Some questions....

[KevinD872]

After 9 years with my old hosting company, I've grown tired of recent problems ever since the original owner sold it a couple years ago. I'm not here to bash them and I won't go into too many details. So far I am impressed with MDD Hosting... it actually reminds me a lot of my current host before the business got sold. In many ways that is great, and in other ways I worry about the future should I decide to host with you and you eventually sell the business as well.

 

Anyway, here are some questions (I apologize for the long post):

 

1) While I currently have Spamassassin, it is a crippled shell of what I used to have before my site got migrated to Plesk a couple years ago. I used to have control over individual test scores, was able to sort spam by score (send some to a "spam" email account that I would check once a week and send really high stuff to a black hole). I no longer have those luxuries and that is part of the reason I am changing hosts. I see that with MDD I can adjust individual test scores and it also looks like I can filter the spam the same way I used to by using email filtering rules. I used to have this set up manually in the 'rc.local.init' file (or was it the other mail file... I can't remember) years ago. Does this basically work the same way? I also used to have access to the .spamassassin folder where I could create my own custom rules in my userprefs file. Will I have access to this file through FTP and can I create custom rules and manually make spamassassin changes if I want to? This isn't a deal breaker... I'm just curious as to how much control I will have. Also, can I do Bayes training? Again not a deal breaker.

 

2) Which version of PHPBB do you offer? My current site uses PHPBB3 (I think). While the forum is very small and only has a small number of members, I have been through several forums over the years and hate to once again start from scratch. Will I be able to migrate the forum data? I might be able to do this myself with some instruction, but is this something you can also do? If so, what would the cost be?

 

3) My site uses several CGI scripts (PayPal IPNs, a CGI-based commenting system, CGI-based product and password management for customers, etc). One problem I am currently having is every now and then I get blocked from approving new comments made to my site. My hosting company says it is because they have protections in place and it doesn't like the CGI scripts modifying files. I understand wanting to protect things, but it worked for years and now they break it every few months. They quickly correct the problem for me but it is aggravating. Do you anticipate I might have problems with CGI files that modify text and html/asp files? And if I do, would you be able to whitelist the CGI script or something so that it won't break again a few months later?

 

4) I get quite a few site visitors each day and I have new comments added to my site daily. I have concerns about what happens during the process of moving my "domain" to you (which I would do in addition to having you host the site itself assuming you offer that option). I have read several tutorials on the net about minimizing the problems but still do not fully understand what I should do. If I purchase a shared server from you and get my site files transferred over to it, should I then point my current domain to your name servers? What about the MX, A, etc settings? I don't want to miss emails or have comments people make randomly going to the old and new server and becoming a mixed up mess. This is obviously the worst part about moving to a new host but it's come to a time where I just want to get away from my current host and am willing to face some bumps in the process. I realize there is also the option to simply disable new comments on the old server which I may end up doing.

 

5) The straw that broke the camel's back for me with my current host: They are constantly adding different levels of spam protection ("rules") other than spamassassin and this results in legitimate emails never arriving at all. They claim it is not their fault and that the sender's server is not configured correctly. I tried to tell them that regardless of whether or not that is true, you cannot use anti-spam rules that send an email to a blackhole if there is any possibility that it is legitimate. They don't seem to understand. Keep in mind these are emails from several different places that managed to send email flawlessly for years until they just stopped coming because apparently their servers are suddenly misconfigured. My question is, do you do extra spam filtering that I have no control over, and if so, how certain are you that it does not block legitimate email? Is there a way to whitelist senders in the email filter and if so would this prevent spam filters other than spamassassin (if you do use any) from deleting legitimate email?

 

 

I hope I haven't sounded offensive or cranky..... I really am impressed with MDD Hosting so far. I am upset that after 9 years with the same company that I feel so compelled to leave them but I've just had enough. But there are TONS of hosting companies out there and I certainly don't want to go from bad to the same or worse.

 

Thanks for reading, and I have high hopes!

[Michael D.]

After 9 years with my old hosting company, I've grown tired of recent problems ever since the original owner sold it a couple years ago. I'm not here to bash them and I won't go into too many details. So far I am impressed with MDD Hosting... it actually reminds me a lot of my current host before the business got sold. In many ways that is great, and in other ways I worry about the future should I decide to host with you and you eventually sell the business as well.

Not going to sell - I didn't start MDDHosting to get rich, I started it because I enjoy offering quality hosting services. I know, it may sound a tad corny but it's the truth.

