Afrihost and SPAM

[Grep]

Hi all

This week has been exhausting fighting with Afrihost support guys. I have over 40 clients which are hosted with them and at least half of my clients are screaming at me about the amount of SPAM they get. All I get from "support" is that I must log into each portal and begin blacklisting words and email addresses!

I mean cummon, really? I threatened to take my business away, "support" said it would take it up with some senior guys which I guess it's means MTN boys, but nothing yet again transpires. One of my clients is sending me every single spam she gets which is passed 40 by 9am.

I tried to tell them that the very least they can do is implement RBL's since most SPAM is international but yet as always, nothing. For me to migrate all my clients to another ISP is going to be a bitch beyond anything but something I might have to do.

Now my question is, is it just me or is there a wider spectrum?

 

[Jim West]

Hi all

This week has been exhausting fighting with Afrihost support guys. I have over 40 clients which are hosted with them and at least half of my clients are screaming at me about the amount of SPAM they get. All I get from "support" is that I must log into each portal and begin blacklisting words and email addresses!

I mean cummon, really? I threatened to take my business away, "support" said it would take it up with some senior guys which I guess it's means MTN boys, but nothing yet again transpires. One of my clients is sending me every single spam she gets which is passed 40 by 9am.

I tried to tell them that the very least they can do is implement RBL's since most SPAM is international but yet as always, nothing. For me to migrate all my clients to another ISP is going to be a bitch beyond anything but something I might have to do.

Now my question is, is it just me or is there a wider spectrum?

Depends if you're referring to email accounts associated with Afrihost connectivity (e.g., ADSL) or those with Afrihost web hosting.

 

[Chevron]

Why are you using the ISP provided email address? Very bad idea.

 

[Adenoid Hynkel]

I think he is referring to his clients being on a shared hosting solution and that these servers don't do RBL checks. Hence his clients receive a lot more spam.

@Grep it's very easy and simple to move your clients to another host, especially if they use cPanel, which I think afrihost does.

 

[Grep]

Thanks blog, totally true. I am guessing that the AF boys have no control over the cPanel MTN provides. I was doing all the hosting but shared storage is so expensive so I thought I would just move them to AF, what a mistake! Guess I will have to create another SAN solution and just do it myself.

Such a darn shame, they are a billion rand company that cant even do simple RBL filters!

 

[Adenoid Hynkel]

The problem with RBLs is that it can block legit mail too. A lot of adsl shared IP's are blocked and if you're using a IP that is listed and hit a server that does a RBL check, it will block that mail too. We don't do RBL checks either, but we use a decent spam filter that will rather scan the patterns or content of a mail.

Afrihost manages their own cPanel, they just host their hardware in MtN's data center afaik.

Have a look at spamexperts.com. Might be an option. I think it's 25$ for 10 domains for incoming checks.

 

[Grep]

Thanks for that. I guess my point is that Afrihost are telling their clients to blacklist email addresses which is mad since the majority of SPAM uses legit email addresses: IE: You get a SPAM from a valid SARS email address, now that want you to blacklist it??!! Crazy!

 

[Jim West]

I have hosting accounts with Afrihost and Site5. My Site5 web server uses SpamAssassin, and then I have client-side filters to nail spoof email. These email accounts don't get all that much spam - anywhere from 100 to 200 spam messages a day, at times more. But I don't see any spam hitting the inbox. Afrihost Linux hosting uses SpamExperts to handle spam - very little spam ever makes it through to any of the many email accounts (for a non-profit organization). In any case I've never found it necessary to directly set up a RBL - only indirectly perhaps using SpamAssassin or SpamExperts.