A minor bugfix update to the Vamsoft Backscatter Protection Agent is now available. The update fixes a problem that causes the agent to report an error when processing emails with certain character encodings. It is recommended to install the update if you get error reports from this agent.

The first new feature we are detailing in this article series is the Remote Administration in ORF 5.

This feature is pretty much what it sounds: in ORF 5, you can access and manage remote ORF installations with just one click – no more RDP, VNC or walking up to the server room. Sounds good?

There is also more to Remote Administration than just shaving off a couple of minutes here and there: the Remote Access communication foundation that enables this feature also opens up a way for remote ORF components to talk to each other. For instance, ORF 5′s Configuration Synchronization relies on this very same foundation and certain future developments are enabled by this.

A few basic facts:

• Remote Access can be enabled using the Administration Tool (disabled by default).
• All ORF management tools are supported (Administration Tool, Log Viewer and the Reporting Tool).
• Default connections can be configured (useful if you always work with the same server). Shortcuts can be created per management tool for multiple-server scenarios.
• ORF 5 Setup comes in two versions: a full setup and a freely distributable Management Tools-only setup.

Security and network facts (nobody likes opening ports in the firewall, right?):

• Accessing the service requires an administrator-configured password.
• The default communication port is TCP/6242 (can be changed per interface).
• Communication is HTTP-based – a slightly modified version of the SOAP protocol, typically used for Web Services.
• The password is never stored directly on the computer (only hash on the server, salted hash on the clients).
• Secured challenge-response authentication. No plain-text password is sent over the network. VPN can be employed for additional security.
• Service can be restricted to specific local interfaces/IPs.
• Access can be granted by client IP addresses.
• HTTP proxies are supported by the communication protocol.

And now a few screenshots.

What do you think? Will you use this feature? Got any questions? Feel free to comment.

In the early days of planning ORF 5, we took a short break from the usual rush to see where we are now with ORF.

It was refreshing – frankly I could almost feel the summer ocean breeze. Focusing on a single thing for an entire week feels like luxury in a small team, where so few people have so many responsibilities.

It was also a break worth taking, because ORF has changed a lot since the launch back in 2002. What we have found was a fully grown product, reaching and surpassing competitors in its core functionality of spam filtering. A couple of months later our success on the VBSpam test series just underlined this – 5 testing rounds, 5 awards, over 700,000 emails, 99.11% spam catch rate, 0.0017% false positives (that is, one case of false positive for every 58422 emails).

So when the question came up “What is the best way to add value to ORF now?”, we felt this time the right answer is not just to add another spam filtering technology.

If you are into sci-fi like me, you probably know the closer your spaceship gets to the speed of light, the same increase in the velocity will require more and more energy. Similarly, in spam filtering, improving the spam catch rate by 0.5% from 99% will take tremendously more effort than from 95%. Also, the closer you get to 100% the higher the chance for false positives, similarly how running faster into a standing Vogon fleet would hurt your more (and generally, you do not want to run into Vogons at all).

This is why ORF 5 puts the administrator in focus. Given a fixed time frame, we believed we can add more value on this front. Your travel to Proxima Centauri might take 3 months more, but hey, when your sole company for 4.6 years is your ship’s computer, it better be more entertaining than Marvin the Paranoid Android, right?

In the upcoming articles in this series, we will look into the features ORF 5 has to offer and examine how they help the administrator’s work, from Configuration Synchronization to Asynchronous UI Notifications. On the TCO/ROI side, we will hear my colleague Andras Sűdy talking about how ORF cuts TCO and increases ROI. Ok, seriously, he will talk about the new ORF website, licensing and partner program – listen to the guy, he knows all the business kung-fu!

Stay tuned. See you next week and stay away from Vogons.