MX records, as some of you would already know, provide a DNS-based prioritized fallback method for email servers.  The idea is that it is possible to supply a list of servers that will accept your email, where the lowest number MX server is tried, then the next, and so on until a valid connection is made and the email is then sent over that connection.

For years, conventional wisdom has stated that having a secondary MX server as a backup for your primary server is a really good idea, however, I disagree …

I actually think backup MX servers are a huge risk as they tend to LOSE email over time.  How this happens is like this:

• The backup MX is setup
• Time passes, without the MX getting used
• Something goes wrong on the backup MX so that email gets dropped
• The main MX goes down, and email sent to the backup is dropped mercilessly and silently before it is discovered

When an email server goes down, internet email protocols dictate that the sending servers must hold on to messages and retry sending for 4 days, so if your server (Exchange or something external) goes down you’re actually already covered!  For a longer outage, a temporary server can easily be activated provided you have access to the DNS.

Additionally, secondary MX servers are used by spammers to inject spam as they are not checked as stringently as primary servers.  There are some ways to protect against this, “nolisting” being one of the tricks that we use and provide to customers in-house, which relies on spammers not having time to retry mail servers and normal mail servers being willing to retry.  (I'll write about nolisting in a future article)

So, in actuality, a secondary MX / backup email server:

• might result in additional email loss
• presents a higher spam profile
•  

So, just my opinion, and probably an unpopular one at that, but I just don’t think a secondary MX provides real value in terms of redundancy and may actually substantially reduce reliability in the event of a disaster down the track.  (None of this applies if you are a larger company – different rules of the game apply when you have larger numbers, your own email servers, and there are ways to mitigate the disadvantages above).

In  my opinion, for a smaller company, a solid way to protect against an outage is to:

• Ensure you (or your client) has login access to their domain at the registrar
• Or, possibly, create an ability to edit DNS (not as important if the above is done)
• Work out an emergency failover procedure so it’s there and ready-to-go for an emergency once it passes 24 hours

There are obviously scenarios where backup mail servers do make a lot of sense – one obvious one being for larger companies, or companies that have multiple locations; and perhaps a small company that can't respond to a mail outage in 4 days, and of course, there are others I haven't listed here (or thought of yet!).  Additionally a secondary MX server can prevent the 4 hour warning message sent to advise that delivery has been delayed.  My key point is simply that secondary MX service is not the panacea that conventional wisdom has it appear.

Having said all this, we do provide backup MX service if desired!  I guess I feel it's just part of my duty to warn people about something I think could cause them problems down the track, and perhaps present very little value to a client in the end.

Interested in hearing people's thoughts and feedback here .. am I missing anything?

You may have set up Facebook, Twitter, maybe even an RSS feed of blog posts, but don’t discount what a newsletter can do for your business – and for your customers.

When your visitors sign up to your mailing list via your newsletter sign up form, you are in control of what you send and when you send it; and email newsletters cost almost nothing to send compared to paper newsletters – these being distinct advantages!  By the way – your newsletter should provide valuable and useful information, and don’t forget the ATTENTION GRABBING HEADLINE!

It’s important not to be annoying or self-serving in your newsletters;  I always recommend only very subtle selling, if any, especially in the first 2 – 3 newsletters, then perhaps add a special offer in the fourth newsletter. Obviously it depends on what industry you are in as to what the right mix is.  You should, of course, have links to your blog posts that are relevant to the content in the newsletter.  Also, don’t discount the value of getting people to sign up at your counter or in your office on paper for the newsletter – you can get a lot of people via old fashioned techniques!  If you do that, one important thing is to make sure you do add them to the newsletter in the next few days so they remember you.

Mailing lists are simple to set up and maintain, if you would like a consultant to contact you to assist you in setting up a contact form and mailing list, give us a call.  Mailing lists are a thing that builds up over time; if you start today, you could surprise yourself by how quickly you build up a big list – and that can be a valuable asset to your business.  After all is said and done, business is about human contact, and a quick note with some helpful and friendly information can be one way of staying in touch that costs very little.

Contact us today and get 15% off the setup of a newsletter mailing list.

Surprisingly, the same concept holds true for your White Dog Green Frog passwords. You are provided with different logins for different areas. This is not to confuse you or make your life difficult for our own personal amusement, but because well, they are different. Not only that but if one area is compromised, you aren’t affecting the other areas and more importantly the other accounts on the server.

