PBEM email problems,..

Triumvir Emphy · #1 March 6th, 2001, 08:02 PM

the email problem may be related to your host and not the people recieving. Ping your domain name at the command prompt,..

for example if your email is @worldOnline.co.uk you would c:\ ping mail.worldOnline.co.uk

this should give you an ip number

go to www.mail-abuse.org and see if they are listed. if so then poeple who's isp blocks your can't get your email.

example of isp blocking sites due to spam:
Roadrunner (rr.com) is blocking according to list and will soon block yahoo Groups and clubs.

Anybody running a big game i would suggest switching to a web/ftp site to publish and recieve turns, even if just as a backup.

thanks to spammers your email is no longer reliable, so make sure you have a work around.

DirectorTsaarx · #2 March 6th, 2001, 11:00 PM

Another potential problem is the recent increase of e-mail viruses; I've seen three or four alerts in the Last month or two about viruses that take advantage of Outlook features to propagate themselves. This kind of think tends to wreak havoc on e-mail systems; not to mention some places block access to webmail services when this kind of attack occurs...

Triumvir Emphy · #3 March 7th, 2001, 03:16 PM

Most of those viruses use a few silly ways to get Users. A lot of people hide their extensions and leave scripting on in outlook.
Next time you get an attachment make sure it really is a player1.txt or a player1.plr and not a player1.txt.vbs or a player1.plr.exe.

Don't accept exe files make them zip it. Don't accept signature attachments, and don't use them yourself.

Get a yahoo or hotmail account and use the web interface to get mail.

Triumvir Emphy · #4 March 7th, 2001, 03:23 PM

Most of those viruses use a few silly ways to get Users. A lot of people hide their extensions and leave scripting on in outlook.
Next time you get an attachment make sure it really is a player1.txt or a player1.plr and not a player1.txt.vbs or a player1.plr.exe.

Don't accept exe files make them zip it. Don't accept signature attachments, and don't use them yourself.

Get a yahoo or hotmail account and use the web interface to get mail.

DirectorTsaarx · #5 March 7th, 2001, 06:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Triumvir Emphy:
Get a yahoo or hotmail account and use the web interface to get mail.

Unfortunately, every time another one of those VBS viruses comes out, my company turns off access to web-based e-mail until the crisis is over... not that I would do PBEM from the office, but there may be some who do

. Also, my ISP blocked web-based e-mail for a while when they did some security upgrades to their own mail servers. Completely unintentional, but it would be enough to disrupt a PBEM game...

Also, given the number of these viruses that have come out recently, it's only a matter of time before providers crack down on security, which almost always makes it more difficult to send legitimate traffic as well.