into specific folders for the exact opposite reason. The filter allows me to deal with those emails first. If the boss emails me, it goes to a folder and I know to check that first. Setting up filters only takes a few minutes but saves me hours of wasted time manually sorting through messages.

View step-by-step instructions for setting up filters with Rackspace Email accounts. Find instructions to create filtering rules in Outlook.

[Email Tip] Spam Handling with Filters

Ben Hubbard — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:47:17 +0000

If you use a POP3 connection to check email with a desktop client, you don’t have to log into the Rackspace Email Webmail interface to check spam. You can configure spam handling to deliver email identified as spam to the inbox. This will allow the message to be downloaded with a “[SPAM]” label added to the start of the subject line. Then, create a rule in the desktop email client to filter email with “[SPAM]” in the subject to a special folder that you review every day or two.

Settings and spam handling adjustments can be made via the webmail interface by end users. Visit the support site for detailed instructions on how to adjust your spam settings.

[Email Tip] Save Time by Sending Email Blind

Ben Hubbard — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:18:00 +0000

BCC, blind carbon copy, is a tool to send an email to someone and share it with a third person without the primary contact knowing it.

Have you ever been copied on an email, the contents of which were sent to you just as an FYI? Then before you know it, you’ve received 5 or 10 more emails that are follow up questions or debates that don’t affect you? With BCC, when the recipient hits reply, it only goes back to the original sender saving everyone time.

If you send an email to a list, just address the email to yourself and put the recipient’s email in the BCC field. This prevents the swarm of emails that may arise if the recipient clicks “reply all”.

This practice also protects the recipient’s email addresses in case one of them forwards the email beyond.

[Email Tip] Managing Your Inbox with Flags

Ben Hubbard — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:53:00 +0000

When I receive an email, I do one of three things:

Nothing. If it’s an FYI email that requires no action, I read it and leave it.
Take action. I do what is requested in the email or delegate to someone else.
Flag for follow up. This option puts a colored flag beside messages that need further attention.

Most email clients, including Rackspace Email, allow you to easily sort by flags. Flagging the email serves as a visual reminder and a sorting factor. In my inbox, all flagged messages are at the very top. After I’ve completed the action, I un-flag the email and it is removed from the top of the list.

To sort by flags in most email clients, just click on the white flag above the list of emails (in the same line where “From,” “Subject,” “Sent,” and “Size” are).

Flexible Hosted Exchange Storage

Ben Hubbard — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:40:00 +0000

Despite what some clothing labels may say, one size doesn’t always fit all. We at Mailtrust don’t believe that one Exchange mailbox size fits all either. That’s why we’ve introduced the concept of flexibility in the allocation of mailbox storage in the latest release of the control panel. This feature allows administrators to reduce the storage available to some users and reallocate it to other users. For example, I can reduce the default storage available to one of my team members from 2GB down to 1GB and reallocate that storage to another team member, giving them 3GB. This provides great flexibility in the allocation of storage and allows administrators to customize mailbox size based on the storage needs of each mailbox. This type of flexibility can reduce costs for our customers; perhaps eliminating the need to purchase extra storage.
If you are an administrator with a Hosted Exchange account, you can access this functionality in the control panel by going to “Add/Edit a Mailbox” under Exchange and adjusting the storage using the available slider.

Support Ticket Tracking Tool Released

Ben Hubbard — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:09:22 +0000

We have released a new tool which allows Administrators to communicate directly with our Customer Care team through their email control panel, and monitor the status of trouble tickets as they are being worked on.
Some of the features of note include:
- Ability to view old trouble tickets
- Send a copy of all communications to an email address as desired by the Administrator
- Provides the ability for Administrators to close their own trouble tickets
- Enables Administrators to confirm whether or not our solution solved the issue
- Offers Administrators the opportunity to grade our Customer Care Reps
The tool can be found in the Control Panel under a new option called “Ticketing

Blacklisting

Ben Hubbard — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:55:00 +0000

When a potential customer is concerned about email blacklisting, and asks if we are on a blacklist, I always answer the same way… we’re not. But any company that ever says they have never been blacklisted is likely misinformed. The most important thing is how the situation is handled and how quickly the problem can be resolved. I’d say we’ve had a mail server put on a blacklist… maybe once every 8 or so months. It’s always a result of someone sending unsolicited mail through our system, which is not permitted (even in tiny batches).
Not too long ago one such instance occurred. In short, one of our clients sent unsolicited mails through our system… advertisements basically, and a few of these were reported by the recipient as spam. Unfortunately, this relatively new client had a very recent history of spamming. Consequently, their actions caused a mail server of ours to be blacklisted.
What really is interesting to me, however, is how quickly such an action takes place. Our anti-bulk mailing system caught the offender and put a stop to the action almost right away, but a scarce few still went out. Seemingly, the very moment we were put on that blacklist our engineers and support staff were aware and all actions were then geared towards resolving the issue and getting off the blacklist.
Fortunately we were able to get off the list VERY quickly. Just as clients began to report bounced emails, we were already able to report that the problem was fixed and that they could now try to resend the bounced email.
A lot of very tight ropes are treaded upon in the war between spammers and companies like Webmail.us, Inc. that try to protect people from spam. When a mistake is made by one of our (former) clients or another anti-spam company, it’s reassuring to see the issue addressed by our engineers right away, and I’m sure it’s even more reassuring for our over 8,000 clients.
Ben Hubbard
Operations Manager