| System
Messages
UPDATE: 6/10/2010 11:00am
Note
that the re-boot of the VTECH5 server occurred at 10:50
am, and has succeeded in resetting our out-going mail
queue. The actual outage was for about 10minutes, but
it can take up to an additional 20 minutes to restore
connections for all of the websites, e-mails, active
databases, etc.
All
should now be back to a normal state. If you have any
further issues with e-mails (or any of our other services),
please make use of our
on-line ticketing system here to report and track
any problems.
Normally,
a re-boot of the server will typically take place on
a weekend night during very early moring hours in order
to have the least amount of impact on your business.
The only time we reboot a server during "active
business hours" is when attempts to restore a critical
service fails, and our only option is to re-boot the
server during those busier hours.
We
apologize for any inconvenience caused by this short
outage.
Your
Support Team at
Valley TechNologies
____________________________
6/10/2010 10:10am
Our VTECH5 web/mail server is currently processing
outgoing e-mails very slowly (some even having been
"hung up" in the server for over an hour),
and requires that we re-boot the server to re-establish
some connections.
Web service and e-mail incoming/outgoing should be
down for no more than 5 minutes beginning at approximately
10:30am today, 6/10/2010.
Thank you for your patience!
Your
Support Team at
Valley TechNologies
____________________________
3/11/2010 3:50pm
Valley TechNologies
has received reports that e-mails have not been received
by some of our clients, or have been unusually delayed
in being received.
The issue
seems to be very isolated and sporadic, and comes only
from websites on our servers that have the "DNS
Pointers" settings to a particular destination.
The settings are valid, and have been in place
for almost six years. Some of those DNS
settings were updated in September of 2008.
We have found
that updating some additional settings - even though
we do not change any of the destination DNS pointers
- seems to "re-align" and correct the DNS
issues, almaost as if the setting had been "dormant",
and needed something to "kick it" so the World
Wide Web would recognize it as a valid setting.
Once reconciled, the e-mails are received without issue.
We are in
the process of going through each of the domains on
our servers that have not had the settings updated prior
to September of 2008, to take a pro-active role in correcting
the issue, as well as avoiding any other issues that
may be the result of these "dormant" settings.
For those
domains in which we do not control the DNS settings,
we will be contacting the Domain Manager with instructions
for changing the affected settings.
Again, the
reports are very isolated and sporadic, so you may never
have been affected by the settings. The
issue is in the process of being corrected, and should
resolve itself within 24 hours. If you continue to have
an issue with it, please submit
a help desk ticket here, so we can document the
problem and resolution on our system.
Thank
you!
Your
Support Team at
Valley TechNologies
____________________________
03/04/10
8:36pm
Due to a recently found bug in our spam filtering software,
we will be doing UNSCHEDULED MAINTENANCE on our mail
servers with the necessary updates starting at 10:00
tonight. The bug caused some e-mails sent in 2010 to
have a higher score (+3.2 points) based on the 2010
sending date.
You may experience intermittent "Server not found"
or "Server timeout" errors between 10:00pm
and midnight when sending or receiving e-mail. If you
receive any errors while sending or receiving e-mail,
please wait a few minutes and try again.
While we are upgrading our mail servers, we will also
do some minor updates to the web servers as well. While
the websites will not be effected, access to your Domain
Administrator account may be unavailable. If you experience
troubles logging into your Plesk account, please wait
30 minutes and try again.
Should you experience any troubles after midnight,
please submit a help desk ticket here, so we can document
the resolution on our system.
Thank you!
Your Support Team at
Valley TechNologies
____________________________
10/14/09
11:15am
If
you are receiving a message regarding a Security alert
when logging into your e-mail account or your account
manager, it is okay to go ahead and by-pass that warning.
One
of the Security Certificates for one of our servers
simply needed to be "re-keyed" with some updated
information.
This
is one of the beauties of an SSL certificate, in that
if absolutely everything does not coincide as it should
throughout the entire process, the site gets "flagged"
until the issue is resolved.
The
issue has been corrected, and should resolve itself
before the end of the day today. If you continue to
have an issue with it, please submit
a help desk ticket here, so we can document the
resolution on our system.
