E-mail users - 8/10/06 - If you are getting less e-mail than normal lately to your inbox, make sure to check your spam folder in your webmail, at http://mail.brittonsd.com. Your messages may have been mistakenly marked as SPAM and caught there so that they don't clutter your inbox. To fix this problem, approve the senders of those messages by using the whitelist feature. Instructions with pictures are posted in the ProTECH Webmail Tutorial. Please continue to e-mail clark@brittonsd.com with questions. Thanks!
Mail server statistics:
Services: POP3 or Web interface access
Messages processed per day: 29,000
Messages caught by our SPAM and virus filters per day: 20,000
The SPAM and virus filters are continuously updated to protect you against all threats. The only user modifications necessary are to use the black and white lists, available through the webmail.
Anything that has been marked with [Possible SPAM] for the last few months is now being routed to your SPAM folder, which can be accessed through the webmail.
News - 8/1/06 - We have made some changes to our internet connection. Our new DNS servers are 208.53.253.3 and 208.53.253.9. If your internet isn't working correctly, and you are unable to input these numbers please give Mark or Clark a call for help.
News - 7/31/06 - We will be switching away from Postini completely as of today. If you were utilizing the white list feature of Postini, many of your allowed e-mail addresses have been transferred to the new service. If your list has not transferred, and you would like it to be, e-mail clark@brittonsd.com. Please check your new spam folder by logging in to your web mail box at http://mail.brittonsd.com. You can use this website to check your e-mail from anywhere in the world.
E-Mail news - 4/17/06 - Since we have upgraded our mail service to include web-mail, we will be discontinuing the use of the Postini Message Center soon. To use the new method of blocking or allowing certain messages, log in to your new web mail by going to http://mail.brittonsd.com. A tutorial on how to log in, and allow senders(also called "whitelisting"), is located here: ProTECH Webmail Tutorial
Phishing attempts - 12/09/05 - Lately you may have noticed messages in your inbox appearing to come from PayPal, Ebay, or Wells Fargo Bank. Nearly all of these messages are attempts to wrongfully collect your user information. Many of these e-mails contain links to "update your information" or "confirm your account." Never click on these links. They are to a third party site that will collect and store your information for possible misuse. Always log in to your online services from a seperate window and address that you know to be legitimate.
Large E-mail Attachments - 12/09/05 - We have noticed lately that with the growing popularity of digital photography, users have been attempting to send e-mail containing large picture files. While our server will accept these large e-mails, many other servers around the world will not. For example, Microsoft's Hotmail will accept messages up to but not over 10 MB. Some servers have an even lower limit. This means that these large e-mails may sit on our server until it gives up trying to send, and then the sender will be notified of the failure to send. It usually will not work to try sending it again. Intead, consider reducing the number of pictures, the size of the pictures, or consider sending the pictures in an alternate way. Also, consider who the recipient of your e-mails are. If they are using dial-up internet access, it can take about 45 minutes to download a single 10 MB message. Any questions concerning your e-mail service can be directed to Clark (clark@brittonsd.com). Thanks!
E-Mail news - 4/17/06 - Since we have upgraded our mail service to include web-mail, we will be discontinuing the use of the Postini Message Center soon. To use the new method of blocking or allowing certain messages, log in to your new web mail by going to http://mail.brittonsd.com. A tutorial on how to log in, and allow senders(also called "whitelisting"), is located here: ProTECH Webmail Tutorial
Phishing attempts - 12/09/05 - Lately you may have noticed messages in your inbox appearing to come from PayPal, Ebay, or Wells Fargo Bank. Nearly all of these messages are attempts to wrongfully collect your user information. Many of these e-mails contain links to "update your information" or "confirm your account." Never click on these links. They are to a third party site that will collect and store your information for possible misuse. Always log in to your online services from a seperate window and address that you know to be legitimate.
