Runbox 7 Webmail closed beta test

Runbox 7

We are excited to announce the closed beta test phase of Runbox 7 Webmail!

This release is not merely an upgrade to our existing services, it’s a bold step into a new world of Webmail apps that will provide unprecedented speed and usability.

Runbox 7 aims to be the fastest webmail on the planet with:

Screenshot sample of Runbox 7 Webmail
Screenshot sample of Runbox 7 Webmail
  • Instant folder views and search results.
  • Endless, smooth scrolling of folder contents.
  • Drag & drop message selection and moving to folders.
  • Incremental, instant search functionality.

The new webmail will be the cornerstone of Runbox 7, and is the first of several development stages that will culminate in a completely new user interface.

Please read on for details about Runbox 7 Webmail and how you can participate in the closed beta test.

Superior speed

Runbox 7 started with a crazy idea:

How can we create a webmail that’s not just faster, but responds instantly?

The solution we developed is a combination of database accelerated email storage, innovative message indexing, and cutting-edge web technology.

When you log into Runbox 7 Webmail, you enter a modern webmail environment built with Angular 5 and Material Design. Your email folders and messages will be shown instantly, giving you an immediate overview of your email.

The spacious layout, clean lines, and powerful engine lets you efficiently navigate the new features and get down to the business of effectively managing your email.

Incremental search

Incremental search
Incremental search

One of the core features of Runbox 7 Webmail is its search capabilities. We have built the search functionality in such a way that the browser doesn’t need to query the server at all.

Not only that, but this webmail will show you search results incrementally while you are typing in the Search field.

You have better things to do than waiting for search results, so we put a lot of effort into making the search function as fast as possible — and this is as fast as it’s possible to get.

Lots of cool functionality

Infinite listing: No more clicking back and forth to navigate your Inbox — just scroll down and the next messages will load automatically.

Threaded view: Want to see your messages in conversation view? Just tick the Threaded checkbox to the top right.

Unread messages: Only interested in the latest news? Tick the Unread checkbox.

Multi-select messages: Want to select many messages in a hurry? Just click the check box  of a message, and drag up or down while holding the mouse button down to select several messages in a row.

Runbox 7 preview pane
Runbox 7 preview pane

Preview pane: Who has time to actually open a message? Just select one in the list and a preview will be shown in the bottom half of the message list pane. To see more, click the ^ arrow in the preview menu.

Hide folders: Want more space for your messages? Just click the icon to the left of the Search area to hide the folder pane.

Draft Desk

Runbox 7 Draft Desk
Runbox 7 Draft Desk

Another key feature of Runbox 7 Webmail is the Draft Desk — a completely new way of  managing drafts.

In our world of non-stop online communication, we often find ourselves multitasking and working on several threads in parallel. With our new Draft Desk you get a full overview of the messages you are currently working on, previewed side by side in an efficient interface.

Simply click on a draft preview to expand it, write down your thoughts, and send, save, or close the message to return to it later.

Mobile ready

We believe that you shouldn’t have to switch between different apps or user interfaces just because you switch between a laptop, a tablet, or a smart phone.

Therefore we built Runbox 7 Webmail to be mobile-ready and responsive from the ground up. This means that it will automatically adapt to your device’s screen size and orientation while retaining the basic functionality you are used to from a regular browser.

Join the closed beta test

To join the closed beta test of Runbox 7 Webmail, contact support@nullrunbox.com with the subject “Runbox 7 Webmail beta test”. If you are selected to participate, we will then be in touch with further details.

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TLS Upgraded for Incoming Email

Today we have upgraded the TLS (Transport Layer Security) of our incoming email servers to support version 1.2, which is the most recent. This means that when email is sent to Runbox from other services, the highest level of encryption will be used if the other service supports it.

This also means that all communication between your email program and Runbox now uses TLS 1.2 (if supported by your email program).

 

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Spam filter upgrades and policies

New Spam Filter Servers

As part of our ongoing fight against spam, Runbox has recently deployed a new cluster of spam filter servers and made a few changes to how we deal with spam.

We now block a lot more spam by rejecting connections from servers that are known to send spam. Most of these connections are from virus infected computers, and it is relatively easy to identify these machines via their IP addresses.

