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Old 11 Mar 2015, 06:14 AM   #1
communicant
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 879
Vfemail.net and Openmail.cc

There are several old threads on the forum about VFEmail.net and Openmail.cc, but perhaps it's time to start a new one for more up-to-date comments and queries.

The service has been quite stable for a long time, but today I have encountered persistent problems.

Has anyone else experienced erratic response at VFEmail.net and/or openmail.cc (which is part of the same system)?

Openmail was very slow yesterday but worked.

Today I've encountered numerous problems -- failed logins with correct credentials, logins accepted but followed by very erratic performance, server errors, inability to move messages from inbox to folders, and several other problems, encountered repeatedly over the course of the entire day, and during two or three separate login/logout cycles.

I have accounts at both VFEmail.net and openmail.cc. A few minutes ago I was able to login to my VFEmail.net account but not my openmail.cc account. Then, a little while later, I encountered a 'failed login' for the VFEmail account as well.

What's going on? There is no mention of any problem on the VFEmail.net twitter feed, and nothing new at the VFEmail.net forum.

I haven't yet raised a ticket with Rick because I'm hoping it will clear up soon. (The service is moving to a new collocation site on March 21, and notice of the resultant downtime has been provided, but that is many days away and presumably has nothing to do with what is happening today.)

I'd appreciate it if other EMD members with VFEmail.net and/or openmail.cc accounts would check and see if anything erratic is happening with their accounts. I doubt that it could be only at my end, but you never know.

Thanks.

Last edited by communicant : 11 Mar 2015 at 06:24 AM.
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Old 11 Mar 2015, 07:11 PM   #2
B4its2L8
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I've been using TB of late and have my VFEmail acct set up in it. I have noticed an occasional inability to login over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday afternoon, for example. I only log in several times per day, so I can't say how often this happens. Maybe once every few days. I've never submitted a support ticket or posted at their forum, since it has never been a 'work flow' issue for me.

Today it's logging in fine on TB, btw. And I just checked the webmail login (RC) and it's working fine, too. If/When login failure happens again (before the server move), I'll mention it.
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Old 12 Mar 2015, 05:53 PM   #3
rmannam
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I Received this message from VFEMail

Thanks again for being a being a member of VFEmail!

We've secured a new colocation facility and will be moving in by April 1st.

As we're planning to physically relocate the servers soon - the question is: Can you accept a few hours of downtime, or do we need to engineer a mirrored site?

A mirrored site would require a new server for the primary data, and we'd add an additional VM to get the database data over. Then when the DNS is changed, the new location would proxy until the records are propagated. We'd have to figure out how to securely connect both sites, it would probably require a full site to site VPN and entirely new subnetting at the new site. More moving parts means more chance for errors. But, potentially no actual downtime. Anyone pointing to the old site after the DNS change will simply be proxied.

A shutdown would just be powering down the servers, and taking them to the new location. As only the primary data store is not mirrored, half of the servers could already be ready and waiting. I would expect less than 2 hours of downtime on a Saturday (CST) night. This method less chance of problems, no funky re-configurations. No additional equipment saves about a month's worth of hosting costs. The proxy from the old site can still be done in this configuration.


Please vote ASAP! ow.ly/JfW5q


Please let me know if you have any questions,


Thanks,
Rick Romero
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Old 12 Mar 2015, 07:37 PM   #4
B4its2L8
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Just FYI an email updating the results of Rick Romero's poll has already been sent out. (He said most of his respondents are okay with up to 8 hrs. downtime while the transition is being made.)

Anyway, communicant's post indicates he's already aware of the server relocation schedule but doubts that's the cause of the problem(s) he's experiencing.
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Old 5 Jan 2019, 12:46 AM   #5
FredOnline
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VFEmail Status Update

E-Mail received from Rick Romero:

Quote:
As you may be aware, recently we were hit by another DDOS attack. Thanks to our friends at
New Continuum Data Centers, we were able to weather the attacks with minimal inteference. This latest
attack was against our incoming mail servers, which did cause some delays processing incoming email.
We're actually in a really good position, technologically speaking, to diversify our incoming mail systems
across the globe - but we really need a healthy cash injection to get that going.

What that can do is provide upstream links that can be saturated in the event of an attack, without actually
affecting incoming deliveries OR access to your email.

