Lifetime Websites Support

Problem Summary

Thursday, December 20, 2007
(Updated 9:00 AM)

Symptoms:

Users were unable to access Squirrelmail (webmail).
Access to website was intermittent.

Status:
Resolved.

Cause:
The server's address and name were changed, and the new address was not being recognized by some browsers.
The reasons for the failure include:

Certain internet Name Servers were not correctly caching the new address.
Users have a browser "Favorite" or "Bookmark" specifying the old address or name.

Details:
The server's name was changed from host2.lifetimewebsites.com to server.lifetimewebsites.com , and its address was changed from 208.186.130.29 to 209.210.237.89 .

This change was made because Emails to and/or from the server were being blocked by some ISPs. In a shared hosting environment (most hosted domains are in a shared environment), all the domains on the server share the same address. Because spammers were using domain names on the server to create fake return Email addresses, the server's address was added to some Email Blacklists. Most ISPs use Blacklists to determine whether or not to accept or reject Email from a particular address. Which Blacklists are used is determined soley by the ISP. Most Blacklists will remove the server address if requested, or automatically after a specific time, usually 24 to 72 hours. One Blacklist in particular - Spam and Open Relay Blocking System (SORBS) - holds server addresses "hostage" until a "fine" is paid to them. If an ISP is using the SORBS Blacklist, Email will be rejected.

After the changes were made, the new name and address should have been propagated across the internet and made available to users. The old name and address should have expired and been deleted. There were some ISPs whose name servers were not updated correctly. Depending on which name server your browser was contacting, you may or may not have been directed to the new address. The symptom of this is intermittent access to the website, i.e., repeatedly clicking the page refresh button would sometimes allow the site to be accessed.

If a user has a browser "Favorite" or "Bookmark" that specifies the old address or name they will not work. Users should always specify the domain name when accessing their website and their website services.

User Actions:
Please insure that you specify your domain name when accessing your website or its services:
To access webmail, use one of the following formats:

http://yourdomain.com/squirrelmail
http://yourdomain.com/mail
http://yourdomain.com/webmail

To access your Control Panels, use one of the following:

http://yourdomain.com/admin
http://yourdomain.com/user

If you're still experiencing problems, please contact us using our feedback form.