The Bruce Telecom email server allocates 1 gigabyte of storage space to each of your Bruce Telecom email addresses.  What this means is that you can safely store up to 1 gigabyte of mail content on the mail server.  This limit is not applied to messages stored solely on your computer or other device. 

When your email address exceeds 80% of the available storage space allocated to it on the mail server, you will begin to receive automatically generated messages letting you know that you are approaching your maximum storage on the server.  These messages will never contain a “log in” link or request your email password in any form.

If you receive one of these messages, you will need to access your Bruce Telecom mailbox and remove any excess mail.  It is important to do so as soon as possible as, once the mailbox hits 1 gigabyte of storage, incoming messages will be unable to be delivered.  Think of it like an overstuffed mailbox at the post office; eventually, nothing more will fit.

Generally, the fastest way to assess and clean up your mailbox will be to log in using our webmail portal.  You can access it here or through the menus on our website.  Once you have logged in, you will be able to view any and all email that is currently being stored on our server for you, and prune the mailbox from there.

If you are using a mail client, check your mail settings to ensure that the program is set to occasionally delete messages from the server.  Often you can choose when and how this will occur.  If you are using IMAPv4, your mail program should send the delete command to our server whenever you empty your deleted items folder in the program.

If you require additional assistance or explanation of how best to manage your mailbox size, please contact our technical support team and we will happily help you.

A phishing email is an attempt to “fish” for personal or account information through the fraudulent impersonation of a legitimate service or entity.  Quite often, this will take the form of a counterfeit email message requesting confirmation of information such as:

• Account names and passwords
• Personally identifying information
• Payment information

Frequently, the sender will utilize scare tactics to extract the information – for instance, the message may claim that if the requested information is not provided, your services will be deactivated or, ironically, that the request is to prevent potential fraudulent account activity.  Here is an example of a phishing email purporting to be from Bruce Telecom:

There are several characteristics of this example that can be used to identify a phishing message.  While the senders address in this case has been omitted, it was not a Bruce Telecom email address.  Additionally, there are grammatical errors and logical inconsistencies.  For instance, the email claims that incoming mail has been placed on hold due to the account requiring activation – yet the email message is being sent to the same address they claim cannot currently receive mail. 

Perhaps most importantly towards identifying phishing emails purported to be from Bruce Telecom:

Bruce Telecom will never request your account number or password via email. Any important account changes or communication will occur over the phone or in person.  If you are unsure of the legitimacy of any communication you receive from Bruce Telecom, never hesitate to call us, or call us back to verify the information.

POP3 and IMAPv4 are both examples of mail protocols that are used to send and receive email.  Your experience using either protocol will be largely similar; however there are some key differences that you may need to be aware of:

• POP3: The older of the two protocols, POP3 allows your email program to send and receive mail through a central mail server.  What is unique about the POP3 protocol when compared to the IMAPv4 protocol is that when utilizing POP3 your mail client will log on to the central email server and directly download any new email that has arrived for you.  Typically, it will not leave a copy of these messages on the server for retrieval by other devices unless you have specifically enabled this option within your mail program settings.  More current mail programs and many smart phone devices do have the option to leave a copy of messages on the server enabled by default.
  
  A consequence of this style of email retrieval is that when a message is deleted on your receiving device, you may in fact be deleting the only copy of that message.  Additionally, any folders you create within your mail program will not be shared with the server – they will only exist on your computer or device.

• IMAPv4: This is a newer protocol, relative to POP3, that still allows your email program to send and receive mail through a central mail server.  What is unique about the IMAPv4 protocol when compared to the POP3 protocol is that when utilizing IMAPv4 your mail client will log on to the central email server and synchronize with its contents. To put it another way, the content on the mail server will remain on the mail server, and your mail client will display what is there without removing it.  This ensures the mail is available for all devices that you have set up to access the mail account.
  
  It is also important to keep in mind that this protocol is a two way street.  More specifically: if a message is deleted on the server, it will also be deleted on any devices that utilize IMAPv4 to access the account.  Likewise, if you delete a message on one of your devices you can expect it to be deleted from both the server and your other devices.  This makes mailbox management simple, but should be kept in mind when deleting mail from the inbox on one of your devices.  Similarly, any folders you create on your devices will also be synchronized with the server.

Ultimately, the mail protocol you utilize is at your discretion – there are advantages and potential disadvantages to either method.  That being said, many people find that the increased integration between devices that IMAPv4 offers is both convenient and intuitive.