Sort Once(TM), an email hosting service for businesses and individuals, today announced enhanced virus protection for all of its customers at no additional charge. Sort Once scans email for viruses with always up-to-date anti-virus data and blocks them before they infect the user's PC.

According to the research firm Computer Economics, the number of computer viruses was expected to rise 22 percent in 2002. While anti-virus software is increasingly popular, consumers' failure to obtain regular updates is a leading cause of the rapid spread of viruses.

"Many consumers don't bother to buy and install anti-virus software or don't regularly download virus updates," said Tom Snyder, Sort Once President and founder. "With Sort Once, all of the filtering is done on our servers, so users are always protected. Our goal is to give our customers the benefit of the most powerful email technologies with the convenience and peace of mind that these tools provide."

Sort Once employs IMAP technology offering email hosting for small businesses, individuals and road warriors. Users can consolidate e-mail from multiple accounts and permanently sort and manage their email from any PC on the Internet. The service includes features such as spam filtering, 50 megabytes of storage and permanent email backup.

Sort Once features include:
-- Virus protection
-- Spam Filtering
-- Obscene Message Filtering
-- Centralized management of email
-- Secure connection to email
-- Offline operation capability
-- 50 megabytes of storage, standard
-- Email is backed up on a centralized server
-- Email is archived onto CD-ROM yearly
-- Tech support

"We had a rash of virus infected emails," said Brent Bennett, Systems Developer at Time Warner Cable and Sort Once user. "It was comforting to know that with the automatic Sort Once virus scanning, those emails had no way of infecting my computer."

Pricing and availability

Sort Once is $5.95 per month or $7.95 per month for an enhanced account. Pricing for business, groups and organizations, or resellers for five or more email accounts is also available.

About Sort Once

Sort Once, a division of ForwardCenter, Inc., provides centralized email handling services for small businesses, families, individuals and road warriors. Sort Once refined the IMAP technology to function the way users are used to email working. It works seamlessly with the most popular email programs, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger and Qualcomm Eudora. For more information, visit www.sortonce.com.