Spam in Reverse: When Your Email Client Gets It Wrong

October 29, 2024 Merethe Leave a comment

Spam these days is no joke. Keeping our inboxes tidy can feel like a full-time job, and just when you think you’ve got it under control, an unexpected twist occurs: legitimate emails end up in your Junk folder. Yes, we’re talking about the moment when you realize important messages are hiding away in spam purgatory, thanks to email clients like Apple Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird.

Last week we wrote about a dual spam filter approach using email clients and how to set this up. We also talk about how spam has increased dramatically lately, and the reasons why. Here we look at how legitimate emails can end up in the Junk folder

The Frustration of Missing Emails

We’ve all been there. You’re expecting an important email, maybe a project update or a message from a friend, and it never arrives. You check your inbox—nothing. You start to wonder if they even sent it. Then, on a whim, you dive into your Junk folder, and there they are. Emails you thought were lost, marked as spam by your email client.

But it gets even more frustrating. Sometimes you have already filtered these emails specifically. You added them on your allowlist (what we used to call whitelist) in your Runbox Webmail, meaning you’ve already done the work to ensure they reach your inbox. So, why does your email client override your careful training and send them to Junk anyway?

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Plus-addressing lets you create an alias on the fly

September 5, 2024 Merethe Leave a comment

Email aliases are great – they help organize emails, reduce spam and protect our identity. But sometimes we need a quick way to create an alias without having to log in to our account to set it up. That’s when we can use plus-addressing, or subaddressing.

You simply add a + to your email address followed by a tag.

For example, if your email address is bob@nullrunbox.com, you can create a tag bob+shopping@nullrunbox.com, or bob+news@nullrunbox.com. You can use any tag, and make up as many as you like.

Any email sent to a plus-address is delivered to your account as usual. The message is still addressed to the plus-address, and you can use this in various ways to manage your email.

Plus-addressing benefits

Make up addresses on the fly without having to set anything up in your Runbox account.
Works with any email address, alias or domain.
Use a plus-address to identify sites where you used your email address.
Plus-addresses can help hide your main email address.
Use a different tag for each site so that if one has a data leak you know which one it is.
Filter email to specific folders based on the plus-addressing.
Create a filter to delete email to that particular plus address if it starts receiving spam.

Plus-addressing and email aliases are great tools to manage your email. With a Runbox account you get unlimited plus-addressing and 100 email aliases. If you have your own domain name, you get unlimited aliases. Check out this post for more info about aliases.

You can get more details about plus-addressing here.

To learn about how to create email aliases, check out this blog post.

If you need help, contact Runbox Support.

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Why am I getting so many spam emails?

July 15, 2024 Merethe Leave a comment

You may have noticed that you’re getting a lot more spam email lately, which is frustrating and annoying. You diligently go through these emails and add them to your Spam filter, you block the sender, unsubscribe from mailing lists and so on. The spam emails keep coming…

Why it’s happening

When we sign up for web sites we effectively give them permission to use our email. These companies may sell your email address to other companies who will in turn send you spam.
Whenever there is a data breach on a website where you have subscribed to something, email addresses can be repeatedly sold to other spammers. You can check if your email has been been in a breach here: https://haveibeenpwned.com
Spammers use mechanisms that allow their emails to go through the spam filter. They will use valid email addresses such as a @gmail account, create look-alike domains that will look like a legitimate company, or even spoof your own email address because many people whitelist their own address.
Because of AI, spammers and phishers can very quickly create mass campaigns. Previously, spam was often easily spotted because of bad grammar and lack of personalization (goodbye Nigerian prince). Now, spammers use artificial intelligence to make spam and phishing more convincing, and they use social media, online behavior and public information to generate personalized campaigns. The result is that we are bombarded with spam.

What you can do

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New message action menu, search functionality, and HTML editor in Runbox 7

October 13, 2023 Geir Leave a comment

We have recently upgraded Runbox 7 with a new message list action menu. Per popular request from our customers we have now implemented a new menu that is always shown above the message list, instead of as a popup menu shown only when messages are selected:

We have also upgraded the HTML editor in Compose and added font selections so that you can change the font face when writing messages.

