the recent spam attack

[merlin]

how is it possible (without being too technical) for a massive spam attack to bring down idnet.
i would expect they have plenty of protection, so when id's protection system detected an attack why didn't it imediatly shut down ,and thereby minimise the attack, before the whole system came down ??

i am not getting at idnet, who i think are very good , i,m just curious to know why the protection system appears to have failed 

[Simon]

I think that's what everyone, including IDNet, want to know, Merlin, and I'm sure there will be an investigation once things are up and running again.

[sobranie]

Can't really see that the protection system failed .... if anything it seems to have been too efficient in this instance

[Malc]

Just curious, but what happens to email's waiting? Do they back up and come through later, or are they rejected?

[kinmel]

Just curious, but what happens to email's waiting? Do they back up and come through later, or are they rejected?

The sender's server will keep trying to deliver, usually for 24 hours or more. After that the mail should be returned to the sender as undelivered.

[Malc]

The sender's server will keep trying to deliver, usually for 24 hours or more. After that the mail should be returned to the sender as undelivered.

Thanks

[Sebby]

I wonder if, once the server was rebooted, it was accepting emails, but wasn't able to deliver them to the mailboxes, or whether they would be rejected...

[Simon]

Last time there was a problem, Simon & Co managed to rescue things with zero data loss, so hopefully the same will happen here, but of course, until the systems are up and running again, I suppose there's no guarantees.

[Rik]

Especially as, when I last was able to contact Simon D, he was still watching the server try to re-build itself.

From what I can make out, the spam being held back by the grey-list servers was released in an effort to clear the delays. Pat, the idnet.co.uk server, has a premium spam package on it and was able to cope. Trevor, the idnet.com server - which also carries the webspace and, I understand some hosted sites, was not, as it has a lower-grade protection package. It's been manually re-started at lunchtime and has been trying to reconstruct itself since then.

[Sebby]

I see. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't think the spam system on Trevor is so great if IDNet are having to make a decision to manually release messages. Theoretically, it shouldn't be causing delays in the first place.

[Rik]

Not of that sort, certainly.

[Simon]

It seems to me that an investment is required to upgrade Trevor.  Email is a core component of any residential broadband package, and should be as reliable as the ADSL service itself.  Three major email failures in 12 months is too many, in my book, and one thing I have to concede to Pipex is that their email service was rock solid, and never let me down in 5 years.

[Sebby]

I agree, Simon, but then Pipex had no spam filtering whatsoever...

[Simon]

No, but I got no spam either. 

[Sebby]

Really? That's impressive! All of our Pipex addresses were complete and utter spam magnets, despite us being very careful.

[Ann]

Tiscali's email was down every week  

[Gary]

I pay £12 a year which is not a lot to have my email hosted by IDNet, mainly because I get no spam and their system works, I was told that would give me antivirus, phishing and spam protection but it seems the .co.uk addresses get that in a better package, so am I paying for something that would still work for free as I had the email addresses set up anyway before I left IDNet I thought last time Trevor went down they should invest and not have webspace and suchlike all on one server, and even paying only £12 a year I do kind of expect a more resilient email package

[Gary]

Tiscali's email was down every week  

Oranges never worked well, and actually gave you spam 

[Rik]

I thought last time Trevor went down they should invest and not have webspace and suchlike all on one server, and even paying only £12 a year I do kind of expect a more resilient email package

Can't argue with that, Gary, I pay 1&1 much less and they've been very good this year.

[Sebby]

Can't argue with that, Gary, I pay 1&1 much less and they've been very good this year.

I second that.

[Gary]

Can't argue with that, Gary, I pay 1&1 much less and they've been very good this year.

So how much is the .co.uk hosting package Rik? or do they not do that I like the email addresses I have on IDNet its short sweet simple and as having these grey servers stopping spam i decided paying was worth it, I wonder though would my email addresses still be working if I just carried on using them and I have wasted £12 I feel kind of cheated at the moment, and yes 1&1 is cheaper by a lot

[Sebby]

I thought it was £4/month, but I can't find the details on their site.

[Rik]

It's about £8pa iirc, Gary (£0.69pm - checked the site. Domain registration is £14(?) for 2 years)).

http://order.1and1.co.uk/xml/order/Home;jsessionid=C648C242A0B112935C1672581082F36A.TC32b?__frame=_top

[Gary]

I thought it was £4/month, but I can't find the details on their site.

That would be £48 a month for proper email protection on IDNet on a reliable server, thats way over the top

[Gary]

It's about £8pa iirc, Gary (£0.69pm - checked the site. Domain registration is £14(?) for 2 years)).

http://order.1and1.co.uk/xml/order/Home;jsessionid=C648C242A0B112935C1672581082F36A.TC32b?__frame=_top

Cheers Rik, right now I just hope they get this all working again so  can see if I got any of the mail I was expecting, as many are i'm sure