Sully

I'd be curious to know about the bug fix as well, as I seem to be having a lot of problems with SA on all of the accounts I host through TCH. Thanks! Sully

You didn't say: did this email come to your GMail account or to your TCH domain account? It's possible that someone is sending mail through your account, and since it sounds like you have your email account to show your GMail address as the return address, the person getting "spammed" by you (even if unknowingly) is in fact fairly computer literate and saw where your return address and email header/server info don't match. Have you checked your stats page in cPanel to see if you're getting any hits from weird places? I did that a while back, and realized my phpBB had been vandalized; I didn't realize it, because I had not been using that part of my site, but I was able to track who did it by going through the stats page. You may have already done all of this, and if so, ignore my comments! If not, I hope this helps. Sully

I have an employee who is having the exact same problem with our site, and has had it off and on since he joined us in June. No one else seems to have this problem, and the only fix appears to be re-booting his DSL modem and his computer. Sully

Thank you!

Perhaps a stupid question, but how does one set up the "fail" process/default?

Mike - How does one make their email address "stealthy"??? Would love to learn how to do that! Thanks

BTW, my sites are being hosted on Server 15.

I'm having a similar problem. Additionally, I can't get SquirrelMail to work for those accounts that I'm having POP problems with either. I can ONLY access the accounts through NeoMail or Horde. I'm VERY confused!!!

Gil - Are you using one of the mailing list functions provided by TCH (i.e., FormMail)?? If so, you must make certain you have a couple of options blocked. Under Privacy Options (this is for FormMail), I strongly recommend the following: 1. "Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine?" NO 2. "Who can view subscription list?" LIST ADMIN ONLY 3. "Must posts be approved by an administrator?" YES (and even then, reject all posts, because, as I found out the hard way , that message then gets broadcast out to the entire list, and does NOT just get sent to you!) 4. "Restrict posting privilege to list members?" YES (and then follow the rule from #3) Hope this helps!! Sully

cdbost - How long has it been since you have signed up for your account? It was my experience when I first signed up that I had a few intermittent problems due to DNS/routing issues. Some servers refresh their DNS infomation faster than others, so it may be that you were routed through one server the first time, which has a faster refresh rate, and then the next time you went through a different server with a longer period in between refreshing, and it didn't have the proper DNS information. Also, do you have a cable modem? Sometimes they need to be re-booted and have the power cycled (turned off, left off for at least one minute, then turned on again), so that it too can be refreshed. There are some other things you can do re: flushing your DNS cache, but I'll hold off on suggesting that until someone with a little more experience chimes in. HTH, Sully

n2access - First, let me just say -- isn't Lianna great?!?! Thanks Lianna, for finding that thread! If you've gone through the thread, you'll notice (besides my long messages) the fact that I've talked about sending out email to a list of customers (and others who want who want info from my firm) that is over 1,000 people. However, it's something that, due to the ample cautioning of TCH (in the form of posts that EXPRESSLY warn of DIRE consequences for spamming) I checked with them to make sure I was OK. The Head Guru didn't have a problem with it, so long as the list is comprised of people that actually want this information. The point being, if you have people who are buying from you as a reseller, make certain that they see ALL of the information that TCH puts out regarding spam. Knowing that TCH allows people to run their business by being able to send out large amounts of info, but is VERY serious about not allowing spam, I think your customers will get the same point that we all got upon looking at (or after joining) TCH. TCH provides copies of the AUP and TOS for we resellers to use to send to those buying service from us. Sorry for the long message, but once you start writing like a lawyer, you can't stop. It's a curse!! Hope this helps! Sully

Lianna - Perhaps you could also point n2acces toward the thread we had recently re: server load, where we not only discussed outgoing mail, but also SMTP requests and possible time limits being put on the servers for the amount of times per hour that anyone could query their mail server. I can't find the thread yet myself, or I would do it! I'll keep looking though, just in case. Sully

Yeah, I would be curious about the price, too, as my demo version runs out in about a week. If I have to part with my money for a product I know I want to buy, I might as well get it cheaper, and give the money to people I know!!