Another change we’ve made is to upgrade SpamAssassin so that it performs more extensive checks of incoming mail.

This is the first among several steps we are taking to clear your Inbox of spam, and we will post more news about this in the near future.

Changes to Bulk Mailing Policy

We’ve also decided to tighten our policies on bulk mailing using Runbox’ outgoing email servers to prevent Runbox from ending up on blacklists used by other email services.

As email use continues to grow and more people around the world are online, so does the amount of email sent for marketing and promotional reasons. Often mailing lists are badly managed and people receive email they no longer want, so they mark them as spam instead of unsubscribing from them.

Meanwhile spam systems are getting smarter, and email providers create statistics from the actions of their customers. If a customer marks a message as spam (whether it is spam or not), this is recorded in a database, and it can result in those domains and server IP addresses being blocked.

Only a very small number of Runbox customers use our services for marketing and promotional messages, but this can still have an adverse affect on all Runbox customers. Therefore we have decided that Runbox can no longer be used for bulk mailing, and we are now changing our Terms of Service to reflect this.

If you are using, or are planning to use, Runbox for bulk mailings, please see our page about Bulk Mailing and contact Runbox Support.

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New IMAP Server Software

We are pleased to announce the official launch of our new IMAP server software.

We’ve been extensively testing and improving the new Dovecot-based software in an open beta phase for several months. We are now very happy with how it’s performing, and it resolves several issues with our current IMAP software (see below).

We will therefore be moving to the new software and will retire our existing Courier-based IMAP servers. Since the new software uses a more standardized configuration, all IMAP users will need to change their settings by December 1, 2015.

Note: If you have already changed your email client’s settings as part of the open beta phase you don’t need to do anything.

(more…)

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Projects in the pipeline 2015

We have worked hard on upgrading our email server park to accommodate all our new customers — and things will only get better: Based on our recent success, our shareholders decided to invest fresh capital to start several new projects that will take Runbox to the next level.

To boost IMAP performance and improve the experience especially for iPhone and iPad users we will soon deploy new Dovecot-based IMAP software.

We have started implementing an SSD (Solid-state Drive) based storage strategy to dramatically improve the performance of our email storage units. SSDs are up to 100 times faster than regular, rotating disks, so this will improve the speed of our IMAP services.

We are also expanding our server park with new servers and upgrades to continue improving reliability and overall performance.

Projects planned for 2015

We will continue working hard to ensure the privacy and security of your data, and have the following projects lined up for next year:

  • Implementation of two-factor authentication for improved login security.
  • Integration of PGP email encryption with our Webmail in order to make PGP easier to use with Runbox (note that you can already use PGP in your email client).
  • Improvements and upgrades to our spam servers and software to keep up with the ever-present spam challenge.
  • Implementation of a CalDAV server for calendar synchronization.

We look forward to continue providing great email services in the year to come.

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New Webmail design: Runbox Aero

2014 has been an exciting year for Runbox and we’ve seen a substantial increase in popularity and growth. This has really boosted our progress — we now have several major upgrades in the pipeline, and we are very happy to be launching a new Webmail design!

Runbox Aero PreviewWe’ve called the new design Runbox Aero because it’s lighter, airier, and simpler — and it makes using email a breeze!

Runbox Aero is inspired by modern, state-of-the-art design, and we have listened carefully to feedback from you in order to make it both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly.

You can try the new design now by going to
Webmail > Preferences and selecting Runbox Aero from the drop-down menu. Make sure you click Save Settings afterwards!

You will quickly notice some of the improvements, but the following changes are worth mentioning:

Modernized look

  • The font face has been replaced with a larger, lighter, and more modern font. A bolder font face is available in an alternative design.
  • The header has been shrunk to make more room for your email.
  • All the icons have been redesigned and optimized for retina (high resolution) displays.
  • All buttons have been enlarged and are now dark blue to make them easier to see.

Better menu navigation

  • The sub-menus have been enlarged to make them easier to navigate.
  • The Compose button has been moved to the far left and made more prominent.
  • The Folder Management button has been removed — just click Folders at the top of the folder list or the Folder Management link underneath it to access the Folders screen.
  • The Read, Unread, Flag, and Unflag buttons can now be accessed by hovering the cursor over the new Mark button.

