Provides Existing Email Providers an Effective Tool in the Battle Against Spam

TORONTO, Jan. 31, 2008 – Tucows Inc., (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) a leading provider of Internet services to web hosting companies and ISPs worldwide, today announced the availability of a powerful solution to the global problem of spam. The Tucows Email Service now offers providers the option of using the spam and virus filtering portion of the service in conjunction with their current email infrastructure. The Tucows Email Service will continue to be available as a fully-hosted email service for those looking for a complete end-to-end email solution.
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Today, spam filtering is a must, not an option. By some estimates, as much as 90% of mail sent is spam. The filtering that’s included in the Tucows Email Service provides effective protection for users against spam and viruses.

Starting today resellers can provision what we call “filter only” accounts inside the Tucows Email Service. Cutting to the chase, the net result is that email is sent through our filtering system, spam is redirected to a quarantine, and only the legitimate mail is then directed on to our customer’s email server.

Last fall at ISPCON in San Jose, CA, I had the opportunity to give a presentation about our experiences running Tucows Email Service. I called it “Email Nightmares: Tales from the Edge” and in that talk I showed some of the pain points that email providers run into when managing messaging services. One of the most challenging aspects I called out was managing spam.

That’s all well and good, but some email providers aren’t ready, or don’t want to move to a fully-hosted email service right now. So we came up with an alternative that allows us to provide that same level of spam and virus protection, while allowing providers to continue to use their own email infrastructure.

The benefits are threefold:

1. You’ll sleep better at night: you can focus on running your email servers, without having to worry about things like spam filters, or blacklists.
2. Your servers will thank you: nine out of ten messages is spam, and we’re taking care of that before you have to. As a result, your server loads drop significantly.
3. We’ve got your back: Tucows has a dedicated Abuse Team that is actively engaged in the battle against spam. We have experience managing abuse and we’ve forged strong relationships in the industry through organizations like the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG).

Our Tucows Email Service is built for ISPs and hosting companies. The goal with this filtering only option was to provide effective filtering for our customers that ‘just works’. Resellers have the option to provide a web-based spam quarantine where users can review email flagged as spam, and manage safe- and blocked sender lists.

Our Services website has more information including a screencast demonstrating the web-based spam quarantine.

Earlier this week, the ICANN Board recommended making the ICANN fee of $0.20 per domain year non-refundable. Previously, that fee was refundable if the domain was deleted within the five day Add Grace Period (AGP).

Around the same time, Google announced it would drop names consistently added and deleted during the AGP from its AdSense program, making it far more difficult to profit from ads served on those domain names.

We think ICANN’s resolution to introduce a fee is a good first step, but we don’t believe it goes far enough; some tasters will look at a nominal $0.20 fee as a cost of doing business. Add Grace Period abuse could be further diminished or eliminated by substantially shortening the AGP period to 12 hours or less. This would let registrants correct ‘true’ mistakes like spelling errors (which is what the AGP was originally intended for), while significantly curbing the practice of tasting at the same time.

For those of you who aren’t aware of what tasting is, here’s a quick overview: Generic Top Level Domains (also known as ‘gTLDs’) support what is known as an ‘Add Grace Period’ (AGP). Originally designed to correct domain name registration errors like typos and such, the AGP allows registrars to delete any names they register within five days, and receive a full refund.

Over the past several years the AGP has been used largely for profit instead of correcting mistakes. Some registrars register names en masse, display ads on them, measure their traffic, and then see which ones might be profitable to keep. The rest are deleted before the end of the grace period. How many names are deleted? According to an ICANN report, 94% of all .com registrations in January 2007 were deleted. Some registrars even re-register and delete the names over and over, allowing them to essentially keep the names for free.

The result of this practice is short-term trademark infringement, consumer confusion as sites disappear/re-appear (and point to advertising), and a great deal of unnecessary (and potentially dangerous) operational load.

Domain tasting will be one of many issues up for discussion at ICANN’s 31st International Public Meeting, will take place between February 10 and 15. I’ll be heading to India in two weeks and I’ll provide coverage of the meetings here on the Tucows blog.

TORONTO, Jan. 30 /CNW/ – Tucows Inc. (TSX: TC, AMEX: TCX) plans to report its fourth quarter fiscal 2007 financial results via news release on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at approximately 4:00 p.m. (ET). Company management will host a conference call the same day at 5:00 p.m. (ET) to discuss the results and the outlook for the company.
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TORONTO, Jan. 30 /CNW/ – Tucows Inc. (TSX: TC, AMEX: TCX) plans to report its fourth quarter fiscal 2007 financial results via news release on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at approximately 4:00 p.m. (ET). Company management will host a conference call the same day at 5:00 p.m. (ET) to discuss the results and the outlook for the company.
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Tomorrow is the night for the Toronto Girl Geek Dinner. As of this writing, there were seven spots left. If you’re into networking with a bunch of women who are passionate about technology, head on over to the wiki and sign up. I’m looking forward to seeing some of my girl geek buddies for the first time this year and hearing about what they’re up to so far in 2008. The featured speaker tomorrow night is Malgosia Green, co-founder of Savvica, an online teaching and learning company. Malgosia will share her perspective on entrepreneurship and using web tools to further goals in education and training.

