Current Time: 15:26:04 EST
 
18 Jan 2013 9:19 am

SmartHost Email Delay- Resolved

Posted In: Outage — Jan 18th, 2013 at 9:19 am EST by IX: Robyn M.

Incident Description:

Our smarthost mail server has received a large increase in spam email from outside sources. We are filtering through the emails but customers using our mail servers may see a delay in email delivery.

Which Customers are Impacted?

All customers using form mail and horde web mail services.

How are Customers Impacted?

Delivery of email may be delayed.

How often will we be updated?

Every 4 hours

Time to Resolution (ETA)

n/a

Incident Updates

  • 2013/01/18 02:21 pm- Our administrators are still working to clean the mail queue. No ETA at this time.
  • 2013/01/18 08:00 PM - Our administrators are working on this still and have cleared out about half of the messages that were clogging up the server. No ETA but it seems to be speeding up and the removal is going quicker.
  • 2013/01/19 12:46 AM - Our administrators are currently working on this problem. Messages are still waiting to be delivered, but the mail queue is clean on the server. No ETA given.
  • 2013/01/19 6:37 AM - The mail queues are positive at this time. Another update will be posted when more information if available.
  • 2013/01/19 12:30 PM - The mail queues are down to normal. There should be no significant delay in email delivery.

Resolution Description

The mail queue has been cleaned.  

posted in Outage by IX: Robyn M.

7 Comments to "SmartHost Email Delay- Resolved"

Fri, January 18th, 2013

Gurv says:

We had same issue last week.. why did we not put any process in place to see if does not repeat again.
Clients cannot afford to have emails down for days every time your server get spammed.

Link | Posted at 10:17 am EST

Fri, January 18th, 2013

IX: Robyn M. says:

Hello Gurv,

Unfortunately, it is often hard to stop these due to most of the spam email coming from an insecure form on a customers site. Once they are in the queue we have to clean it out which can be a tedious process.

We are working as quickly as we can and will update you as soon as we have additional information.

Thanks!

Link | Posted at 10:39 am EST

Fri, January 18th, 2013

Gurv says:

Any update how long do we have to wait? What are the other alternate options so we do not use the shared hosting or mail server??

Link | Posted at 4:37 pm EST

Fri, January 18th, 2013

IX: Chris B says:

Hello Gurv,

I am sorry for the delay in the update. We have just updated this for you. We still have no exact ETA but our administrators have cleaned out about half of the email that was clogging up the servers.

Also the alternate options to dealing with a shared server would be to get either a VPS or Cloud server so that you can manage and control your own mail server through it. If you are interested in this please let us know.

Thanks!

Link | Posted at 8:10 pm EST

Sat, January 19th, 2013

Lillian says:

This is just horrible for my business! Same thing happened last week and you said it was fixed!!!

My computer guy says: Sometimes there is an email routing issue if the inbox is on the same server the email is generated from. You could also be dealing with some kind of spam issue. You’ll need to have your hosting service trace emails generated at the server and find out why there aren’t being delivered to the appropriate local email address.

I say: How about move the inbox to a different server? In any case, this is a mess that NEEDS to be fixed please!!!!

Link | Posted at 10:35 am EST

Sat, January 19th, 2013

IX: Robyn M. says:

Hello Lillian,

Our smart host servers only send email for web forms, or any script on your web server that will send an email, as well as our horde web mail system. The mailboxes are not on these servers and if you send from an email client this issue will not be a problem. They are working as quickly as they can to clean the spam out but unfortunately it is a very manual process.

Thank you for your patience.

Link | Posted at 12:09 pm EST

Sat, January 19th, 2013

Lillian says:

My issue is with a send mail script notification. These are crucial to my work. I will bear with you but my clients arent very happy with you and I do have to keep them happy! Thanks.

Link | Posted at 12:15 pm EST

 
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