So to break it down, here are a few of the main login details for White Dog services that you may have:

Billing System -  Here you will find information such as:

• Invoices
• Credit card details
• Contact info (phone #, email address, etc)
• Login details for your cPanel account
• Products/services renewal dates
• Listing of your Support Tickets
• Domain management
  • Contact details for Whois
  • Nameserver details
  • EPP/auth code

We try and make it easy for you too. If you don’t recall your password,  you can always reset it.

cPanel (eg: www.yourdomainname.com.au/cpanel). This is the control panel/dashboard of your hosting account and as such you will be able to perform various useful functions such as:

• Manage your email account(s)
  • Create new email address(es)
  • Reset your email password
  • Modify your email account quota
  • Create email forwarders
  • Create mailing list
  • Change MX records for domain(s)
• Create/restore backup of your website
• Park/add-on domains
• View disk space & bandwidth usage
• Website statistics
• Install software with Fantastico
• and many more

Email credentials for Outlook  setup:

• Your username is your FULL email address (that is, your entire email address. Not just your name, but the bit before and after the @ symbol)
• Email password that you set up in your cPanel. If you don’t remember your password, login to cPanel and reset it

While on the subject of passwords, it would behoove you to have a reasonably strong/secure.  Words that you would find in a dictionary would not make a good password because it’s easily guessable. Not guessable in the sense that I’m going to try words that I think you might use, but guessable in the sense that hacking programs can scan your account until it either can’t break your password (“Ste8v_in!” – secure) or is able to figure out your password (“buttercup” – not secure). It’s like using a common office paperclip as the key to open your Lexus car door.  If you really want to use the name of your pet, try adding a number and a punctuation mark as well as mixing the case to the password for an added level of security.

For example:

skippy – bad
Ski$5ppy – better

smokey – bad
Smo6keY! – better

Incidentally, two of the most common causes of hacked accounts are 1) weak password and/or 2) a keylogger virus (which is a software program on your computer remembers your passwords by tracking the key strokes that you make on your keyboard).

Read another article on the WDGF blog on password security here.

Before you do anything, perhaps obviously, the very first step to troubleshooting is to ensure that your internet connection is working. Without an internet connection, you will not be able to receive email or view your website (or any website for that matter).

Check to see if you are able to go to www.google.com. Next step is to enter in your domain name here. If your internet connection is not working, contact your internet service provider (ISP) such as BigPond, iiNet, Internode etc.

AUTHENTICATION FAILURE
I know computers can be annoying and cryptic at times, but surprisingly, the error message that Outlook (or the other various email programs – Thunderbird, Mail, Entourage etc) provides, actually usually tells you exactly what the problem is.

Example: You hit send/receive but a popup appears that says “Enter Network Password:” you enter it in your password and it appears again and again and again and so out of frustration you finally hit “cancel” only to receive this error:

Your email rejected your login. Verify your user name and password in your account properties. Under Tools, click Email accounts…

Here’s a question for the class. What do you think that error message means?… CORRECT! You’ve either entered in your password incorrectly or you’re not using the entire email address as the username.

REMEDY: Enter in the correct password. If you don’t recall your password, you can always reset it in your hosting account Control Panel (cPanel). “Authentication failure” is just a fancy pants way of saying “login incorrect”.

FIREWALL BLOCK
Quickest way to determine if you have a firewall block is to go to your website. If there is a firewall block, it will read something like this:

Your connection to this server has been blocked in the firewall.
This is because someone or something at your site appears to be trying to break into our server (password guessing) or is using excessive resources (POP every minute).
You need to contact your hosting provider for further information (scode: 4).
Your blocked IP address is ’000.00.000.000′.

If you are blocked, you will not be able to see your website and not be able to receive email.

REMEDY: Restart your router/modem. Most ISPs allocate dynamic IPs which means that when you restart your router, you will get a new (and consequently unblocked) IP address.

If that doesn’t work, submit a support ticket and copy/paste the entire message including the IP address into the email. Be sure to include your domain name so we know who you are!

Oh, and stop entering in the same password over and over again. The server will not magically decide that the password is correct!

A common cause for a firewall block is incorrectly entering in your password too many times (5 times in a 15 min time period) and/or your email program (eg Outlook) checking for email (send/receive) more than 60 times per hour.

A firewall block does not affect your clients from sending you emails or viewing your website. As the block is applied by the IP address (of your computer). Your customers will have a different IP address than you. You will be able to retrieve your email once the firewall block has been removed.

DOMAIN EXPIRED
If your domain has expired, you will be unable to see your website or receive emails. You can check it by going to your website. If you see something like this:

This domain name expired on (date).

then your domain has expired. You can also check by entering in your domain name here.

REMEDY: Login to the billing system and under My Domains select your domain, and click the “Renew Domain” button.

Keep checking back as there are more troubleshooting remedies to come. Our aim is to make this web/email business as easy as possible for you to use!

Here are some of the advantages that having email under your own domain brings:

1.  Better Spam control

Despite having many email addresses, I get well under 10 spams a week from our many email addresses combined.  If you are suffering from Spam overload, talk to us; our experienced team has a variety of solutions and our default email system has most of them included!

We have solved spam problems for many companies through a variety of solutions, some of which are surprisingly simple.  As just one quick example, there are times when a change of email solves spam problems completely, other times simply not publishing your main email address on your website where the baddies can “harvest” it and add it to their lists is enough.