And if you search for email often (like us) you will be happy to know that searches now support date ranges. Here are a few examples of date searches that you can use either directly in the basic search field or via the advanced search pane:

date:2023 All messages in 2023
date:202310 All messages in October 2023
date:20231001 All messages on October 1, 2023
date:2022..2023 All messages from 2022 to (and including) 2023
date:20231001..202311 All messages from October 1, 2023 to (and including) November 2023

For more help on email searches in Runbox 7, please see message search help.

To see all changes to Runbox 7, please go see the Changelog in the app.

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Better search functionality and HTML view controls in Runbox 7

June 9, 2023 Geir Leave a comment

With this release we are adding more advanced search features including date range searches, as well as improved HTML view controls that let you save display preferences per individual sender.

💡 To access these features, ensure that Runbox 7 is updated by reloading it in a web browser or restarting it on your phone.

More advanced search functionality

Search field controls

By clicking the wrench icon next to the search field you can now easily search only for messages that:

Have one or more attachments.
Have been replied to.
Are flagged.
Are unread.

This screenshot shows the advanced search area that provides you with extensive options for message search:

Advanced search screenshot — Advanced search area screenshot

Additionally you can now search by date ranges, for instance messages that were:

Received in 2023: date:2023
Received between 2020 and 2021: date:2020..2021
Received in 2021 or later: date:2021..

Improved HTML message view controls

We have also improved the HTML message view controls that allow you to save HTML and image display preferences for individual senders or for all senders.

The examples below illustrate how this functionality can be used.

HTML view options example 1

Show the text version for the current message:

HTML view options example 2

Show the HTML version with images for all messages from this sender:

Larger popular recipients list

The popular recipients list in Compose has also been improved by increasing the number of contacts from 5 to 10.

The addresses shown beneath the To field can be added to the To field by clicking on them, or dragged to the To, CC, or BCC fields.

Note that this functionality is only available when using the local search index, which is controlled by the “Synchronize index” button in the lower left corner.

Changelog since the previous release

For the more technically inclined, a list of the changes made to Runbox 7 since the previous release can be found below.

Please see https://runbox.com/app/changelog for the complete and categorized changelog.

Commits from fd5c902 to d6c1dca:

Visual changes (preview): Improve formatting of the empty preview pane. (60fcacf)
Visual changes (mailviewer): Increase vertical flexibility of subject field. (364272b)
Visual changes (mail menu): Improve read and unread icons. (93e75ae)
New feature (search): Add more options to advanced search pane. (f2104ac)
Visual changes (preview): Improve HTML display buttons. (16b7a77)
Internal changes (preview): Update test. (7cfda5f)
New feature (search): Enable date range searches (6e8acdb)
New feature (search): Enable Unread Only checkbox only if other options set (45ee5be)
Bug fix (preview): Add tooltip for all senders button. (d86b6eb)
Visual changes (compose): Improve and fix recently used recipients list. (ccbf85b)
Bug fix (payments): Always show “payment not loading” for stripe (ff53567)
Bug fix (payments): Change “payment not loading” to “not working” (e137b26)
Bug fix (payments): Change “legacy” to “alternative” (d6c1dca)

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Security improvements to our services

November 7, 2019 Geir 4 Comments

At Runbox we are continuously working to improve the security of our services. We are now strengthening the security of your web browser’s connection to our servers to ensure that it utilizes modern web security standards.

If you are using an updated version of one of the major web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Edge you will probably not notice any effects. You can then continue using our services just like before, while knowing that the strongest encryption protocols are being utilized.

If you’re using a non-standard or not updated web browser, then please read the information below for more details about these changes and how they may affect you.

Those who are interested in the technical details of these changes may also find this information useful.

What we are doing

When you visit our website the connection between your web browser and our web servers is encrypted. This means that no one can intercept your username, password or any other transmitted data including the content of your email messages.

It’s important to use a modern browser that supports modern encryption methods to prevent that encryption from being broken and compromised. This is essential to web security because hackers increasingly use more powerful computers and techniques in their attempts to decrypt data and eavesdrop on unsuspecting users.

In order to ensure that Runbox is providing the latest and most secure encryption between your browser and our service we will therefore end support for outdated encryption methods.

This entails that we will only support the strongest encryption cipher suites that are compatible with most major web browsers.

It also helps us prevent unauthorized access to our servers and helps keep the Runbox services safe for all of our customers.

On December 1, 2019 we will retire some outdated encryption methods and this might affect some older web browsers.

