15 Beta Testers Needed

[Head Guru]

We are testing the waters and need 15 beta testers.

 

We are looking at offering true hardware based SPAM FIREWALL FILTERING.

 

You will need to:

 

Remove any and all spam filtering products from the test email account.

 

You will need to cease using any server side email filtering such as spam assasisin.

 

During the beta testing you will need to allow us to change the MX record for your hosted email domain.

 

Your domain will need to be hosted on a TCH server.

 

You will be required to give feedback during the next 60 days.

 

You can not go ape crazy if certain legit email is discarded during the testing, and likewise you can not go ape if you get spam into your box.

 

This will be a 30-90 day trial and you will be asked to give us your feedback on the system.

 

Please just reply to this thread with your domain name and you will be added to the beta.

 

Thanks!

[Madmanmcp]

venitsports dot com

[youneverknow]

youneverknow.com

PS: Hi Bill and staff

 

PPS: I had over 1400 spams since Feb 2007

Edited March 9, 2007 by youneverknow

[Redeagle]

redeaglespirit.com

[curtis]

Do we need to have the default email address turned on?

[Deverill]

Jimstest.com

[jayson]

jaysarahandy.com

[curtis]

thecajunchef.com

[Head Guru]

venitsports dot com

 

Ok Madman! Your the first client we are ready to roll with.

 

I am VERY impressed with this spam firewall.

 

Madman can you please contact us thru a help ticket or IM me. Want to get you started on this right away.

 

Bill

[jweltz]

kneedrag.net

 

-J

[Madmanmcp]

Madman can you please contact us thru a help ticket or IM me.

 

Help Desk Ticket waiting in Managers Review

[woodygap]

nstornados.com

[Madmanmcp]

Ok Madman! Your the first client we are ready to roll with.

 

I am VERY impressed with this spam firewall.

 

Madman can you please contact us thru a help ticket or IM me. Want to get you started on this right away.

 

Bill

 

Still waiting

[TCH-Bruce]

Bill will update this sometime today. Hang in there Bob.

[Madmanmcp]

Bill will update this sometime today. Hang in there Bob.

 

Not a problem, I figured something else came up and from reading the other thread I understand. I'll be ready whenever you guys are, take your time.

[woodygap]

or another domain if you would rather.... uswoodys.com

[mike]

I would be glad to help also.

 

will it affect my hosted domains and what email address is used?

[Head Guru]

youneverknow.com

PS: Hi Bill and staff

 

PPS: I had over 1400 spams since Feb 2007

 

OK your next.

 

I have added your domain name to our spam firewall now please open a ticket with tech support and have them change your MX record to the following:

 

spamkiller.tchmachines.com MX 1

 

Once the MX record has been modified it will take a couple days for all the cached entries to fall off the internet and for all your email to go thru our spam firewall.

 

Please let us know here how things start looking as spam starts to go away for ever.

[Head Guru]

redeaglespirit.com

 

I have added your domain name to our spam firewall now please open a ticket with tech support and have them change your MX record to the following:

 

spamkiller.tchmachines.com MX 1

 

Once the MX record has been modified it will take a couple days for all the cached entries to fall off the internet and for all your email to go thru our spam firewall.

 

Please let us know here how things start looking as spam starts to go away for ever.

[Head Guru]

jaysarahandy.com

 

I have added your domain name to our spam firewall now please open a ticket with tech support and have them change your MX record to the following:

 

spamkiller.tchmachines.com MX 1

 

Once the MX record has been modified it will take a couple days for all the cached entries to fall off the internet and for all your email to go thru our spam firewall.

 

Please let us know here how things start looking as spam starts to go away for ever.

[youneverknow]

OK...1 ticket coming up....youneverknow

[Head Guru]

thecajunchef.com

 

I have added your domain name to our spam firewall now please open a ticket with tech support and have them change your MX record to the following:

 

spamkiller.tchmachines.com MX 1

 

Once the MX record has been modified it will take a couple days for all the cached entries to fall off the internet and for all your email to go thru our spam firewall.

 

Please let us know here how things start looking as spam starts to go away for ever.

[Head Guru]

nstornados.com

 

I have added your domain name to our spam firewall now please open a ticket with tech support and have them change your MX record to the following:

 

spamkiller.tchmachines.com MX 1

 

Once the MX record has been modified it will take a couple days for all the cached entries to fall off the internet and for all your email to go thru our spam firewall.

