Euro Fast Host

We have recently upgraded our office telephone system to be fully VoIP based, and after a few teething problems, it works great!

Initially, we were using HomePlug adapters to connect phones (fantastic SNOM 360s) to the ethernet network where there wasn’t a handy CAT5 connection. When we were trialing the system, we found call quality was far from acceptable, with constant breaking up. We knew bandwidth wasn’t the issue, and we were pretty sure we had configured everything else correctly. In the end, it turned out to be the HomePlug adapters - remove these and use the normal CAT5 connection, and it all works fine.

So, what are the benefits? Well, it’s cheap for local and national calls, and even mobiles, but not really so much cheaper that it pays for the investment in phones. No, the real benefit is that we can run a virtual PBX to configure call routing, service status announcements, call diversion, forwarding etc all via a web browser interface. People can also logon from home and it’s as though they are in the office (not that we do this regularly!).

We have got rid of our expensive Alcatel phone system (complete with annual maintenance agreement) and now run all of our telephony via a VoIP. We have kept some analogue lines in case of any outages, but the initial signs are that the VoIP system is definitely the way to go!

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Recently Vista updated itself, and after this certain web sites would “bounce” when viewed in Firefox. The bookmarks also disappeared - not the ones under the “Bookmarks” menu, but the ones between the navigation bar and the browser content. Bit frustrating, and led to using IE for a while before finding the time to investigate. Anyway, it’s easily solved by right-clicking on the grey area between web page content and navigation bar, and adding a new bookmark.

Thanks to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Window_shakes for the solution

Following on from the untimely withdrawal of our spam filtering service (when our supplier was no longer able to provide the service), we have installed our own improved spam filtering service. This is hosted and controlled in-house, and we have been trialing it with a number of customers. Feedback is excellent, and we are pleased to say that it will be launched next week!

Features include:

• Over 98% of spam filtered
• Daily quarantine email report with list of mails stopped
• Release and whitleist emails direct from the email quarantine report
• Simple web interface for configuring quarantine report settings
• No need for any client software
• Also filters viruses before they reach your PC
• Generally, its just great.

Further details on Monday!

For some time now, a company called Domain Regsitry of America (or Domain Registry of Europe) has been writing to domain name owners “warning” them that their domain names are due to expire unless they are renewed. These letters are being sent to our customers as well of customers of other ISPs and hosting companies.

The letters are a con and an underhand attempt to take ownership of domain names unethically. The company has been the subject of legal challenges in the US/Canada (see here) and the FTC taken them to court.

Please be assured that these notices should be ignored - they are not legitmate and if they are completed there is a danger that you domain name will be transferred without you explicit consent, and excessive charges will become payable.

We always write to our customers when domains are due for renewal, so there is no need to worry about missing any renewal dates. If you are concerned about any correspondence you have received, please just give us a call and we’ll check it out for you.

Hi,

We have two kinds of spam filtering - free (which can be configured in your web mail - mail.yourdomain.com) and advanced (for which there is a small monthly fee).

The advanced filtering is provided by a third party company and unfortunately, as many of you will know, they recently performed an upgrade which did not go well. In fact, it has gone so badly that they have now contacted us (and many other ISPs) to say that they do not have any confidence that they will be able to get it working again. They are therefore intending to run a much reduced service from this Friday 4th May. The reduced system will still filter spam, but will not provide quarantine reports nor any way to release trapped messages - they will simply be deleted.

We do not think this is acceptable (since email can ultimately be lost) so we are withdrawing the service. We will be contacting all affected customers over the next few days. So, this is the bad news.

Now, the good news. We have been trialing a new in-house system with similar functionality and we hope it will provide an even better alternative. The earliest release date for this is the end of next week depending on trials and feedback. We will automatically move current advanced spam filtering customers onto the new service.

We will of course refund ay affected customers for any time during which their spam filtering has not been working as expected.

We are sorry this has happened, especially at such short notice, but we along with many other ISPs have been let down by the supplier.

We will provide further updates when we can and, as mentioned, hope to have the new service up an running towards the end of next week.