E-mail

[Corey Cohron RIP]

Okay, Bill just came to me and explained something about e-mail and why some are getting through while others aren't. He told me to explain it to you fine folks to the best of my ability.

Here goes...

Our e-mail is hosted by enom -- some of you may know the name as a website from which you can purchase website names. Anyway, in our research (after being prompted by sburn (thank you!), we found that enom is blacklisted on some servers. Why? Because they sell subnets (groups of ip addresses), and some of the purchasers are spammers. As sburn put it, some servers throw the baby out with the bathwater and simply block EVERYTHING from enom. Are they the only ones that are blacklisted by some servers. Hardly.

NOW, my biggest question has been Why do some e-mails from a particular person get through when others FROM THE SAME PERSON do not? I have the answer finally! This is my layman's explanation:

You send an e-mail to us (which goes to enom). From there, enom has thousands of ways to send it to us. Think about Google Maps. They usually give you the most direct route, but you can always click on the map and change the route. Heck, if you wanted to get from Washington to Georgia, there are virtually thousands of different paths you could take to get there. The same happens with enom. It has to decide which path to take to get your e-mail to us. If one path is a little faster today, they might take that one when yesterday, they took another. Anywhere along the way, they might encounter one of these servers who block enom, and the journey is over. No bounceback message and no message in our inbox.

We are currently looking into upgrading our server with Microsoft Exchange to handle our e-mail. (Wait! Does that mean I'll be getting even MORE e-mails? ) In addition, we will probably be hosting our website in house again down the road.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I feel like a major question was answered today, and I'm not just . Okay, maybe just a little.

[Jackpine]

Pretty interesting read, Corey! Makes perfect sense too!

- Jack

[Longshot270]

Does this also apply to PMs or is it just Email?

[Corey Cohron RIP]

I am assuming it's just e-mail. However, enom also hosts our website and forum, so I'm not really sure.

[Longshot270]

hmm, I bet the same thing is happening with the PM's because its pretty often that I read about someone with an issue that 'could have been forgotten', and its the kind of thing that could have been fixed in less than 5 minutes.

[Power Hungry]

We have the database server lock up form time to time (You know, when you get that darn "Database Error" message) and I guess that could happen, although PM's are usualy much more reliable.

One thing to keep in mind is that I do NOT have the luxury of frequenting the forums as much as Corey does. Depending on my workload, there are times where it may be days or even a couple weeks before I get on the forums to check posts (usually when Corey tells me there's something really important to address). This should not be taken as any indication of being ignored, it's just the simple fact that I can't do eight things at once. I try to schedule time to spend answering the forums but if there are more pressing issues, then those may take precedence.

If you need a relatively quick response to a PM, it's usually best to contact Corey. If it is a general question, the forums is probably the best place to address it. At least if I can't immediately address it, either one of the moderators or other members can address it or Corey can address it and/or bring it to my attention.

Outside of that, while I occasionally answer e-mails in 24 to 72 hours it is often answered in few hours. We do take our customer's questions, comments and concerns very seriously and hope that people understand that sometimes there may be a delay in responding.

Take care.