Auroral » Servers

Sep

2009

Removing cPanel Catch All E-mail

Posted by Tim

So your using cPanel and you’ve got a ton of spam sitting in it using up valuable server resources, you’ve Googled the problem and found out how to disable the catch all address but still it’s showing that the mail exists and is wasting space.

For those looking to turn off the catch all address first, this is how you do it in cPanel:

First log in, then click on the ‘Default Address’ icon:

You will then be presented with a list of option, you need to change the radio from ‘Forward to email address’ to ‘Discard with error to senter (at SMTP time)’:

This will then reply to all e-mails sent to addresses which have not been set up (all catch all addresses *@domain.com), the message sent can be specificied on that page but if not it will simply send ‘No such person at this address’.

As you can see, you can also discard the message totally (no reply to sender) but keep in mind if someone sends a genuine email they will not be aware they mistyped your e-mail address and thus assume . The other option is to pipe all e-mails, this is commonly used in scripts like help desks (PHP, Pearl).

Disabling catch all by default for new cPanel accounts in WHM:

If you are running WHM on your server and want to have catch all disabled by default then it’s simply, log into WHM and go to ‘Tweak Settings’:

WHM Server Configuration

Then scroll down to ‘Mail’ and change the setting from ‘Local’ to ‘Fail’:

Save the settings and then all new accounts will have catch all disabled.

Removing existing emails.

So now you won’t receive any more, you still need to get rid of the existing mail which could be taking up copious ammounts of space, for this you may require assistance from your web host depending on how they have everything set up because you will need to delete some files outside of your web root.

If it’s your server the path should be ‘/home/user/mail/’ if it’s not and you just have a cPanel account then you should just see ‘/mail/’.

Within the mail directory you will see three folders, cur, new and tmp:

You need to delete the ‘cur’ directory and then recreate it (basically, your deleting the contents of the folder), you then still have a cur folder with absolutely no contents.

That’s it, that’s everything!

Note: In cPanel you might still see the usage for the catch all account still takes room, well that’s not strictly true, the server simply needs to update which it will do but be rest assured the space is not actually being taken up.

As you can see in the image, there is a note stating that space usage is recalculated every few hours.

You can force an update, but I wouldn’t bother, just let cPanel do it, it’s safer.

Posted in: Computers, E-mail, General, Internet, Servers

1 Comment

Tags: catch all, cPanel

May

2009

One And One – Pulling a fast one

Posted by Tim

We use to have all our services with One And One Internet, they had our domain names, servers, etc, etc. We trusted them and they started out good, well that didn’t last.

Their poor customer service and technical knowhow, we had managed servers which didn’t give us root access, everything had to go through them, knightmare is an understatement.

They billed us for things we didn’t have, when we called for tech support we ended up giving them tech support to change simple things on our server for example one domain name had wild card (allows *.domain.com aka anything.domain.com to work, allowing a script to handle the url an example of this would be for use in WPMU) but others didn’t well it took an hour of explaining before they said they couldn’t do it because the servers were managed which we all know is absolute rubbish.

In January of 2009 they illegally took a direct debit which we explicitly kept telling them not to, as a result we incurred a charge from our bank because it was processed days before we had funds available. Their response is they can’t do anything because it’s automated, well in the UK it is illegal to take a Direct Debit when they are not given permission and instructed to cancel it. Our bank won’t give us the charge back so we are contemplating legal action against them for theft. So we moved them to Paypal for billing and told our bank to never allow them the opportunity to take payment again.

Anyway we moved our servers away and we started moving our domain names well now they keep trying to bill us for domains that are not under them as a registrar. We knew they would try for payment and so revoked their access to do so with Paypal also. This is what they sent us:

We regret to inform you that your current PayPal merchant agreement limit is not sufficient to cover your recent invoice at 1&1.

Please take a moment to log into your 1&1 account and update your PayPal account limit as soon as possible, so that we can continue to offer your 1&1 services without interruption.

To update your 1&1 account limit,

1. Please log into your Control Panel at https://admin.1and1.co.uk, using your account number or a domain name from one of your packages and your password.

2. On the ‘Account’ page, go to ‘User Settings’ > ‘Payment Method’ and then select ‘PayPal’.

3. Click on ‘Go to PayPal’ and update your ’1&1 PayPal Account Limit’ by ticking the ‘PayPal Billing Agreement’ box.

For any other billing-related questions, please send an e-mail to billing@1and1.co.uk or call us on 0871 641 21 21 Monday to Friday (except holidays) 9am to 5pm.

We will be glad to help you with any questions you may have.

Best regards,

Your 1&1 Team
www.1and1.co.uk

1&1 Internet Limited – Registered at Cardiff, Company number 3953678 – VAT No GB 752539027
Aquasulis House, 10-14 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 3SA, United Kingdom

To which I replied (Keep in mind I’ve already had a long dialogue with, e-mails, telephone calls and still I wasn’t getting anywhere):

I regret to inform you that your a bunch of idiots.

