Why can't I get a straight answer?

[akpcep]

OK, here's the rub: I've been with Eukhost for about 4 months, and I'm still waiting to be impressed.

I currently have a problem whereby I'm being spammed at the rate of about 1000 spams per hour by one particular Brazilian email address. This is filling my mail queue, causing huge email delays that are making my customers very angry.

On top of this, the spam email is addressed to domains that aren't even on my VPS Hosting!

I've exchanged about 10 tickets with various members of VPS Hosting support, who only seem interested in selling me Spam Assassin (basically representing a 10% increase in my hosting charge) which I'm reluctant to do, because I've got maybe 8 actual pop boxes on my whole VPS Hosting (the rest being redirects or domains with no email), that get very little spam in the normal course of things.

Support (both live and VPS Hosting) just don't seem interested in investigating the matter, their attitude being "If you don't want to pay for Spam Assassin we can't help you" which I think is appalling.

I've added spf TXT rules to all the domains, I've tried adding the spamming domain to the plesk blacklist (which has done nothing), does anyone else have any suggestions before I start losing clients?

[jc8654]

Spam Assassin does do a very good job in stopping spam. It checks senders IPs against blacklists and if it's there, it rejects the mail out right.

The odd thing with the domains not on your VPS Hosting is that the server could be receiving bounce backs if someone is trying to pretent to send from your VPS Hosting. I would suggest possibly putting in place rDNS which support should be able to do for you.

SPF only really helps with outgoing mail so wouldn't help in stopping the receiving of the emails.

[psynnott]

I thought spam assassin was included as standard with eukhost VPS Hosting?

[WelshTom]

http://www.eukhost.com/windows-<a hr...a>-hosting.php

It's not in the specification; so why you thought it was included I really don't know.

[psynnott]

Originally Posted by eUK-Thomas

http://www.eukhost.com/windows-<a hr...a>-hosting.php

It's not in the specification; so why you thought it was included I really don't know.

It is part of the cpanel control panel then? I have an option: "SpamAssassin Spam Filter" on/off in WHM.

It appears to be open source, so why doesn't the OP just download and install? http://spamassassin.apache.org/downl...e=200801071704

[Qube]

With Windows VPS Hosting / Plesk, spam assassin is an extra as part of the plesk plus pack at £3 a month. I'm recently trying out a Windows VPS Hosting (I have a Linux VPS Hosting with eukhost too) and didn't realize that spam assassin was part of the power pack and thus costs extra, however I'm only testing it out so it's not important at the moment.

Why don't you just block the spammers IP address/range in either IPTables (Linux) or IP Security Policy Managment(Windows)?

If I were you I'd personally just pay the extra £3 a month for spam assassin and make life a whole lot easier for yourself

*edit*

It's not in the specification; so why you thought it was included I really don't know.

He probably thought like I did as it's pretty much standard with linux hosting. I just assumed something as like spam assassin would be with Windows too.

[akpcep]

Thanks for the input guys - I'm assuming I can't install SpamAssassin myself, if I could Eukhost couldn't charge £3 a month for it.

Worth pointing out I do not consider my ticket closed, or this issue solved and I am anticipating a response from the VPS Hosting team with an answer to the questions I've asked on more than one occasion, but have been ignored.

I don't know what the spammer's IP is, and I'm not familiar with IPtables. Paying an extra £3 a month wouldn't make my life easier - it would make Eukhost's life easier because they wouldn't have to answer my legitimate queries in the original post/my tickets. Setting up SpamAssassin, and maintaining it is just more work for me that I don't need - I'm already spending far too much time trying to keep my Dedicated Server stable, as I've had continual connectivity/stability issues with my VPS Hosting since day one.

As I say, my actual domains get very little spam - getting spam to domains that are not on my VPS Hosting sounds like something is at fault on the server level, or at least it's something that should be easy to fix without my putting my hand in my pocket. I'm not paying budget hosting prices, so I don't see why I should get budget hosting levels of technical support, stablility, or customer service, and I'm loathe to throw even more money Eukhost's way when it doesn't appear I'm that valued as a customer anyway.

[eUKhost.com]

Hello Alexander,

You have a Linux VPS Hosting with plesk 100 domains license. Spamassassin is not included with basic plesk license as you need additional license for plesk power pack. We cannot install spamassassin as per your suggestions as it won't be compatible with plesk control panel.

You should consider cpanel control panel as cPanel has got many good inbuilt features for spam protection. I'm not sure why you had chosen plesk control panel as Plesk is considered good for Windows only.

