Dear Members,

Since the update to the new mail service, there has been no option for users to setup a "vacation" or "auto-respond" message in the mail interface.

For now, this feature is not being planned for implementation due to issues it causes with Spam.

Example:
If a customer sets an auto-respond/vacation rule to reply to each incoming email with a message saying "I'm out of my office until May 1...." the mail system will attempt to reply to EVERY incoming message.

We know that almost all Spam comes from invalid and/or hijacked email accounts. By allowing these types of auto messages, we would be setting our company up for a mass listing in the available public and private Spam Databases; which in turn would cause every user on our network issues with receiving legitimate emails.

Here's why:
- Spam message is received on the customer account from an invalid return address.
- Our mail system sends the customers auto-reply to that invalid email address.
- The mail server assigned to that invalid address sends a rejection notice back to our customers mail box notifying of the rejection.
- That rejection message is received by our customers mail box.
- Our mail system sends the customers auto-reply to the mail server that sent the rejection notice.

See where I'm going with this?

The backscatter could be potentially endless based on the settings of the mail server sending the rejection back to our customer.

Intouch Internet is dedicated to improving the quality of email service to our customers, and staying out of the world-wide Spam databases is a top priority.

For now, we do not plan on implementing any "vacation" or "auto-respond" type of feature in the new mail system. If a better way of providing this service should come up in the future, we will investigate and consider that option at that time.

It is our intent to educate and inform our members in regard to issues such as this and why we make the decisions we do.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding this update.

Sincerely,

Charles Partridge
Director of Operations
Intouch Internet, Inc.