Large E-mail Attachments - 12/09/05 - We have noticed lately that with the growing popularity of digital photography, users have been attempting to send e-mail containing large picture files. While our server will accept these large e-mails, many other servers around the world will not. For example, Microsoft's Hotmail will accept messages up to but not over 10 MB. Some servers have an even lower limit. This means that these large e-mails may sit on our server until it gives up trying to send, and then the sender will be notified of the failure to send. It usually will not work to try sending it again. Intead, consider reducing the number of pictures, the size of the pictures, or consider sending the pictures in an alternate way. Also, consider who the recipient of your e-mails are. If they are using dial-up internet access, it can take about 45 minutes to download a single 10 MB message. Any questions concerning your e-mail service can be directed to Clark (clark@brittonsd.com). Thanks!
More Virus Emails - 11/22/05 - Just a reminder that emails with viruses are still going around. Lately we have seen .zip files containing .exe files. Please be careful of what you open, and make sure you know the source of any attachments you are going to open. If you are in doubt, do not open it. It is much easier to take an extra day to figure out if the attached files are legitimate than it is to repair your computer after it has been infected. Any questions concerning your e-mail can be directed to Clark (clark@brittonsd.com). Thanks!
New webmail service - 11/22/05 - We now offer a webmail service. This means that you can check your e-mail using an internet browser from anywhere in the world. Just go to http://mail.brittonsd.com and use your username and password to login to your mailbox. This mailbox also gives you access to block and allow e-mail to your inbox. Just use the settings to add and remove approved addresses. Any questions concerning your new webmail service can be directed to Clark (clark@brittonsd.com). Thanks!
VIRUS Emails - June 16 - We are seeing some emails with viral attachments making it through our systems into your mailboxes. They look like they have been sent from administrator@brittonsd.com or a similar address. The common thread of these emails has to do with your account password and there is an attachment. They are signed with various signatures similar to 'the Brittonsd Support Team'. You will never receive a legitimate message from me or Clark that is not signed by one of us. Any others truly need to be ignored.
TELEPHONE LINES - Dec 30 - We are rearranging some of our incoming lines the next 2 days. Some customers are also experiencing wet phone lines due to the warm and rainy weather (in December!). If you encounter busy signals, please call Susan at 448-2572 and let her know the approximate time and duration of busy signal problems. If you are having trouble connecting or getting dropped offline, please check your own line by dialing 4 and listening to see if there is significant hum or static on your line. If you have installed Venture cable TV and have not put the filters on the line you use for dialing, you will experience problems. If your line seems quiet and you are still experiencing problems, please call me at 1-800-958-0843.
FRAME RELAY PROBLEMS - Sept 12 - We have been experiencing sporadic frame relay problems between ProTECH and the rest of the Internet for the last several days. SDN has been testing their part of the connection and I hope to hear something soon. This has resulted in poorer performance than usual and occasionally has resulted in a dead connection for brief periods. Please be assured we are working on it, but it isn't like anything we've seen previously.
VIRUS WARNING - March 11 - Many customers are getting messages that appear to be from ProTECH that have attached viruses. Rest assured that ProTECH will not send you any attachments for anything without clear personal identification (your name, my name) in the message. By and large, these messages are all being caught and stopped in your message center, but be alert to this new fraud.
INTERNET OUTAGE - Feb 24 - A router in Rapid City crashed at 8:12 this morning. Due to a configuration error, our connection was not restored until 11. Our connection supplier apologizes for the configuration problem and I apologize to our customers for the delay in restoring our connection.
FRAUD ALERT - September 19 - A number of customers have received requests that appear to be from Ebay requesting them to 'confirm' or 'verify' their account. These are fraudulent messages and are designed to steal your ebay account credentials. No reputable service will email you or call you for your account information. If you have already replied to such messages, change your password at Ebay immediately.
NEW MAIL SERVER - March 31 - It is my intention to replace the mail server between March 31 and April 6. Keep in mind there may be dispruptions in mail availability during that time. No incoming mail should be lost. The first time you log into the new mail server to retrieve mail, you will receive a message explaining the update. By about 20 minutes later, all of your mail will be available from the new server. After that you should see an increase in retrieval speed, an email account with more options and the ability to retrieve your email via the web. If you experience difficulties retrieving mail that week, please be patient. I will try to post any notice of current status here on this page.