 

1) While I currently have Spamassassin, it is a crippled shell of what I used to have before my site got migrated to Plesk a couple years ago. I used to have control over individual test scores, was able to sort spam by score (send some to a "spam" email account that I would check once a week and send really high stuff to a black hole). I no longer have those luxuries and that is part of the reason I am changing hosts. I see that with MDD I can adjust individual test scores and it also looks like I can filter the spam the same way I used to by using email filtering rules. I used to have this set up manually in the 'rc.local.init' file (or was it the other mail file... I can't remember) years ago. Does this basically work the same way? I also used to have access to the .spamassassin folder where I could create my own custom rules in my userprefs file. Will I have access to this file through FTP and can I create custom rules and manually make spamassassin changes if I want to? This isn't a deal breaker... I'm just curious as to how much control I will have. Also, can I do Bayes training? Again not a deal breaker.

To be honest I've not seen anybody manipulate SpamAssassin to these levels so I am not entirely sure. I can tell you that you're more than welcome to give it a shot and any information learned while doing so if you want to get it back to us we'll be sure to include it into the knowledgebase. You could also write a post here on the forum with details/information if you wished Maybe this isn't the best answer in the world but it's honest.

 

2) Which version of PHPBB do you offer? My current site uses PHPBB3 (I think). While the forum is very small and only has a small number of members, I have been through several forums over the years and hate to once again start from scratch. Will I be able to migrate the forum data? I might be able to do this myself with some instruction, but is this something you can also do? If so, what would the cost be?

We do our best to handle the transfer process for you and while we don't 100% guarantee it will be flawless - out of thousands over the last two years we've only had a very small few (less than 10) that we weren't able to get moved over and mostly due to issues at the old provider.

 

3) My site uses several CGI scripts (PayPal IPNs, a CGI-based commenting system, CGI-based product and password management for customers, etc). One problem I am currently having is every now and then I get blocked from approving new comments made to my site. My hosting company says it is because they have protections in place and it doesn't like the CGI scripts modifying files. I understand wanting to protect things, but it worked for years and now they break it every few months. They quickly correct the problem for me but it is aggravating. Do you anticipate I might have problems with CGI files that modify text and html/asp files? And if I do, would you be able to whitelist the CGI script or something so that it won't break again a few months later?

I can't think of any systems that would prevent you from creating/editing your own files. The only issue I could see is if you were trying to modify files outside of your /home directory (i.e. files that you don't own) but you wouldn't want to do that anyhow.

 

4) I get quite a few site visitors each day and I have new comments added to my site daily. I have concerns about what happens during the process of moving my "domain" to you (which I would do in addition to having you host the site itself assuming you offer that option). I have read several tutorials on the net about minimizing the problems but still do not fully understand what I should do. If I purchase a shared server from you and get my site files transferred over to it, should I then point my current domain to your name servers? What about the MX, A, etc settings? I don't want to miss emails or have comments people make randomly going to the old and new server and becoming a mixed up mess. This is obviously the worst part about moving to a new host but it's come to a time where I just want to get away from my current host and am willing to face some bumps in the process. I realize there is also the option to simply disable new comments on the old server which I may end up doing.

My advice would be to schedule the move and prepare for it - I would leave your domain where it is for now so that you can simply update the DNS and then transfer the domain itself later on perhaps to an independent registrar like GoDaddy or NameCheap. Once you're ready for the move I would generally advise temporarily shutting down your site with a "Under maintenance" sort of message while we copy everything over and restore it. Depending on the permissions at your old host (i.e. if they have outgoing port 3306 open for example) we can temporarily connect your script at your old provider to the database with us and while it won't be as fast/robust as same-server MySQL it will definitely prevent lost comments or having to keep your site at the old provider offline during DNS propagation.

 

On the positive side - DNS propagation for 95% of the world generally takes under 2 hours for the most part so even if you did have to leave the site "offline" or "under maintenance" at your old provider - a vast majority of your traffic would see the site on the new server pretty quickly.

 

5) The straw that broke the camel's back for me with my current host: They are constantly adding different levels of spam protection ("rules") other than spamassassin and this results in legitimate emails never arriving at all. They claim it is not their fault and that the sender's server is not configured correctly. I tried to tell them that regardless of whether or not that is true, you cannot use anti-spam rules that send an email to a blackhole if there is any possibility that it is legitimate. They don't seem to understand. Keep in mind these are emails from several different places that managed to send email flawlessly for years until they just stopped coming because apparently their servers are suddenly misconfigured. My question is, do you do extra spam filtering that I have no control over, and if so, how certain are you that it does not block legitimate email? Is there a way to whitelist senders in the email filter and if so would this prevent spam filters other than spamassassin (if you do use any) from deleting legitimate email?