The team’s efforts to enhance and improve the Tucows Email Service continue to accelerate as more and more customers make the move from our older platforms onto the new service. As that happens, we’re learning a lot about how Tucows Email Service handles the load in the real world (really well, as expected) and we’re also taking in feedback and comments from users, through resellers like you (thanks!).

As a result, we’re continually tuning hardware and software for even better performance, and the technical delivery team continues to work to make things like the webmail interface better and easier to use.

Tomorrow we’re rolling out what we call the “Email Winter Release” ‚Äì a bunch of enhancements and upgrades that make the service even better. A full list of those changes was sent out to customers on Tucows Email Service last week. If you want a sneak peek at how things are progressing, the upgrade has already been rolled into our Test environment. We’ve also released updated Tucows Email Service documentation that includes the latest changes and all the details you’ll need. A detailed summary of the changes can also be viewed in the release notes.

The enhancements encompass everything from minor user interface improvements inside webmail, to the creation of a new user account level within the MAC. Here’s a brief list of what’s changing Tuesday broken down into three main categories:

Reseller Tools:

• Domain Aliases at the Company level are now available
• Company Administrators are now able to suspend accounts (and shortly will be able to do so through the APP)
• Mail Administrator account level has been created.

Webmail Enhancements:

• Users are now able to sort on the Read/Unread column.
• POP mail accounts (if added by the user) are checked automatically during webmail check.
• Contacts can now be dragged into and out of groups.
• Users can choose between plain text and HTML email composition.
• The add contact group button in the contact area of the sidebar has been replaced by a pair of more intuitive icons.

WAP/Mobile Email Client:

• We now offer a WAP client for email access via mobile phone.

One of the neatest additions that comes along with this release is the WAP version of webmail. A recent survey by Webcredible, a UK-based web usability and accessibility consultancy, showed that 33% of mobile phone users said email was their most requested feature.

Our WAP-enabled webmail works on over 5,000 different phones (including the iPhone, although it has an IMAP email app that works great with Tucows Email). It lets user see their inbox and messages, send and receive mail, and even view contacts. All the information on how to access the WAP browser including how to set a CNAME to enable a custom URL (like wap.yourdomain.com) is in the email documentation.

The WAP browser is a standard feature of Tucows Email Service ‚Äì just like IMAP, POP and our AJAX webmail application. It’s available today in the Test environment, and will be live for all users tomorrow.

Editor’s note: Heather is a Customer Communications Representative at Tucows. Her many responsibilities include handling customer and emergency communications, drafting incident reports and taking care of special technical communications. If you’re a Tucows customer, Heather plays an integral role in keeping you informed about the status of Tucows various services.

Last week, I was given the opportunity to visit Q9, one of Tucows‚Äô data centres. Every day I write about our products and service in status updates, maintenance windows and customer reports. Tucows infrastructure hardware — including our servers, routers, storage device and data centres — have become so familiar in my day-to-day tasks that I find myself thinking about them like actual live staff members.

Seeing the strength of the Tucows network, from the fibre drop to the servers, is a rare treat. Tours of Q9 are infrequent for security and logistical reasons. Access to the site is strictly controlled with only highly technical staff members granted security clearance to the data centre and our cages. Our Network Operations Centre (NOC) and Operations teams at Tucows headquarters conduct monitoring with a number of sophisticated remote systems. We also have staff who stay onsite at each of our data centres to coordinate with multiple sites and the team back at headquarters.

Q9’s data centre is built with the highest caliber of technical security: bullet resistant glass and biometric entrances with access cards are among the authentication and verification steps that must be complete before entering the areas of the cages. Q9 has strict protocols for site usage and visits. Surveillance includes cameras covering every angle and extensive onsite and offsite monitoring. There are mantraps that use biometrics to protect access to designated areas. The chamber has a biometric fingerprint unit that (whether imagined or not) felt like a current went through me when I touched it for validation scanning. Let’s face it: my inner geek loved the chance to see the hardware of the layer 3!

Our cage is large, with rows and racks of servers, massive storage devices, routers and cables. We use the best of the best equipment, including NetApp, for storage devices. Being a trained Library and Information Technician, I was extremely impressed with the labeling of every device with Dewy-Decimal-like meticulousness. Every machine has redundant power backups for testing and security. The hum and beeps of all the machines represent millions of domains, mailboxes, products and services.

Customers depend on security, reliability, accuracy and professionalism. Every day at work our teams ensure that every aspect, from security to equipment organization to functionality to maintenance, is seamlessly conducted. Q9 helps us out with multiple service points, generators and a contract of 100% service availability. When the blackout struck the Eastern Seaboard circuits in August 2003, Q9 remained online with their downtown NOC fully redundant and emergency plans enacted. Last year we moved to Q9 because of the reliable and consistent service it enables Tucows to pass onto its customers.

