This page covers the most frequently asked questions related to Google Message Security service.

	What equipment/systems do I need?
	How does the service work?
	What is involved in activating my service?
	How will my users' email experience change?
	How secure is my mail going to and from Google?
	What are your service level agreements?
	How does the service detect viruses?
	How does the service detect spam?
	Can users make their own adjustments to spam settings and allowed senders?

What equipment/systems do I need?
Google Message Security works with all common email servers, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus Domino, Postfix, Sendmail, Macintosh OS X Server, and Novell Groupwise. The Message Security service can be also be used with most service providers and ISPs, but for filtering inbound email only.

How does the service work?
You change your MX records to point your email traffic through our Postini-powered data centers. To fully protect your organization, Google recommends that all customers configure their gateway to accept email traffic (port 25) for only the Google IP range. After activation, you can add users through the Administration Console and configure your filtering policies.

What is involved in activating my service?
After you place your order, we send you an email with an activation key to access our simple activation wizard. Then, you will need to work with your email administrator or ISP to switch your MX records (information that directs your email flow). MX record changes usually take two to four days to propagate completely. We provide step-by-step instructions to help you through the activation process.

After activation, you can set up your message filtering policies, and if you've purchased Message Discovery, configure message archiving for your organization.

How will my users' email experience change?
Your users will no longer have to spend hours sorting through spam. You will also see a tremendous reduction in your overall in email traffic (Google stops the bad traffic in the cloud). Also, most customers notice a dramatic drop in their mail server utilization on the first day the service is enabled. This gives you more scalability with your existing systems.

How secure is my mail going to and from Google?
Since the services processes email in real-time (the RAM memory of our systems in our data centers) valid messages are not written to disk and cannot be lost. Additionally, you as a customer can configure the service to deliver your messages via Transport Layer Security (TLS). TLS can be configured for outbound email as well. If a TLS connection cannot be established, the message will be returned rather than sent over a standard connection.

What are your service level agreements?
The agreement provides 99.999% service level assurance for email processing. To ensure that our customers are protected against the new and evolving threats, we continually update our anti-spam and anti-virus filters and technology. Plus, your service is automatically updated with the latest protections, so you never have to download any upgrades or patches.

How does the service detect viruses?
Google provides multiple layers of protection against viruses. The service leverages its visibility to emerging threats by monitoring attacks against our customer base and -- in real-time -- blocks IP addresses that are issuing virus attacks. In addition, Google utilities multiple anti-virus protections including zero-hour heuristics, coupled with multiple commercial anti-virus engines to detect existing and emerging threats.

How does the service detect spam?
As with our virus protection, Google leverages visibility into billions of daily message connections to monitor spam attacks, and blocks the most obvious spam. Our heuristic engine then filters the incoming mail traffic and captures any suspicious messages. This is all performed in real-time (processed in RAM memory in our data centers) without delays to your email delivery. With these capabilities, Google combines an extremely effective capture rate with an exceptionally low false-positive rate.

Can users make their own adjustments to spam settings and allowed senders?
With our flexible policy management, users can be permitted to make their own adjustments to their spam settings, release quarantined messages, etc. Or, those controls can be kept within your IT organization or limited to select users. The choice is up to the you, depending on your current policies. If your policies change, you can make changes to who can adjust their spam settings instantly.