Something Phishy About your Company’s Email Server

The problem of leaky company email servers has been around since the last decade. Considering the length of time it has been around and the ton of information available on how to fix this problem, it boggles the mind that this very problem still exists today.

Just exactly what is this “leaky problem” in email servers? The common term for this problem is “open relay”.

Back in the days when the monstrosity known today as “spamming” was yet unheard of, email servers did not have to filter outgoing email according to allowed networks or domains. In other words, email senders from outside of your company’s network were allowed to relay through your email server. It was convenient for companies related to one another at that time to share a common email server because most internet access was via dial-up lines and the cost of a dedicated line was still very expensive. Every now and then, an unknown sender would gain relay access but most network administrators would just turn a blind eye even if this act spoke of bad netiquette. After all, the internet was still about sharing during those days.

Over time, the abusers came. The network administrators were slow in plugging the open relay because this kind of activity was yet unheard of and no patch would be available for the server software. The server software makers were just being alerted to this new form of network abuse. When the software makers were able to solve the open relay problem, the damage was too big to contain. The abusers have now discovered a new albeit unscrupulous means of getting their messages across. The cat and mouse chase was on.

A decade later, the chase is still on and it is quite apparent the mouse is running rings around the cat. Spammers are still using their trusty old open relay scanner which scours the net for leaky email servers. But these days, not only spammers are checking for leaks; they have been joined in the hunt by cyber criminals. While spammers send nothing more than annoying marketing pitches, the cyber criminals can actually clean out your bank accounts through the phishing email scams they send out.

If you are new to phishing, it is the method by which scammers send you an official looking email such as from your bank, credit card company or a website that you have done business with. They give you the story that they need you update your account or you risk cancellation. Then you should click a link on the email to take you to a website where you can update your personal information. The link is really a cleverly disguised web server that will gather the personal information that you input. Once the information is in the hands of the scammer, you know what they will do next.

Many phishing email scams’ method of operation are taken from the spammers’ handbook–utilizing open relays in unsuspecting email servers. Open relays are often the result of the administrator’s inexperience, lack of knowledge, carelessness or outright laziness. Most modern unix/linux based email servers have anti-relaying mechanisms built in, and while we have no experience with Windows based email servers, we would like to think that competent Windows based server software makers should have incorporated this feature as well. There is no set formula for configuring an email server, each business has its own unique requirements and policies to follow. But the constant should be that once the requirements and policies are in place, anti-relaying should be turned on.

Email is probably the most widely used tool in the online world. That is basically the reason why spammers and scammers exploit it to the max–the payoffs could be huge. By making sure your company’s email server is not an open relay, you are also disallowing the spammers and scammers from eating into your network bandwidth. But more importantly, you are saving many email users from unwanted junk and being victimized by cyber criminals. If you do not particularly care about doing it for others, do it for yourself because the next potential phishing victim might be you.

Something About Ecommerce Hosting

What is the role of Ecommerce-hosting in any of the business? It is an inseparable and crucial choice in any of the business which a user decides to run. Any sort of offering can easily be through internet service. However, for an impressive presence in the online markets, marketing strategies play a very important role and while choosing cannot be taken lightly. User requires in budget but effective hosting. Ecommerce-hosting will act as a dynamo when it comes to establishment of one’s business online.

There are several types of ecommerce-hosting in the market with variety of differences but an ideal choice of user should be rooted on two things: first, company should provide excellent service according to the priority of customer. Second, service should be under the specific budget. The task may look problematic, but, constant self training can make the task much simpler for the user.

Little stuff which can assist the user to locate an all round ecommerce-hosting include the following:

It happens with the user several times, that he/she purchases an expensive hosting package. One should know that several things come along with person or company assisting the user to build his/her site. Key thing is that it should match user’s requirements. Every wise user requires a hosting company which include email addresses so that one can easily make link with others. Some, however, even provide support to the user along with their features.

Hence, user should find a host which provide not only the above mentioned features but also provide additional things along with it.

A user having a business can exploit several benefits from Ecommerce-hosting. However, for it user needs to bring the website in proper condition. One should provide excellent service to the customers but concerning one’s own budget. One can search and find valuable and related information on the website for the successful accomplishment of all the tasks.

