V6.08 August 2004

0. Introduction.
1. New "Mail > Addresses" Area!
2. New "Junk Filter" Beta Test!
3. New "Webmail" Panel!
4. .MD Domains Dropped to Just $100/year!
5. DHSOTM.

########################################################################
0. Introduction.

Well here it is, August 33rd and again I just barely squeak the monthly
newsletter out in the correct month! It's weird how, like a toddler
marathon, this summer's been dragging on and on and on and on. Speaking
of dragging on and on and on and on, I better get going with this
month's newsletter.. I'm not sure how much longer August is going to
last!

########################################################################
1. New "Mail > Addresses" Area!

Like a two-year-old eating a power bar, this month's first new feature
brings about a pretty abrupt change in current behavior. You see, we've
replaced the old "Mail > Mailboxes" and "Mail > Addresses" area of our
web panel with just one new and "improved" (the jury is still out) area
which handles everything the two old areas used to accomplish. Check it
out here:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=mail.addresses

Why the change? Well, we're in the process of slowly moving away from
the m######## mailbox style naming towards the ability to just use your
email address (user@domain.com) to log in to our mail servers! This is
by far the number one most popular suggestion we've ever received, and
we've decide to break with DreamHost tradition a little bit and try to
implement it.

But like a three-year-old crossing the 13-mile marker, it's best to not
get too excited yet! So far you still can NOT use your user@domain.com
email address to log in (except for via webmail, which has always
allowed that). We hope to have that implemented by next month's
newsletter (due around August 61st). In the meantime, the new area is
meant to help with the transition to the new "paradigm" of your email
address actually "being" your mailbox name! Of course, for now we still
list the m######## logins, but eventually they will be phased out and
you'll be able to think of mailboxes strictly by their addresses!

What this means is there is now a strict 1-to-1 mapping between
mailboxes and email addresses. That is, you can no longer have multiple
email addresses delivering to the same mailbox! "BUT WAIT!!", you all
bawl, "WE USED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT!!". That's true, and in fact you
still can.. you just have to do it a little differently.

Now, instead of forwarding a new email address directly to a mailbox's
NAME, you instead just forward it to that mailbox's EMAIL ADDRESS. The
effect is exactly the same (in fact our mail servers translate email
addresses back to mailboxes on the back end), but the change was deemed
necessary in preparation of the upcoming easier login feature.

Now, some of you may notice that when you go to the Addresses panel
we've automatically chosen the "wrong" email address to be primary for
some of your mailboxes. If this is the case, do not fret! Just click the
"edit" link next to that mailbox and change the email address to be the
right one! That's it, you're done in just one step! Our panel will
automatically update any other email addresses forwarding to it for you
and everything will be in order. Phew!

########################################################################
2. New "Junk Filter" Beta Test!

Another major feature request we've had for a long time is a good spam
and virus filter our customers can easily enable. We first addressed
this issue a little while ago with our Razor spam filter.

Honestly, Razor has turned out to be a lot like a baby marathon. It
struggles to complete its task, and pretty much sucks the whole time.
Which is why we're happy to announce a new and improved "Junk Filter"
system, still in beta testing but now ready for a much broader audience.
(Maybe you!):

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=mail.junk

The new system uses Spam Assassin plus a virus filter, and in our
limited beta test we've done so far, has actually performed pretty well!
So, if you'd like to give it a shot, please just visit the area above
and be sure to read all the instructions and warnings therein. That way
you fully understand what you're getting yourself into, and can't come
crying back to us when something goes wrong and your nipples start to
bleed!

(FYI, that happens to guys a lot in marathons. I was just trying to keep
with the theme here..)

########################################################################
3. New "Webmail" Panel!

Okay, you've probably already seen this feature but I realized it was
only announced from the web panel and never made its way into full
prime-time newsletter coverage!

We've got a new "Webmail" area of our panel at:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=mail.webmail

Besides providing links to your webmail access for all your domains, you
can also customize the image on your login screen, as well as change the
URL from "webmail.domain.com", or even disable webmail altogether.

But why would you disable webmail? Not having webmail would stink like a
pile of Pampers at the finish line of a toddler marathon!

########################################################################
4. .MD Domains Dropped to Just $100/year!

Ha, just when you thought ALL our new features were mail-related, you
were WRONG! You see, starting today we've dropped the price on .MD
domains from the Ionosphere all the way down to mmm, maybe the
Mesosphere? I wouldn't say we were down to the Stratosphere quite, and
definitely not the Troposphere of course.. but at least we're no longer
on the cusp of outer space!

More precisely, .MD domains are no longer $150/year when registered
through us, but are now $100/year! This price is good forever, so don't
worry about some kind of bait and switch like the old "Oh, don't worry
honey, it's just a 5K!"

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=domains.registration

What are .MD domains? Well, they're just the HOTTEST NEW DOMAIN ON THE
ENTIRE INTERNET WHICH MEANS THE WHOLE WORLD!! If you're a doctor, get
one this minute! If you live in Maryland, get three today! If you're a
domain speculator, get six million within the next four hours! There are
lots and lots of super great .md domains still available, thanks to the
fact they only started a few months ago and were priced in the Aurora
until just this moment!

And hey, DreamHost is the ONLY place you can get .md domains for this
price.. I just checked and for example dotster.com is charging $129.95
a year. You'd have to have the mind of an infant to buy them at that
price! What do they think, we were born in the last 2-4 years?! And
that we're going to run a marathon? In our booties? With cute little
overalls on?

########################################################################
5. DHSOTM.

As we come into mile 26 of our own little "newsletter marathon", I'm
pleased to announce the winner.. of this month's DreamHost Site of the
Month contest that is!

http://www.scottberks.com/

It's another flash-y designer portfolio site of course! I hadn't
realized until now that we only hosted this type of site! But based on
the DHSOTM winners each month, that is clearly the case. Oh well, it's
not like they're not all awesome sites, and it's not like you can't
submit your own for a chance at public acclaim and humiliation via:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.dhsotm

If you do though, please be sure to still keep training for that
marathon. Otherwise you'll never beat me:

http://www.dreamhost.com/images/toddler.jpg

########################################################################
Just won his unprecedented sixth consecutive toddler marathon,
Josh!

If you're too busy training to read this dribble, you'll probably want
to unsubscribe from the newsletter via your contact preferences here:

https://panel.dreamhost.com/id/?tab=contact

Dream Host customer newsletter

Dream Host newsletter - V6.08 August 2004 - Aug 8, 2004