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Spamcop Webmail Down


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I take this to mean that one careless user brought down the system the last time, but others differ in the interpretation of that statement.

I have been a paid user since 1998, the year the service started. If SC doesn't change mail providers by the time my subscription is up, I will be abandoning, sadly, SC.

Because spammers read the forum and because they would like nothing more than to bring SC down, I understand the need for some secrecy. But even lying would better than silence.

On the reporting page it states that the problem appears to be at their hosting center. If it were me, I'd be looking for a hosting location with redundancies, such as backup power and multiple routes out to the internet. I know that hosting locations such as that exist, so I don't know why CESMail doesn't find one and move there!

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On the reporting page it states that the problem appears to be at their hosting center. If it were me, I'd be looking for a hosting location with redundancies, such as backup power and multiple routes out to the internet. I know that hosting locations such as that exist, so I don't know why CESMail doesn't find one and move there!

FYI, I was responding to hjp's question "Have we ever really found out what has happen in the past?" not the current situation.

CESmail has changed hosting centers at least once.

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The data center appears to be one belonging to QTS (Quality Technology Services):

http://www.qtsdatacenters.com

Specifically, I think CESMail is housed in this one, in Suwanee, GA (suburb of Atlanta):

http://www.qtsdatacenters.com/data_centers...suwanee_ga.aspx

When I run a tracert to webmail, it runs through the Kansas City area, where they also have centers. I wasn't able to find any status report services for their locations. The webmail server is responding to pings, so I'm not so sure this has anything to do with connectivity.

DT

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I too have been a member since the early days.

This needs to stop. The people who count on me to respond to THEIR business e-mails no longer accept "my e-mail service went down" -- especially every two weeks.

It's seen as the modern-day equivalent of "the dog ate my homework" -- and I've had clients and collaborators ask why I stick with a "clown show" e-mail provider.

Before my e-mail gets bounced to CESMAIL for popping it stops at my small, local ISP -- nobody in the external world even sees my *[at]cesmail.net or my [at]spamcop.net address domain. That small, local "Mom and Pop" ISP has not gone down for TEN YEARS.

If spamcop needs to raise our fees to afford a better e-mail server service, then do so -- we haven't had a rate increase in years, and anyone who can pay $2.50 a month can certainly afford $3.50.

Message to Spamcop -- your "mission" has earned our loyalty over the years... your insistence on sticking with unreliable partners using unreliable technology is eroding that loyalty. The bad service and the failure to communicate (NO EXCUSE for failing to update hourly in the age of twitter) are sending a signal to subscribers that you just don't care any more.

Please -- prove me wrong by making changes that do so.

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That small, local "Mom and Pop" ISP has not gone down for TEN YEARS.

I suspect this outfit is not in the business of reporting spammers, and therein lies the rub.

I have long defended spamcop because we users really aren't aware of the scale of attacks they must endure to stay online.

That said, integrate captured my feelings exactly. There is no excuse for the lack of communication, as I said earlier, just lie about even. Throw the criminals off the trail.

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[snip]

If spamcop needs to raise our fees to afford a better e-mail server service, then do so -- we haven't had a rate increase in years, and anyone who can pay $2.50 a month can certainly afford $3.50.

Message to Spamcop -- your "mission" has earned our loyalty over the years... your insistence on sticking with unreliable partners using unreliable technology is eroding that loyalty. The bad service and the failure to communicate (NO EXCUSE for failing to update hourly in the age of twitter) are sending a signal to subscribers that you just don't care any more.

Please -- prove me wrong by making changes that do so.

I agree. Hell, I'd even pay $60/year if they wanted to set up a second, duplicate mail server somewhere and have them on round-robin DNS so that if one went down, hopefully BOTH wont' go down! Servers aren't that freakin' expensive these days! And since you're (presumably) not using Micro$uck operating systems, it should be a hell of a lot cheaper. All you need to do is mirror your setup in a second location so that if something happens to one location, the other can take up the load. IT'S NOT THAT FREAKIN' HARD!!!

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I can't see any benefit to lying.

I do, especially if it prevents outages like this, and prevents the crime gangs that are attacking spamcop from getting a clue. Alternatively, announce that you aren't disclosing anything to prevent future attackers from leveraging the information. Both are a damn sight better than what we are getting now, which is essentially zilch.

