Posts about Hosting?

Where should they go?

[ChrisXenon]

I can't find a category which fits.

Here's the issue.

I run an E-Commerce website which emails encrypted orders to us.

About every two months, the hosting company experiences an email log-jam which can take up to 40 hours to clear. During that time, we get no email from the website. Specifically - we get no orders.

They say this is due to SPAMMERS hichjacking their servers and piping huge quantities of SPAM through them. They have - apparently - no option but to wait for it all to flush through before service normality returns.

They say they are updating all the scripts to remove loopholes, but customers are free to upload their own scripts which may re0introduce these loopholes.

The bottom line is that this problem will remain for ever. They feel that all hosting companies are in the same boat.

Well, only having dealings wiht one - I'm not in a position to know if this is true or now, but you all might be!

Any comments on this stance from our hosting company?

Thanks,
Chris

[oilman]

Chris - this forum is as good as any for a question like this.

There certainly is abuse going on out there with people expoiting weak security on formmail scripts etc. This truly can cause problems.

I'll be honest - I don't know a whole lot about server technology but it seems to me that if there is a bunch of mail processes jamming up a server the admins should be able to indentify it and kill it (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

That said I think they are trying to fob you off a bit by saying taht all host have this problem. I've never exeprienced a log jam on the magnitude that you are describing or even close for that matter. I can't honestly remember the last time the mail servers were even slow let alone down at my host.

I'd recommend looking for a new provider.

[ritch_b]

Hi Chris,

Loopholes within various versions of formmail et al can (and frequently do) allow people to abuse the system & push through large amounts of spam.

In these instances though, your host should be able to simply bring the server down gently and clear the offending mails. On the few occasions this has happened, we've been back up within minutes. If there's a lot of junk to clear out it will naturally take longer, but 40 hours is an unacceptably long time.

Time is very definately money and if your current hosts aren't prepared to - or able to - improve the situation, I'd be taking my money elsewhere.

[txbakers]

It's not only spam that can tie up a server sending mail. If someone unwittingly tries to mail a 40 MB attachment, it will clog up the path faster than a double size Chicken Fried Steak.

[jatar_k]

It sounds like they are feeding you a line. All the hosts I have worked with have never had that level of problem. I have had them hacked, spammed and all other imaginable experiences but they have never been down for 40 hrs every 2 months.

I would consider this well beyond unacceptable and would start looking for a new host. Preferably one with some actual admin abilities.

I had a server hacked badly and had to move everything and set up a new server, blah, blah. The admins had that puppy up, configured and humming in 3hrs. Amazing. A good host is worth it's weight in gold and yours doesn't sound like it is one.

[DrCool]

Have you thought about getting a dedicated server? That way you wouldn't have people uploading other scripts on it that would open loopholes. We dealt with problems like that for quite a while and decided to get our own servers. The problems are much smaller and easier to fix now.

[richlowe]

I went the dedicated server route some time ago (one apache one IIS) and will never go back to a hosting service. I love having my own servers and I really love being able to do what I need to do when I want to.

Richard LOwe

[ChrisXenon]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am looking at dedicated server, but it's just one more thing to have to worry about, and I'm trying to move in the opposite direction.

I'll contact my hosting company and point out your comments. Waste of time, but I'm a gluten for punishment.

Cheers,
Chris

[DaveN]

chris, one of the uk's largest ISP have been down for 2 weeks due to an open relay on their webmail.

it was estimate they have had over one million extra emails a day (spam) and that went on for a week.

I run a small ISP and agree with richlowe

running my own servers and I really love being able to do what I need to do when I want to.

The bigger you the more bad people find you.

DaveN

[ChrisXenon]

Hi Dave, I'm already spread far too thin though. I'm a one-man business, running like a mad thing to stand still. I already had to learn HTML, JavaScript, Visual Basic, PHP, and Perl, and I wanted my programming days to be long gone 10 years ago.

I don't want to have to learn Unix and all of the hideous configuration issues which may be tripping a novice like me up and further distracting me from the main issue - running a business.

Still, if this goes on, I will probably go the dedicated server route. It does offer other advantages too.

My Hosting company tell me, (for those that suggested it above) that they can't weed out the good emails from the bad, and so taking the server down to "clear the crud" is a non-option for them.

Cheers,
Chris

[edited by: ChrisXenon at 10:16 am (utc) on June 28, 2002]

[DaveN]

Chris why not ask them to point your MX records to another provider.

Let them host your site but point your mail else where.

Dave