Greetings users,
As of late our mailout.easydns.com service has experienced some outages and downtime.
We've discovered the problem to be with the hardware we were using. To alleviate this we've deployed a new machine this morning to handle the mailout.easydns.com duties. Over the coming days we will also be adding more machines to handle the mailout load such that we can continue to deliver a reliable service.
If you notice any issues when using mailout.easydns.com please let us know.
As always , thanks for your continued support of easyDNS.
Greetings,
If you're a regular user of our easySMTP service at "mailout.easydns.com" you've probably noticed that it's been sketchy for the last couple of days, usually during peak times in the middle of the day!
The first part of the problem we've identified; we have had a couple of power users inadvertently pound our servers. We've managed to get that under control this afternoon, but the extra load highlighted an issue we've been working on for a while and are now ready to roll on.
The issue of course is server load! We've been getting ready to upgrade the operating capacity for "mailout.easydns.com" for a couple of weeks, and we've installed the extra capacity this morning.
These new servers will be in the pool by this evening after we iron out the usual operational quirks, and after we make sure that they won't munch your mail rather than deliver it.
Thanks for sticking with us during these load spikes. I know (all too personally, since I also use easySMTP) that trying to send an e-mail and having it sit in your outbox is one of the more frustrating Internetisms. And thank you for the feedback.
Thanks,
Simon
As is customary here when it comes to new top-level domain rollouts, we've added support for .CO domains now that the registry has launched real-time live registrations. As we mentioned in previous posts, we are recommending that if you operate a serious net presence under .COM, you should if you can pickup the corresponding .CO to defend your mark. Hopefully Cameroon doesn't rebrand .CM anytime soon or we have to go through this again.
On a related note, we are dropping support for new .TEL registrations. At the time we added support we frankly didn't realize how broken the .TEL implementation is, but as a DNS hosting provider, we are ideologically opposed to a registry that won't let you set your own nameservers. Existing .TEL domains will continue to be supported.
It's that time of year again when CIRA holds it's elections for seats on the Board. As I never tire of relating: when I was on the CIRA Board, I got the opportunity to travel across the country and meet .CA domain holders from all walks of life. When the Board held open forums in various venues, the turnout was usually pretty good, and people had a lot to say. Then, near the end of the forum I would always ask the room: Who here voted in the last CIRA election? Very few hands would go up.
The .CA space is unique in that it is one of the very few top-level domains that provide direct member input via the public consultations and the Board elections. I think all interested parties should avail themselves of that opportunity.
Every year the CIRA members (that's pretty well anybody who holds a .CA domain name) can put one candidate onto the ballot, in addition to the slate of candidates proffered via the CIRA NomCom (Nomination Committee). The member nominees this year are numerous, and I recognize a few names there. It's a shame we can only show our support for one member nominee at this stage of the game.
So, who should you support from the members' side of the slate this year?
Read more »
Greetings,
We had a brief blip on the outbound mail system for "legacy" retail users at the address mailout.easydns.com. We have restarted the responsible service and mail should be flowing again without issue.
Thanks for your patience.
[UPDATE - September 1 @ 1:40pm] – This issue has been resolved. More details about what steps are to be taken are located here:
http://blog.easydns.org/2010/09/01/mailout-easydns-com-upgrades-this-evening/
Greetings,
The "Greylisting" service on the new mail system has been disabled for the moment as we troubleshoot some odd results we have been getting with it.
Customers should expect a little bit more spam, but we hope to have the weirdness ironed out by this weekend.
[UPDATE - September 1 @ 1:39pm] – Greylisting has been re-enabled on the new mail system, and we're also incidentally increasing the capacity of this mail pool preemptively.
Greetings from St. Lucia, where I'm here with the family for an end-of-summer vacation. I wanted to post about this topic before I left but I didn't get to it, but this article over at CircleID reminded me. The article discusses the ramifications and effects of the large, possibly record-setting DOS attack against DNSMadeEasy last weekend. (To clarify: DNSMadeEasy is a separate company, unrelated to easyDNS)
The article states "An attack on DNS is an attack on The Internet" and this much is true. As we always quip around here, "DNS is something nobody notices until it stops working".
I have to admit that in the early days of easyDNS I was oblivious to the possibility of DOS attacks. It simply never occurred to me. We were able to proclaim 100% DNS uptime since launching in1998 for a glorious 5 years and then on April 14th, 2003, it all ended as we got hit with a DOS that pancaked all four single-node nameservers and every domain on the system went dark for about 75 minutes. I nearly had a nervous breakdown, and then over the summer I thought long and hard about the ramifications and at the time surmised that the DNS hosting model was doomed.
Read more »
The easyDNS systems admin team will be conducting some database maintenance on Friday August 13th at 1:00am EST. The downtime should last between 30 minutes to 1 hour, ending at approximately 2:00am EST the same day at the latest.
During this time, access to the new easyDNS interface (Caprica) will be disabled. The old easyDNS interface (Retail) will not be affected.
We apologise for any inconvenience.
[UPDATE - August 13 @ 2:11am] – The database maintenance is complete, and the new easyDNS interface (Caprica) is accessible at this time. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
easyDNS observes the Civic Holiday.
It's called Simcoe Day in Toronto.
Our telephone support hours are from 9am to 5pm Eastern.
You can always email us for help at support@easydns.com .
Thank you,
The easyDNS Support Team
The easyDNS systems admin team will be conducting some database maintenance on Sunday July 25th at 1:00am EST. The downtime should last between 1 to 2 hours, ending at approximately 3:00am EST the same day.
During this time, access to both the Retail and Caprica easyDNS interfaces will be disabled.
We apologise for any inconvenience.
[UPDATE - July 25 @ 2:15am] – The database maintenance is complete, and both the Retail and Caprica easyDNS interfaces are accessible at this time. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