OK, I'll say it: "Wow, TCH does listen and they do ROCK!" Gotta give credit where credit is due. Sully

Before I forget, let me add that I do agree with you 100% when you said that what Ayman was talking about was right on! Again, one of the nice things about being here is the fact that people like Ayman and Lianna throw things out for discussion.

I must say Bill, that I'm disappointed with the heavy-handedness of your last reply. One of the reasons I joined the TCH family was because of the great level of community, especially that expressed through the boards. Your last reply sounded like Verizon, not TCH. Oh and by the way, even Verizon doesn't have a limit on the number of times you can check your email. I still maintain one account through them, only because I've had it for nearly 10 years, and everyone I know knows that address -- which makes it easy for people to contact me who've lost touch. I have it set to check every 2 minutes, and haven't had any problems. I think AndyB made an EXCELLENT point when asking if people who are abusing could be contacted BEFORE we implement these kinds of "rules." I believe I made a similar point -- although it may have been lost in the length of my discourse! This doesn't go into the whole thing about people complaining about being able to check every 10 seconds. Rather, I am speaking about many people who have posted here asking for some reasonable actions to be taken, and the tenor of your last message just shot those trying to be reasonable and helpful right to he##. Not a good feeling for someone who was trying to offer helpful solutions without having the company shout us down!! Of course there will always be trade-offs, but I believe it is important that, if one of your selling attributes is the "community" atmosphere of your service,then you should in fact embrace that community when it comes to these kinds of things. Yes, you have a business to run, as do most of us. Have I been a server admin? Yes, a LONG time ago, with WinNT...a task I NEVER want to do again!! That is why I am here. Having run very, very large organizations myself in the past, I recognize the inherant problems associated with volume; however, let me reiterate...one of the selling attributes here is community! I hope we don't lose sight of that -- it would be a shame. Sully

In Lianna's defense, she does do a LOT of business! AND, she does a LOT here to help all of us users. Just wanted to make sure we keep it nice! However, I do feel the need to add something else which I forgot to add in my previous post. A lot of people have made some good points here, and there were a few other comments made that I wanted to respond to. 1. Lianna, installing phpChat may be a good option for some, more advanced users, but there are those of us (myself included) who have neither the knowledge nor the time to learn how to implement and then implement these kinds of "workarounds." Don't get me wrong, I want to learn these things because it will allow me to offer a more robust environment for my visitors, but right now my website is primarily for informational purposes, and then I communicate by phone or email. Email is the conduit of choice, because as a very small business with clients all over the country, I save a considerable amount of money on long-distance bills! Also, when utilizing something like chat, you limit your ability to be discerning in regards to whom you respond. EVERYONE can see that you are online, while with email, you can pick and choose your responses, which is very effective for time management. Also, as someone who wants to learn how to do these things that will be space/time/bandwidth savers in the future, I need to be able to play with this stuff now. Learning scripts and whatnot is not an easy thing for me, so being able to test the new stuff "fairly" frequently would be of great benefit. 2. KW -- having worked in the past for Verizon (both in operations and legal/regulatory affairs) part of the reason they put policies like that in place is because their first obligation is to their VOICE customers, which is a heavily regulated part of the business. Network management for them is almost a fractal exercise, when you add things like video-on-demand (one of my old projects) to the mix! Also, for those of us who opted to pay for high-speed lines (in an effort to not have email downloads take multiple minutes) we would potentially have that benefit of speed obviated by someone else's thoughts of what is "reasonable." 3. Have the individuals who are doing the 1-30 second email checks been contacted? I want to make certain we as a community (which is why I'm here) are proactive in seeking out the abusers and trying to get them to stop, BEFORE we impose limitations that affect everyone, possibly to some users' detriment. 4. I don't have a problem with limiting outgoing email, with one exception; I'm VERY sensitive to being called a spammer (as bethohio can attest -- I got a little cranky with her when I felt she implied that I was a spammer -- sorry Beth!). I have a rather large (over 1,000) mailing list, and I send them a monthly newsletter, as well as the occassional info piece about new happenings. These are ALL opt-in recipients. Admittedly, I use a lot of bandwidth when I send some things out, but it is no more than a once a week thing. However, under some people's propositions, I potentially wouldn't be able to get that info to my users in a timely fashion, which I find completely unacceptable. If I wanted to have severe limitations placed on me from those "on high," I would have stayed with someone like Verizon. Oh yeah, that's right...I CAN'T STAND Verizon!! Sorry for the diatribe, but I needed to address these issues more fully. Sully