If you haven't already, please upgrade now to help us achieve this new redundancy goal. https://www.vfemail.net/cpanel

Due to low "free to subscriber" conversions, we may be ending free registrations. The cost to create a new Copper account
would be $1. Part of this POSSIBLE requirement is the amount of effort and costs involved in cleaning up spam, RBLs, and upstream
rejections at other providers. Another reason is our Ad revenue has dropped dramatically, while our site usage has increased.
I will be 'massaging' the ads to try and improve our revenue there, but we really need your support!
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Old 5 Jan 2019, 02:34 AM   #6
janusz
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Quote:
The cost to create a new Copper account would be $1.
Some time ago Fastmail would offer a lifetime account for $15 (or maybe $10). After a while FM decided this made no sense commercially, so the users were forced to upgrade.
Now VFM offers lifetime accounts for $1.... Good luck to them....
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Old 5 Jan 2019, 03:03 AM   #7
FredOnline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janusz View Post
Some time ago Fastmail would offer a lifetime account for $15 (or maybe $10). After a while FM decided this made no sense commercially, so the users were forced to upgrade.
Now VFM offers lifetime accounts for $1.... Good luck to them....
Their "lifetime" account is (according to the website) a BRONZE account for $24.95:

https://www.vfemail.net/vfemailaccts.php
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Old 5 Jan 2019, 03:12 AM   #8
janusz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post
Their "lifetime" account is (according to the website) a BRONZE account for $24.95
So what exactly do you get for $1??
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Old 5 Jan 2019, 03:19 AM   #9
FredOnline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janusz View Post
So what exactly do you get for $1??
The way I read it, your $1 is for "creating" a COPPER account.

The current comparison between COPPER and BRONZE accounts is in the link:

https://www.vfemail.net/vfemailaccts.php
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Old 5 Jan 2019, 03:24 AM   #10
janusz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FredOnline View Post
The way I read it, your $1 is for "creating" a COPPER account.
Ok, but once you created it and dropped $1 in the box, it's yours for life, isn't it? Subject to being used once every 180 days.....
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Old 5 Jan 2019, 03:40 AM   #11
FredOnline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janusz View Post
Ok, but once you created it and dropped $1 in the box, it's yours for life, isn't it? Subject to being used once every 180 days.....
I would guess that it doesn't depend on your understanding of the word "life", that would be determined by the provider of the service.

À la FastMail?
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Old 12 Feb 2019, 05:26 AM   #12
FredOnline
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VFEmail - major problems reported on Twitter today

Quite a few tweets posted, quite a lot to read, I suggest if interested to head over to:

https://twitter.com/VFEmail

Last tweet:

Quote:
This is all I can do at this time. I will need to get into the datacenter to see if the one file server I caught during formatting can be recovered. If it can, we can restore mail, but most of the infrastructure is lost.
Just noticed on their website:

Quote:
!!!ALERT!!!! Update Feb 11 2019
www.vfemail.net and mail.vfemail.net are currently unavailable.
We have suffered catastrophic destruction at the hands of a hacker, last seen as aktv@94.155.49.9

This person has destroyed all data in the US, both primary and backup systems. We are working to recover what data we can.

Incoming email is also not available. I do not have any additional updates at this time, we're working on a resolution.

Last edited by FredOnline : 12 Feb 2019 at 05:28 AM. Reason: Just noticed on their website:
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Old 12 Feb 2019, 04:52 PM   #13
janusz
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It's getting more and more funny every day.... Now it reads:
Quote:
Mailboxes are new, no subfolders exist.
No filters are in place. If you created a filter with Horde, Login to Horde, Create any folders you need.
[...]
At this time I am unsure of the status of existing mail for US users. If you have your own email client, DO NOT TRY TO MAKE IT WORK.
If you reconnect your client to your new mailbox, all your local mail will be lost
This is followed by
Quote:
Since 2001, VFEmail has provided businesses and end-users a quick and convenient way to ensure their own security when it comes to email
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Old 12 Feb 2019, 08:12 PM   #14
communicant
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1) What's the URL to log in to horde? I've been redirected to the page from time to time when I made a login error, but I never made a note ot the address.

2) These problems are not "funny" if one depends on VFEmail to the extent that I and many others do, Every few years Rick seems to be targeted by "vicious" DDOS attacks -- why? Why VFEmail in particular? Rick? Are you around? Why you?
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Old 13 Feb 2019, 03:17 AM   #15
FredOnline
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https://www.itpro.co.uk/security/329...-out-by-hacker
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