MESSAGE CENTER - March 19 - Users may have bookmarks or favorites that permitted quick access to your ProTECH message center. They have broken as a result of site modifications. To log in to your message center, either follow a link in a new support message or click here to get to the general login screen. You will need to update your browser bookmarks.
OUTAGE - November 26 - At approximately 8:40 a transceiver failed in our local office. This prevented new users from logging on and connected users from accessing our mail or web servers. Connected users also experienced DNS difficulties in some cases. The transceiver was replaced at 9:15 and access was immediately restored.
NETWORK OUTAGE - April 17 - Our upstream connection to the Internet was down for a little over an hour from just before 8 pm until a little after 9 pm. It sounds like the problem was understood and resolved by our upstream connection. Sorry for the inconvenience. UPDATE-Additional problems upstream of ProTECH continued to cause outages between 9:40 and 10:40. Now believed to be permanently fixed.
SPAM FILTERS - March 13 - We are installing a virus/SPAM filter for email this week. You will receive an email explaining it and another one when your account is activated. Please call or email us if you need help with your new message center.
MAIL SERVER - Feb 4 - For some unknown reason the main incoming mail server crashed sometime on February 3rd. Most mail that was inbound during the outage should eventually arrive over the next 24 hours. If you get messages from a list server, you may want to check the list server archives for anything you missed.
NEW VIRUS - Jan 30 - A new virus is in the area. It arrives as email with the subject "new photos from my party". The message makes the receiver think that they are opening a yahoo web site. The attachment is an executable worm. Do not open it. I posted this warning because Norton will not detect this virus unless your files are dated 1/28 or newer. The Norton site is here.
DIALUP ISSUES- August 14 - We have been fighting with an elusive dialup problem for at least 2 weeks. We finally tracked it down to one of our comm servers which we replaced today. Hopefully the dialup will be working 'right' again, now. Thank you all for your patience. We also did some mail server upgrading. You may have received some duplicate emails from today. That was the reason. We will be adding more dialup lines next week if everything is stable until then.
FRAME RELAY DOWN - July 16 - Our connection to the outside world got cut off just before 9 am today. It is unkown at this time where the problem is or how long it will take to fix. I suggest retrying every 20 minutes or so for an update.
MAIL SERVER - April 17 - We have a mail server for outgoing (SMTP server) email named ares.brittonsd.com. If you have difficulties sending mail to certain recipients, you may wish to consider switching mail servers for SMTP. You must leave your POP3 server at mail.brittonsd.com. The ares server was down for maintenance and repair on Monday afternoon, evening and Tuesday morning. Normally, you can choose 'send later' from the File menu if you cannot reach the server for any reason. We normally prefer to do maintenance on Saturday night/Sunday morning. This became critical, however, and could not be put off. Thank you for your patience.
VIRUS ALERT - Many people in our area have recently gotten the Snow White virus via email. If you receive an email attachment having anything to do with snow white or dwarfs, DO NOT RUN IT! Running the file installs the virus in your computer and then it emails itself to all your friends. If you do not have anti-virus software, I would recommend strongly that you not execute ANY files you receive on email.
NOTICE- We are aware of some recent busy signal problems. We added some new lines the second week of January. We are examining our usage patterns with the new lines. Right now it looks like we will add some more lines during the first week of March. Until then, please bear with us and try to use the Internet more during non-peak hours when possible. The peak times of usage continue to be 6:30-9:45 pm. Access outside of these hours is generally excellent.
ProTECH is your local Internet Service Provider. We have a number of service plans to meet our customers' needs. We offer dialup and dedicated connections. All of our dialup access is 33.6 capable.
ProTECH Engineering serves Britton and Langford, South Dakota.
For more information call Mark at 448-5942 or e-mail mwismer@brittonsd.com.