Most of the domains your trying to charge me for, you don’t have because I moved them to another registrar a while ago.

I can’t wait till I’ve finished moving all my services away from you.

Kindest Regards
Timothy Bowers.

And their reply to this:

Dear Timothy Bowers, (Cust: ********)

Thank you for your email.

Your account has not been cancelled and is still active.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards
Esham Azim
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Ltd.

And another reply from moi:

Stop being so stupid.

Those domains are with another company.

STOP BEING A JACK ASS.

Kindest Regards

Timothy Bowers.

Yawn…. Some more from them:

We contacted you regarding a declined payment or an expired credit/debit card and have not yet heard back from you.
Our records indicate that there is an unpaid balance in your 1&1 customer account no.: ******** as listed below.

A recent payment may not have gone through due to a simple error, such as an expired credit card, incorrect payment details or incorrect settings in your PayPal account.

Please update or correct your billing information in your 1&1 Control Panel within the next 7 days to avoid any downtime of your package.

In order to update or correct your billing information, please go to https://admin.1and1.co.uk and follow these instructions:

1. Please log into your Control Panel using your account number or a domain name from one of your packages and your password.

2. On the ‘Account’ page, click on ‘User Settings’ > ‘Payment Method’ and select the payment method that you are currently using.

If you are using a credit card, select ‘Credit Card’ and proceed as follows:

Check that your payment details are correct. If they are correct as is or if you re-enter the same credit card details, please send a reply to this e-mail confirming that you have checked the current information and no update on your part is required. We will then charge the outstanding balance as indicated by your chosen payment method.

If your payment details are incorrect or outdated, please update your information and click on ‘Save’. There is no need to contact 1&1 as a new debit will be attempted automatically.

If you are using a PayPal account, please select PayPal and then click ‘Go to PayPal’.

Log into your PayPal account and verify your data under ‘My Account Profile’.

Please make sure to update your information in the next 7 days to avoid downtime. If we do not receive full payment in 7 days, we will freeze your 1&1 package(s) in accordance with our terms and conditions. If your package(s) are frozen is will take up to 1 business day to reactivate them once the matter is resolved.

Please be aware that if this matter is not resolved, you may be sent to a debt collection agency. If the account is sent to a debt collection agency a £15.00 charge will be added to the unpaid balance.

For further details, please find attached a payment reminder note in PDF electronic format. It can be opened and printed with the help of the program Acrobat Reader (download Acrobat Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html).

For any other billing-related questions, please send an e-mail to billing@1and1.co.uk or call us on 0871 641 21 21 Monday to Friday (except holidays) 9am to 5pm.

We will be glad to help you with any questions you may have.

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.

Best regards

Your 1&1 Team
www.1and1.co.uk

Hmmmm surely something is wrong here because obviously I did, and they replied to it. duhhh!
So another e-mail from me to them:

I’m not paying because you are not the Registrar of most of those
domains!!!!!!

Timothy Bowers

Guess what? Yeah you got it, some more from them:

Dear Timothy Bowers, (Cust: ********)

Thank you for your email.

Just to inform you that the outstanding amount (£44.77) on your account,
is for the renewal of your domain names: yorkshireparanormal.net,
yorkshireparanormal.com, ghosts-uk.co.uk, northernparanormal.com,
hauntedengland.co.uk which are still registered with 1and1.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards
Laure Mukoswa
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Ltd.

So I sent another which was the last one (11th May 2009) with no reply from them:

No they are not registered with you!!!!

Look at the whois database and it will show you that you are not the
registrar:

http://whois.domaintools.com/yorkshireparanormal.net

http://whois.domaintools.com/yorkshireparanormal.com

http://whois.domaintools.com/northernparanormal.com

http://whois.domaintools.com/hauntedengland.co.uk

http://whois.domaintools.com/ghosts-uk.co.uk

So how you can not comprehend that this bill will not be paid because
you are not the registrar is beyond me!!!!

Yawn your illegal activities really do become tiresome. You still owe me
money for illegally taking a direct debit at the beginning of the year.

Kindest Regards

Timothy Bowers

They are also now trying to do it for another domain name so I sent them this:

This is another domain name which is registered with another registrar.

Get a grip, this is pathetic.

http://whois.domaintools.com/ghosts-uk.com

Kindest Regards

Timothy Bowers

I really hate how much time this wastes for me, if it’s not one company it’s another. Currently we’re also taking legal action again Concept Solutions because of a incompetent job done on our garage, I really don’t want to go through this with One And One but it seems they may leave me little choice…………….

Possibly to be continued…..

Posted in: Internet, Rant & Rave, Servers

1 Comment

Tags: 1&1, Billing, Money, One And One

Removing cPanel Catch All E-mail

One And One – Pulling a fast one – Part 2

One And One – Pulling a fast one

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Removing cPanel Catch All E-mail

One And One – Pulling a fast one – Part 2

One And One – Pulling a fast one

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