We are looking for your input on sending email By Peter M. Abraham April 2004 Did you get a chance to read Preparing for the near future of email? If your current outgoing mail server setting is mail period our domain name or mail period your domain name (less any "www"), then you are using our mail servers to send out email. The current sending method is called POP before SMTP. This means that in order to use our mail servers to send email, some one  has to first check if they have any email (it matters not if the mail box is empty; it only matters that some one with a mail box on your domain name checks their mail) before they can try and send email. If you are an organization with a number of staff, then any staff member can send through our mail servers as long as anyone who has a mail box on the server checked in the past fifteen minutes or so. This was an early and convenient standard to adopt within the industry. However, there is a growing move towards a method of authentication called SMTP Auth.  SMTP Auth requires each sender to validate themselves prior to sending.  Do you recall you are not asked for a user id or password to send email?  Only to receive. One of the immediate benefits is that if you desire to just send email; you don't have to check email first. One of the long term benefits (long term probably being six to eighteen months out) is that if it can be proved authorized senders can send email, and you can track down to the person sending, then there is a greater chance the sending server or domain name that is sending will be white listed. White listing the sender (which means you, our client) would result in the faster transmission of email (less queries); and ensure legitimate email is not blocked. Moving from POP before SMTP to SMTP Auth will require everyone who sends email through our mail servers to change a setting in their email program.  Typically this takes less than three minutes. However, if you have a lot of personal computers to adjust, this can add up to a few hours. Since this type of change is global (server wide -- which means all clients would have to adjust their settings right after the change -- it cannot be done on a client by client basis), we are seeking your input on this important change. If you are a Parallels H-Sphere (Unix) hosting customer, please take a few moments to email support the following information: If you support a change from POP before SMTP to SMTP Auth, and why (or why not).   How many personal computers would you have to update (in terms of Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, or otherwise) in order for this change to work for your organization?   If we were to make the change, are there any dates or date ranges (a change, if any, would not occur until May or latter) to avoid? NOTE:  If you are a VPS customer, we can coordinate a change to your VPS with you.  Window customers, please note we are currently working on how this would plan out. Thank you.