We experienced a significant software failure with our main mail server today at approximately 15:00.

This issue caused extremely slow performance and caused a large build up of unprocessed mail to hang on the server and not be delivered. This affected both incoming and outgoing mail.

We resolved the software issue at approximately 17:30. Since then mail is now being processed. However there is a back log of over 10,000 messages which are currently being processed. It will take at least a couple of hours for this backlog to be fully cleared.

We have received a number of queries regarding customers receiving a large number of bounce attack messages. In addition we are also experiencing a major heavy load on our mail servers becuase of these bounce messages. These are generally where the sending email address has been spoofed by a spammer.

The situation can be made worse when the spoofed domain is using a catch-all account. This can lead to the catch-all account being overloaded with rejected and bounce messages for a mailing they did not even send.

We are receiving a growing number of queries regarding the upgrade to Helm 4.

WebHost Automation Ltd released Helm 4 last week. However at this time we will not be upgrading. The current release of Helm  does not support all the modules we require nor is it, in my opnion, completely ready for deployment by us.

We will be installing and testing Helm 4 over the next few months and when ready we will be upgrading to Helm 4. But this will not take place until all the relevant documentation and migration plans have been prepared.

Following recent customer requests we will be making some changes to our log file maintenance.

Web site log files over 30 days old are currently automatically deleted. Some customers are finding that these log files can utilise a large amount of space on the server. Busy sites can produce extremely large log files.

Because of this the log file maintenance program will be changed to remove all log files over 7 days old. This change will take effect from 30th November 2006.

Unfortunately we will be withdrawing support for URL Protector in the next few weeks on all web servers. This is due to issues with the copanywho supplies URL Protector which appears to have ceased trading.

We are unable to continue using a product which no longer has any updates or support behind it. We already have a replacement product call IIS Password from Troxo. However this does not support database verification.

More details will be provided regarding how the migration will take place in the next few days.

As part of our ongoing review of our anti-spam system we have made some minor adjustments to the system. The result is that some mail will arrive quicker but it is also possible the amount of spam getting through may increase.

We will closely monitor the situation.

We have changed the way our SRS:Sender Rewriting Scheme system works.

Previously all messages sent out via our mail server have been subject to SRS. This has caused a few isolated problems. Namely message bounces because of whitelist mis-matches and problems with receivers who operate sender verification systems.

To resolve this we now only perform SRS on forwarded mail. So if the email is sent via SMTP Auth or uses a from address hosted on our system we will not perform SRS. But if the message is received by us then forwarded to an external mailbox then we will perform SRS to ensure SPF compliance.

To improve security on the network from 30th November 2006 external connections to MySQL will be blocked. You will only be able to connect to MySQL from the internal network and via PHPMyAdmin [ http://web.mysql1.netsvr.net ].

This has become necessary to ensure the integrity of our network is maintained. There are many unsuccessful attempts to connect to the MySQL database each day from suspicious sources. This can slow down the systems considerably. By blocking all external connections at firewall level we can reduce the threat and increase performance.

We have made some changes to the implementation of the Shared SSL webspace after consideration of cutomer feedback.

To make it much simpler to use when shared ssl is installed on a domain it will now secure the whole website and not just the ssl folder. Effectively working on the wwwroot folder rather than the current ssl folder.

This will make it much easier to work with your site in with shared ssl as you will no longer have to upload files to the seperate SSL folder.

We are pleased to announce our membership to the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce. By joining the YNYCC we hope to benefit new and existing customers.

The membership of YNYCC will allow us to meet new and existing businesses. This could lead to potential referals for many of our resellers as well as introduce us to potential new suppliers and partners.