At some point September 11, 2011 our antivirus program for our mail servers suffered a severe failure.  As a protection measure, all inbound email was not processed until antivirus functions were restored.  Antivirus function was restored on September 11, not long after, however, due to the shear volume of mail that had accumulated, our servers have become overloaded as they work to process all the incoming mail.  As load average becomes high, we detect it, and then shunt the data away from the overloaded system to return the load back to normal.  When load average becomes high, services such as sending mail, and webmail become inactive.

If it is not essential for you to check your email, please hold off until noon, September 12.  Otherwise, we are working hard to ensure all mail services can operate as best as possible.  We apologize for the inconvenience.  This should resolve after  our systems fully catch up, and we expect full function to be restored at noon, September 12.

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For those of you affected by poor DSL performance since Thursday morning, we have discovered a workaround until the underlying network problem is resolved.  The solution is to set your network MTU to 1250.

If you have a router, change the MTU on the Internet interface, which should fix the problem for all computers on your network at once.  Consult your router’s documentation for details.

Note, the following instructions are of advanced nature. We provide these instructions on an ‘as provided’ basis. If you do not follow the instructions properly, or use them on a different type of computer than described, it may make the problem worse.

Windows 7 or Windows Vista computers do the following:

1. Click on Start. Choose Accessories.
2. Right click on “Command Prompt”. Choose Run as Administrator.
3. You should get a screen reading “Administrator: Command Prompt”.
4. Type the following:
   netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Local Area Connection” mtu=1250 store=persistent
   Or if you use a Wireless connection type:
   netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Wireless Network Connection” mtu=1250 store=persistent
5. The command should return “Ok.”.  If it doesn’t, you may not be running the command prompt as Administrator.
6. Reboot your computer.  Or disable, then enable your Local Area Connection.

The above instructions are a summarized version of this article by Richard Slater (thanks!).

Macintosh users can easily set their MTU in their System Preferences:

1. Open System Preferences. Choose Network.
2. Select “Built-In Ethernet” or “Air-Port” (if you use wireless) from the “Show” menu.
3. Go to “Advanced Settings” (Leopard or newer), or “Etherenet” (Tiger and earlier).
4. Change MTU to Custom, and enter 1250.
5. Click on “Apply Changes”, and close System Preferences.
   If the settings are greyed out, click the padlock icon on the bottom left to unlock the settings.

Linux systems:

1. Type the following in a terminal window:
   sudo ifconfig eth0 mtu 1250

Verifying your MTU:

1. Open a web browser. Go to:

   http://speedguide.net/analyzer.php

2. The second line of the report will show your MTU = 1250.  It will also display the following:
   MTU = 1250
   MTU is not fully optimized for broadband. Consider increasing your MTU to 1500 for better throughput. If you are using a router, it could be limiting your MTU regardless of Registry settings.

To return your system to normal, repeat the instructions above with the value of 1500.

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One of our servers, mail.secure-by-design.com was blacklisted by spamhaus.org.  As soon as we became aware of the problem, we worked with our suppliers and spamhaus to get removed from the blacklist. They removed us from the list at approximately 2:30 PM (PST).  Due to the automtaic nature of such lists, we were not notified by spamhaus when this occurred.

As far as I can tell, it was not because of any email from our server or from our customers. In this case, it seems to be “Collateral Damage”, as spamhaus listed a block of 62 IP addresses, including 3 that are assigned to us.

I apologize for any inconvenience, and I am researching options of detecting this class of problem in the future.

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The Norton Safeweb service is presently identifying our site as having a “Malformed container violation“. Clicking on their link to read about this threat does not contain any useful information.  I am presently exchanging some emails with the staff  at Symantec to determine what the problem is.  It seems to have a problem with our RSS feed, at: http://www.secure-by-design.com/feed/

I uploaded the feed file to VirusTotal, an online service that will scan a file using multiple antivirus products.  It did not detect any problems. Neither did AVG’s Linkscanner.  Here are the VirusTotal Reports:

• Report from 5 link analysis tools
• Report from the file scanne

One possibility is that our feeds include some examples of phishing and virus infected emails, which might be the trigger. Or there is an invalid html tag or code in the feed itself.

Unless Norton can produce some concrete evidence of an infection that I can verify with another tool, I am treating this a false alarm.

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Our dial-up numbers will be changing soon.

At this time both the old and new number will work, so you can start using the new numbers right away.  Once the changeover is complete, the old numbers will be phased out.  The Castlegar number has already been turned off, so we urge customers to switch over to the new numbers right away!

For most Windows systems, you can change the number by clicking the Properties button on the Connect To screen.  For Macintosh users, instructions are posted on our web site here:

http://www.secure-by-design.com/support/mac-os-x-dial-up-settings/

The new numbers for the local area are:

• Castlegar: 250-304-2039
• Trail: 250-368-8273
• Nelson: 250-352-1361

We also have dial up access in communities across Canada. For the complete list, see:
http://www.secure-by-design.com/support/dial-up-numbers/

Thinking about getting high speed?