Simplified Compose screen

  • The Compose screen has been simplified to only show the most important fields. To see the BCC, Attachments, Tags, and Nicknames fields, just click “Show all fields”.

We hope you like the new design, and please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions!

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Scheduled maintenance Jan 9; brief downtime

Our sysadmins will replace two switches in our network Thursday January 9 at around 18:00 CET (12 noon EST). This will probably cause some short periods of downtime for the Runbox email services while traffic shifts from one path to the other.

No email will be lost or rejected as a consequence of this maintenance. Our US based web hosting services will not be affected.

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Server upgrade underway [Completed]

As previously announced we’re now taking down one of the application servers in order to upgrade it.

Most likely only some users will be affected while others can keep using the email service normally while the upgrade takes place.

We will keep you updated here as the work progresses.

UPDATE 08:22 CET: We have installed the Flash Cache and are rebooting the server.

UPDATE 08:32 CET: We’re reconfiguring the server to work with the new Flash Cache.

UPDATE 09:00 CET: We’ve encountered some complications and will try a couple more things before reverting.

UPDATE 09:41 CET: We have problems with the upgraded kernel/network card combo and are trying to solve this now. We apologize for going outside the scheduled downtime window.

UPDATE 10:24 CET: We’re now installing a new network card to resolve incompatibilities.

UPDATE 11:01 CET: We’re still working hard to resolve remaining conflicts. Meanwhile, you can use the new Runbox 6 Webmail at https://rmm6.runbox.com, but note that some users won’t be able to open messages until we finish the upgrade.

UPDATE 11:17 CET: We are back up and fully operational again. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused by the prolonged downtime. 

UPDATE 13:50 CET: It seems we forgot to remove the redirect on runbox.no. This is fixed now! www.runbox.no

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Server upgrade and scheduled downtime

In order to improve the performance of our email services we will perform a server upgrade with the scheduled downtime window:

*** Wednesday, February 6 at 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM CET ***

(7:00-8:00 GMT / 2:00-3:00 AM EST / 11:00-12:00 AM Feb 5 PST)

This means that the Runbox email services to be unavailable for up to 1 hour while the upgrade take place.

The downtime should be outside business hours for most of our customers, but we know you depend on your Runbox email and we will work as efficiently as possible. It shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes, but the downtime window is set to 1 hour to be safe.

Incoming email will be queued on our servers and will be delivered once our system is fully operational again.

What you can do

If you usually check your email during this time, please log on either well before or after that interval on Wednesday.

To keep updated you can check our Blog at http://blog.runbox.com and Twitter at
https://twitter.com/Runbox.

What we are doing

We are installing a Flash Cache on one of our application servers to improve the performance of disk access when email clients open email on the server.

This is done as a measure to increase the I/O (input/output) capacity of the server until we acquire new and more powerful servers.

We apologize if the upgrade causes any inconvenience for you and appreciate your understanding!

Thank you,

The Runbox Team

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Server replacements and scheduled downtime

In order to complete improvements to our email services we are scheduling the following downtime:

*** Thursday, December 20 at 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM CET ***

(5:30-7:30 GMT / 12:30-2:30 AM EST / 9:30-11:30 PM Dec 11 PST)

This means that the Runbox email services to be unavailable for up to 2 hours while the work takes place.

The downtime should be outside business hours for most of our customers, but we know you depend on your Runbox email and we will work as efficiently as possible.

Incoming email will be queued on other servers and will be delivered once the system is fully operational again.

What you can do

If you usually check your email during this time, please log on either well before or after that interval on Thursday.

To keep updated you can check our Blog at http://blog.runbox.com and Twitter at https://twitter.com/Runbox.

What we are doing

We are completing work started last week, switching to new and powerful database servers. This replacement will improve both the performance and reliability of our email services.

Why it is being done

This is part of our server upgrade plan in which most of our servers are being replaced and/or virtualized.

By replacing or virtualizing our servers we greatly improve the reliability of our email services since we will not only be running better hardware, but will be able to move services across our servers much more easily.

We apologize if the upgrade causes any inconvenience for you and appreciate your understanding!

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