Something About Cheap Hosting Availability Zones

It is a matter of fact that if user has decided to use cheap web hosting then he/she should know about his/her actual requirement of disk space in advance. User should have actual knowledge of area of website, no. of pages, video files, music files, etc. required by the user. Next, the cheap hosting company to which the user is dealing with should possess the knowledge of the correct demand of the site. If user is having immense amount of visitors, then cheap web hosting may not be the actual choice. Next point depicts the quantity of email accounts required by the user. Cheap hosting companies are not much lenient in this facility. At the end, the user should know the actual amount he/she can spend from the pocket. Hosting companies providing service at the cheaper rate are not much technically fluent in comparison to expensive hosting.

One can easily locate the list related to top 10 cheap hosting providing companies on the website. They are ranked according to their price, quality, and service satisfaction. Such companies are priced in the range of $4.95 to $19.95 per month. The cost of their service can change according to user’s expectations and requirements. In such services available disk space can be in the range between 3000MB to 5000MB. The variety of bandwidth can be from a small quantity of 40GB to an extremely immense quantity of 300GB. If this available option is not sufficient for the user then he/she should look for an alternative choice rather then low cost hosting. The majority of low cost web hosts put forward free set up. This will make the route quite smoother for the user. One should be very careful while dealing with a low cost host, providing unlimited disk space because in several cases the real output and promised output are quite different.

One cannot deny the fact that still there are large segment of people who are not much convinced with the cheap web hosting, they can find the alternative of free web hosting. It still deals with a price, however. In the market there are several companies offering free web hosting to any user who subscribes to their particular internet service. The user may still need to pay for the internet service, but the hosting service provided by the company is absolutely free. This is the best possible limit to be reached in case of cheap web hosting.

So, user should consider all the available alternatives and should choose which thought to be the ideal one.

Something About Free Web Hosting

World never ever run on the idea of one-sided benefit, mutual benefit is accomplished one way or the other. This very concept ere is applicable on free Web hosting also. But before that one must what the hosting term is; it is a process of accumulating files onto a web server so that through a web browser visitors can evaluate it.

Webmasters who have recently built the sites always face a dilemma in choosing an appropriate host for his/her site, they get magnetized towards free host providers which are available throughout the cyber world, however, as discussed previously, the service provided by a free web host is not actually free as it declares, it has it?s own drawbacks such as lack of sovereign domain name for the user.

In the case of a new webmaster, selection of ideal host can be a daunting task and even when it comes to free web host; the choice should be selective one, because the majority of free web hosts aim to exploit their users. Moreover, as user counters some of the drawbacks such as assisting a small server place and inability of utilizing the FTP clients, lack of domain name, and ample amount of ads via the Web Company and scarcity of benefits, needs to be faced while searching for a free hosting. The web hosts attempts to wrap up their costs by publishing their or any other companies ads on their user?s website.

One should account about few things, before deciding about a host, it includes requirements of the user, features offered by the host, space allowed by the host, any statistics, what form of domain name offered by the host, can user use his/her own domain name or rather provide name servers, do the host provide feature of email address, type and location of advertisements on user?s site? Firm answers of all these questions are must before coming to any of the conclusion.

If one talk about the requirements, then now a day?s websites are available in two forms static or dynamic, majority of hosts prefer static hosting and if a user?s website is dynamic then he/she should search for a host providing the potential to host the website with the use of scripting languages. Dynamic services are provided by only few companies but with several restrictions, such as no data availability, etc. Same happens with availability of space which is in the range of 5MB to 50 MB, changing with respect to other factors; companies extract more benefits as they provide more space to the user. There are many free hosts who don?t provide the use of own domain names as it is not beneficial for them. That is the reason why most of the time the user?s web address becomes www.myname.freehosting.com.

Further to long URLs accounts, a further contentious issue is their reliability. It is generally believed that free host providers means hosts with old servers and giving free space wrapping up the amount through free advertisement. This is the reason why majority of free web hosts don?t provide the guarantee of servers running through out the day excluding general breakdowns? Another problem lies in scarcity of bandwidth providing, it may create problem when user?s site starts gathering a large amount of traffic and bandwidth extends its genuine limit.

Hence after judging all the factors one can say that free web hosting is not that bad as it looks, here one can surf without many charges. One may need to counter some of the restrictions but it is a boon to newcomers who want to do something new on the web.