Once these changes are made the TLS protocol version and cipher suites will be the same for all access methods to our email services, including web, POP, IMAP, and SMTP.

The technical details

You don’t need to delve into all the technical details, but we know many customers are interested in this and it is useful for everyone to stay educated about web security.

The changes involve retiring support for TLS (Transport Layer Security) version 1.0 and 1.1, and only provide support TLS 1.2 or later. We will also only support a small suite of strong encryption cipher suites that are recommended by the reputable organizations Mozilla and OWASP.

TLS 1.2 has been around for 10 years so there has been a long time for browsers to adopt the use of this type of encryption. However, you don’t need to understand anything about this to make any necessary changes.

All the cipher suites we will be utilizing are of the type Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral (DHE), which means that a unique cryptographic key is generated each time a new connection is made.

This in turn means that even in the unlikely event that one set of keys is compromised it cannot be used for another connection made from another client (“forward secrecy”).

An updated list of cipher suites that are supported currently include the following:

ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384
DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256
DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256

More information about these cipher suites can be found on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange

How this may affect you

The vast majority of web browsers already support TLS 1.2 and you are only likely to have a problem if you are using an outdated browser and/or an outdated operating system.

We have tested the following browsers and they all work with the modern encryption that we will use:

Firefox
Chrome
Safari
Opera
Edge

Many other modern browsers are also likely to work with TLS 1.2 and those listed above are just commonly used ones that we have tested.

What you can do

If you are not using an upgraded version of one of the major web browsers listed above, please upgrade your web browser and/or operating system now. This is the most important action you can take to ensure that your data and communications are secure.

If you’re using a web browser not listed above and are unsure whether it will continue to work with the specifications we have provided, we recommend that you keep one of the major web browsers available as an alternative.

We generally recommend Firefox as it is free, standards compliant, and open source, and therefore reviewed by the security community.

Further help

If you need any further information or help on this issue please contact Runbox Support with details of how we can help you.

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The secret behind Runbox 7’s speed

January 26, 2019 Geir 1 Comment

Runbox 7 Webmail recently entered open beta, and if you haven’t tried it yet you are missing out!

When you log into Runbox 7 the first thing you’ll notice — aside from its beautiful design — is the speed.

Your folders and messages will load instantly, and no matter how many messages you have the message list will scroll without delay and without any limit.

Gone are the days of waiting for the next screen-full of messages to load, or having to click to navigate between pages. Switching between folders, sorting the message list, and moving messages — any action you perform is executed instantly.

And the message search is lightning fast — results will show up immediately while you type into the search field. Combined with message threading and inline message previews, this makes email management extremely efficient with Runbox 7.

Under the hood

We have modified Xapian by porting Xapian to WebAssembly using the C to WebAssembly compiler from emscripten, which lets it run both in NodeJS on the server and in the browser. Our fork of Xapian will be merged into Xapian’s repository on Github so that it will become available for others to use.

This is accomplished by utilizing a custom version of the open source Xapian email indexer. We have always been impressed with Xapian’s processing speed, reliability, and adaptability, and it’s ability to index large amounts of messages.

The Runbox 7 Webmail App is open source and is available in our main repo at https://github.com/runbox/runbox7. We encourage you to check out our code base, and invite you to join the Runbox revolution by getting involved in our growing community at https://community.runbox.com!

A separate repo at https://github.com/runbox/runbox-searchindex generates the xapian.wasm module in WebAssembly in C++.

The Xapian database is stored in the browser using IndexedDB, which is available through the IDBFS file system of emscripten.

Combined with a central message database and the use of websockets, this allows the indices to stay in sync when new email arrives on the server and when changes are made locally.

The user interface

The power of the WebAssembly Xapian port is matched by the message listing which is written in HTML5 Canvas. This makes it possible to handle large tables and quick re-rendering, and provides good control of the rendering process.

Ordinary HTML tables would suffer slowdown penalties on sorting, filtering, and resizing, and would require pagination, and would not be efficient enough for our needs.

The Canvas element is wrapped in a user interface written in HTML/Typescript using Angular 2+, and is built using UI elements from https://material.angular.io/.

Mail parsing is done using the HTML parser from Andris Reinmann which is written for NodeJS and can be found here: https://github.com/andris9/mailparser.

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New search function in Runbox 6

December 5, 2018 Geir 11 Comments

We have now replaced the search function in Runbox 6 with an improved version that is based on the groundbreaking search feature we have developed for Runbox 7.