Tucows employees love the Internet. We are passionate about our work and almost daily there are internal challenges to see who has the best new tech toy or website reference. The abstract part about working in the Internet industry is that unless you are logged into the physical devices or visiting the data centre cages, you reside in the top layer and your own imagination. Now when I write about our devices I will have a much better visual of some of our infrastructure. Unlike a former coworker, I did not hug the machines! Instead, I just smiled and secretly waved.

Bill Sweetman (pictured at left with Squishycow, who Bill says handles all our bidding at auctions) checked in again today with some news and notes from DOMAINfest. Last night’s SnapNames auction was fun to watch but for those that weren’t able to check in either in person or online, the sale of bookmarks.com was the big news. The name went to buyer Lonnie Borck of netRocket.com for $310,000. NetRocket offers online bookmarking and tagging, so bookmarks.com is a natural fit. DomainNews.com has a rundown of the results of the first and also the second day of the live auction.

In addition to the auction, Bill attended a number of sessions over the last few days and provided some notes to summarize what was presented:

Domain Names and the Law

John Berryhill cautioned domain owners to be wary of vaguely worded purchase inquiries that don’t explicitly offer to buy the domain; they could be lawyers representing trademark holders who are trolling with a different agenda (e.g. gathering info for a future legal claim against the domain owner).

Berryhill says, “The best trademark search tool is Google,” as opposed to relying on official trademark databases.

Domainers Town Hall with Frank Schilling

This session provided an opportunity to collect knowledge from one the most famous domainers in the world. Here are some quotes from Frank Schilling (pictured at right):

• “Domain names ARE the Internet.”
• “Focus on the niche that you like” ‚Äî when asked what domain names he recommends domainers buy.
• “$100 bills are raining out of the sky…gather a big hat and keep quiet…” ‚Äî on how the first domainers viewed the early secretive days of domaining (just a few years ago).
• “There’s no shelf life on domain names…domains are like Cognac” ‚Äî on domain names as assets.
• “Owners of even just ten domains will be the media companies of the future.”

When asked, Frank said he owns about 370,000 domain names which are managed as a business by a small team of five, including himself and his wife.

Understanding the Big Picture

Monty Cahn from Moniker provided some insights into the overall strength of the domain industry. Cahn says 70% of Internet users are using direct navigation (typing a domain into browser address window) to get to a site. He also predicts that aftermarket domain name sales will be a $1 billion business in 2010. And also by 2010, Cahn estimates that 240 million domain names will have been registered. For reference, that’s about double the amount that are registered today.

With that, DOMAINfest is a wrap.

I managed to get in touch (via instant messaging) with a very busy Bill Sweetman in Hollywood, California early this morning. He’s taking in the sights and sounds of DOMAINfest 2008 He gave me a bit of a rundown on what’s happened so far, as well a what to expect in the coming days.

Bill has also been talking with some of the domain industry heavyweights about where the industry is, where it’s headed, and specifically in terms of the growing domain name aftermarket.

The DOMAINfest venue — larger than life just like the domain industry, and some of its players. Photo by Bill Sweetman

Bill reports that attendance is up this year with over 600 people attending versus about 400 that were at last year’s show. Those attendees represent more then 25 countries, providing proof of the worldwide marketplace for domains. Bill says there’s a good mix of both what he calls “mom and pop domainers” alongside the big guys. For reference, 28% of domainers at DOMAINfest report owning over 1,000 domains.

On the subject of the growing aftermarket for domains, Bill had a chance to speak with Tom Murphy from BuyDomains.com. Tom tells Bill that 82% of the domain names BuyDomains sells are to new business owners, vs. domainers, who end up using the domains for their corporate sites — the aftermarket is clearly more than a place for domainers to trade around names.

Tom also says that aftermarket domain names that are appraised are ten times more likely to sell than those without an appraisal. I found that interesting, given Rick Schwartz’s comments just yesterday in which he questioned the value of domain name appraisals.

Bill also tracked down Dan Warner of Fabulous.com who tells Bill that half of the aftermarket domains that Fabulous sells are made up of three words or more, as opposed to “short and sweet” names.

And, if more was required in terms of proving that the aftermarket for domain names is flourishing, Bill tells me that Register.com says they now have 300 people in Nova Scotia, Canada, handling inbound queries regarding aftermarket domains they sell.

Tucows offers aftermarket domain names from both BuyDomains and Fabulous as part of our Premium Domains service.

Later today the first of two live auctions take place. Bill confirmed that two domains from the Tucows portfolio have been selected for inclusion in the live auctions. 110,000 domains were submitted for consideration, with 400 chosen for the two-day live auction event. Proceeds from a selection of domains will benefit Grassroots.org.

We’ll have more from Bill on DOMAINfest, probably next week, when he’s back in Toronto.