Thank
you!
Your
Support Team at
Valley TechNologies
____________________________
10/2/09
1:45pm
A
corrupt e-mail file locked up e-mail processing, requiring
a re-boot of the server; e-mail processing was interrupted
for about 15 minutes, and complete system outage lasted
approximately 5 minutes during the server re-boot.
____________________________
9/25/09 - 8:00am
The upgrade to the e-mail spam filters allows more flexibilty to the individual user for filtering unwanted e-mail.
If you are experiencing issues with an increase in spam, try making adjustments as outlined in this instruction: click here.
____________________________
9/22/09 - 4:00am to 5:30am
We are performing minor upgrades to the spamfilters in use for all mail servers.
You will experience slow response times, login errors, and server not found errors during this time.
If any problems persist after 5:30am, please submit
a help desk ticket.
____________________________
7/13/09 11:20am-CDT
Reports are widespread across the WWW of intermittent
slowdowns in accessing some websites and in e-mail processing,
likely due to additional measures being taken by host
companies around the world to make sure that last week's
cyber attacks against some US and S. Korean websites
(suspected originating from N. Korea) are not invading
their servers as well.
Hopefully, this slowdown is temporary.
____________________________
6/26/09
10:55am-CDT
The
issue earlier this morning in regards to our e-mail
server has cleared. This is a new server on our system,
and should be processing the e-mails much faster than
it is.
To
get a better handle on the issue, our team will be performing
some tests on this server after 5pm CDT. These tests
are expected to last up to two hours. During this time,
outgoing e-mail service may be sporadic. This will only
pertain to those customers where the outgoing SMTP server
is set to mail.valley-technologies.com, or mail.<yourdomain>
(where the <yourdomain> is replaced by your actual
domain name). There will be no effect on incoming
e-mails.
Please
contact our office if you have any questions.
____________________________
6/26/09 10:00am-CDT
Our e-mail server needed to be re-started about 9:45am,
which may cause an error regarding "invalid rcpthosts".
This is a temporary condition that should be resolved
shortly.
Our apologies for the inconvenience.
____________________________
6/15/09 UPDATE 11:30AM-CDT
FLOODS OF E-MAILS FROM LAST WEEKEND'S SLOWDOWN REQUIRED
A RESTART OF THE E-MAIL SERVER THIS MORNING. ALL SHOULD
NOW BE WORKING PROPERLY.
ANY MESSAGES THAT YOU RECEIVED INDICATING THAT A PARTICULAR
DOMAIN IS NOT IN THE LIST OF ALLOWED RCPTHOSTS WILL
NEED TO BE RESENT.
OUR APOLOGIES.
____________________________
6/11/09
UPDATE 4:00M-CDT
IT
TURNS OUT THAT WE ARE NOT ALONE IN SLUGGISH E-MAIL SERVICE.
SEVERAL COMPANIES ARE REPORTING INTERNET DELAYS ALL
OVER THE COUNTRY, NOT CONFIRMED BUT SUSPECTED TO BE
LINKED TO TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS AND FLOODING IN THE SOUTH,
INCLUDING THE DALLAS / FT. WORTH AREAS, WHERE SEVERAL
AREAS ARE WITHOUT POWER AS OF THIS WRITING.
____________________________
6/11/09
UPDATE 10:00AM-CDT
OVER THE LAST SEVERAL HOURS THERE HAVE BEEN REPORTS OF A WEB OUTAGE IN THE DALLAS AREA THAT IS AFFECTING THE ABILITY OF WEB USERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY TO ACCESS WEB PAGES. IT IS ALSO AFFECTING THE ABILITY TO SEND OR RECEIVE SOME E-MAILS.
HERE IS A FREE TOOL THAT CAN ASSIST IN FINDING WHERE THE OUTAGE IS OCCURRING: http://network-tools.com/. TYPE IN AN IP ADDRESS OR A WEBSITE THAT YOU ARE HAVING AN ISSUE WITH (LIKE "hotmail.com" OR "mail.valley-technologies.com"), CLICK "GO", AND IT WILL IDENTIFY BY "TIMEOUT" WHERE THE CONNECTION IS FAILING.
NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE WITH VALLEY TECHNOLOGIES SERVERS, BUT A FAILURE IN THE CONNECTIONS ALONG THE WEB ROUTING OF THE INFORMATION.
MORE INFORMATION WILL BE POSTED HERE AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.
____________________________
6/1/09
UPDATE 10:20AM-CDT
LAST NIGHT (5/31) ATFER EXTENSIVE TESTING, WE COMPLETED
THE SETTINGS CHANGES FOR THE SYSTEM SPAM FILTER, SO
YOU SHOULD SEE A DRASTIC REDUCTION IN THE AMOUNT OF
INCOMING JUNK MAIL TODAY. AS THE SPAM FILTERS CONTINUE
THEIR "TRAINING", SPAM WILL BE REDUCED EVEN
MORE.
AS PART OF THAT PROCESS, YOUR OUTGOING E-MAILS MAY OR
MAY NOT BE AFFECTED. IT APPEARS TO BE AFFECTING ONLY
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK, AND THE ISSUES SEEM TO DEPEND ON
THE EXACT VERSION OF MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2003 OR 2007
THAT YOU ARE USING. E-MAILS USING MICROSOFT OUTLOOK
EXPRESS OR WINDOWS MAIL (IN VISTA OPERATING SYSTEMS)
AND OTHER E-MAIL PRODUCTS DO NOT APPEAR TO BE AFFECTED.
IF YOU ARE RECEIVING A SYSTEM MESSAGE CONTAINING INFORMATION
REGARDING AN "ERROR
551" OR "ERROR 553" YOU MAY NEED TO ADJUST
YOUR SETTINGS AND TEST THEM TO MAKE SURE WHICH RESOLUTION
FITS YOUR APPLICATION.
IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE ADJUSTING THESE SETTINGS,
CALL OUR OFFICE AT 262.673.1979 AND WE WILL STEP YOU
THROUGH THE SETTINGS.
IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH MAKING THESE CHANGES ON
YOUR OWN, GET INTO YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNT SETTINGS AND:
- FIRST,
MAKE SURE THAT THE BOX IS CHECKED INDICATING THAT
"MY OUTGOING SERVER (SMTP) REQUIRES AUTHENTICATION".
NEXT, MAKE CHANGES EITHER AS OUTLINED IN STEP 2.A.
OR 2.B BELOW.
- A.
CLICK TO "LOG ON TO INCOMING MAIL SERVER BEFORE
SENDING MAIL".
- SEND
A TEST E-MAIL TO AN ACCOUNT THAT IS SURE TO GO
TO AN EXTERNAL SERVER (LIKE HOTMAIL, AOL, GMAIL,
YAHOO, ETC.), OR "RESEND" ONE OF THE
MESSAGES THAT GENERATED THE ERROR.
AFTER
A FEW MINUTES, CLICK ON THE "SEND/RECEIVE"
BUTTON. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A SYSTEM ERROR MESSAGE,
THE REQUIRED CHANGES ARE COMPLETE. IF YOU HAVE
RECEIVED ANOTHER ERROR MESSAGE, CONTINUE BELOW.
B.
CLICK TO "USE SAME SETTINGS AS MY INCOMING
MAIL SERVER".
- SEND
A TEST E-MAIL TO AN ACCOUNT THAT IS SURE TO GO TO
AN EXTERNAL SERVER (LIKE HOTMAIL, AOL, GMAIL, YAHOO,
ETC.), OR "RESEND" ONE OF THE MESSAGES
THAT GENERATED THE ERROR.
- AFTER
A FEW MINUTES, CLICK ON THE "SEND/RECEIVE"
BUTTON. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A SYSTEM ERROR MESSAGE,
THE REQUIRED CHANGES ARE COMPLETE. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED
ANOTHER ERROR MESSAGE, CONTINUE BELOW.
- IF
THE CHANGES IN STEP 2 DID NOT RESOLVE THE ISSUE, CONTACT
OUR OFFICE FOR ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE.
