Re: [nznog] Xtra Mail Admin Contact Off List re White List - Reporting back

13 Dec 2007

      This is a quick round up of my earlier post for those who are interested 
in these issues.  It is provided for information, not to troll for a 
flame :)

I got hold of Ted.

Following a half dozen pointless emails, he confirmed today that the 
shared server I'm using is in the Yahoo! block list.

Yahoo! run a 'voting' system that counts messages users put in to their 
spam folder from different locations and blocks those sites.

HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM

Ted expressed that I needed to ensure that our shared service is 
filtering for spam, before auto forwarding, then apply to have the 
server block removed.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/postmaster/defer.html

MY CONSIDERED ISSUES

Frankly I suspect that this may be pointless.  I know that the shared 
server is used to host a number of applications that can be hacked (eg 
poorly written Joomla components) and used to leverage the sending of spam.

I suspect that if I get it removed from the Yahoo! block list this week 
then I'll have to start over again next week as I do not have control 
over the rest of the server.

I'd like to thank the person who suggested I contact Ted.

I got the clear impression (and I mean 'impression') that he's as 
frustrated with the whole email thing as the rest of us.

He referred me to many pages on the Yahoo! web site that were incomplete 
and did little to explain clearly how to fix these sort of problems.

Frankly by the end of the week I felt very stone walled.

FINAL OUTCOME / RECOMMENDATIONS

You may recall the purpose of the 'auto forwarding' was to save the 27 
users from having to reconfigure their client software.

I have now told them that they do not have this option.  They have to 
set up their mail client to read from the server and/or pay someone else 
to do it or use our web mail interface.  So much for trying to same 
someone some hassle.

We are also having ongoing problems with email messages taking time to 
exit Xtra's/Yahoo!'s mail system and getting delivered.

I've expressed that they should change providers to a smaller firm who 
have a more reliable system that is not quite so subject to the load 
issues that a mail provider such as Yahoo! has.

I'm sure it will come as no surprise that despite explaining this to the 
users, only 2 of the 30 users have change provider.  I should have 
thought that 2 months free service, your own account manager and email 
delivered in seconds, would have been enough to entice the users to 
change - I was wrong.

Cheers and thanks to everyone for their help, especially Ted!

Merry Christmas, Don

Blair Robson wrote:
...
I don't have a clue about whether this is true or not, but it was my 
understanding that Xtra had some sort of deal with 3rd party mail 
services such as http://www.smartmail.co.nz/  that exempted them from 
the standard mail policies for a regular user.. (thereforn avoiding 
problems like this...
On 28/11/2007, *Brian Gibbons* mailto:brian(a)outersite.co.nz> wrote:
>From: "Steve Phillips" mailto:steve(a)focb.co.nz>
     > I guess people have short attention spans here ;-)
     >
     > (Don, if you search the archives for posts from Ted Grenfell -
    last one
     > dated 7-12-2006, you should find his contact details)
I think we all tried that....
Xtra no longer exist, they are a brand of Telecom and if you contact
    Xtra(Ted) about this problem they/he will "refer" you to Yahoo who
    are now
    the provider of the service
This is a bit like taking a product back to The Warehouse and being
    told to
    send it back to China yourself. A service company would take
    ownership of
    the problem. Xtra has not.
By now I would expect an "Xtra" procedure for whitelisting a .nz server
    (sorry Ted but this is a big time waster).
Cheers
BG
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-- 
Don Gould
2/59 Peverel Street, Riccarton, Christchurch, New Zealand
Phone: +64 3 348 7235 - Mobile: +64 21 114 0699
www.thinkdesignprint.co.nz