 

Please let us know here how things start looking as spam starts to go away for ever.

[Head Guru]

If I missed anyone in the thread, just reply here.

 

The spam firewall is wonderful. I went from THOUSANDS of spams per week to

 

Please provide feedback here and let us know what you think.

 

Bill

[jayson]

how will this affect mail that I have subscribed to? I recieve my bill online, will this stop them from getting throught? What are to protocals in effect to stop span. I had spam terrier, but it told me my bills were spam, if this works great. I might use TCH as my in/out bound server, Gmail, is great, but things still fall through the gaps.

 

Thanks Bill

[Head Guru]

how will this affect mail that I have subscribed to? I recieve my bill online, will this stop them from getting throught? What are to protocals in effect to stop span. I had spam terrier, but it told me my bills were spam, if this works great. I might use TCH as my in/out bound server, Gmail, is great, but things still fall through the gaps.

 

Thanks Bill

 

This is still in beta testing. I would not suggest you sign up for beta testing if you are really concerned about loosing a email to the spam firewall.

 

When this comes out of beta, it might be a better time for you to look into it.

[bsilcox]

How is this working? I just threw out 573 spam emails from my email address...

I'm seriously excited about this and I can't wait. If you need more help, let me know.

[Madmanmcp]

If I missed anyone in the thread, just reply here.

 

The spam firewall is wonderful. I went from THOUSANDS of spams per week to < 5 per week.

 

Please provide feedback here and let us know what you think.

 

Bill

 

 

The first one in the list....

 

<I'm still waiting >

[Madmanmcp]

The first one in the list....

 

<I'm still waiting >

 

 

Maybe its because my server is being migrated at the moment...I'll be patient

[Head Guru]

The first one in the list....

 

>

 

I answered the help desk ticket GKN-12633 on April 2 Bob. You must have missed it. Your domain has been set up in the spam firewall since 4/2 and you just need to submit a ticket to have the MX changed.

 

Please refer to GKN-12633

 

Bill

[TCH-Bruce]

It works great guys. Took 3-days for the spam to stop but it's been working really well since.

[jayson]

I really can not wait for this, it will be a great addition

[Madmanmcp]

I answered the help desk ticket GKN-12633 on April 2 Bob. You must have missed it. Your domain has been set up in the spam firewall since 4/2 and you just need to submit a ticket to have the MX changed.

 

Please refer to GKN-12633

 

Bill

 

Sorry Bill, I stopped looking at the ticket since there was no activity on it. I figured you would post something here first. I'll check it out when I get home in an hour or two..too many fires here at work to be playing around with the personal stuff.

[youneverknow]

I just cleared my inbox of 450 spams since 03/01/07. My MX is activated (only took 6 minutes from TCH suport) Getting about 3 to 7 spams per day before activation. Will check back later this week with more info. This should be interesting...youneverknow

[jayson]

I cleared 314 on the 6th, will keep an eye on it also, I have 6378 since the 1st of the year, I really hope that goes away.

[curtis]

Cleared my inbox of spam then had MX records at about 8 this morning. Its now 6:30 and not 1 spam for the day.

[jayson]

what year is this

I just checked my spam box, I have spam from 1980 and up to 2008

 

congrats on the 28 years of business

 

 

I also tried to upload a file and got this error:

 

Upload failed. Please ask the administrator to ensure the uploads directory is writeable

Edited April 10, 2007 by jayson

[TCH-Bruce]

1. Uploads are disabled on this board as you have discovered.

 

2. If it's spam email you can get any type of date in the headers. Who ever is sending it is not defining the date properly.

[Madmanmcp]

I have gotten zero spam since my MX record was changed, which is great. I was averaging 30 a day before this.

 

Will there be a Forum opened up here where we (Beta Testers) can post our questions, comments, and results?

 

I've been Beta Tester for different products over the years and we've been given an area where we can discuss and help each other thru the test and the developers and programmers usually join in. But I believe this is a little different in its more of just a product test by the users and based on our experience TCH will decide whether they will use the product or not.

 

Since its not a real Beta test and there is no NDA we could keep the topic open so others here can see what we think and ask us questions if they wish or comment on what we report.