____________________________
5/28/09
UPDATE 11:30AM-CDT
As of 2:00pm yesterday all e-mail issues were resolved
by moving all e-mail accounts to a new mail server.
We are working on completing the setup of this new server
today. All changes will be minor, but may cause "temporary
errors" when sending or receiving mail. If you receive
an error message with the word "temporary" please try
again in two minutes. These messages are a result of
the final setup process and are in place to ensure the
server does not process mail while a new setting is
being put into place.
SPAM
We are aware of an increase in spam e-mail and are working
on "training" the new server's spam settings. Spam should
slowly decrease throughout the day and should no longer
be an issue by Friday.
____________________________
5/27/09
UPDATE 1:30PM-CDT
ALL
E-MAIL SERVICES WILL BE HALTED FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES BEGINNING
AT 1:35PM IN AN EFFORT TO "UNCLOG THE JAM"
IN THE MAIL QUEUE. WE WILL LIKELY SEE A TEMPORARY
SURGE IN SPAM AND JUNK MAIL WHEN THE MAIL SERVICES ARE
RESTARTED.
____________________________
5/27/09
UPDATE 10:45AM-CDT
THE
PROCESS ALSO SEEMS TO BE AFFECTING SOME MESSAGES THAT
ARE GOING TO RECIPIENTS OUTSIDE OF OUR SERVER IP LIST.
YOU MAY RECEIVE A MESSAGE FROM THE "SYSTEM
ADMINISTRATOR" WITH AN ERROR # 553 THAT THE DOMAIN
IS NOT IN THE LIST OF ALLOWED RCPTHOSTS. THIS
IS BEING ADDRESSED AS WELL, AND ONCE IT IS RESOLVED
(AND MESSAGE POSTED HERE THAT IT IS), YOU WILL NEED
TO RESEND THOSE MESSAGES.
____________________________
5/27/09
UPDATE 10:45AM-CDT
Valley TechNologies experienced a failure with our
main mail server this morning,
starting at approximately 1:30am until approximately
9:30am. During this time most
outside mail traffic was deferred to be delivered later.
As a result of this deferred
mail, we are experiencing extremely large amounts of
mail to be processed. This is
causing all incoming and outgoing messages to move through
the system slower than usual.
Please bear with us as we have moved all mail traffic
to our backup server to clear this
backlog. We expect things to slowly clear up through
the day.
You may also experience an increase in spam - this
is only temporary until our main mail
server is back online. The spam filters on the
backup system are not as robust as our
main mail server.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate
your patience.
____________________________
5/27/09
UPDATE 10:05AM-CDT
OUTGOING
E-MAIL APPEARS TO BE RESOLVED, INCOMING IS MOVING SLOWLY
DUE TO THE BACKLOG OF INCOMING MESSAGES.
DUE
TO THE ISSUES WITH SETTINGS ON THE NEW OUTGOING E-MAIL
SERVICE, WE HAVE TEMPORARILY ROLLED BACK THE SMTP PROCESS
TO OUR PREVIOUS SERVICE, AND WILL WORK OVERNIGHT TONIGHT
TO RE-TEST THE SETTINGS ON THE NEW SERVICE.
THANK
YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!
____________________________
5/27/09
UPDATE 8:05AM-CDT
WE
ARE EXPERIENCING SOME ISSUES WITH THE E-MAIL SETTINGS
ON THE SERVER (BOTH INCOMING AND OUTGOING), AND THE
SERVER TEAM IS INVESTIGATING AND WORKING ON A FIX. THIS
MAY INCLUDE RE-BOOTING THE SERVER, IN WHICH CASE THE
WEB PAGES MAY BE DOWN FOR A FEW MINUTES AS WELL.
____________________________
5/26/09 UPDATE 2:40PM
THE SERVER UPGRADE OVER THE WEEKEND WENT EXCEPTIONALLY
WELL. WE ARE HOWEVER EXPERIENCING SOME MINOR DELAYS
IN E-MAIL PROCESSING AS WE TWEAK THE SYSTEM FOR OPTIMUM
PERFORMANCE.
