What e-mail services we provide and at what cost?

Although we would be delighted if every UK citizen took advantage of our fully-hosted e-mail service we appreciate that everyone arriving 'at this page' will have different needs even though their priorities will probably change over time. Our aim is to protect the investments and minimise the pain for all of you - our customers and prospects - even those who we help to 'DIY' (Do it Yourself) at minimal cost. See below for link.

The way in which we achieve this 'right first time' approach is by design and planning. Whatever the solution, it will always involve us registering a domain on your behalf - i.e. in your name so there is no lock-in possible. This is in contrast to 95+% of ISPs! - see: problems with some ISPs. If you can get a '.co.uk', '.me.uk' or '.name' (expensive!) that suits you - e.g. your surname then you have a great start.

On top of the domain registration there will then be a charge that relates to the services we provide - both setup (i.e. 1-off) and ongoing which is billed every two years for .uk domains in advance, annually for most others.

The table below shows various service options but because some combinations (F, S, O, D - see table) are either impossible or can be bundled at a lower price they are shown as a price for a combination, e.g.:

• F + S60 + O + D1 = £10 setup plus £60 p.a.. That is Filtering, 60MB Storage, Outbound e-mails and 1 .uk Domain)
• F + S40 + O + D1 = £10 setup plus £50 p.a., i.e. as a rough guide - an extra 20MB of e-mail storage will cost £10 p.a.
• F + S20 + O + D2 = £10 setup plus £45 p.a. - e.g. one domain ('D' = half a .com or a 2nd .uk) is approx. £5
• F + D1 = £5 setup plus £30 p.a., - this is the absolute basic Anti-Spam service - i.e. where we filter your mail at our server prior passing it on to your choice of ISP, Hotmail, Yahoo or Googlemail.

  If you really want to lower the on-going costs then take a look at the 'DIY' approach (see: Filtering on your PC). We assist you remotely to set up limited filtering on your PC. Our fees are hourly based and as we are not providing an ongoing service there is no long-term commitment between yourself and our company. Note that the setup fees cost MAY be more than your initial commitment to one of the service combinations described above.

• F + O + D1 = £10 setup plus £35 p.a. i.e. as a rough guide - outgoing e-mail will cost £5 p.a. as an additional service.

Should you require support when using our e-mail services this is available at a reduced rate - see fees. If the situation is a problem for which we are in any way responsible then the fee will normally be waived. Particularly if there is a repetive problem we may require your assistance in preventing the problem which may be a pre-requisite to us waiving these fees.

Zero** Loss e-mail services with Zero** Administration

We believe that we have one of the best solutions in the marketplace but do not want to market it TOO widely because that would attract the attention of the hackers who are often extremely bright and they have an army of (virtual! - MAYBE YOUR PC!) resources to target our facilities.

Again it is inappropriate to go into the details of our solution on a public web site but a 'phone call from anyone who's identity I can verify in some way will always be welcome.

In the short term there will always be significant pain as the existing e-mail addresses which are attracting Spam will need to be kept active while you as a customer migrate your contacts to use your new e-mail address.

There have been many users of a variety of the techniques that we use over many years. What we have done is to pull together several techniques into a single architecture and design and then to add the automated management of activities that are needed by non-technical users of it.

** Notes re: Zero Loss and Administration

Although the design and implementation of our own piece of the Internet e-mail jigsaw is relatively robust there are literally hundreds of 'Points of Failure' within the Hardware and Software which underpin any e-mail in the life-cycle from creation to being read.

In short - if anything is really important, urgent or confidential then the simple answer is that the Internet is not suitable because of the unreliable and insecure nature of the infrastructural components. Also note that the Internet is very volatile and the criminal nature of Spam and the resulting profits are likely to dramatically affect the trends and nature of the Internet in ways which are unpredictable. We cannot guarantee that what we provide today will work in the long term although there are many reasons that it is more likely than many other technical and (any!) legal attempts to stop Spam.

Zero Loss is OUR TARGET from the receipt of an e-mail at your domain on our server until either:

1. You download it directly to your PC or other device from our server or
2. We transmit the e-mail to your designated e-mail storage facility (e.g. your ISP or Hotmail et. al.)

We cannot improve the other stages of the delivery process because we do not manage them. Also note that a well-known potential problem with the latter of the two options above is that ISPs are now (2005 onwards) harshly scanning e-mails prior to either deleting them or filing them for automatic deletion if you don't retrieve them. You will almost certainly not be informed of any action taken on individual e-mails as that would be as ineffective as having them in an InBox.

Zero Administration could be affected by the targetting methods used by Spammers which change frequently as part of their strategy to sustain delivery and increase their virtual armies. The other major factor is you and your PC - practicing 'safe computing' and having a well-maintained PC with Firewall, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and the latest updates for Windows is essential to ensure that you don't become part of the problem rather than avoid it.

*** Your choice of ISP and how it might affect what we can deliver

Certain ISPs take 'lock in' to the extremes of dominating the whole desktop experience and technical environment in such a manner that the deliberately cause difficulties for other potential suppliers of service.

The only ISP which we are no longer prepared to try to accomodate is AOL. Other services which we offer in terms of Wireless Networks and PC assistance are also unavailable for AOL users. Apologies for any inconvenience caused but we are not the root cause of the problem(s). When ordering, please indicate which ISP you are using and if necessary we will help you conduct a brief test at no charge.

Fees charged for this specific support - setup and ongoing

There is a small amount of setup time built into the fees which allow us to assist your e-mail setup, it is expected to take no longer than half an hour. Following setup there is a charge for support when this is not a problem or defect that is caused by us. We will attempt to provide Problem Source Identification for free on an occasional basis but repetitive support will incur charges but at a discount from our normal rates.

The rate of £20 per hour is very substantially discounted because the knowledge and skills required are a small subset of those we apply to more complex customer problems. There is also an element of the reduction which reflects the repetitive nature of the problems and solutions which we can pass on to our clients.

Should you require broader I.T. support then please contact us for details, as at Dec'06 prices start from £28 per hour for Telephone and Online Remote Assistance (XP and a suitable Internet connection required). Windows XP Remote Assistance now provides in-work training and assistance, as and when needed to more than a dozen customers

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