Hosting Issues

[RichieBoy67]

Yeah Dave, I did not even catch that but I do not suspect that issue to have anything to do with the blacklisting.

My first thought on the database issue is that he went beyond server resources which is easy to do when sending out mass mails or even doing back ups. Error logs or even just the database error itself would help with this.

My second thought would be to maybe start looking for a new host.

[Flibnipktz]

Besides the blacklisting issue, it's still worrying that your site was offline due to a database crash.
They also mentioned "We had restarted the server due to some technical issues.", I would always expect the host to tell me exactly what was going wrong, not a vague description.

Agree. I had to push to get that much, and it's not the first time. Routine maintenance implies a scheduled server reboot (if necessary) and some kind of heads-up to those affected.

RB67, here's the response to my forward earlier today...

Hello,

The Ip address (edit) on our shared server is only using for your email accounts. The att network here black listed emails from your account, it may due to the presence of spam looking words or content on it.

Or it may due to recent bulk amount of emails that sent from your forum site to the customers on their network and some of clients in there may complained about this. So they black listed that ip.

You can delist the ip through the url http://rbl.att.net/end_user_request1.html .

Also check http://www.att.net/general-info/521.html

If you purchase a vps server here, Email service on the server will only used for your email accounts.

That Ip already has a rDNS which pointed to our server. However to avoid the forward lookup (PTR) related issue I've informed our network team to change the rDNS to your domain name.

The initial rationale is possible, but we're a small board, I'd estimate around 50-75 emails a week or less. Part of that is a scheduled "Happy Birthday" to those few members it applies to... and the rest is mostly logon issues, PM notifications and thread subscriptions. There are no bulk mailouts. Someone may be complaining, however it seems unlikely.

Followed by the pitch for VPS once again. As far as I understand it, this would be serious overkill in our case, and I'm already questioning the current $50.00/month, nevermind additional charges. And issues.

Finally at the end, an acknowledgement of what they seem to have missed. Thanks to you RB67 for the advice.

Migrating to another host... not thrilled at the prospect but it's something to think about more seriously now. Meantime hoping that today's fix is the real problem with att.net.

[RichieBoy67]

ATT is very easy to get blacklisted from. Perhaps I didn't read this thread thoroughly enough because I thought your only blacklisting was spamheuisen?

You will have to jump through some hoops if blacklisted through att and chances are other services may do it as well. Bell south is another one that blacklists very easily.

You will most likely need an opt in and opt out link and send them privacy page links among other things. I am not sure if fixing the dns issues will be enough.

Temporarily you could add a note into your registration page to tell people that certain emails may be blocked and to use another email account.

[Flibnipktz]

My mistake, we've been listed by Spamhaus in the past- this time only att.net.

At least that was the case until this morning. "554 5.5.4 Relaying denied. IP name lookup failed... This system will not accept messages from servers/devices with no reverse DNS..." Comcast, aol, nctc, among others are all rejecting emails.

I'm told they're "checking this". If this clears up will verify our status with att.net. Does little to improve the growing lack of confidence in our host.

[TheLastSuperman]

Switch, during the time it's taken you to login here, type all of this, come back and read replies plus the tickets submitted to your host... you could have been switched already with DNS fully propagating today .

- Hosts are a dime-a-dozen, true.
However at the same time....
- Waiting to find a good host is like a dollar waiting on a dime... still need someone to do the 10% to make that dollar work else its simply not 100% and your site whether its personal/business/hobby/other to you should be at 100% all the time regardless of the content else why pay for it?

Once you start receiving long drawn out explanations as to why something is broke or not working instead of "issue resolved" it begs the question; Is the host actually assisting and looking into it, if so and they know what they're doing then the explanation every time should be followed with "issue resolved" or similar. Some issues though do take time to look into, so by giving them a few days to look into something you're also showing a form of consideration - after all some move hosts only to find sometimes that an issue follows them i.e. it was not a hosting related issue then you must re-tell your tall tale of errors to the new host for assistance - case in point give them some time on most issues, if its not resolved in 24 upwards of 72 hours then start looking elsewhere for hosting (imo). Do you truly need a VPS? If a small site w/ just a few emails then no - either something else is amiss here or the host simply can't tell you what's happening because they have no clue but at the same time they don't like it either - by moving you a to a vps this makes the email issue and others go poof for a while until you're truly hammered then ohhh boy be careful, gonna be "now you need a dedicated server" when in fact the entire time you only needed a knowledgeable host.

If it's not something along those lines then it's usually "your script, vBulletin is doing it all, it's the devil!" well they don't usually say it's the devil but the simple blame it on this script if we can't comprehend it, is usually what occurs followed by one of you stating to us or vBulletin staff themselves that the script "did it" to which laughter ensues, no truly it does we don't laugh at you, we laugh at your host because its honestly quite comical, Sunday Funnies aside .

[Flibnipktz]

Thanks for the thoughts, TLS. You're absolutely right- I have no desire to see these issues follow me because I misunderstood the causes. I need to be certain before committing to moving our site. And as far as I can see, a VPS is sheer overkill.

I can't help noting your sig- the name of the recommended host is the one this thread is about.

[HM666]

If you are looking for a good reliable VPS host for less I suggest http://www.interserver.net/. They are who I use. My package only costs me $33.00 a month and I run several pages off it. Customer service is excellent and they are prompt and helpful with support issues and do not give you a run-a-around in answers.

[Dave]

When it comes to shared hosting, I really like https://www.stablehost.com/
They are not a EIG company. (Which is the horrible company that buys up almost every single shared hosting business)

I run some of my sites on it as well.

[Flibnipktz]

Thanks for the recommends, I'll check out Interserver and Stablehost.

Emails seem to be back to normal this morning. I'm going to do some research and consider a move in November.

Whoa... you're not kidding about EIG. Never heard of them until now. http://www.linux-depot.com/non-endur...p-eig-hosting/

[TheLastSuperman]

Originally Posted by Flibnipktz

Thanks for the thoughts, TLS. You're absolutely right- I have no desire to see these issues follow me because I misunderstood the causes. I need to be certain before committing to moving our site. And as far as I can see, a VPS is sheer overkill.

I can't help noting your sig- the name of the recommended host is the one this thread is about.

Ahh then in that case I must tell you I'm slightly biased when it comes to them, I'm no liar I tell the truth . I try to be as unbiased as possible at all times but I surely do love me some URLJet! Without seeing the ticket myself (I handle custom development at URLJet for vBulletin sites I don't provide normal ticket support) I honestly can't say one way or another but I'm glad I didn't know that until after my long spill above lol, it at least keeps me up appearance sake wise ahh laugh at me not with me I'm silly at best . If you PM me the ticket number I'll check to see if I notice anything other staff members might not have noticed - after all a second set of eyes never hurt anything... only two cooks in the kitchen killed the soup so that's why you can look but you can't touch gosh I'm full of them tonight eh? One-Liners!

Remember though, no matter what anyone else says there is always a point where you don't want to deal with something anymore - don't let it get to that point else you'll be resentful whether intentional or not... subconsciously speaking as it were but then again, subconsciously speaking I'm Superman and how'd that work out for me? haha