If you're talking about what I think you're talking about they're doing sender verification callouts which are a part of the RFC guidelines. Essentially it says that if an email address doesn't exist then it cannot send email and that is where the sending server being misconfigured comes into play. We do indeed check senders to make sure they exist as this prevents a lot of backscatter and other issues that come along with accepting forged/fraudulent emails. It's something we've always had on and generally we've had very few issues with this as only a few legitimate mailers out there have misconfigured sending servers.

 

Ultimately if you wanted 100% control over this you'd need to be on your own VPS or Dedicated server and then you could choose to be or not to be RFC compliant and whether or not to accept potentially forged messages and messages that originated from email accounts that don't exist. It's not something we'll turn off on our shared servers as we see spam increase by nearly 1,000% when it is off and it also results in backscatter.

 

I hope I haven't sounded offensive or cranky..... I really am impressed with MDD Hosting so far. I am upset that after 9 years with the same company that I feel so compelled to leave them but I've just had enough. But there are TONS of hosting companies out there and I certainly don't want to go from bad to the same or worse.

 

Thanks for reading, and I have high hopes!

No problem at all.

[KevinD872]

If you're talking about what I think you're talking about they're doing sender verification callouts which are a part of the RFC guidelines. Essentially it says that if an email address doesn't exist then it cannot send email and that is where the sending server being misconfigured comes into play. We do indeed check senders to make sure they exist as this prevents a lot of backscatter and other issues that come along with accepting forged/fraudulent emails. It's something we've always had on and generally we've had very few issues with this as only a few legitimate mailers out there have misconfigured sending servers.

 

I believe that is what they are saying it is, but I'm just not buying it. I know that's a pretty standard practice (and pretty effective at blocking spam), but the fact that emails from these places came through for years and one by one suddenly stop coming in tells me that it is something else they are doing and just don't know it. One thing that leads me to believe this is that on some occasions of missing emails I was lucky enough to find out from the sender that it got blocked. One got a bounce-back message apparently suggesting the problem was on my end:

 

--------------------------

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at h104.plesklogin.net.

I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.

This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

 

Sorry. Although I'm listed as a best-preference MX or A for that host,

it isn't in my control/locals file, so I don't treat it as local.

--------------------------

 

The following does sound like the sending server was misconfigured (i.e. the sending email address didn't exist), however this email was sent by me from my work email, which had worked hundreds of times. The message did get delivered eventually though.

 

--------------------------

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at h104.plesklogin.net.

I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.

This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

 

:

69.63.151.18 does not like recipient.

Remote host said: 503 This mail server requires authentication when attempting to send to a non-local e-mail address. Please check your mail client settings or contact your administrator to verify that the domain or address is defined for this server.

Giving up on 69.63.151.18.

--------------------------

For other missing emails, I don't know if they bounced back. Anyhoo, I'm not trying to turn this into a tech support call for another host. I just figured I'd give more info on what I was experiencing. There's really no way to tell but I kind of think that my host provider had something set wrong.

 

I trust that should I switch my hosting to you and find that I have missing emails that you would be able to whitelist the senders like my current host did? Regardless of who's fault it was, at least they were able to do that for me. My only complaint was that it was fixing the problem after the fact and did nothing to prevent a one-time legitimate email from coming through. While I'm lucky enough to have a great paying & stable job, imagine if I were looking for employment and a prospective employer sent me an email asking for an interview..... and I never got the email.

[KevinD872]

I trust that should I switch my hosting to you and find that I have missing emails that you would be able to whitelist the senders like my current host did? <snip>

 

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this. I've been looking at various hosts for about a week now and I'm feeling pretty good about MDD Hosting. I just want to be sure that should email problems like I mentioned above arise, you'll be able to fix them.

 

Thanks for your time!

[Michael D.]

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this. I've been looking at various hosts for about a week now and I'm feeling pretty good about MDD Hosting. I just want to be sure that should email problems like I mentioned above arise, you'll be able to fix them.

 

Thanks for your time!

Absolutely - we have no issues whatsoever whitelisting legitimate mail servers. If you ever suspect you didn't get an email you were supposed to get we will even check the logs to see if it hit the server and why it didn't hit your inbox if it did hit the server.

[KevinD872]

Sounds good to me. I'll be moving over soon.