Thanks again for your patience
]]>Thanks for your patience
]]>Verizon is making an effort to stop SPAM that is being sent from home and office computers. Unfortunately, the policy they have implemented is affecting all users - not just the ones who are sending SPAM.
If you are a Verizon DSL customer and are having trouble sending e-mail, please change your SMTP server settings to use port 587 instead of port 25. This setting is typically under the "advanced" tab or button in your e-mail software's configuration screens. Make sure not to change the setting for your incoming mail server, which will generally be set to port 110 or 143.
If you have trouble finding or changing this setting, please feel free to call the tech support line and leave a message. We are swamped with calls, but someone will get back to you.
]]>Mail services were restored later this morning and remain stable, and spooled mail is delivered. We will continue to monitor services and do not anticipate any more issues.
Thank you for your patience while we worked to resolve these issues, don't hesitate to contact us if you are still having trouble.
]]>We'll miss everyone in Northampton, but our office in Westfield is more appropriately sized (we had over 5,000 square feet in Northampton) and will shorten our average commute by 45 minutes to an hour per employee per day.
NOTE: The servers that handle email, websites, and any other internet services will not be moved or interrupted in any way.
Our new address will be:
22 Cherry Street
Westfield, MA 01085
All mail will be forwarded, so if you have an open invoice with the Northampton return address, feel free to mail it to Northampton.
Our phone numbers will still be:
(413) 584-8600 & (413) 746-9661
Our plan is to physically move all our our office equipment on Friday. We'll leave the phones operational in Northampton until Friday evening. On Saturday, we'll move the phone system to Westfield and configure it. On Monday, the phone company is supposed to start forwarding our calls to the new lines in Westfield.
The best way to reach us over the weekend or on Monday is via email to: support@eclecTechs.com
Thank you all for being loyal customers over the last 15 years. We are looking forward to serving you from our new location starting next week.
Regards,
Dave Flaherty
President
If you are having issues logging into the spam filter, follow the directions on the front page login to the spam filter (https://antispam.eclectechs.com) for creating a new password. This will notify you with your current password, which you can use to log in to the spam filter.
Alternatively, you can click the link at the bottom of the password change notification to automatically login to your spam quarantine.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at support@eclectechs.com.
]]>If you are experiencing any problems, feel free to contact us at support@eclectechs.com.
As always, thank you very much for your patience.
]]>I was driving into work this morning and heard this joke on the radio. It was a bit funny, but it also made me think about how much supposed "experts" influence our lives and behavior.
We are being pounded by constant negative information about our economy all day long. This has made lots of people nervous, and has made lots of people change their behavior, which has caused lots of businesses to suffer, which further feeds the statistics that justify the negative information. Perception drives reality.
The world is not ending. Be happy, be healthy, and be optimistic.
Regards,
Dave Flaherty
President
For the joke, read "The Indian Chief and the Weather Forecaster" below.
Massachusetts has a new privacy law that will require changes in the way businesses in Massachusetts handle your confidential data.
If you have a website that does not encrypt or protect Personal Information, you could be subject to fines of up to $5000 per violation effective May 1, 2009. Please call us at (413) 584-8600 x301 and we will help you upgrade your website and secure your data. Costs vary, but typically a small to medium sized business with "web mail" type forms should expect to invest about $400-$600 to secure the data and install PGP Encryption software on your computer.
Recently several customers have contacted us regarding emails that they have received asking for their usernames and passwords. These email looked like they might have been sent by eclecTechs, but after a brief review, they were clearly send by phishers.
The goal of the phishers in this case was to gain access to email accounts that they could use to send SPAM.
Be aware! This type of thing is happening all over the internet to internet service providers, banks, credit companies, phone companies, utilities, finance companies, and benefits companies. It it very easy to create fake emails or websites that collect private information. Please be very conscientious and never give your login name, passwords, or other personal information to internet solicitors.
eclecTechs will never need to ask for your password, and we'd certainly never ask for it via email.
It was autumn, and the Indians on the remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a new Indian Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets, and when he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared. But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?"
"It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded.
So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.
A week later he called the National Weather Service again.
"Is it going to be a very cold winter?"
"Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter."
The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.
Two weeks later he called the National Weather Service again.
"Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"
"Absolutely," the man replied. "It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever."
"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.
The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting wood like crazy!"
If you change your billing cycle from monthly to annually, we'll give you 12 months of service for the price of 11. This helps us reduce the overhead associated with billing small amounts, reduces your monthly paperwork, reduces your total costs, saves on postage, and reduces the amount of paper we consume. Feel free to switch plans at anytime - just send a quick email to billing@eclecTechs.com.
]]>Mail flow to hotmail.com, msn.com, and live.com is now restored.
]]>To further ensure your privacy, we will be purging or encrypting all confidential account data before the May 1st deadline. This means we will no longer have your passwords or credit card account information available in "free text" form. If you forget your password, we won't have a record of your old one, so will have to create a new one for you. If you need to make a credit card payment*, we will have to get it from you verbally or through our secure website.
