I deleted this post, as I am irrate with this spam and hearing it from my clients, and was yelling in text. I have written a letter I will be expecting a reply.
WebD,
What in reality do you expect us to do? I really have to ask becasue this is a menace facing EVERYONE.
I have personally installed SpamBayes, it works alright I still get some spam coming into my inbox. SPam Assassin is not great, and the more we add to it the slower it gets and we add a rule the spammers modify little things to get around it, it is NEVER ending. Do you have email with another provider? I do, I have email with free and non free providers and I get loads of spam on all of them.
Spamming is a huge business, we have to shut down accounts daily becasue resellers have non moderate signups and spammers abuse them, we have to shut down send notices to resellers about these, we need resellers to act on them. Fighting spam is more than just some magical rule, some software. It is a team effort that everyone must plany and most importantly NEVER buy anything from a spam mail.
And, I am not meaning in any way to be rude, I am asking what you expect, to know if it is possible to ever come close even with commercial spam filtering, anti spam gateways, etc.
Hi Stephen,
Before I say anything, I want to let you know that I am not directing my comments directly at you… but I have run out of answers here and I need to get some things off of my chest.
Before switching to Jodo, I was a reseller at DIY. Yes, we all remember them, don’t we? Well anyway, my point is that even though I had so much trouble with them as a host, I “never” got any Spam emails or failure notices.
Since being with Jodo (for over a year now), this has been a real problem. At first, there was none. However as time went on, every day it began to increase. A little at first as to not be too noticeable, but then it began to increase at an alarming rate and for me personally, it is now up to approximately 60-90 per day. Being that I have been in the ISP business for over 12 years now, I understood how this stuff tends to take over mail servers and I ?never? complained about the Spam? not even once!
But now, I have a different problem that is really starting to get to me. One month ago I built a website for a new client out of Oregon. When I first took their account, they were hosting with a local host out there. I convinced them that they should host with us since we were building their new site. They agreed.
Since they decided to do that, they have regretted it and they have been emailing us no less than 7-10 times per day for over a month to complain about the whole experience. I have never been so embarrassed about such a situation in my life.
It began with them receiving over 150 Spams on the very first day as soon as we setup all of their email accounts. I contacted them and told them that I would adjust the Spam Filtering on the server for them. Over the course of the next 4 or 5 days, I had to continually increase the effectiveness of the filtering because they kept on telling me that it was not getting any better. They then called and said that they were no longer receiving ANY emails! I was pulling my hair out to try and find the problem, eventually readjusting the filtering again and trying to tweak it just right so as to eliminate the problem. You?ll notice that during this whole time, I never once posted a ticket to JodoHost because I knew that there wasn?t anything you could do, and so I didn?t waste my time.
Then a few days ago, they contacted us and said that the Spam was getting really out of hand. I than took ?your? stance and told them that this is a common problem that ALL HOSTS must deal with and that the clients have to try as hard as we do to eliminate it. I suggested that they buy a particular Spam Blocking program for their email client program. They spent $69.00 on it and I explained to them how to set it up and tweak it on their network. They were very happy for about one day? then the Spam continued to flow again!
Last Friday, they contacted me again and said that they were starting to receive dozens of MAILER-DAEMON notices from the server each day! I called them and went over their email settings on their side to make sure they had their SMTP settings setup correctly. One of their machines was setup incorrectly, so we fixed that. For one day, everything was working normally again. As of today, I received this email from them early this morning:
[B]Dear ********,
******** is basically telling me to switch back to ************* (without directly coming out and saying it) She is getting one to three of those mailer deamon things (telling her that her email could not be sent) every day, along with all the Spam. She also said that she has not gotten one client from the new website.
Now, I understand that these problems may be out of your hands, but I have got to do something. I know that you have been trying to help, but I think at this point it is best for all if we switch back. I know this has been a lot of work for you, but I need to do something fairly quick as ********'s frustration grows by the day. I’m sorry for the headache this has caused you. Please let me know if I need to get you anything from us or ***********.
Thanks
*********[/B]
Their site contains certain elements that their previous host does not support. If I must transfer their site back, I will have to do days and day?s worth of redesign work to make it happen. I do not have the time for this with all of my other work pending. In addition, I can?t charge them for the work. This has become a nightmare for me and I don?t know what I can do about it.
In the last week, I also started to receive emails from other clients whose sites I have been hosting for over a year. They have never complained about Spam before, but now they are all starting to.
I really do not have the time to deal with all of these problems. It is really starting to affect my business in an adverse way and I am afraid that I will start to lose everyone soon!
I wish there was something that could be done on the servers to try at least to minimize the Spam as much as possible, but from what I have read here in the forum, it seems like a lost cause.
I am not the type of person to complain to you when things go bad. I always try and fix things myself because I understand how sometimes clients complain for no reason. However, this client has had enough and I can understand their pain.
I don?t think that me writing this long drawn-out post is going to change anything? but I needed a place to vent! ?(
Thanks,
Cap?n Code
Hey WebD,
SPAM is everywhere! Face it, controlling SPAM to a tolerable level on the server side is a premium service. There are companies, that battle the war against SPAM as their only product offering.
You are a reseller, right?
Why not provide that service, as a reseller, to your clients yourself, and make a little profit on the margin and turn a bad thing around to work in your favor.
http://www.peertopeer.net/webisp.htm
This is one example, I’m sure there are more and even more opportunies will pop-up as the problem gets worse.
guys, I am working with mailwise.com to provide customers with a very very very good spam solution.
They are designing a custom API for us. I need 10 to 14 more days here.
guys, I am working with mailwise.com to provide customers with a very very very good spam solution.
