Hosted Exchange Outbound Suspensions

Earlier this week we had an issue where the routing network we use for Yahoo based mail (due to Yahoo’s gray listing policy) became suspended by Yahoo for the first time due to massive mail relayed by a Hosted Exchange client. Prior to today we would automatically suspend ExchangeDefender clients who would send massive amounts of mail through our outbound network; now Hosted Exchange clients are eligible for outbound suspensions as well. Some may wonder why we would only suspend XD clients; simply put we never had this issue with any Hosted Exchange clients in over 5 years of offering hosted exchange. Some may wonder why we would suspend their client if they are paying a ‘premium’ price for their mailbox — the answer is IP reputation and the TOS agreed upon by the partner. Neither we nor you can afford to affect routing for all clients due to the actions of any hosted exchange user.

Starting today on any Hosted Exchange user who sends more than 400 outgoing messages with less than 50% of the total volume being ‘unique’ will be automatically suspended. External mail from suspended mailboxes will be returned to the sender as follows:

#553 5.3.0 <user@domain.com>… AUP #21 Violation please contact your service provider. ##

Upon suspension we will first open a ticket with the service provider with the volume statistics of mail. If the provider asks for detailed information on the messages sent we will then generate a list of all mail sent by the client for review by the service provider.

If a mailbox does get suspended we will enforce the following policy with no exceptions.

1^st Offense: Outbound mail restricted until partner acknowledges the AUP violation and informs their client of the offence.

2^nd Offense: Outbound mail restricted for 24 hours. Partner will be sent a document to sign and return stating they acknowledge that we may enforce our TOS and terminate the clients mailbox on a third offense.

3^rd Offense: All outbound mail for the mailbox is restricted and the outgoing address of the user becomes permanently null routed.

If any outbreak causes our IP reputation to be affected in any adverse way (RBL listing, etc.) we reserve the right to automatically advance to the steps outlined in the “Second Offense”.

Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com

LiveChat is… LIVE!!!

Based on a lot of constructive partner feedback at the recent trade shows, you should now see a LiveChat link at the top right every page. The options for the chats are either Sales or Technical. I want to take this opportunity to clarify what the technical approach is for the ExchangeDefender LiveChat. LiveChat meant for general questions only.

I’m sure the first question is so what’s the point if I can’t ask you about a support issue? Well, the LiveChat is meant as a quick response for a quick question for your convenience. Not only that once you start getting into account specific information, I am pretty certain your end users would not appreciate you sharing their information without exchanging some sort of authentication in the process.

As always when experiencing any sort of issues, you should always check the NOC first. From there you’re welcome to give us a call but remember if your issue is advanced the phone folks will help you gather the appropriate facts and escalate the issue to our engineers at https://support.ownwebnow.com . Remember the portal is the only place where the response is actually SLA bound.

Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737

How Do You… “Ask for the Sale”?

I have heard too many times in the IT solution Provider community the comment “ask for the sale”. It is a clear notion but I never have really heard it explained. I, like many providers think, that it means just that, “So can we go ahead and get this started for you?” This in itself is the problem with the general concept. No one really knows what “ask for the sale” means and no one really knows how to “ask for the sale”.

So let’s clear this up a bit. Asking for the sale, in my opinion, is the wrong way to look at it. To ask for something immediately puts the ball in the opposite court and places you in a waiting state. This is not the position you want to be in as a salesperson. A salesperson should be able to always maintain control and should have a good idea of any potential objection that may come their way. In asking for the sale, you open yourself up to objections and can get sent into a sometimes never ending follow-up mode. How about we focus instead on “assuming the sale”?

Assuming the sale is confidence, it comes through in the way we talk, and the way we structure our sentences. We speak in present or past tense like the project is underway or has already occurred. Here are some examples of assuming the sale.

1. What’s great is with the new Hosted exchange platform, you can connect to your office from anywhere you have an internet connection, so now you can be at the beach, at home, or wherever and have your office available.

2. We have already started this project for you, our guys are staged and ready to move to the next phase; your signature here allows us to get phase 2 started.

It is important to paint pictures with your words. If you can allow someone to visualize their life with your solution, you have a better chance to make the sale. For instance in sentence #1 above we talked about connecting to the office from anywhere. Elaborate on that, “Ya know I gotta tell ya; I was on vacation sipping Mai Tai’s on the beach in Hawaii, when I got a text that an important document couldn’t be found.” “The office needed my help; since I also use hosted exchange, I was able to pull up my info right from my lounge chair, get it to my boss, and all was good in a matter of minutes”! How cool is that?

Assuming the sale and painting the picture are important tools, especially when selling services. Since services are not tangible, and have no physical makeup, it is important that we create this physical makeup with visualization through words. Start assuming the sale and you will see the difference this makes in your close ratio.

Frank Gurnee
VP, Channel Services, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x4777
frank@ownwebnow.com

ROCKERDUCK Increased Messages in Queue

Over the past week we’ve noticed a larger than normal queue size on ROCKERDUCK. On our Exchange servers we strive to keep queues under 50 message at any given time which roughly equates to about 1-5 seconds of delivery time. However this week we received alerts from our monitoring of queues reaching 150 messages and staying rather “large” for the entire day. The larger queue size would only increase delivery time to 15-30 seconds, but was still above our desired values. Upon researching and testing we’ve discovered the root issue.

Microsoft has an undocumented/secret new XML value for Hub servers which limits the number of concurrent deliveries for a mailbox that appeared in SP1 that you can only find by searching the error from the delivery queue.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/04/11/store-driver-fault-isolation-improvements-in-exchange-2010-sp1.aspx

Essentially since SP1 the HUB servers were only allowed one current message delivery per recipient

We’ve increased the delivery from 1 concurrent delivery to 3 concurrent deliveries and have not received any new alerts.

Travis Sheldon
VP, Network Operations, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x757
travis@ownwebnow.com

Visit ExchangeDefender at Autotask Community LIVE!

Starting this Sunday June 10th through Tuesday June 12th, Autotask Community LIVE! will be here in our beautiful hometown, Orlando, FL! ExchangeDefender is one of the sponsors/vendors of the event and we will be camping out at our booth for a few days.

Autotask Community LIVE! is going to be great because it gives Managed Service Providers an avenue in which to communicate, strategize, and work together with other IT professionals in the channel. Managed Service Providers will also get the opportunity to discuss new technology advancements and industry trends while visiting with many great vendors, like ExchangeDefender!!

If you are coming to this conference please be sure to stop by our ExchangeDefender booth, # 208! We have a lot of great additions to our solution stack and are eager to share them with the community! We also have some new swag to give away, and maybe even some promotions – You will have to stop by our booth to see for yourself all of the new stuff that we’ve got and how you can profit from it!!!

The Autotask Community LIVE event is going to be great this year and we are proud to be a part of it. We hope to see you there!

Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com