Domain name transfer - possible outage

Post by **jmb** » 03 Dec 2008, 17:22

Lycos have decided to stop their web hosting business, and while we no longer use them, the powerswitch.org.uk domain name was still registered with them. We've just wrested it away from them, and this might result in a short downtime as the transition propagates.

Lycos wrote:Dear LYCOS Webhosting customer,

As you might have heard in the media, the management and the board of directors of LYCOS Europe N.V. have decided to liquidate valuable businesses and cease unprofitable activities. Unfortunately the webhosting business is one of these.

This means for you, that we will continue providing our webhosting services for only a limited period. A solution is sought, so that online-presences of our customers can be transferred to another provider without causing adverse effects or additional costs.

Recently there is no reason to be concerned or to take rash measures. We will inform you about any upcoming changes in sufficient time. Even if a transfer to another provider turns out to not be feasible, you will have sufficient time to back up your online-presence. Though details are not yet clarified, we expect the webhosting platform to be operating during the first quarter of 2009.

As soon as we have further details about the planned measure, you will immediately be informed. We expect this to happen in a few days. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. We strive to enable a smooth transfer of your presence. We ask for your understanding that we cannot provide you with further information at this point of time. We will keep you up-to-date with further news. We also ask for your understanding that you might experience delays in response times from our support team in the next days as we expect an increasing volume of requests.

Please refrain from contacting our support team with request in this matter as no additional information can be provided by this channel at the moment.

We will contact you as soon as we have any further information.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding.

With best regards
LYCOS Webhosting

Post by **jmb** » 03 Dec 2008, 17:46

An additional effect is that mail to @powerswitch.org.uk addresses will now be subject to a different delivery mechanism.

If you have a mailbox on powerswitch, it will only be available for a limited time from this point, and we can't easily copy old mail there to a new location. If, after the transition, you find that something vital is left on the old server, we might be able to retrieve it for you. Speak now, etc.

As I've mentioned previously, the new delivery setup will in most cases forward @powerswitch email to the personal email address currently known for you. Only a few mailboxes will actually have messages kept on the server - these are where several people currently read the same incoming mail, and these too will at some point migrate to a multiple-delivery mechanism.

Post by **jmb** » 03 Dec 2008, 17:48

This may also have an effect on automatic email from the site like topic reply notifications, but I've not investigated that yet.

Post by **jmb** » 04 Dec 2008, 17:53

I've just pruned the info@ mailbox. It had about 15000 messages in it, largely spam, so I expect others will see a high proportion of spam too.

If you're one of those with a mailbox, when you get around to some housekeeping can you please make sure that it really is pruned - e.g. emptying the deleted items folder after a round of deletions.

Post by **jmb** » 05 Dec 2008, 12:28

Another feature of the new server which we didn't have on Lycos is
automatic spam tagging, which as these addresses (@powerswitch,
not your own!) are publicly listed could be vital to your sanity.

There are a few things that need ironing out, but basically any
email considered to be spam will have its subject line changed to
indicate this, and some hidden mail headers set as well. Mail clients
like Thunderbird can be set to shunt all mail matching these patterns
to a Junk folder where you can give it a quick scan from time to time
to see if it's wrongly junked something you want. Note - nothing is
automatically deleted by the server, it is only flagged for the end
user to apply filters as they like. Any feedback on this is welcome.

Post by **jmb** » 05 Dec 2008, 12:41

We seem to have escaped having any downtime - unless you know different. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone did have a problem in the last day or so.

Site email should now be being handled entirely by the new servers. If you don't get expected messages (topic reply notifications / new PMs etc) again please let me know here.

Post by **admin2** » 05 Dec 2008, 12:54

excellent work James!

Mark · Post by **Mark** » 08 Dec 2008, 12:54

Hi jmb,

I have 2 e-mails sitting in my Outbox since 4th December.

Are these now undeliverable / lost ?
If so, could you let me know & I'll retype.

Many thanks

Post by **jmb** » 09 Dec 2008, 01:27

Hi Mark,

No, you should still be able to access them using the webmail system or mailaccess.webc.lyceu.net .

Post by **jmb** » 10 Dec 2008, 18:58

Apparently the Lycos webmail systems is failing logins, at least for @powerswitch.org.uk users. The IMAP mail access is working fine, though. I've mailed Lycos, but I'm not holding my breath.

Here's a rundown of how to configure access in Microsoft Outlook:

Code: Select all

Menubar Tools -> Account Settings
&#40;email tab&#41; New...
  &#40;Choose E-mail Service&#41; Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP or HTTP &#91;Next>&#93;
  &#91;X&#93; Manually configure server settings &#91;...&#93;
  Internet E-mail

  Enter name and email address details for your-login@powerswitch.org.uk
  Account Type&#58; IMAP
  Incoming mail server&#58; mailaccess.webc.lyceu.net
  Outgoing mail server &#40;SMTP&#41;&#58; mail.powerswitch.org.uk
  User name&#58; your-login@powerswitch.org.uk
  &#91;More Settings...&#93;
    "Advanced" tab
      Use the following type of encrypted connection&#58; SSL
      Use the following type of encrypted connection&#58; TLS

If you can't use a local SMTP server, then also in this screen, use

Code: Select all

    "Outgoing Server" tab
      &#91;v&#93; My outgoing server &#40;SMTP&#41; requires authentication
      User name&#58; / Password&#58; please PM me if you've not already received this by email.

Post by **mikepepler** » 13 Dec 2008, 15:08

Great, works for me.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » 15 Dec 2008, 13:42

Hi jmb,

Unfortunately, I'm not an IT wiz........

As recommended, I resent the e-mails sat in my 'Outbox' on the 9th Dec.
Just checked & they are still sat there a week later - I assume they've not gone as they've not appeared in my 'SentBox'.

Is this due to failure with the Lycos webmail system you mention ?
If so, I'll have a go at following the instructions........

If not, could you investigate ?

Many thanks.