They are designing a custom API for us. I need 10 to 14 more days here.
Yash,
I appreciate the fact that you are trying to do something about this problem. However, I have just lost my client to another host and it appears that I will have no choice but to redesign their entire site for free. 
I just wish that this problem had been taken care of earlier.
Thanks anyway.
Cap’n Code
Cap n’ code,
The fact is even with mailwise it won’t be “resolved” it won’t be resolve by any means until spammers are out of business. And I have a feeling email my go the way of the dodo before spammers are out fo business.
This is MY opinion, not that of Jodohost, I have seen this for a long time and I am not happy about it, sometimes I have deep anger against spammers and feel like doing illegal things to them, but I refrain because I am law abiding unlike them!
Then, we have court cases were spammers file for injunctions against great blocklists like spamhaus, and they WIN! We have a judicial system that is ignorant of the problem and it makes it worse. We have congressmen and senators that are clueless about the issues of today, who write laws that they have no will to enforce. We have corruption that allows it to happen at the highest levels, and soon(5-8 years out) we will have 3 companies controlling all the internet in the US and all have to pay to get to sites we want to visit, this is all contrary to the internet as it was designed and it is starting to really tick me off that we have government that allows monopoly companies that they split up years ago to rejoin and give customers no choice.
Add to this that the merging/buyouts are being had for pennies on the dollar for what they are worth and it just makes me more inflamed. Ok I have MY rant, and as I said this is my opinion, this is NOT that of Jodohost. I don’t care to speak politics here but I wish there was a 3rd party that was viable in the US that would actually get the government out of everything, yet still punish the spammers, scammers and fraudsters for the crimes they commit. Regulation is not the answer, enforcement of the laws we have in place IS the answer. People that do wrong, should expect people to come down on them, here in the US we have world famous spammers that walk each day with the head proud high and drive their fancy cars, live in their mansions, while we as people in the US continue to feed them by buying products from their spam! If there was 0 return on one million messages sent, spam would not be sent, if no one invested in the companies that are those “penny stocks” that get spamvertised, no one would keep sending them. It is obvious some people are (pardon) stupid enough to buy from this spam for it to be profitable for them to continue!
Stephen’s wild rant!
Again, this is MY OPINIONS ONLY! You are free to disagree and let me know, it does not matter to me, I may even want to discuss it with you more 
Let me clarify one thing about mailwise comment not “Resolving it”, I did not mean it won’t stop spam, or it will not filter spam out of your inbox, what I mean is that it is like putting a bandaid on a huge cut that needs 20 stitches. It will help yes, but it is not the resolution to the major issue of spam in the world today.
Stephen,
Trust me, I have spent endless hours over the past few years trying desperately to think of a way to deal with Spam. First, because it has to be done, and second, whoever devises a way to deal with them once and for all will become a very, very rich person!
Unfortunately, outside of doing something illegal as you mention, I have not been able to come up with a solution.
Oh my God! As I am writing you this post, I have just received a phone call from the hospital! My 83 year old Mother just had major surgery the other day and she was doing fine! However, apparently, she just took a turn for the worst and I must get there ASAP!
Sorry! We will have to finish this discussion at another time!
Bye!
Wow, best wishes for your mom!
I am dealing with a similar situation at home, very worrying times.
Spam is minor compared to family.
…soon(5-8 years out) we will have 3 companies controlling all the internet in the US and all have to pay to get to sites we want to visit…
No joke! If you don’t know what Stephen is talking about, find out more here.X(
Wow, best wishes for your mom!
I am dealing with a similar situation at home, very worrying times.
Spam is minor compared to family.
Thanks for your well wishes Stephen! I appreciate it!
I just got back from the hospital but have to go back again soon. Her heart started to race due to the morphine they have her on for pain. They had to move her to another part of the hospital and hook her up to a machine that will help slow her heart rate.
They tell me that this sometimes happens with older individuals when they have major surgery. Right now she is stable.
I came back to the office for a short time to catch-up on some work, but I will be with her for most of the night tonight.
Wow! If I don’t watch out, my heart will be racing! Too much stress!!!
Anyway, I hope your situation gets resolved soon and that everything goes well for you and your family!
Hey Cap’n – I am not sure this will help, but as I have also been dealing with these issues, I have had another thought about email which may save your client.
They like their local hosting company? Host them for free at Jodo (I assume the hosting fee is insignificant comared to web design work), but let them move their mx record to the local ISP, but keep the A record at JODO. So, you don’t need to switch the technology for their site, they don’t pay extra for two hosts, and their email is no longer your responsibility.
If/when they find that their local ISP also has email issues, then you can bring them back as a paid hosting client.
Just an idea…
PS – if you have an ISP/host that does 100% perfect emailing, let me know, I will invest lots of $$$ in that company…
Hi timruns,
Thanks for the advice. However, I already offered them a solution today that should work for them.
I told them to get an email address setup at their ISP which is Qwest. Then simply to use Qwest’s SMTP address and their own Mail Domain for their POP address. This way if their ISP’s mail is blocked, they would have to take that up with them. And, they could still receive mail the way they have been. This was the suggestion that Stephen gave me last night.
They are not real pleased with it, but if it stops the blacklisting problem, they are willing to live with it.
Unfortunately, they are still having to live with 20-40 spams per day, even though I have set spam filtering to the highest level. Again, something that they are not happy with.
If this solution works for them, I guess they will stay with us, at least for the time being. However, if I were them, I would be steadily searching for a new host - which they are probably doing as we speak!
Actually, I am just glad to be done with this issue for now. I have two other sites in development at the moment and another one on the way.
Thanks for all of your input. Who knows, I may be back here again in a few days with the same problem.