[TCH-Bruce]

For now, just post your questions and such in this thread.

[Deverill]

Bill,

You missed me. (or I just didn't see it) I can afford to send tons of spam at my jimstest.com domain and won't miss any of it since it's a test account... but exactly the perfect thing for beta email filter testing.

[jayson]

Got 4 spams,

 

1 on 4/10

3 today

 

will see what happens from now to Monday

[Head Guru]

4 spams verse how many prior to the firewalling?

[jayson]

I was averging 8 10 a day, I would say BIG inprovement

[TCH-Bruce]

8 to 10 a day. Is that all? Man I get 8 to 10 now using this beta test. I was getting 30-40 a day.

[jayson]

I could go back further, amd give a count for each day for March

[Redeagle]

anywhere from 30-50+ before, 4 total in the last 2 days

[jayson]

Ok, in the month of March I recieved 480 spam emails, in my Horde email, but since I can not check my squirrel mail, I don't know what the spam count is there, now is 480 about average a month? above average.

[TCH-Thomas]

It should be the same amount since it´s the same emails.

[Madmanmcp]

Ok, in the month of March I recieved 480 spam emails, in my Horde email, but since I can not check my squirrel mail, I don't know what the spam count is there, now is 480 about average a month? above average.

 

Horde and SquirrelMail are just programs which go to the same email box and allow you to read and write your email. What you find using one program should be exactly what you would find in the other (unless a new message came in while your were switching programs).

 

Now the average will be different for everyone, I probably get spam from places you don't and you will probably be getting it from places I don't. So your averages and my averages will be different. On the email account I am using here for test I get anywhere from 30-50 spam a day and that number may sound high to you. On my real Email account at Prodigy I can get anywhere from 90-140 a day. But I have had that account since 1989 and its been listed on web sites and I use it for all my email needs.

[Madmanmcp]

but since I can not check my squirrel mail,

 

Sorry, I forgot to ask...why can't you check your SquirrelMail?

[jayson]

Theres a bug in cpanel, ( at least that is what the techs told me)

[TCH-Dick]

Theres a bug in cpanel, ( at least that is what the techs told me)

 

Please open a ticket and tell them I said fix it.

[youneverknow]

Well I have dropped over 90% of the spam that usually gets there. I have noticed that I still get "failed delivery" notices but in 3 days there is only one. I was concerned that mail might get "Marked as Spam" that really is not spam. I feel that maybe I might miss an authenic email and never know about it....anyone else wonder about that? What criteria does this dedicated firewall/spam filter use to filter?

youneveknow

[TCH-Bruce]

I've been on it for several weeks now with a personal domain and when I found it working so well I asked to have our company domain added. It has not caught one legitimate email that I can tell.

[Madmanmcp]

It has not caught one legitimate email that I can tell.

 

That is one of my questions/concerns at the moment. So far there is no way for us to tell what it is doing. We don't see where the spam is going, there is no place for us to check to see if an email was blocked even if it was a good one. We are just blindly trusting the system.

 

Or am I doing something wrong? Is there a spam folder or area I can look at the blocked messages and are there options to recover them and then place the senders in a white list or "friends" area where they will not be blocked again? Are there instructions somewhere explaining this system, how it works and what options and features it has that we can use?

[TCH-Bruce]

Well I am trusting the firewall to do it's job. I for one do not want to see all the crap the filters are blocking. Take my work domain that's been around for years like Bob's Prodigy account. The filter is blocking 96% of the email coming to the domain. Yes, 96% we get a lot of spam.

 

On my personal work account 2065 emails, 109 allowed to pass through. On another account 3734 messages, 122 allowed to pass through.

 

Now I don't know about you but I would rather not waste the bandwidth or time to sift through all the messages the filters are blocking.

[Head Guru]

The firewall uses two methods to filter spam.

 

The first method is by way of RBL's (real time blacklists). We can use any of the RBL's available, however I have choosen only to use:

 

spamhaus and spamcop

 

The other method is via its patented "MessageIQ". I have copied the following from mailfoundry's website.

 

"MailFoundry's MessageIQ scan engine uses a layered approach that maximizes kill rates and minimizes false positives. We do not use any 'scoring' or rating systems for identifying spam - those systems are plagued by high false positive rates and are really only 'guessing' at spam. And when it comes to protecting your message, guessing isn't good enough.