WE ANTICIPATE THAT THESE DELAYS WILL OCCUR INTERMITTANTLY
THROUGHOUT THE DAY TODAY AS WE MAKE THE ADJUSTMENTS.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!
____________________________
5/13/09
UPDATE 7:30AM-CDT
THE
SERVER HAS BEEM REBOOTED TO RESOLVE AN INDEXING ISSUE
IN THE E-MAIL PROCESSING.. ALL FUNCTIONS SHOULD BE BACK
AND OPERATIONAL SHORTLY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.
____________________________
4/30/09
UPDATE 2:45PM-CDT
E-MAIL
SMTP (OUTGOING) ISSUE IS UNDER CONTROL, BUT STILL NOT
WHERE WE WANT TO BE. WE ARE CONTINUING TO MONITOR THE
SITUATION AND ARE WORKING ON BUILDING THE SPEED FOR
THE SMTP PROCESSES.
____________________________
4/29/09
UPDATE 3:05PM-CDT
E-MAIL
SMTP (OUTGOING) SERVICE IS WORKING, HOWEVER INTERMITTANT
STOPS ARE HOLDING MESSAGES IN THE OUTGOING E-MAIL QUEUE
FOR UP TO 20 MINUTES. WE ARE WORKING TO GET THIS DOWN
TO THE NORMAL 10 SECOND QUEUE PROCESSING TIME.
____________________________
4/29/09
UPDATE 1:25PM-CDT
E-MAIL
SMTP (OUTGOING) SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS ARE BEING MONITORED
FOR POTENTIAL ISSUES. E-MAIL FROM VALLEY TECHNOLOGIES
SMTP SERVICE, AS WELL AS OUTGOING E-MAILS FROM WEBMAIL
MAY BE AFFECTED, BUT CURRENTLY ARE INTERMITTANT AND
VERY SHORT-TERM. CHECK BACK HERE FOR UPDATES ON
THIS ISSUE.
____________________________
4/15/09
UPDATE: 4:42PM-CDT
E-MAIL
ISSUES HAVE NOW BEEN RESOLVED, AND THE OUTGOING E-MAIL
QUEUE HAS BEEN COMPLETELY PROCESSED.
TO
AVOID SIMILAR OCCURANCES IN THE FUTURE, WE HAVE INCREASED
OUR SMTP OUTPUT CAPABILITIES BY 10X THE PREVIOUS AMOUNT.
THANK
YOU ALL FOR YOUR PATIENCE!
YOUR
SUPPORT TEAM AT VALLEY TECHNOLOGIES
____________________________
4/15/09 UPDATE:
WHILE WE ARE CORRECTING THE E-MAIL ISSUE BELOW:
1. IF E-MAILS ARE NOT GETTING THROUGH TO THE RECIPIENTS,
PLEASE BE PATIENT. THE OUTGOING MAIL QUEUE FILLED UP,
AND IS SLOWLY PROCESSING THE E-MAILS THAT ARE BACKED
UP IN THAT QUEUE.
2. IF YOU RECEIVE A "BOUNCE" MESSAGE THAT THE RECIPIENT
IS INVALID, SEND THE MESSAGE AGAIN (PREFERABLY AFTER
WE ARE SURE THAT THE ISSUES HAVE BEEN RESOLVED) ALONG
WITH A NOTE THAT WE HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING SOME ISSUES
ON OUR E-MAIL SERVER, AND THAT THEY MAY RECEIVE YOUR
MESSAGE TWICE.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!
YOUR SUPPORT TEAM AT VALLEY TECHNOLOGIES
____________________________
4/15/09 NOTICE:
WE HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING SOME TEMPORARY ISSUES WITH
OUT-GOING E-MAILS FROM OUR SERVER. WE ARE WORKING DILIGENTLY
ON CORRECTING THE ISSUE. E-MAIL FROM VALLEY TECHNOLOGIES
SMTP SERVICE, AS WELL AS OUTGOING E-MAILS FROM WEBMAIL
MAY BE AFFECTED. CHECK BACK HERE FOR UPDATES ON THIS
ISSUE.
THANK YOU!
YOUR SUPPORT TEAM AT VALLEY TECHNOLOGIES
____________________________
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