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© 2010 · ICUHost.Net
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Mail Server
What Happened?
Friday evening, August 31st 2007, there was a brown out in the computer room. The mail server would not boot from its SCSI drive.
It was up for a period after initial failure, but it was in distress from its initial restart after brown out.
The backup IDE was no help as it was also a victim. It is believed that this was due to a bad power supply and it sent
some sort of surge through the machine.
Being out of state, the recovery did not start until 5:30 Sunday morning after a long drive back to Philadelphia. It was determined
that a new mail server would be built and whatever could be recovered from the original SCSI drive would be copied
over to the new server.
New Mail Server
The new mail server is a Compaq Proliant ML530 with 3 redundant power supplies and 6 18G drives in a RAID5
configuration. The server has the latest and greatest of all the SPAM and virus protection that you could want
and there is also many more features available to you on a per user level. More on that later. This is a much
desirable configuration for the mail server.
What wasn't recovered?
The database as a whole was lost. The mail server database runs on the mail server. So, all passwords were lost. All were
added to be learned as people checked their mail, but this didn't work for those using solely SquirrelMail (IMAP) and in some cases
using their own clients (POP3). Please login to the Administration of your email addresses and retype in your password.
Also, all forwards were stored in the database, so they're gone as well. It is suggested you visit the Administration
of your domain or email address and put back in place your forwards.
What was recovered?
The entire directory structure of all domains and email addresses. All domains that had mailing lists have been recovered.
It is assumed that all email was recovered as well, but there is no way we can tell out of millions of emails that were on the server
if they all survived the HDD failure and subsequent copy to the new server.
New Issues:
· Security Certificates
· SquirrelMail
· Setting up your email client
· Sending email
· SPAM prevention
Security Certificates
The mail server is now forcing you to use security certificates. This encrypts the traffic to and from the mail server.
You most definitely want to use this feature where your email is concerned.
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When you go to your webmail interface, it looks the same. While your domain name is at the top of the screen,
keep in mind that all of your email is processed with the name of mail03.bsdmail.net
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Microsoft's Internet Explorer gives you NO information as to why you're receiving this screen. Basically what this
screen is telling you is that the certificate domain is different than the name in your address bar. The mail03.bsdmail.net
certificate is a self signed certificate. It would cost much too much to purchase a certificate for each domain hosted.
Although it says "Not Recommended", click to continue so you're using a secure connection. (You should use
Firefox)
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Firefox presents you with the following. It tells you exactly what's going on. Just click OK to continue.
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SquirrelMail
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When some people are logging into SquirrelMail, they're seeing the following error on the left side of their screen. To fix
this, click on "FOLDERS".
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After clicking on "FOLDERS", notice the Unsubscribe/Subscribe box at the bottom of the page.
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Highlight each of the folders on the right above the SUBSCRIBE button and Subscribe to them one at a time.
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Once subscribed to all folders, you will see the message "No folders were found to subscribe to."
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Click on "Refresh folder list" or right click in the left pane and refresh that frame. You should now see your folder list.
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Once you get it working, you can move around your messages into the appropriate folders. Delete folders until you have the
default folder configuration shown here. These folders are required.
INBOX - where new mail is delivered
Drafts - where incomplete composed email are saved by timer
Learn Ham - where you should move old messages to be scanned as acceptable
Learn Spam - where you should move verified spam to be scanned as unacceptable
Sent - where emails you've sent to others are saved
Spam - where mail identified as spam is delivered for your review (then move to Learn Spam)
Trash - where deleted mail is stored until you empty your trash.
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Setting up your email client
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Setup your incoming POP3 server settings to use SSL on port 995
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Setup your outgoing SMTP server settings to use the 587 submission port as well as TLS
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If you use Thunderbird and just want to use one outgoing server for multiple domains (hosted by ICUHost.Net,
set the hostname to mail03.bsdmail.net and use a valid username (full email addres) and password from one of your domains.
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Related: Outlook | Thunderbird | Eudora | Mac Mail.
Sending Mail
This server utilizes RBL lists. Unfortunately, some of you wind up on RBLs. The reason is that most SPAM comes from dynamic IP addresses
such as many of you use. For this reason, many providers are talking of removing access to Port 25. As an example, check out what AOL has posted:
http://postmaster.aol.com/faq/port25faq.html
When everyone uses the submission port (587) to send mail via the server, it is authenticated with your username and password which is
a very good thing. It also enables you to use your mail server directly rather than use your ISP's gateway which wouldn't allow you to use
your domain name in your email address.
Some of you may not be bothered yet by sending mail regularly on port 25, but eventually your IP address could end up on an RBL simply because
of the location of your IP address. Not being guilty of sending UCE, but simply because your IP is part of your providers dynamic IP address
pool.
It is suggested you change your email client to use the submission port (587, TLS) sooner than later. You will never have to worry about RBLs
blocking you, an when this may happen to you down the road, it may have slipped your mind this tidbit of information.
FYI: Mindspring and several other ISPs blocked port 25 from the beginning. Comcast and Verizon have gone off and on throughout the years. While
just a couple ISPs people could have easily switched ISPs, but eventually it won't be an option. It is very easy to setup your mail client
to use these different ports which have been standard on the mail server since it was brought up in 2003.
SPAM prevention
Finally PER USER spam prevention is available to you! This was eventually going to be integrated into the mail server, but the crash made things
much easier. You see, the difference is that this new system is all databased, and all previous information was stored outside of a database.
Regardless, this is now available to everyone on the server.
You can change your Spam Filters by logging into SquirrelMail and selecting Options and Spam Filters.
Those that POP their mail may find this as an inconvenience, but it is available and it is in your best interest to take advantage of it. Having
your spam processed BEFORE it gets to your INBOX is much preferred than having to download it and either view it or have another 3rd party Spam
prevention system working on your MUA.
Best thing would be to use SquirrelMail for a week and process your email there before downloading it to your computer.
Some may remember everytime the mail server was upgraded that HOTMAIL got blocked because they're blacklisted. Now there is a global WHITELIST
option for hotmail that you will see in your Spam Filters. So the RBL is in place, but we will accept mail from Hotmail.Com.
While reading through messages in SquirrelMail, you have the ability to add the current address to your white or black lists. Go in and check it out, you will see it. Enjoy!
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ICUHost.Net
