Lotus Touts Server-Based Spam Control For Domino 6

Lotus Software Group

With the upcoming release, administrators will be able to use realtime "Black Hole" lists to block incoming junk mail and implement filtering and message processing rules based on text not only in subject headers but in messages themselves, said Ed Brill, senior manager of enterprise messaging for Lotus, based here.

The rules could be applied so that flagged incoming messages could be rejected outright, simply not delivered, or routed to an appropriate database.

The current Domino 5 release allows filters to be set up based on sender name but not on content of the messages.

Earlier this year, Lotus had hinted it might add some client-side spam filtering as well as including message retraction to the post Release 6 version of the Notes client. (See related story.)

Spam, or unwanted and unsolicited e-mail, is a growing problem not only because it wastes workers' time but also because it soaks up server and storage resources.

"[The inclusion of spam control in the upcoming release indicates IBM's recognition that spam is an ever-growing problem for large organizations. We know from our client base that this has become a large issue for virtually every global 2000 organization," said Matt Cain, vice president of researcher The Meta Group.

Another Domino 6 feature would let administrators prevent certain messages from being rerouted ad nauseum within a company by looking up in-bound recipient addresses in the Domino directory and keeping those messages from rippling throughout.

Domino 6 is still on track to ship in the third quarter, Brill said.