 

The core layer for threat identification are the spam signature files. Those spam signatures are created and managed by human spam editors who look at spam 24x7x365, and we release new spam updates every 5 minutes to ensure that our customers have the latest rule sets to defeat spam attacks as they happen.

 

Because our signatures are designed around actual identified spam, the system isn't guessing at identifying incoming email, thus our false positives are the lowest in the industry. Period. "

[Madmanmcp]

I for one do not want to see all the crap the filters are blocking.

 

I'm not saying I want to either and I don't. But when I hear from someone or I am missing an email I am expecting, I would like to be able to go and fetch it and adjust the system to not block (if possible) this person.

 

Take my work domain that's been around for years like Bob's Prodigy account. The filter is blocking 96% of the email coming to the domain. Yes, 96% we get a lot of spam.

 

On my personal work account 2065 emails, 109 allowed to pass through. On another account 3734 messages, 122 allowed to pass through.

 

Where are you getting these numbers? Are these from this beta test or are they coming from your personal Spam blocking software.

 

I am doing this Beta test with a single old email account that I have setup on one of my sub-domains. Its an account that is no longer used for its original purpose and I was ready to delete it because of all the spam and lack of real email coming to it. I strickly use SquirrelMail to manage the account every couple of weeks. With SquirrelMail I would quickly scan the inbox for "real" mail, then scan the Spam folder and delete it all. With the test here I disabled the spam blocker and it deleted the spam folder and now I have nothing to go on. I log on with SquirrelMail, I find zero emails and I log off. There are no numbers for me to see, whats being blocked, what coming in, no spam folder to scan (if I want to).

 

I'm just blindly trusting the system...is this correct, or am I missing something?

[TCH-Bruce]

Where are you getting these numbers? Are these from this beta test or are they coming from your personal Spam blocking software.

 

I got those numbers from Bill this morning. My domains have been added for beta testing. I figured may as well test on a live domain. And I POP my accounts.

[Madmanmcp]

But when I hear from someone or I am missing an email I am expecting, I would like to be able to go and fetch it and adjust the system to not block (if possible) this person.

 

As an example, earlier in this thread Bill said he had replied to my open ticket of mine and it had sent me an email that I never saw. I went into my program, Spam Killer from McAfee, and found Bills email had been blocked. I used the option to add Bill to the Friends list so that account would not be blocked and I moved the email over into my Inbox. Now this was my Prodigy account and my personal software, not the test here.

 

Will the software have these features? Will it block TCH

[TCH-Bruce]

As far as I know it just trashes the messages currently. You would have no control yourself since it's a hardware solution but I know there are settings that can be changed to pass the spam through modifying the headers. But then we're back to sifting through the crap and wasting bandwidth. IMO I like the way it is currently configured. If a legitimate email does get caught I am sure the sender will contact me and I can figure out how to deal with it at that time. So far in several weeks of testing I have not had the need as all email intended for me has been delivered.

 

Oh, one more thing. My boss thinks I am a genius because it has virtually eliminated his spam. But I told him I joined the beta testing for this. What ever makes him happy and keeps him off my back makes me happy.

[Head Guru]

As an example, earlier in this thread Bill said he had replied to my open ticket of mine and it had sent me an email that I never saw. I went into my program, Spam Killer from McAfee, and found Bills email had been blocked. I used the option to add Bill to the Friends list so that account would not be blocked and I moved the email over into my Inbox. Now this was my Prodigy account and my personal software, not the test here.

 

Will the software have these features? Will it block TCH

 

Having your cake and eating it to. A old saying but it really goes a long ways in this case.

 

We could pass the spam emails along with tagged headers, but in my view that is waisting everyone's effort.

 

The reason the reply in that ticket was flagged as spam was because your filters were doing a poor job of filtering. The spam firewall is not doing a poor job of filtering. We are monitoring the rejected emails and so far the firewall is 99.999% accurate.

 

At this point we are not planning on passing thru the tagged spam. It just seems so counter productive. If your looking thru your "spam" folder then this entire spam firewall would be counter productive. Just delete the spams from your inbox as the come in, in my view thats the same as going thru your spam folder.

