IMF Tune v3.0 Release Candidate!

June 26, 2007

Contents:

• Introduction
• Processing of Unprocessed Emails
• IMFTBak Configuration Backup
• SCL Rules Condition: Received time is within range
• Licensing Upgrades
• Licensing Email Domains (Small Business)
• Known Issues
• Version Information

Introduction

We have a new update for IMF Tune v3.0. This includes some more features that were not included in the first beta release. Furthermore we are including some tweaks for issues identified in the first release. With this update we consider IMF Tune v3.0 to be feature complete. Our final release target is now mid-July.

A couple of weeks ago we also made an intermediate update release that included some of the features listed below. To make sure you have the latest build including all features and fixes please verify your current build number as explained under the Version Information section.

Follow the link to download the latest IMF Tune v3.0

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Processing of Unprocessed Emails

IMF Tune has always been tightly integrated with the MS Intelligent Message Filter. Amongst other things this meant IMF Tune would only process emails that the MS IMF itself processes. If for whatever reason IMF were to skip email processing, IMF Tune would classify that as unprocessed and would not apply any white/black lists or SCL rules.

This behavior can now be overridden. IMF Tune can be instructed to assign an initial SCL value of zero to unprocessed emails and to apply white/black lists and SCL Rules as usual. Handling of unprocessed emails can be enabled for un-authenticated (anonymous) and/or authenticated connections.

For example the MS IMF does not process emails larger than 3Mb. Through this functionality IMF Tune could still process these emails.

In the same manner IMF Tune could even be employed when IMF is disabled altogether. This is sometimes requested by organizations running other anti-spam filters in front of Exchange. Some examples include dedicated anti-spam appliances or external anti-spam service providers. In this case IMF Tune could be just employed for its Exchange Integration functionality without involving the MS IMF as an extra filtering layer.

Another area we are studying is the possibility to employ IMF Tune on clustered Exchange servers. Since MS IMF does not support this configuration, so far this meant IMF Tune could not be employed. However now that we have the ability to handle unprocessed emails, we see the opportunity to enable the integration of external anti-spam applications with clustered Exchange servers.

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IMFTBak Configuration Backup

The highly popular command-line configuration backup tool IMFTBak.exe is now back. The tool is similar to that available with IMF Tune v2.8, offering backup, restore, and replication functionality.

An important improvement is the fact that IMFTBak does not cause any IIS Admin service restarts any longer. In IMF Tune v2.8, this service and all its dependencies would be restarted when running the restore and replicate operations. Now this won't be necessary any longer.

NOTE: IMFTBak is version specific. The version included with v3.0 cannot be used to perform any operations against IMF Tune v2.8. The same is true for the IMFTBak shipped with v2.8. Again this cannot operate against v3.0.

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SCL Rules Condition: Received time is within range

When configuring Advanced SCL rules it is possible to select the condition/exception Received time is within range. So far this only allowed for the configuration of the date. Now this was extended to also provide for the configuration of the exact time when the condition would be matched.

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Licensing Upgrades

The licensing dialog was updated to better handle IMF Tune upgrades. This dialog is accessible from the usual location under the configuration Licensing category.

This change is relevant on:

• Upgrading from IMF Tune v2.x to IMF Tune v3.0
• Upgrading from IMF Tune v3.0 Small Business to IMF Tune v3.0 Enterprise Licenses

In IMF Tune v2.x we used to supply a replacement key in case of upgrades. With the new licensing logic both the new license key and the key being upgraded will be required for activating the product functionality.

When upgrading, the following procedure will now be followed:

1. Enter the new IMF Tune v3.0 license in the field 'Product License key'

2. IMF Tune will detect the key to be an upgrade and will request for the entry of the previously held key under: 'Previous license being upgraded'.

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Licensing Email Domains (Small Business)

IMF Tune v3.0 introduces a new option for small business license users. As in v2.8, the small business license limits the use of IMF Tune to 30 users. However IMF Tune v3.0 now gives the option to specifically identify the inbound email domains for which the product is licensed. In this mode IMF Tune will only process inbound emails addressed to the specified domains. Likewise it will only count users having an email address matching the list of domains.

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Known Issues

The following is a list of known issues with the current IMF Tune v3.0 build.

• Documentation is outdated. Currently the IMF Tune v2.8 documentation is being included.

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Version Information

This information applies to IMF Tune v3.0 build number 3.0.106.23. If IMF Tune is already installed you can verify the current build number from the configuration under the WinDeveloper category.

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