Our service area has recently expanded to include parts of 6-Mile and Warfield, and is available in most cities in BC and Alberta. Long time dial-up customers may be eligible to receive a discount on a high speed modem.

You can check if service is available to you on our web site:
https://service.secure-by-design.com/cgi-bin/adsl-check.cgi

If you require assistance with this change, or would like to inquire about high speed upgrade options please call our office:

1-877-373-6121

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Currently netidea.com has been temporarily blacklisted with AOL.  We have sent in our request to have this blacklist removed, and we expect this to be fully resolved within 48 hours.  Should this timeline change, we will update this post accordingly. Sending mail to aol.com is working again.

If you are not sending to an AOL address and are experiencing problems, you will need to adjust your SMTP settings.  Please refer to this post for information on how to solve the problem, or call us.

In an effort to reduce spam, most ISP’s block any traffic on the standard Sending mail port #25 for mail servers other than the providor’s.  For example, if you have High Speed through Shaw, but use us for email.  You cannot send out email using our servers on port 25 while using Shaw internet.  It appears that this policy is now being fully enforced on Net Idea Accounts.   Even though you may have us as your Internet providor, this rule still applies as our mail servers are in our Saint John Data Center in New Brunswick.

If you are unable to make the change as described in this post, you can use webmail in the interim until we are able to guide you through the fix.  Please feel free to call if you require assistance.

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The emails below are SCAMs and should be deleted on sight. We would never email you to ask for your password, as we have them on file. If you did reply to this email, and included your password, you need to change your password now!

Subject:
From: "NETIDEA  SUPPORT TEAM" 

Dear netidea.com Subscriber,

We are currently carrying-out a  mantainace
process to your netidea.com account, to
complete this, you must reply to
this mail immediately, and enter your
User Name here (,,,,,,,,) And Password here
(.......)  if you are the rightful owner of
this account.

This process we help us to fight against
spam mails.Failure to summit your password,
will render your email address
in-active from our database.

NOTE: If your have done this before, you may ignore
this mail. You will be send a password reset
messenge in next seven (7)
working days after undergoing this process
for security reasons.

Thank you for using netidea.com!
THE netidea.com TEAM

Subject: CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY NOW

Dear Email Account Owner,
This message is from webmail messaging center to all webmail
account owners.We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account
center.

We are terminating all unused email accounts to create space for
new accounts.To prevent your account from being terminated, you will have
to update it by providing the information requested below:

***********************************************************
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY NOW
E-mail Username : ...............
E-mail Password : ...............
***********************************************************

Warning!!! Account owners that refuses to update his or her
account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or
her account permanently.

Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ

Thanks,
Webmail Administrator.

From: "THE NETIDEA UP-GRADE SUPPORT TEAM" 
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 11:54:32
Subject: UP-GRADE YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNT

Dear valued customer,

We are currently performing maintenance for our
Digital Webmail Customers. We intend upgrading
our Digital Webmail Security Server for better
online services.

In order to ensure you do not experience service
interruption,Please you must reply to this email
immediately and enter your password here (******)
and Check out your new features and enhancements
with your new and improved Netidea Account,To
enable us upgrade your Netidea Account for better
online services please reply to this mail.

Thank You For Using Netidea Account

Tags: Phishing, Scams, Security, Spam.

Overview

With our new wholesale supplier, you may need to adjust your email settings if you are unable to send mail to other domains (gmail.com, yahoo.ca, etc).

You need to enable SMTP Authentication, and turn on SSL for both POP (Port 995) and SMTP (Port 465) connections. Detailed instructions for Windows can be found below.

Windows

Guide is based on instructions for Outlook Express and Incredimail.  For all
other email clients, such as Eudora, Outlook, Thunderbird, please call for
support.

Go to the "Tools" menu and select "Accounts".

Click on the Tab along the top of the "Internet Accounts" window, that is
labeled as "Mail".

Ensure the account is Highlighted in the list of accounts, and press the
"Properties" button on the right hand side.

On the Tab labeled "Servers", click the very bottom checkmark for "My server
requires authentication", and then click the "Apply" button at the bottom.

Now, click on the "Advanced" tab on the top.  Place a checkmark on both
entries where "This connection requires a secure connection {SSL}", and you
will notice the Incomming Mail port will change to either 995 or 993.  This
is perfectly normal.  The Outgoing port must be changed to 465 instead of
25.  Once this is done, click the "Apply" button at the bottom, and then
"Ok".  

You can then repeat for any other Net Idea email accounts, or close the
Internet Accounts window, and you are now ready to send Email.

Macintosh

Please call for support.

Tech Support Available Monday through Friday 9:00am to 8:00 pm at
1-877-373-6121

Tags: News, Settings, Support.