The mailhub is undergoing a major upgrade. Four new servers have been purchased. Instead of simply replacing three servers that are over three years old, we are taking the opportunity to change the configuration of the mailhub system (a diagram is included at the end of this article). The changes will improve the service in a number of ways.

The virus scanning of incoming email will take place as far as possible in "real time". This should significantly reduce the number of error messages generated as a result of virus activity. Such error messages are a nuisance as many viruses spoof the sender address resulting in error messages being received by people who have nothing to do with sending the virus.

The virus scanning engine is being changed. Currently we use McAffee's vscan. We are planning to change to using Sophos and Clam. Sophos is another leading commercial virus scanning product and Clam is an open source product widely used by large organisations and ISPs. There are some technical advantages to using these in a mailhub environment and use of different scanners at the hub than those in use on the desktop will offer greater protection from email based malware.

The administrative server, which provides the management software for mailhub services is being replaced with faster hardware to handle increased loads. This should improve responses to web based interfaces, including Majorcool and the mail redirection software.

The changes are taking place over the next few weeks. There should be no noticeable disruption to email services and no action is required by end users or server administrators. However, there will be changes in the way that some error messages are generated.