Spam Filtering - This service will monitor your incoming E-mail for spam. Spam is defined as unsolicited E-mail. This can include advertising companies you are not familiar with that are attempting to sell you a product, and even offensive content such as "entertainment" web sites. This service works by blocking content with certain key words and web site addresses. Both specific words are blocked, and specific web sites included in advertisements. The offending email is kept in a quarantine folder at Vance.Net for a period of 48 hours after which time it is removed. E-mail is manually double checked for "false positives". A false positive is an E-mail that has been blocked by spam filtering service which should not have been blocked. These can include messages such as valid subscription only advertisements, or other messages such as those with contain certain medical terms. Once a false positive is detected, it is released to the end user. Additionally, if you are expecting a message to come through that has not yet been received, we can manually release the message to you. This can be done within the 48 hour period of the receipt of the message.
Optionally, you can continue to receive ALL your e-mail, including messages that are spam. The messages that are identified as spam will have [SPAM] added to the beginning of the subject on the e-mail. For instance, if the subject of a message is normally "Make Money Now!" it will be sent to you with the changed subject of "[SPAM]Make Money Now!". This method ensures that you continue to receive all your e-mail while still identifying messages as spam. At that point, you can setup a mail filter in Outlook or Netscape to move all messages with "[SPAM]" in the subject to a different folder of your choosing.
This spam service works similar to a virus scanning service, where new filters are applied on a continuing basis. A list is generated that keeps track of offending web sites and particular advertisements. Sometimes, a spam can come through that has not yet been added to the newest list. Please keep this in mind if you do receive messages you think are spam. If you continue to receive messages you believe are spam, please forward the message to our support staff explaining that it should be marked as spam and we will look into it. In addition, the service will not block advertising e-mail for valid web sites. For instance, if you signed up to receive a weekly e-mail on the newest music CD's as they are released, it will not be blocked. To block these e-mails, it is necessary to contact the sender of said e-mail to be removed from the list. Normally, removal instructions will be at the bottom of the advertising e-mail.
Virus Scanning - This service will scan all email you receive AND send for known viruses and attempt to clean the infected message. Our listing of viruses is controlled by Norman and is updated at least once every hour. This virus scan will not cause a significant delay in your message delivery.
If you receive an infected message in e-mail, it will attempt to remove the virus and deliver the remaining message. You will receive an email informing you of the infected message. The original content of the message will be included as an attachment. Some viruses do not send any messages in the body, so the attachment may be missing, or even blank.
Many viruses send themselves through e-mail. If you have been infected with a virus and send an e-mail that is infected, you will be notified that you sent a message that contained a virus. If it is a known virus, it will generate a message that the virus has been cleaned and send the message on its way to the original destination.
E-mail virus scanning is only one way to prevent a virus attack on your computer. Our service ONLY scans viruses that are sent through e-mail. Viruses can be acquired by visiting an infected web site, downloading an infected program, sharing floppy disks and CD-ROM's and through any file sharing program, such as those that allow you to share your music collection. For these reasons, it is suggested to have a virus scanning program on your computer to catch these types of infections. A virus scanning solution can be purchased from Vance.Net in our office. We offer the Norton Antivirus solution. Please call our office for the latest price. Also, be sure to keep your anti-virus program updated at all times. Most programs come with a subscription service, where after so many months you must re-subscribe to continue to receive your virus definitions.
Our service ONLY scans viruses that are sent to your Vance.Net e-mail account. For instance, we can not scan your Hotmail or Netscape e-mail account.
The cost for e-mail filtering is $3.00 for the first email account and $1.50 for each account afterwards. This cost is for any combination of spam filtering only, virus filtering only, or both. For instance, you may turn on virus filtering for $3.00 for the first account. You may turn on virus AND spam filtering for $3.00 for the first account.
You may turn this feature on by filling out the following form:
Please be sure to read our terms of service for more information on using the Vance.net service.