[Madmanmcp]

As far as I know it just trashes the messages currently. You would have no control yourself since it's a hardware solution but I know there are settings that can be changed to pass the spam through modifying the headers. But then we're back to sifting through the crap and wasting bandwidth. IMO I like the way it is currently configured. If a legitimate email does get caught I am sure the sender will contact me and I can figure out how to deal with it at that time. So far in several weeks of testing I have not had the need as all email intended for me has been delivered.

 

 

Ok, thats what I thought. I'm not complaining, just asking questions so I can understand and evaluate what I'm seeing. So far seeing zero emails in that account has done exactly what I wanted. I was leaving the account opened just in case it needed to be ressurrected and its purpose was needed again next year. The spam was eating up disk space and it was a chore remembering to come and clean it out. Now I can keep the account and not have to clean it

 

I guess what I'll try and do now is start sending it valid emails and see if they make it through.

[Madmanmcp]

Having your cake and eating it to. A old saying but it really goes a long ways in this case.

 

We could pass the spam emails along with tagged headers, but in my view that is waisting everyone's effort.

 

The reason the reply in that ticket was flagged as spam was because your filters were doing a poor job of filtering. The spam firewall is not doing a poor job of filtering. We are monitoring the rejected emails and so far the firewall is 99.999% accurate.

 

At this point we are not planning on passing thru the tagged spam. It just seems so counter productive. If your looking thru your "spam" folder then this entire spam firewall would be counter productive. Just delete the spams from your inbox as the come in, in my view thats the same as going thru your spam folder.

 

I generally agree with what you are saying. I treat Spam differently with the different accounts I have and the different Spam blockers used with each account. The hardware filter being tested here is looking like a very good option and a great addition to TCH.

 

On my home account I very rarely look at the spam folder which explains why I missed your email. And yes the software did a bad job in blocking but thats one of the problems with most of these programs, the baby sometimes gets thrown out with the bath water. Maybe its not all the software filtering fault, maybe its the email format the ticketing system is using ... I didn't look to see what reason the email was blocked for. I just was interested in recovering and reading at that time.

 

My SpamKiller has been doing a pretty good job so far, it doesn't stop everything but it gets plenty. This is the first good/blocked message I've had in about 6 months, I've had 3 good/blocked that I can remember since installing the newest version of it. The last one was also a TCH ticket reply (which is why I mentioned the format) and the other was from a friend with a new email address, He sent a picture with no subject and no text and SpamKiller did the correct thing.

[Head Guru]

I will check to see if we can change settings at the domain level, if so we may just in fact be able to have our cake and eat it.

 

Bill

[Head Guru]

Giving your cake and allowing you to eat it.

 

It does in fact appear that we can set email handling options on a per domain basis.

 

So Madman, if you want I can set your domain to forward tagged headers.

 

I am off for the day at doctors appointments, just reply here and I will make the changes later when I am back.

 

Bill

[Madmanmcp]

It does in fact appear that we can set email handling options on a per domain basis.

 

Ask and ye shall receive. TCH as usual goes the extra mile for its customers.

 

Might as well test this out during the "test". Is this a difficult step, will you be offering this option to the rest of the customers once we go live? What do I need to do on my end, do I need to enable the Spam folder option in cpanel? Or will this need to be done manually?

 

And take your time, I am in no hurry. Just let me know and I'll be sure to tell you how its going

[jweltz]

If I missed anyone in the thread, just reply here.

 

 

kneedrag.net if there is still room to help out. (post #10 above)

[youneverknow]

Well, its been 10 days or so now under the spam killer. I have had about 14 that still got into my inbox.(not bad) Quite abit less than the 100 or so that I got a week before the filter...

I even emailed myself with "****" and "money" and "free" in the subject line and for some reason the filter did not filter these out and I am guessing that since those messages did not meet the "Hot list" that those from my ligit account went through...it is smart in the filtering process.

I will definitley keep this filter in place as it really seems to work well.

 

Thanks TCH, you are going above and beyond what most hosting companies do. Imagine all of this for only $4.00 a month.

Thanks TCH....youneverknow.

 

PS: I don't like the naming of the servers with Star Wars names...I thought it was easier to remember when the servers had numbers.

[Head Guru]

I love the starwars names on servers. I think it just add's something special to the servers. Sorry but at this time, I am not planning on changing the new scheme.

 

I am glad your liking the new email filtering.

