NinerNet Communications™
System Status

Server and System Status

NC027: Spam clean-up update

28 December 2017 12:27:23 +0000

We have cleaned up the mail server (NC027) after yet another email account was compromised. This necessitated shutting down the mail server between 22:39 and 22:52 UTC yesterday (27 September) while we cleaned up the mess.

This has resulted in the mail server being blacklisted by at least one large mail provider and restrictions put in place by others. The email account in question has been disabled pending resolution of the root cause of this issue, and we are diverting outgoing email to some major mail providers via our relay server until restrictions on our primary mail server’s IP address expire. However, it may still be a few hours more until some outgoing mail is delivered normally without delay.

These incidents usually arise after a client’s computer has been infected with a virus. The virus then sends the email password back to the person or organisation controlling the virus, and they then use that information to compromise that email account on the mail server, using it to send thousands of spams from the account. Please ensure that you install, use and update an anti-virus program on your computers and any other devices to ensure that this doesn’t happen to your email account.

At this time NC027’s IP address is not listed in any of the major blacklists (which operate on an automated basis to remove blacklisted IP addresses once no spam is seen from them), but we will (as always) monitor this and, where necessary, make manual submissions to the smaller, niche blacklists and to ISPs and other mail providers to have our IP address de-listed where that is possible. Manual processes like these can take a couple of days, however.

NC027: Yet another spam outbreak

27 December 2017 22:41:47 +0000

We have temporarily shut down the mail server (NC027) while we clean up tens of thousands of spams from another compromised email account. We will have it back online as soon as possible.

NC027: Spam and delayed delivery

23 December 2017 03:11:45 +0000

Two email accounts on two separate domains on the mail server (NC027) were compromised in the last 24 hours and were used to send out thousands of spam emails. This has resulted in the mail server being blacklisted by at least one large mail provider and restrictions put in place by others. The two email accounts in question have been disabled pending resolution of the root cause of this issue, and we are diverting outgoing email to major mail providers via our relay server until restrictions on our primary mail server’s IP address expire. However, it may still be a few hours more until some outgoing mail is delivered normally without delay.

These incidents usually arise after a client’s computer has been infected with a virus. The virus then sends the email password back to the person or organisation controlling the virus, and they then use that information to compromise that email account on the mail server, using it to send thousands of spams from the account. Please ensure that you install, use and update an anti-virus program on your computers and any other devices to ensure that this doesn’t happen to your email account.

At this time NC027’s IP address is not listed in any of the major blacklists (which operate on an automated basis to remove blacklisted IP addresses once no spam is seen from them), but we will (as always) monitor this and, where necessary, make manual submissions to the smaller, niche blacklists and to ISPs and other mail providers to have our IP address de-listed where that is possible. Manual processes like these can take a couple of days, however.

NC020: Server networking issues

17 December 2017 12:27:45 +0000

Due to a misconfiguration of server NC020 by data centre personnel in response to a networking request from NinerNet that resulted from a change in one of their policies, this server stopped processing email properly earlier today. This resulted in some instability and the rebooting of the server three times between 07:22 and 08:06 UTC.

These problems affected only email processed for NinerNet domains, not any client email. However, because there are still a few client websites hosted on this server, including this status blog, these sites would have been down and up for some time this morning.

We have corrected the networking issue and have remonstrated with the data centre over the issue. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will endeavour to ensure that this does not happen again.

NC027: Server migration complete

9 December 2017 22:31:31 +0000

The migration of the primary mail server (NC027) to new hardware has been completed. The server was offline between 20:13 and 22:15 UTC.

NC027: Migration complete, but server offline

9 December 2017 21:29:59 +0000

The migration of NC027 is complete, but the server is currently inaccessible to the Internet. We’re looking into it.

NC027: Server migration in progress

9 December 2017 20:30:49 +0000

The migration of the mail serverĀ  (NC027) to new hardware is in progress. Estimated completion of this maintenance is approximately 21:20 UTC. We will post further updates here as necessary, or when the maintenance is complete.

NC027: Server migration starting now

9 December 2017 20:11:17 +0000

The mail server migration will be starting within the next few minutes.

NC027: Migration of main mail server to new hardware

1 December 2017 08:13:12 +0000

Server NC027 (the primary mail server) will be migrated to new hardware during our regular weekly maintenance window next weekend. This maintenance will start at 20:00 UTC on Saturday 9 December 2017, and should conclude within one to two hours. During this time the mail server will be offline. This means that all incoming mail to domains hosted on this server will be queued on the sending servers, and delivered to this server when it comes back online. It also means that you will not be able to send email during this period.

We will post an update here shortly before, at the start of and following the maintenance.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact support to let us know. Thank-you.

NinerNet home page

Systems at a Glance:


Loc.SystemStatusPing
Server NC023, London, United Kingdom (Relay server), INTERNAL.NC023InternalUp?
Server NC028, Vancouver, Canada (Monitoring server), INTERNAL.NC028InternalUp?
Server NC031, New York, United States of America (Web server), INTERNAL.NC031InternalUp?
Server NC033, Toronto, Canada (Primary nameserver), OPERATIONAL.NC033OperationalUp?
Server NC034, Lusaka, Zambia (Phone server), INTERNAL.NC034InternalUp?
Server NC035, Sydney, Australia (Secondary nameserver), OPERATIONAL.NC035OperationalUp?
Server NC036, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Mail server), OPERATIONAL.NC036OperationalUp?
Server NC040, Toronto, Canada (Web server), INTERNAL.NC040InternalUp?
Server NC041, New York, United States of America (Web server), OPERATIONAL.NC041OperationalUp?
Server NC042, Seattle, United States of America (Status website), OPERATIONAL.NC042OperationalUp?

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