problem affecting Qbert?

[wpress]

Hello! Is there something wrong with Qbert?
My web pages all return "Forbidden", and
my users all get "ERR could not chdir to maildir"
when they try to check their mail. Help!

[wpress]

...and when I try to login to my shell account, I get the
message:

Could not chdir to home directory /big/dom/x*****/******: Permission denied
You do not have access to this server! Goodbye

(***'s are my deletions for privacy).

I've not made any changes on my files recently, and,
yes, I do pay my bills on time!

[Terra]

Your account was deactivated earlier today for a TOS Violation in regards to a stoned email filter that checks over 11 RBL blacklists without any regard for ensuring you actually make a connection... This in turn backlogs the filter run queue and creates problems for other clients...

To see the direct effect it had yesterday:
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11644

and once again history repeated itself for which I would not allow a repeat of yesterday... Unfortunately I was unable to correlate the filter issue, until I had further data from today to cross-reference the event... That is why your account was not TOS'd yesterday...

You will want to check your email account that you have on file for us with the details and a list of my requests before I will reactivate the account...

--
Terra
sysAdmin
FutureQuest

[wpress]

Terra, I consider myself a responsible citizen and would
have fixed this IMMEDIATELY if you had communicated with
me.

I have no access to the email account that you have
supposedly sent a message to, since you have cut off my
account. I was reading ALL my email as late as 9:00 p.m.
last night (Pacific time), and you had sent NO communication
to me by that time.

Please email me at wpress@lanl.gov with your "demands"
-- but please also tell me how to fix them when I can't
even log onto my shell account to change the filter!

I don't think this is a responsible way for FQ to treat
a customer in good standing. The filter, by the way,
has strict timeouts on failed connections -- unless I
made a serious programming error, it does NOT leave
zombies behind. Are you sure you have the right guy here,
or am I being strung up for someone elses's error?

But seriously, I can't fix this if you won't let me onto
my account -- to say nothing of the $$$$ that my business
is losing due to your precipitous action. Please DO NOT
delete this message (except to edit for privacy issues).
I think that your other customers deserve to see the kind
of unwarned actions that you deal out.

Bill Press

[Terra]

As soon as I got the delivery queues under control, I put together the TOS violation clearly showing your stuck/hung/sleeping/stoned filters...

Yes, you are the right guy - I am positive of that fact...

But seriously, I can't fix this if you won't let me onto
my account
Yes, this was necessary to prevent any further damage originating from your account... How can you know what needs to be repaired *before* you have even read the TOS Violation put together for you that clearly shows the problem... If I were to reopen it now, in that timeframe, then I would get hit with the same problem all over again... This is simply not productive....

-- to say nothing of the $$$$ that my business
is losing due to your precipitous action.
And what of the other 10,000+ site owners that were denied their email as a result of your script locking up the queues possibly losing important revenue generating orders for the products they sell to sustain their Internet storefront... In situations like this, the needs of the many will always outweigh the needs of the one...

Work is already underway to prevent this class of problem from happening again by protecting the server from malignant filters that go into a deep sleep from network inactivity... This kind of remodulation takes time and is based upon gathered data of the event... If I could have whipped up a sure fire solution in 30 minutes or less, I surely would have done so and allowed your filter to keep running...

I think that your other customers deserve to see the kind
of unwarned actions that you deal out.
There was no unwarned actions... I issued the TOS Violation to the email address we have on file for your account... This is why it is very important you provide us with either two different email addresses to send to or ensure that you keep your email record up to date...

Also, I do not see this as 'unwarned actions that you deal out', as:
1) A TOS Violation was issued to the address we have on file
2) When you asked what was happening to your account in the forums, I answered you as completely as possible since you seemed rather upset and wanted an answer as to what was going on...

The email sent was as follows:
[S] Highest [ ] xxxx@xxxx 08:19 AM 6/28/2002 6 [TOS Violation: Email Filters, Unauthorized Proxy] xxxxxx.xxx

To be upfront, I was on top of this situation and working the event quickly with the goal to restore proper email flow for everyone while simultaneously isolating the infringing and errant filter...

And in conclusion, if the shoe were on the other foot with 'acme.com' blocking your email or slowing down your web site in any way - then I'm am sure you will agree and possibly appreciate our tenacity to pin down the problem and solve it as quickly as possible... Fortunately today, no one reported the 'halted queue' situation even though inbound mail was frozen in our queues for 10 minutes before I took a crowbar and unlodged it...