I'd even pay $60/year

<AOL>Me too!</AOL>

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I do, especially if it prevents outages like this, and prevents the crime gangs that are attacking spamcop from getting a clue. Alternatively, announce that you aren't disclosing anything to prevent future attackers from leveraging the information. Both are a damn sight better than what we are getting now, which is essentially zilch.

<AOL>Me too!</AOL>

$60 / year is a drop in the bucket for hosted email like this. I think it would be money well spent if CESMail would set up redundancies and other things to ensure 99.9999% uptime

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I agree. Hell, I'd even pay $60/year if they wanted to set up a second, duplicate mail server somewhere and have them on round-robin DNS so that if one went down, hopefully BOTH wont' go down! Servers aren't that freakin' expensive these days! And since you're (presumably) not using Micro$uck operating systems, it should be a hell of a lot cheaper. All you need to do is mirror your setup in a second location so that if something happens to one location, the other can take up the load. IT'S NOT THAT FREAKIN' HARD!!!

Exactly.

Spamcop has affordable solutions that either did not exist ten years ago or were not affordable at that time. All I'm asking is that they show us they still care by coming in with a fresh eye and implementing a fresh approach to security.

I know Spamcop is a target for denial of service -- so are police forces and all sorts of political and religious sites. If that's the case then build solutions in proportion to the threat.

Is there ANYONE in this forum who would not be willing to stand behind their belief in Spamcop by paying a bit more if that rate increase was plowed into increased security/reliability?

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I wouldn't be in a hurry to switch to Google specifically (bye bye privacy) but I'm also considering switching to a different permanent provider.

At least you'd get you mail. Ialso have been with Spamcop for more years than I can remember - seriously looking for alternatives. <_<

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I do, especially if it prevents outages like this, and prevents the crime gangs that are attacking spamcop from getting a clue. Alternatively, announce that you aren't disclosing anything to prevent future attackers from leveraging the information. Both are a damn sight better than what we are getting now, which is essentially zilch.

<AOL>Me too!</AOL>

I know when I'm working on a technical problem -- if my boss or a client asked me once an hour I would have at least 140 characters worth of response -- even if it was "We've done all we can tonight -- need to connect with specialist in AM" or "we have discovered the problem, and estimate another 5 - 7 hours before back online" or "still doing diagnosis -- will update in 1 hour"

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Is there ANYONE in this forum who would not be willing to stand behind their belief in Spamcop by paying a bit more if that rate increase was plowed into increased security/reliability?

Me for one. You can plough millions into it, but communication with your customers costs very little. It feels like the people in charge at spamcop are just sticking two fingers up at their customers.

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Me for one. You can plough millions into it, but communication with your customers costs very little. It feels like the people in charge at spamcop are just sticking two fingers up at their customers.

Good point!

Let me re-phrase the question:

Is there ANYONE in this forum who would not be willing to stand behind their belief in Spamcop by paying a bit more if that rate increase was plowed into increased security/reliability? AND they promised to communicate properly when there were problems

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Good point!

Let me re-phrase the question:

Is there ANYONE in this forum who would not be willing to stand behind their belief in Spamcop by paying a bit more if that rate increase was plowed into increased security/reliability? AND they promised to communicate properly when there were problems

But that's the rub - they should be communicating already. Honestly I don't think I would be willing to pay any more.

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Is there ANYONE in this forum who would not be willing to stand behind their belief in Spamcop by paying a bit more if that rate increase was plowed into increased security/reliability? AND they promised to communicate properly when there were problems

I take back what I said earlier and also would say no. I believe SC/Cisco needs to drop the current mail provider ASAP based on past performance of customer communications alone.

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Looking frantically - let me know if you find anything.

Yep, me to. It certainly appears that this mail service is going to be relegated to the hobbyist. I to funnel business email through it to get rid off spam. But I guess this is not a viable option anymore. Sigh.

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Fortunately I set my ISP to forward all mail to Cesmail so I can always just stop it there and read the mail on my ISP's webmail servers instead.

The overnight mail from before I learned about it is in limbo though.

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