C I Host Offers New Network-wide Spam Filter That Puts Clients in Control of Blocking Unwanted E-mails [27th May 2003]

BEDFORD, Texas, May 27, 2003 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- With spam continuing to take online mailboxes hostage, C I Host (www.cihost.com), now offers an extensive suite of anti-spam tools that put the customer in control of what e-mails should be blocked from their online mailboxes. In fact, spam has become such an overpowering issue that in less than one day, C I Host successfully blocked over 1 million spam e-mails from its network.

The new anti-spam tools are available to C I Host customers on both Windows and UNIX mail servers. These tools empower the end-user to define for themselves what constitutes 'spam' for e-mail blocking.

According to Web search engine, Yahoo, unsolicited bulk e-mail, or spam, has been estimated to cost businesses about $8 billion a year in lost hours by employees and wasted resources. More than 40 percent of e-mail traffic now consists of spam, and some industry experts fear that a continued rise in this annoying e-mail will eventually render the electronic communications system unusable.

A company of 10,000 employees currently loses more than $13 million a year in lost productivity due to spam, according to market research firm Gartner, and the problem is getting worse.

Many states have enacted legislation to stop people who send these irritating e-mails, or 'spammers.' Many more states are on the cusp of creating similar laws. However, C I Host is proactively providing its customers with a powerful set of tools for those who want additional weapons to fight this annoyance.

"Unsolicited e-mails have become a problem of epidemic proportions and we are continually looking at ways to provide solutions for our clients," said Christopher Faulkner, CEO of C I Host. "This has become a tremendous productivity drain for businesses -- both in time and bandwidth -- and we will continually look at the best, and most efficient ways to battle problems like this."

One of the controversies surrounding unsolicited e-mails has been the issue of censorship and who has the right to define what e-mails make up 'spam.' C I Host takes that question out of the equation by creating controls that allow individuals to dictate what types of e-mails they receive.

Anti-spam legislation is controversial, and many in the industry believe it would be better to allow the Internet to develop ways to handle the problem without government interference. Many of the country's largest corporations are lobbying against anti-spam legislation because they fear it would unfairly restrict e-mail marketing.

"Spam is certainly a serious problem, especially that which is pornographic or fraudulent, but the answer lies with encouraging the industry to take the initiative," Faulkner said. "Legislation could easily backfire, and the last thing the country needs now is another blow to the economy. That makes efforts like those undertaken by C I Host all the more important."

About C I Host

C I Host (www.cihost.com), is a Web hosting and Internet solutions provider, domain name registrar (DNR) and application service provider (ASP) serving 190,000 individual consumers and businesses in 179 countries worldwide.

C I Host creates business-class hosting solutions for the small- and medium-enterprise (SME) market, with the broadest portfolio of managed hosting and value-added services in the industry.

C I Host has been consistently ranked among the Top 5 Web hosting companies out of 16,000 around the globe by sources such as CNET's Ultimate Web Host List, HostPulse, WebHostsOnline.com and HostChart.com. C I Host offers turnkey services ranging from initial domain name registration to custom dedicated servers for e-commerce on today's Web.

C I Host operates three diverse data centers across the United States, with its main facility and Network Operations Center in Bedford, Texas. C I Host also has offices in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and London.

SOURCE C I Host

Nancy St. Pierre of C I Host, +1-817-691-0025, cell, or
1-888-868-9931, ext. 7006, nancys@cihost.com