ChangeIP.com

[jmcclellan]

Hello.. I had a few questions regarding the backup MX service..

Can ChangeIP.com provide this service for domains whose DNS records are held by others, or can I simply add an MX record and use this service stand-alone for an existing domain?

Using this service, can individual mailboxes be assigned, rather than a 'catch-all' for the domain, in order to eliminate the usual random-named junk the spammers love, such that the backup MX would accept only mail destined for users which exist, just like the primary MX? If so, is there a limit to how many can be defined?

Regarding the mailbox capacity, for example 10MB.. does this refer to 'storage' or 'transfer' amounts? For example, if the backup MX receives a 1MB message, then forwards it successfully to the primary, does that reduce your 10MB limit, or does mail only reduce your capacity during the time which it is actually on your server?

Thanks very much!
Jason

[sam]

Thanks for the questions. Here are the answers:

[quote]Can ChangeIP.com provide this service for domains whose DNS records are held by others, or can I simply add an MX record and use this service stand-alone for an existing domain?
[/quote]

Yes, you can use your own DNS and everything, simply use a la carte services from us if you wish. We do not force you to use all of our services.

[quote]Using this service, can individual mailboxes be assigned, rather than a 'catch-all' for the domain, in order to eliminate the usual random-named junk the spammers love, such that the backup MX would accept only mail destined for users which exist, just like the primary MX? If so, is there a limit to how many can be defined?
[/quote]

Yes, if you are using POP3/SMTP service you can setup mailboxes, and define a catch-all if you wish. I recommend not, otherwise you get spammed to death. If you use store and forward then no mailboxes are defined here, simply everything is forwarded to your servers to take care of.

[quote]Regarding the mailbox capacity, for example 10MB.. does this refer to 'storage' or 'transfer' amounts? For example, if the backup MX receives a 1MB message, then forwards it successfully to the primary, does that reduce your 10MB limit, or does mail only reduce your capacity during the time which it is actually on your server? [/quote]

The store limits / transfer limits are depending on your setup. If you use pop3/smtp mailboxes, the storage limit is how much you can store at any given time on the mailbox. If you client downloads often you wont hit any limits because it will reset to 0mb each time you download. The sending limits are hard enforced on the mailboxes if you use us to relay with, of course for spam reasons.

If you are using store and forward then there are no hard limits, everything will come thru to your server. The store limit is supposed to be a per day limit - average. No mail will be stopped unless the limit is abused over and over again, reports will be auto generated and you will be notified before this happens.

Thanks,
Sam

[jmcclellan]

[quote="sam"]Thanks for the questions. Here are the answers:
Yes, you can use your own DNS and everything, simply use a la carte services from us if you wish. We do not force you to use all of our services.
[/quote]

Great! So many others do require this. Our dns is hosted by our website hosts at present, and we are happy with that service, it is only backup smtp I'm looking for.

[quote]
Yes, if you are using POP3/SMTP service you can setup mailboxes, and define a catch-all if you wish. I recommend not, otherwise you get spammed to death. If you use store and forward then no mailboxes are defined here, simply everything is forwarded to your servers to take care of.[/quote]

Well, I am thinking of only a store & forward setup. In that case, your servers would accept any and all mail destined for my domain, and attempt to forward it when I'm up, right? In that case, my server would reject any mail for users which do not exist. When that happens, what occurs on your end? When the mail is outright declined by my server, will yours discard the message, RTS, keep trying, or what? Is it possible to define which receipients to accept mail for, while using the s&f setup?

An unfortunate effect of backup mail of any type seems to be the damn spammers.. there is no way to enforce DNSBL or sender checking when mail goes through the backup server.. do you know any way around this problem? They seem to be deliberately using secondary MX's to avoid the filtering! In the past week, I have received 388 messages through our backup MX. One was real mail, the rest were spam, viruses and such. I'm sure some of this would have (or perhaps was) declined by our filtering on the primary server.

[quote]The store limits / transfer limits are depending on your setup. If you use pop3/smtp mailboxes, the storage limit is how much you can store at any given time on the mailbox. If you client downloads often you wont hit any limits because it will reset to 0mb each time you download. The sending limits are hard enforced on the mailboxes if you use us to relay with, of course for spam reasons.

If you are using store and forward then there are no hard limits, everything will come thru to your server. The store limit is supposed to be a per day limit - average. No mail will be stopped unless the limit is abused over and over again, reports will be auto generated and you will be notified before this happens.[/quote]

As I said, I am considering only the store & forward setup. In this case, storage utilization would accumulate only during the time in between when mail is received by you, and when it is forwarded to me, correct? I guess this is still a little unclear to me.


Thanks,
Sam[/quote]