I agree completely with Darkwoof -- spammers are SENDING large amounts of email, and quite frequently. I have multiple things going on with a couple of lines of business throughout the day, and I need to be able to check email automatically -- sometimes I don't have the ability to quit what I'm doing and do a manual email check. I have my Outlook set up to check for mail every 1 or 2 minutes, which I think is reasonable. Having said that, I suppose I would be OK with a 30 second limit being placed on the servers, and having some further review of how this policy has affected the user community. I DON'T like having an arbitrary number foisted upon me, thus affecting how I operate my business; I agree that we all share resources here, but we are also paying for them. Yahoo and Hotmail (both of which I use to sign up for various kinds of emails, etc -- in an effort to have only those email addresses receiving spam) are free and therefore it is reasonable to see where they put certain limitations on their customers. After all, you get what you pay for!! Just one more user, piling on!! Sully

kw (aka "The Shell Answer Man) - Question for you: what is the difference between FormMail and cgiemail? Are there advantages in terms of flexibility of one over the other? Also, were you able to learn which version of cgiemail TCH is running? As always, thanks. Sully

Hey All - Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know I went back to Find My Hosting to post my review of TCH (http://www.findmyhosting.com/addrating.asp?id=5330). Find My Hosting is actually how I found TCH, and the level and amount of positive respsonse was a major factor in me deciding to come check you out; since then, I have been nothing short of amazed and impressed!! I've made certain to tell my friends, too, as they deserve to be as happy as I am. Thanks Everyone! Sully

YOU ROCK!!! Thanks.

Thanks Lianna! Now if only I could figure out how to set up my "dummy" account...

Rayners - Thanks for the help! Yep, I figured out how to send messages to the mailing list; I may just have to leave it at that for the time being and just wait until they finish with their plans to use an actual DB (go figure!). I'm good at a lot of things (IMOHO!!), but writing scripts at this time is not one of them. I'm really only the "webmaster" by default, as I have the most experience out of all of my partners. As you can see, that's not saying a lot! I am, however, keen to learn, and will (when I get some more time) endeavor to learn these kinds of things -- I just don't think I should be testing them out on the company's site. Actually, I bought a reseller plan for just that purpose; I figure I can host another "dummy account" which will afford me the opportunity to get my feet wet, without causing my firm damage. Thanks again for your feedback, I appreciate it! It's good to know that I'm not completely daft -- I didn't think I saw anything in the Mailman docs, but after staring at something that you're just starting to learn for 12 hours or so, it's hard to discern whether or not you're capable of finding what you're looking for. These boards are great!!! Sully

OK, I think I have figured a bunch of this out, after a good deal of trial and error. Whew! However, I'm still trying to figure something out with the Mailman/Database thing. I can see where I could just take the URL for the Mailman list subscribe page, and put that link on my web page, but I would like to do something that is a little more "behind the scenes" with my visitors. I would like to do something like have visitors fill in a very basic popup screen, putting in their first name and email address, if they are interested in receiving information from my company. What I can't figure out, however, is how to tie something like that to either Mailman, or to something like My Guestbook in mySQL. Is it possible to do something like what I'm describing with the tools we have at our disposal through TCH? Or do I need to figure something else out and load it onto my site? I've been through documentation, etc., but I don't seem to be finding these answers. I get the feeling that much of this documentation is written for intermediate users and above, not for those (like me) just getting started with some of this. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks! Sully

Paul - I'm a recent convert to TCH too, and I must say, after having several other providers, I'm VERY glad I made the switch. I've learned more here in a week from people on the discussion boards than I have in the past year and a half with other hosts...and I have a LOT to learn! Sully