You will find the new search area at the top of the message list when clicking Search in the Webmail menu.

The new search function will show results while you type into the search field, so there is no need to manually click on a Search button.

Note that in Runbox 7 the search function is dramatically faster and returns results instantaneously thanks to its innovative search index synchronization. Runbox 7 also introduces many new features such as infinite message listing, inline message previews, threaded conversation view, and a mobile app version. Give it a test drive!

Search options

By clicking on the wrench icon to the right, the following options will be shown:

to: Search by recipient address
from: Search by sender address
subject: Search by subject line
current folder: Limit search to the current folder
year/month/date: Shows a calendar where you can select a time frame

Selecting an option will insert an example into the search field which you can then modify.

You can also just type these operators directly into the the search field and you can can combine them with the AND operator, like: folder:Inbox AND subject:something

More information can be found on our Help pages.

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Runbox 7 Webmail entering open beta phase

November 21, 2018 Geir 28 Comments

We are excited to announce that the Runbox 7 Webmail beta test is now open to the public!

A large number of improvements and bug fixes have been made since our previous update, including an even faster Webmail, web push notifications on incoming email, and inline message previews.

There is now a Runbox 7 mobile app (Progressive Web App) available too, making Runbox a joy to use on your mobile phone!

We’d like to thank the hundreds of beta testers in our beta test community for all their contributions thus far, and helping us build the fastest webmail app on the planet!

What Runbox 7 Webmail is…

Runbox 7 isn’t merely an upgrade to our existing services, its a bold step into a new world of synchronized Webmail apps that provides unprecedented speed and usability.

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

Runbox 7 Webmail features superior speed, incremental search, infinite listing, message previews, threaded views, a draft desk, as well as a mobile app version.

…and what it isn’t (just yet)

Note that we are initially focusing on the core Webmail service, and that the Runbox 7 Webmail therefore currently only includes this service.

Other areas such as Manager, Files, etc. will be added as we continue working on Runbox 7, so clicking on these menu items in Runbox 7 will currently take you back to Runbox 6.

Runbox 7 roadmap

We have an ambitious plan for the development of Runbox 7, with the following planned activities:

Open beta test phase
Open source Runbox 7 App
Profiles and Contacts integration
Files, Manager, and Settings
End-to-end encryption
Web calendar
Message/task management
Synchronous messaging

How to provide feedback

Our Runbox 7 team is working hard to make Runbox 7 the best webmail app on the planet, and your feedback will help decide what we develop next.

Tell us what you think about Runbox 7 Webmail in our dedicated forum at https://community.runbox.com/. Sign up to the forum using your Runbox email address so that there will be no issues gaining access to the forum.

Note that before you post requests or bug reports, it’s a good idea to review other posts to see if your issue has already been mentioned.

With that out of the way, please find the Runbox 7 Webmail app here:

https://runbox.com/app

We hope you’ll enjoy a modern, user-friendly, beautiful, and above all fast webmail experience!

Screenshots

Check out the screenshots below for a few highlights, and click on each one to bring up a hi-res version with more details.

Message list view

When you first log in to Runbox 7 Webmail you will find a beautiful interface with a design that is clean and efficient, yet packed with features. Its speed can’t be conveyed by a screenshot however, so try it out for yourself to get the real experience.

Two- or three-pane message preview

You can preview messages either in a horizontal pane beneath the message list, or to the right of the message list as shown below.

Draft Desk

The Draft Desk shows your current drafts in a convenient desk-like layout.

Ready for a test drive?

Just head to https://runbox.com/app and then join our community at community.runbox.com to take part in the Runbox revolution!

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Runbox 7 Webmail app for mobile phones

October 10, 2018 Geir 19 Comments

We are making great progress with the Runbox 7 Webmail app and we are very excited that a version customized for mobile phones is now available for our beta testers!

This version is what is called a Progressive Web App (PWA), built on emerging technologies that combine the open standards of the web to provide a rich mobile experience on your phone or tablet.

How do I use the mobile app?

If you’re using an Apple device you can access the mobile app by first opening the regular address of the Runbox 7 Webmail app in the Safari browser, and then tapping the Share icon in the bottom menu bar. Then tap “Add to Home Screen” to add the Runbox 7 Webmail app to your phone.