August 2006

In This Months Issue:

As many of you may be aware, Comcast has been intermittently blocking mail from Adhost and its customers. Sadly, we cannot get an answer as to why beyond “you are sending Unsolicited Commercial Email.” Also, Comcast will not supply copies of these emails so we can track down and eliminate any such issues.

Adhost is diligent in restricting outside parties from sending SPAM, and we are not chronically listed on any of the public SPAM-reporting or Remote Black Listing (RBL) sites. This leads us to believe the problem may lie elsewhere.

In the past, Adhost has allowed customers to forward mail destined to their domain through our system to a remote address. We call this “aliasing.” As you can imagine, many users forward their domain email to a Comcast address. This forward means that all email sent to such domain aliases is forwarded by Adhost to your Comcast address. “All” email includes any SPAM that was sent to your domain email. We are fairly certain these forwarded SPAM messages are causing the blocks to be initiated by Comcast because their system doesn’t make any distinction between forwarded mail and mail sent directly to a Comcast address. Note that none of this SPAM originates within the Adhost network.

We find ourselves forced to take significant action to curtail these blocks. Thus, we will be applying outbound email filters to emails sent from Adhost to Comcast and any messages that our filters determine are SPAM will be discarded. We will be using our highest level of sensitivity to check mail messages, so there will likely be some false positives. Unfortunately, this means that some legitimate emails forwarded from or through Adhost to Comcast may be lost. Unfortunately, we must take this measure to ensure all Adhost customers can send email to Comcast addresses with regularity.

What can you do? We strongly encourage Comcast subscribers to keep their Adhost email separate from their Comcast email and remove any domain email forwarding from Adhost to Comcast. Our Technical Support Staff will be happy to assist you in setting up another email account in your mail client. Once that account is configured you will hardly notice the difference between your new and old settings.

We apologize that we have to take these measures, but Comcast is apparently unwilling to work with outside providers to find a solution to these ongoing issues. So, we have to do everything we can from our end to resolve the issue.

Maintenance Mailing List

We have implemented a global Maintenance Mailing List to announce all systems affecting issues related to your service with Adhost. Many users have already received their first two messages regarding the power issue from the maintenance mailing list this week.

Anyone can join or leave the list using the web interface. If you would like to subscribe to the list or have someone in your organization that should be on the list, please visit http://maintenance.adhost.com and make any changes you wish. You may also remove yourself from the list as well. The archives of previous announcements are also available from the URL above and may viewed at any time.

Old Domain Name Servers (DNS) Shut-down

Old Domain Name Servers (DNS) Shut-down
On August 15 we will be turning off our old Domain Name Servers (DNS), NS1.ADHOST.COM and NS2.ADHOST.COM. After that time, Adhost DNS servers will no longer authoritatively resolve your domain unless it is set to use NS.ADHOST.COM and NS0.ADHOST.COM, so it is very important that you make this change, if it is needed for your domain(s). Please check that your domain name is not on our list of domain names which are still using the old DNS servers: http://adhost.com/ns1-domains.html
Should you have any questions about these changes, please send an email to support@adhost.com.

Search Engine Marketing Tips

1. Yahoo search marketing workshop on August 22 in Bellevue: Secrets of Successful Yahoo! Search Marketing Advertisers: Topics include keyword generation, writing effective titles and descriptions, campaign management, tracking your results, landing pages that work, advanced bidding tactics, and successful advertiser case studies. Register at: http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=96821

2. If you are a Puget Sound Internet company, go to Seattle24x7.com (http://www.seattle24x7.com/), Seattle’s business and technology online community and news site, and request a link to your site in their online directory of Seattle-area Internet companies. While you’re there, peruse the calendar of Internet and e-commerce community events, interviews, commentary, site reviews, and business advice. Plus you can post one free Internet-related or e-commerce job listing per month on their jobs page!

3. We are planning to offer a series of client seminars this fall. To help us plan these seminars, take our online seminar survey: http://www.adhost.com/contact/seminars.shtml