Re: Recommendations for ISP

To answer my own question, my firm's IT guy in the end chose 
1and1.com.  In the end I did find some ISP's that offered filtering 
by Postini as an included benefit.  Our IT guy was less impressed 
with Postini than me.  However, almost all ISP's now offer virus and 
spam filtering at their level, including 1and1.

But I don't want to shelve the issue just yet. There seem to be two 
conflicting trends.  More and more client communications are through 
email, to the point where it is almost indispensible.  At the same 
time, computer security threats are increasing geometrically in 
number, professionalism and criminality. 

I'm now wondering about what are the key things to consider when 
setting up a law firm's email plumbing.  And how exactly does it 
work, anyway?  Is it secure?  How do you know?  

As I understand it, all incoming email to our firm goes to one of 
the ISP's servers, where it is filtered and sits until it is 
downloaded by our firm's mail server, which then in turn sorts and 
delivers the email to our internal network addresses.  Is that the 
usual set up for a law firm?

From my reading, at least as of 2004, Postini had a 1/3 market share 
in filtering spam and viruses from large law firm email.  I guess 
that means that for those firms, the email goes from the ISP to 
Postini, and then to the firm.  

So, what is the standard one should look for with regard to data 
security at the ISP level?  Is it more secure to have a dedicated 
server than a shared server or a virtual private server?  Is there 
any way to check on an ISP's track record for security?

And there is now unfortunately the issue of the filtering that is 
done at the ISP level.  There are all different kinds of filtering 
systems, most of which seem to be either proprietary or rebranded. 
Which one is better?  What, if anything, are firms doing to see if 
legitimate email is being mistakenly filtered out at the ISP level?

Maybe the answer is that like sausages and legislation, one should 
not think too much about where email comes from. 

Is anyone encrypting all client communications?  Clients have their 
own email filtering systems, and I doubt that encrypted emails get 
through.

 



--- In [email protected], "Tom Mighell" <tmighell@...> 
wrote:
>
> Hey John,
> 
> I'd love to answer his question, but I'm afraid I'm not any good at
> recommending an ISP -- I'm not even sure where I would begin to 
look. I'm
> aware of "The List" (www.thelist.com), which lists all the ISPs 
available
> for a particular area code -- but I wouldn't necessarily be able to
> recommend any of the ISPs listed......
> 
> Tom
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John DeBruyn
> Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 5:40 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: RE: [NetLawyers] Recommendations for ISP
> 
> Hi Tom:
> 
> I tried to send this (Saturday) afternoon just after your 
wonderful weekly
> newsletter INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY came out:
> 
> http://www.inter-alia.net/
> 
> Could you handle the following from David as if it were one of 
those letters
> to the editor that you solicit and so kindly answer.
> 
> Good thing I didn't recommend my ISP ... this email got lost in 
the scuffle
> when my ISP's server crashed ... and that is why this took until 
today
> (Tuesday) to get where it was going.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> John
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of david4705
>   Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 7:02 AM
>   To: [email protected]
>   Subject: [NetLawyers] Recommendations for ISP
> 
> 
>   Anyone have a recommendation for an ISP for a law firm?  I'm 
looking
>   for one that offers excellent antivirus and antispam filtering, 
maybe
>   using Postini.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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