There will be a day when I will be protecting your domain from someone else encroaching upon your account's delivery... Since you are on QBERT, I am definitely positive that I already have - as I can pretty much guarantee you never even felt your domain skip a beat... QBERT is an active server with a large amount of Dynamic Content, some of the domains being spider magnets that I must always be on constant vigilance for... It is in the same vein as the old saying: "If a tree fell in the forest would you have heard it"... My job is to ensure you don't, unless you are in fact that tree...

<Correction: I have been informed by Bob that we did receive 3 solid complaints about email delivery issues... I did not know prior because I was deep in the belly of the beast trying to get a handle on the situation and remedy the problem post haste before it got worse>

When it is all said and done, I have done my job to the fullest extent of my abilities to ensure that the services we provide are maintained to the highest level of expectations...

--
Terra
--having one of those 160MPH days where every dash in the road demands the utmost attention to detail--
FutureQuest

[JoeRT]

I think that your other customers deserve to see the kind of unwarned actions that you deal out.
As a customer of FutureQuest for three years, I can say they DO NOT deal out unwarned actions. The important thing is to have a non-FQ e-mail address on file with FQ for these types of communications. That way if they have to restrict your account for some reason you'll still find out why. You should also have a non-FQ e-mail for your domain registrations, just in case something goes awry with those and you need to contact the registrar.

I've been in a couple of TOS situations in the last three years, and I am very pleased with how they were handled. When on a community server the "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or one." My TOS cases were totally unintentional, but could have caused severe problems for all the other users on the server I was on. FQ handled it very professionally and exactly the way I would have expected. If someone else on the server had been in a similar situation, I would have expected FQ to shut them down before it affected my sites.

After three years I have always considered their actions to be totally warranted and in the best interest of all users. The fact they watch for possible problems like this should be a comfort to you... not all hosts will do this. And that's one of the many reasons I have no intention of going anywhere else with my sites.

[wpress]

Terra, this is very frustrating (probably for both
of us), and I am losing a lot of business.

What exactly do you want me to do to enable you
to restore my account???? Right now, there is
absolutely nothing I can do, since I have no way
of receiving the email that you sent -- and have
no idea what address you sent it to. It did not
go to any address that I currently monitor. If
I update that address now (by the way, HOW do I
do this???) I will still not have your email.

I could easily delete the offending mail filter
if you would let me log on to my shell account.

What EXACTLY do you want me to do?

Bill P.

[sheila]

Bill,

The TOS notice has been resent to < email removed as response has been received >.

Please check that email address.

[wpress]

Thanks, Sheila! (Can I use you as a character witness
with Terra, by the way?)

I have replied to the email and proposed a one-hour
period during which I will be allowed to fix the problem.
That time is coming up soon, so I hope that it is a go
on the FQ side (have not had a reply to my email).

Assuming I can get on, whom do I notify when the fix
has been made, so that I can be "inspected" and restored
to good grace? Can I reply to the same trouble ticket
number by email (don't want to share details here)?

Cheers,
Bill P.

[Deb]

Thanks, Sheila! (Can I use you as a character witness with Terra, by the way?) One's actions are the best testament of one's character... (besides..Sheila is just plain nutz!)

You should also have a non-FQ e-mail for your domain registrations, just in case something goes awry with those and you need to contact the registrar. To change your primary or secondary email address, as listed on your FutureQuest account, visit:
http://www.FutureQuest.net/Support/EmailUpdate/

*Note: This will require that you have access to your primary email address as listed on your account at the present time. This also requires your FutureQuest Account Number which is the number shown within the Server Info section of your CNC. I have replied to the email and proposed a one-hour period during which I will be allowed to fix the problem. Yes, and the time frame you have chosen is fine... and you should probably be there now rather than here ;) Assuming I can get on, whom do I notify when the fix has been made, so that I can be "inspected" and restored to good grace? Can I reply to the same trouble ticket number by email (don't want to share details here)? Yes, responding to the same incident is the best thing to do.

Deb

If users are made to understand that the system administrator's job is to make computers run, and not to make them happy, they can, in fact, be made happy most of the time. If users are allowed to believe that the system administrator's job is to make them happy, they can, in fact, never be made happy. I know.
--Paul Evans

[wpress]

Thanks, Deb.

This also requires your FutureQuest Account Number which is the number shown within the Server Info section of your CNC.

But when I attempt to go to the server info section in
CNC, I get this error:


Content-type: text/html Error: Can't connect to system database (query error):You have an error in your SQL syntax near 'and d.status = '4' and d.package = p.id order by d.domain' at line 1
10003


Am I just having a bad hair day?

Bill P.

[Bob]

Hello Bill,

This should be operating normally for you once again.

Thanks for the heads up,
Bob

- A little housecleaning was missed Ooops :google: -