Mail issues

[kerrso05]

Sorry about that guys......stupid me. I had my settings wrongly set at one day check....changed it to every four hours. Now it is showing the Spam Attack.
Thanks for that

Harry
PS should I change that every hour check? ........or even less

[Sebby]

My mail (to my own domain) is proving to be more reliable than IDNet's even though I manage the mail server 

Perhaps IDNet have got a position for you.

[Sebby]

PS should I change that every hour check? ........or even less

It's up to you really. There's no harm in reducing it to every hour, and it'll at least be more up to date.

[Rik]

Same here, I've had the RSS feeds.

Can someone explain why a domain name email is more robust than idnet's? I have used a domain name in the past and present to keep the same email address.Is it the common address i.e @idnet.com that makes them easier to target successfully?

It isn't inherently, Steve. OTOH, providing email is their core business, as Sebby says. TBH. I sense that IDNet regard the idnet.com addresses as 'giveaways' with the ADSL package, hence on the last two occasions, idnet.com has been down while the 'paid for' idnet.co.uk addresses have been fine.

One thing I can't understand is why a spam attack should take the server file system down.  I can understand it would fill up the disk but not why it should corrupt the file system. 

It might also be a good idea if iDNet separated the servers so that mail is on its own dedicated server.

[Sorry Mods - this might have been better on the thread below "The recent spam attack"]

Hi Tac

Apparently, the spam hitting the server coincided with a peak in Apache activity, possibly caused by one of the sites hosted on the server.

I agree with you, personally, I feel the time has come for a dedicated mail server.

[Simon_idnet]

Trevor is still running the file system check routines. We cannot boot the machine until it has finished these checks.
Simon

[Tacitus]

Apparently, the spam hitting the server coincided with a peak in Apache activity, possibly caused by one of the sites hosted on the server.

That's unfortunate rather than incompetence although had mail been on a separate server it probably would not have happened...

I agree with you, personally, I feel the time has come for a dedicated mail server.

Definitely!  ServerS rather than one alone - they should also have full back up and fall back arrangements.  TBH I think iDNet really need to get a grip on this.  Their whole shtick is to offer a premium service albeit at a slightly higher price than the norm.  On the whole they succeed, but 3 mail failures in the short time I've been hanging out here does not fill me with confidence.  Demon's mail servers may be like a sloth on Mogadon at times, but total failures are relatively rare.

[Steve]

It must be the name. I knew a Trevor once, ginger hair, bit odd went off to learn how to bake cakes.

[Lance]

Thanks for the update, Simon.

[Simon_idnet]

For outgoing mail service (while smtp.idnet.com is offline) you are welcome to use smtp.idnet.net

This is a large Linux machine which hosts a lot of mail. This means that there are millions of files spread across the RAID filsystems. The Operating System has detected a number of 'errors' that it is fixing. At this time we are not sure is these 'errors' are bad disk sectors (that would result in lost data) or just simply orphaned files (which you get with mail servers). However, the OS will not boot until it has marked the Filesystem as clean. This process has been running since yesterday afternoon but unfortunately does not indicate how far through it has progressed i.e. it could be 99% of the way through or only 50%

We apologise for the inconvenience.
Simon

[cavillas]

Thanks for that update Simon.  I use my Gmail address for most of my commercial emails so I let them take all the starin and spam .  Idnet mail server is use donly for personal and other known specific contacts.  Never had much of a problem since using it this way.

[talos2]

 Worked with a Trevor once, we used to call him Clever Trevour !

                    Oh well, just thought you'd like to know

[kerrso05]

 cavillas  I do the same. I treat my Idnet address as my private personal address and only give it out to my private contacts so that very little (if any) spam hits my Idnet Email address. I don't know why a lot of people are getting annoyed about this, as this very rarely happens. It's not Idnet's fault some low life is attacking it's Server and I am sure Idnet is doing it's best to resolve the problem (not like my previous Internet Service Provider)

Idnet 

Harry

[Rik]

I think the reason for the annoyance, Harry, is that this is fourth time since October that mail has been affected.

[Simon]

Thanks for the update, Simon.  Fingers crossed for the better outcome.

[Dangerjunkie]

Neither SMTP server is available for me ATM.

IMHO POP3 and SMTP should be on separate machines as well as definitely not sharing with any hosting. I host my email elsewhere but I rely on the IDNet SMTP server for my business. Please can something be done so that an attack on the POP server doesn't take it down?

Thanks,
Paul.

[Rik]

I know Simon D is monitoring this thread, Paul, so I am sure he will see your message. I think you echo the concern of many of us about the robustness of the mail system.

[jonmalco]

If I have been collecting my emails every minute and then the server went down, will I be less likely to suffer any lost emails due to corruption on the server?  As I presume any sent now will just bounce back.

[sebt]

I'm also concerned about loss of email. With this outage, what's happened to mail in my mailbox, and what about any new mail that I've been sent?

11:26 and POP access is still down. Any idea when it will be back up? (24 hours without email is starting to be a problem for me since I use it for work).

Seb

[Tacitus]

......I think you echo the concern of many of us about the robustness of the mail system.

There seems to be general agreement that the mail system needs urgently reviewing and done completely separately with the necessary robustness/backup systems built in.

What may be happening is that iDNet have grown (a good thing  ) and some of the systems are no longer up to the job.  Might be they need to take some time out and review the complete setup asking themselves, 'will this be up to it if we put on x amount of additional growth'?

[Rik]

Jon & Sebt

Unfortunately, I don't have any more information than I've already posted. I can only advise you to contact IDNet directly.

You're right, Tac, this may be a case of growth, or a failure either in hardware (I'd hope not, it was replaced last October) or housekeeping or maintenance. Whatever the cause, once IDNet have things running again, I believe they need to take an urgent look at what went wrong and why, then sort it.

[sebt]

@Rik

I can't speak for Jon, but my questions were directed more to Simon_idnet who I know monitors here.

Just hope email is up soon!

Seb

[Rik]

He's here now.

[Tacitus]

..... this may be a case of growth.....

Problem with growth is that it's a two edged sword.  iDNet coming under a spam attack means they're now sufficiently well known to be on the radar.  Good for business since a growth in numbers means they are more secure.  A Bad Thing™, in that being better known/more successful, means you attract all sorts of undesirables along with the 'good' ones. 

Sadly, I think this might be something of a 'coming of age' for them.  A sign they've 'arrived', but also one that now they're playing in a harsher environment.

I don't have any doubt they'll succeed, but possibly a hard lesson.  I should add that I wish them every success - they deserve it.

[cavillas]

I think maybe one of the bigger, nastier isp's have done this.. After all They don't like competition when it is superior to their own service (s).

[Simon_idnet]

Hi Sebt

Our border mail servers will be storing the mail destined for smtp.idnet.com for 72 hours.
Regards
Simon