If you have enabled catchall option for your accounts then you should disable that ASAP. Catchall is the main source of problem on all types of servers and we discontinued catchall option from our windows hosting plans for same reason. Catchall allows spammers to use your domains as sending hosts in their mailers and all bouncebacks are sent to your catchall account.

[akpcep]

I chose Plesk because I use it at work and at no time during the pre-sales process did any of your operatives suggest it wasn't "good for Linux", and if it's really suitable for Windows only, why do you offer it for Linux VPS Hosting?

I have no catch-all addresses at all for the reasons you outline.

[akpcep]

This problem is still ongoing.

Can someone tell me why emails with this header:

Received: (qmail 24448 invoked by uid 48); 28 Mar 2008 23:27:13 +0000
Date: 28 Mar 2008 23:27:13 +0000
To: dada_lima@zipmail.com.br
Subject: Veja aqui sua Homenagem Virtual.
From: Eu Desejo... 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-encoding: 8bit
Reply-To: Eu Desejo... 
Message-ID: <9caa47caa5296ed58d3e202aa390c1d7@provedor.com.br>
X-Priority: 3
X-MSmail-Priority: High
X-Mailer: iGMail [www.ig.com.br]
X-Originating-Email: [Eu Desejo...]
X-Sender: Eu Desejo...
X-Originating-IP: [201.201.120.121]
X-iGspam-global: Unsure, spamicity=0.570081 - pe=5.74e-01 - pf=0.574081 - pg=0.574081

Can get into my mail queue 2187 times in an hour? Despite the fact that the sender is blacklisted in my plesk, and the "To:" address is not on my VPS Hosting?

[jc8654]

I'd try and contact the people at zipmail.com.br and see if you can't get him blocked on the server...

[eUKhost.com]

Hello Alexander,

Please let me know the ticket # as I would like to look into this problem. I'm expert with cPanel servers, but I'll try my best to get this sorted from one of our senior system admins.

[akpcep]

A nice idea, but it's most likely spoofed, and I don't speak Brazilian. Why isn't blacklisting working? Why are Eukhost ignoring my repeated tickets? Where's this fantastic customer support we keep hearing about? I'm very close to cancelling my hosting - this is precisely why I only went for a monthly rolling contract.

[akpcep]

Originally Posted by eUKhost.com

Hello Alexander,

Please let me know the ticket # as I would like to look into this problem. I'm expert with cPanel servers, but I'll try my best to get this sorted from one of our senior system admins.

Ticket number is #RUY-97217-118

Even a simple "We have no idea how to fix this" would be preferable to being ignored, while I fight with qmHandle to keep my mail log clear so my clients don't leave me.

[eUKShane]

Dear Alexander,

EukHost believes in complete 100% customer satisfaction, we never press on our customers to buy any additional licenses which are not essential for them.
We were not forcing you to purchase any extra license, but were suggesting you to go for "SpamAssassin" which is also highly recommended by SwSoft Engineers.

SpamAssassin provides enhanced spam protection & is easily configurable. The SpamAssassin filters are powerful to block 99% of spams.

We have installed Plesk PowerPack license FREE of COST on your VPS Hosting, and also configured Spam Filter rules. You can configure them later on as per your requirement.

Also, we are monitoring the mail logs off your VPS Hosting & from last few hours no spams are reported from the respected email ID's.

I have replied to your ticket with a more detailed explanation.

[Rock]

Originally Posted by akpcep

Ticket number is #RUY-97217-118

Even a simple "We have no idea how to fix this" would be preferable to being ignored, while I fight with qmHandle to keep my mail log clear so my clients don't leave me.

Alex, I hope the above reply from Shane has answered all of your questions & fixed the inbound spam/spoofing issues. Indeed, SpamAssassin is a boon for fighting Spam & we highly recommend it to most of our Premium Clients.

Also, we'd never dare to say "We have no idea how to fix this" to any of our clients, neither do we ignore them, no matter if they are having shared or dedicated hosting with us.. I believe that every problem 'definitely has a solution...'

Please let us know if you still face any other problems with your VPS Hosting or need further assistance with the SpamAssassin configs, we'd be glad helping you..

[jc8654]

I don't think you can say fairer than that.

[akpcep]

What can I say? I take my hat off to you Eukhosts. That's a fantastic resolution - I'm very happy indeed!

I don't think any more needs to be said but a heartfelt "thank you" from me.

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by akpcep

What can I say? I take my hat off to you Eukhosts. That's a fantastic resolution - I'm very happy indeed!

I don't think any more needs to be said but a heartfelt "thank you" from me.

As I said, you got it sorted from two of our L3 System Admins