2.  Convey a professional appearance

Having your own domain conveys a sense of professionalism and seriousness about your business right off the bat.  Wouldn’t you prefer to do business with a company that is committed to itself?  Remember first impressions can be very important in business, and an email address mentioning hotmail, yahoo or bigpond conveys a definite impression of being a one person company. (Note that this doesn’t apply as much to gmail which is often used by professionals even in large companies)

While none of us want to project a false impression that our companies are much larger than they are, projecting the impression that you are smaller than you are is just as false and doesn’t serve you or your customers well.

3.  Be independent from your ISP

Internet offerings change all the time and sometimes your old ISP will not be available in a new area after you move.  As the NBN (National Broadband Network) rolls out it’s likely that there will be a lot more turmoil in internet companies and many will simply not make it through the transition.  Sometimes a company that used to be great value can struggle to provide good customer service as time goes on, and sometimes their network can age and start giving problems.  With your own domain, you’re completely independent of your ISP; of course, you’ll use your internet connection to read your email but you won’t be tied to them any more.

4.  You can control where your email goes much better

Of course, once you have your own domain you can have multiple easy-to-remember addresses under it, such as “sales” and :”support”.  However there are other options built into our standard email system – the ability to have an email go to one address but end up in several staff mailboxes, or redirect to an external email service such as gmail for future searchability and storage, or be sent into a “trouble ticket” management system; and there are many other options.  Talk to our friendly staff; we’re happy to offer 15 minutes of expert consultancy at no charge during February and March this year.

And if you should ever try to unsubscribe, they take that as confirmation that there’s a live person there and double the amount they send to you!

Large amounts of money exist for the taking in the Spam area – the Spam kings make tens of thousands per month, with some of the larger ones turning over in excess of $40,000 – $100,000 per month!  However, as time goes on, most people have wised up to Spam and their response rates have dropped.  As a result, they are sending larger numbers of messages per month in an effort to retain their income – which in turn is making the spam problem worse!  Spam has become a huge problem for webhosting companies and ISPs, with over 90% of email now being spam.

One possible solution has been discussed, involving charging a fraction of a cent per email sent to make Spam unprofitable (Spammers sned millions of messages, looking for a fraction of a percentage response).  While a variety of possible solutions have been discussed, the bottom line is that there is no overarching solution now.  As the problem grows over time, it’s likely that something like this will come into vogue.  Part of the problem is that our current email protocols were designed 40 years ago, in a different world where email forgeries and spam just did not exist.

On our email servers, we run a multi-layer anti-spam approach.  Messages from known spam sources are not allowed to enter our email system at all, which stops over 50% of spam before it gets anywhere near you.  We then score incoming emails, assessing the spam-worthiness of each email using hundreds of spam characteristics in a database that is regularly updated.  Our system will delete optionally “definite” spam and can also be set to deliver or delete “probable” spam, based on these factors.  Also, all email is scanned for known viruses and blocked when a virus signature is found.

What can you do to solve the problem now?

1. Don’t list your email address on your webpage

If you list your email address, it’s only a matter of time before the spammers see it and put your email in their databases.  Once on their lists, you’re pretty much there for life so it’s easier to not get on the lists in the first place.

There are many solutions that can be used instead of putting your email address on your webpage in cleartext.  One of them is to encode the email address using one of a variety of techniques – a trick which renders it invisible to spammers, but makes it visible in normal web browsers.  Another option is to make your email address into an image, which reduces spam – though some spammers can now read these too with OCR techniques!

2. Use a contact form instead

The absolutely bullet-proof solution is to use a contact form which collects their email, phone number and a short message and emails it to you, without making your email address visible on your webpage.  Once the first message has been received, you can directly use email to correspond – it’s only the first message that is sent via the contact form.  A contact form

While a contact form is a good solution, it has to be done properly or spammers can try to trick it into giving them access to your server account or using it to send spam on your behalf.  We have a solution that has worked well over the years since we developed it and stops nearly all of these tricks dead in their tracks.


3. Don’t ever respond to a spam in any way

If you do, even to unsubscribe, they will take your email address as being useful and valid, and will send you more spam and add you to other lists!  This includes displaying images in spam messages – that alone can validate you to a spammer as a real person (although our email system attempts to prevent this working).

4. Use a special “spam” email address

The idea behind this is to use a temporary email “forwarder” address on your website.  When it starts receiving spam, change the email forwarder in your control panel and start using the new one on your website instead.  This isn’t a particularly successful or long term strategy, but it can work to get you through simply in the early days.  For example, you might use “sales211@yourcompany.com” instead of just “sales@yourcompany.com”, and when the spam became too much, you might change it to “sales311@yourcompany.com”.  As it’s only ever seen on your website it doesn’t matter too much; and you can use your normal email addresses in printed literature.

This same technique can be used when signing up for further information on a site that you suspect may be suspect or spammy.  Brian uses a technique like this and gets virtually no spam despite having been a heavy email user for years.