 

Bill

[youneverknow]

Bill,

How about a page on your site to show the name conversions as they progress. I guess I am more of a number guy than social. (What was his name?)

youneverknow

PS: sorry this is kind of off this thread

[Head Guru]

That we can have done.

 

I will ask our Data Center manager to put together a post of the name conversions.

 

Bill

[Madmanmcp]

So far I have received zero emails on my account and I was thinking this is great, the hardware was working 100% and blocking every piece of spam. I did some tests today and sent 2 emails from my work email at Verizon and they have not arrived. I also sent an one email from home on my Prodigy account and one from my wife's account on Verizon FIOS and they have not arrived either. I think the filter is working too well and is blocking everything or my mail has been turned off completely.

It was working fine before the test started, I have the spam for two days before the test and nothing since then.

[Head Guru]

Bob,

 

Your email should be flowing now. Please check and advise.

 

Bill

[TCH-James]

Here is a list of server name conversions. We'll place this somewhere more permanent soon, but I wanted to get this out to those who would like it now.

 

server110 ==> abraxas (pending)

server109 ==> ambria

server380 ==> ansek

server111 ==> applecore (pending)

server38 ==> bespin

server99 ==> byss

server68 ==> coruscant

server106 ==> dagobah (pending)

server88 ==> dantooine

server25 ==> danuta

server34 ==> endor

server100 ==> geonosis

server71 ==> hoth

server97 ==> kalee

server107 ==> korriban

server336 ==> luke

server381 ==> naboo

server57 ==> ossus

server51 ==> plavin

server23 ==> r2d2

server44 ==> tarvis

server56 ==> yavin

[Madmanmcp]

Bob,

 

Your email should be flowing now. Please check and advise.

 

Bill

 

Thanks Bill, I got the two emails from home but not the two from work. The two from work had a blank subject so they were probably blocked as Spam. What happened, was the MX record typed in wrong?

[youneverknow]

Update:

 

Since April 9th I have 60 spams, (undelivered, and others) that got through the filter, that were not real mail. This is down from the 400 or so that I got before the filter was in place. Much improvement

youneverknow

[coolinc.net]

What's the status on this, I am very interested.. If able I would love for you to add me! coolinc.net

 

Found this because my influx of spam has increased 2 fold in the last month and spam assassin is just not good enough.

 

Ron

[Jinny]

What's the status on this, I am very interested.. If able I would love for you to add me! coolinc.net

 

Found this because my influx of spam has increased 2 fold in the last month and spam assassin is just not good enough.

 

Ron

 

Gads Spam Assassin isn't working at all for me now. Just today alone I deleted 60+ spam emails and this was a slow day. Has this new tool been deemed good enough for all of us or are you still testing it. I can't stand all this spam!

[TCH-Don]

Welcome to the forum Jinny

 

One thing you can do is make sure your cpanel default address is set to :fail:

Then set up real accounts and forwards to those address's,

if you haven't already.

[Jinny]

Welcome to the forum Jinny

 

One thing you can do is make sure your cpanel default address is set to :fail:

Then set up real accounts and forwards to those address's,

if you haven't already.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Don. I'll give it a shot in the morning, but I may be back for more assistance.

 

Jinny

[TCH-Thomas]

Welcome to the forum, Jinny.

 

I bet that some of those +60 spams will go away, but we are here to help if it doesn´t or if you need any more help.

[TCH-Bruce]

Welcome to the forums Jinny

[coolinc.net]

What's the status on this, I am very interested.. If able I would love for you to add me! coolinc.net

 

Found this because my influx of spam has increased 2 fold in the last month and spam assassin is just not good enough.

 

Ron

 

 

Anyone have any info on this?

1. Is the beta closed?

2. If so, when might this go live?

[TCH-James]

I do not believe the beta is closed yet, as Bill has been tweaking the spam server to make sure everything is right.

 

Correction:

 

We are not accepting anyone else currently for beta testing as all the slots are filled. We will make an announcement once we have fully tested and abused the spam filter on the results and the possibility of a full roll out for our customers.

[coolinc.net]

Thank you for the Update Jesse!

 

I patiently await the roll out!

[coolinc.net]

Has this gone anywhere? Whats the status?

 

Thanks

[TCH-Bruce]

Sorry, no decision has been made. It is still possible this will be something offered in the future. When a decision is made it will be posted in the forums.