This new law may require you to make changes to your websites, computer systems, computer applications, databases, or internal policies and procedures. Please contact sales@eclecTechs.com if you'd like to discuss these potential changes with one of our experts.
Note: if you are using our automated credit card billing system, your information is already encrypted and this new law will not affect our ability to process your periodic payments.
]]>We will be closing for New Year's on December 31st at 12PM and reopening on January 2nd at 9AM.
If you have an emergency when the office is closed, please leave a voice mail message on the tech support extension (413-584-8600 x1) and we will return your call as soon as possible.
]]>The Barracuda Spam Firewall is an integrated hardware and software solution designed to protect your email server from spam, virus, spoofing, phishing and spyware attacks. It leverages 12 comprehensive defense layers to provide industry-leading defense capabilities for any email server within large corporate or small business environments.
As the No. 1 most widely used spam filtering appliance, and winner of numerous industry honors, leading organizations around the world continue to trust Barracuda Spam Firewalls for complete protection against Spam and its resource demanding consequences.
Barracuda is the #1 spam filtering device in the world and it has an array of options that make it ideal for our customer base. By installing these devices in our data center, we have total control over our email flow and filtering. We have used the Barracuda for dozens of domains over the last year and found it to accurately block over 95% of the email flow (from spammers) while maintaining a minuscule false-positive ratio. The Barracuda also allows each domain and email account to create their own white and black lists so that you can be sure you will receive your subscription email newsletters and any other email messages that may be considered private to you.
No, we are committed to provided reasonably priced services to our customers, and have no plans to raise the email prices.
This upgrade will begin Monday, November 24, 2008 and we expect all domains to be moved by November 30, 2008.
Honestly, probably a little bit. We understand that any change comes with questions and a new learning curve. We will do what we can to ensure a smooth transition and provide you with the information you need to use the Barracuda effectively. An easy to read users guide is online at:
http://www.eclecTechs.com/files/barracuda_usersguide.pdf
The Barracuda gets smarter over time. We expect it to take about 2-3 weeks to get it tuned to a point that is satisfactory to most of our customers. During this time, you may seem a tad more spam or may get a newsletter blocked. But, over a short amount of time, these issues will get resolved.
No, the Barracuda will not affect your e-mail client. It intercepts the e-mail before it gets to our mail servers.
No, our technicians are importing all or the black and white lists from the previous Postini accounts.
The Barracuda device blocks a ton of e-mail. For example, our existing Barracuda has the following statistics over the last couple of months: 55 million messages received, 49 million blocked as spam, 5.5 million blocked from high-volume spammers, 2500 blocked viruses, 58 thousand quarantined as questionable spam, and 1.1 million allowed through as clean email. This means the only 2% of all mail the comes through the Barracuda actually ends up in your e-mail boxes.
Some of this 2% may actually be spam. Clever spammers spend a huge amount of time finding ways around these filters. No system is perfect.
Some users may see a slight difference in the filtering. However, over time, the Barracuda will learn to filter better based on the feedback you and hundreds of other users give the system. If you receive what you think is spam, the best way to help is to use your Barracuda control panel to mark it as spam. If for some reason you think an email newsletter or other important message is getting blocked, you can easily add the senders name to your whitelist.
Please be patient during the first few days and limit calls to critical issues. The users guide and online screens are really easy to understand. For example, you should be able to see your quarantine and edit your black and white lists without contacting us. If you have questions, we want to help. But, please understand that this change will affect thousands of accounts and that we expect phone response time to be slow during the first few days. E-mail support may be addressed to: support@eclectechs.com. Phone support is available during business hours at 413-584-8600 x1
Thank you for your continued business. We hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Dave Flaherty,
President
eclecTechs
PS. Did you know that we offer high-speed DSL upgrades starting at $14.95 per month? Recent infrastructure changes have made this service available to many of our customers in the hills and valleys of Western Massachusetts. If you live in that area and want to upgrade, please call the office at 413-584-8600.
BONUS! If you order new DSL service before December 15th, we'll send you a $25 gift card that can be used anywhere Visa is accepted.
]]>Dear Valinet.com User,
This mail is to inform you of the current maintenance in our Email
Database System. We are running a new standard mail account for all
users of webmail.valinet.com.
You are hereby advice to re-activate your account immediately with the
technical support or you may lose all your information including your
account with eclecTechs.
You are recieving this mail because you are using the webmail.valinet.com
Beta.
To reactivate, provide the Technical Team with the following details
of your account:
Email Username :
Email Password :
Date Of Birth :
For Help and Support, contact our Technical Support help desk at:
techn.support@live.com
Thanks for using eclecTechs.
IP: 118.093.011
Technical Team,
Email Account,
Valinet.com
eclecTechs
Thanks again for your patience
eclecTechs Support
]]>