June 2006
In This Months Issue:
Adhost is sponsoring the MIT Enterprise Forum Event on Thursday, June 22 from 5:30 to 8 PM at Fisher Plaza. "Talk to an Angel: Crucial Connections to Early Stage Capital" features a satellite broadcast of a national panel presentation at MIT followed by a Seattle panel in Studio B at Fisher Plaza.
Attendees can expect to learn: how to find angels, what is and isn’t a good fit, when to work with a VC instead (or with both angels and VCs together), how to pitch, and how to work together after funding. “In addition to hosting mitwa.org, Adhost is proud to support the MIT Satellite Broadcast and local panel. Many of our clients are startups and gain valuable information and opportunities from events such as this,” said Will Riffle, President and CEO of Adhost. For more information and to register, visit www.mitwa.org.
As a part of our ongoing efforts to fight SPAM, Adhost is announcing the following changes to our mail systems:
Currently the Adhost mail system allows customers to specify “catch-all” aliases for their domains that bounce mail back to the sender (no_such_user@mail.adhost.com). This feature increases the amount of spam flowing through our system since spammers, using forged return addresses, are able to reflect off of our servers using domains that we host. Such reflections result in the forged return address receiving mail from our mail systems. Even though our mail servers are not originating this mail, the simple fact that they are in the list of delivering servers results in our systems being reported as forwarding spam and, in some instances, black-listed.
We also currently allow “catch-all” aliases to be directed to mail boxes anywhere in the Internet. This feature results in what is known as “bounce-back” where spammers forge return-to addresses using the domains of our customers. Thus, our mail systems end up delivering the “bounces” from the spammers back to our customers. In turn, our customers, not realizing that this is a bounce to their address, report this mail as spam occasionally resulting in Adhost mail servers being black listed.
Therefore, in an effort to greatly reduce the number of black-listings that our mail servers receive [and as a result increase the overall delivery of legitimate mail], Adhost is announcing the following policy changes in the very near future:
- “no_such_user entries” will, instead of being bounced back to the return-to address, will be directed to the “bit-bucket”. In other words, we will silently and permanently throw away this mail.
- We will not allow catch-all accounts to be forwarded to any of the following ISPs: Comcast, AOL, Verizon, Juno and Adelphia. As our experience evolves, this list may grow over time. Instead, you can direct catch-all mail to a local POP account on mail.adhost.com (these can be established in the control panel). Virtually all modern email clients can accommodate checking multiple accounts simultaneously.
We regret that SPAM issues have forced us to remove or limit these valuable features from our systems. If you have any questions, or need assistance creating a POP account on our mail servers and redirecting your catch-all accounts, please contact us at support@adhost.com
When was the last time you thought about your domain name? It's not something that comes to mind very often for most of us; however, it is important to remember that your domain names are your property and thus your responsibility to renew. If you can't remember when your domain name expires, your first step is to determine your domain registrant. You can do this at our Whois search page.
The search will return the Registrar’s name and other information for your domain name. Next go to the Registrar’s Web site and follow their directions for looking up specific information about your domain name. Note when your domain name expires and make certain all the information displayed is exactly correct. In particular, your administrative contact information should be current, as domain renewal notices are sent via mail and email to this person. If this information is incorrect, you could risk losing the services of your domain name for days until any issue is resolved. You should also record your account ID and password and store them securely for your future reference.
Also be aware that information displayed on your domain registration WHOIS lookup is publicly available and could have serious security implications. See this article from Network Solutions about this issue: www.internetprivacyadvocate.org/ProtectYourPersonalInfo.htm
If you would like to register additional domain names, you can do this by using your Adhost Control Panel at https://client.adhost.com or call us at 1-888-234-6781.
- Do not sign or pay any invoices you receive regarding “domain name expiration notice” from a company other than Adhost or your domain registrar. For additional information, visit www.directoryone.com/domain-fraud-information.htm.
- You may have recently received an invoice in the mail from the "Listing Corp" for annual submission of your Web site to twenty of the top search engines. While this direct mail piece looks like an actual invoice, it is really nothing more than an advertisement and should be ignored. For excellent advice on how to optimize your site and submit it effectively to the search engines and directories visit searchenginewatch.com.
Last month Google released Google Trends. This tool allows you to view keyword search trends and compare how two keywords have done relative to each other over time.
For ideas on how to use the tool for your online marketing research, visit www.marketingprofs.com/6/reynolds9.asp
