Let’s say there was three messages containing some large attachments (photos) being sent to you at the same time (which amplifies the situation). Basically, the first two may come in, but then your server bucket becomes full, and the last large email is rejected. Additionally, since these emails contain large attachments, they are more like large bits of sand, or rocks. Therefore, even though the third message was rejected for being to big to fit into the server bucket, it’s still possible to receive a few smaller messages, up to the point where the bucket can’t hold those sizes.

So, you could simply say, “get a bigger bucket”… but there may be an additional issue that is causing the packing up of storage space that should be corrected vs adding more space to the problem.

I’ll write a detailed explanation soon that outlines the various email configurations that will further assist in illustrating the options available. (Topics: POP, SMTP, iMAP, Exchange Server, etc.)

Here at Pinion Media we are advocates of space and large pipes (bandwidth), and we have many hosting plans that boast enterprise level bandwidth and storage. But, you will not see “Unlimited” hosting options specified…. because we are also solid advocates of performance. – If a shared server is being dragged down by miss-use of one hosted account, all the hosted accounts on the server will suffer. Therefore, we pay close attention, and frequently monitor, the amount of space and bandwidth that’s being requested, and used for each account.

An example of miss-use is obviously spam and malware, but can be as simple as site image optimization, or even more common – client email configurations.

Email account settings configured to leave a copy of your email on the server will cause email to pack-up. And if you have your email client configured as a POP account, you don’t want to do that… (unless you have a another device that you POP to that pulls the mail as well). You want your email to come into your email client (Outlook, Entouage, Mac Mail, etc) and then get removed from the server to allow more to come in.
In your email client Account Settings, you should find a setting, or a check box, that is called something like “leave a copy on the server.”
And make sure this is not checked.
This will ensure that all of your email is delivered to you, and removed from the server, each time your email client requests it.

“I’ve started getting all kinds of spam and junk in my mail box through the email program. I SWEAR I haven’t been surfing porn sites.”

Although there are many ways that someone could be added to a spam list, when customers are insistent that they haven’t used a given email account for anything unusual, the cause is usually not their fault, but rather someone else’s fault that they know. Simply put, someone that had the victims address information in their address book probably got hit with a virus that was maliciously programmed to read and send back their entire address book. And once the victim got on one spam list, they can get passed out to other lists quickly… Pretty soon they are getting tons of spam by the hour.

So, I tell them they did nothing more than communicate with someone who was careless with their email and computer usage.

This further enforces the point that it’s very important to have two email accounts: one for personal use – that you use to place online orders, add your self to mailing lists, and give to family and friends to use… Basically an account that you don’t mind cleaning out junk when it comes in (since it’s not interfering with business). And a second account that is your business email account that you pass out to business associates, clients and customers.

Typically, businesses have a higher level of security filtering in their email/network systems, and therefore will help to keep employees from opening, or ever getting, an email with a virus attached. So, although it can still happen, business related email is usually kept cleaner and less likely to get picked up by a virus, and therefore safer to associate your yourself with.

Remember to keep your personal and business email sacredly separated as much as possible, meaning: don’t accidentally send an email to a family member using your business email. As soon as you do, their email client (outlook, for example) will retain that emailaddress, even if that address isn’t in their address book, it’s gets added to the email client cache, which can also be read by a virus. An example of this is when you go to add a person to an email and start to type the persons name into the ‘to’ field, it pre-populates the name from cache or your address book as you type. This pre-populating effect is the same way that a virus can collect all of the email accounts that you communicate with.

There are four solutions: The first is to turn on spam filtering on the email client. The second is to add spam rules to the email client to help catch instances of spam that are coming in. The third is to add a filter app at the server level – like Spam Assassin. We can adjust the sensitivity to the filter algorithm that determines spam vs. good email. The fourth solution is to change your email account.

Hope this helps to clarify.

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Using windows XP or Vista as your FTP client ::
1. Open any window; like double-clicking on ‘My Computer’. Then in the Address Field enter: ftp://<username>@<yourdomain>.com
(If you do not see the address bar, then change your window preferences so that you do.)

2. An authentication window will popup with <username> as the username. Continue to fill in the balance of the username, and then enter the password.
Username: <username>@<yourdomain>.com
Password: <password>

3. Once authenticated, the window that you opened will clear and a list of files will appear, representing the files on the FTP server. You can then treat the window as if it was a folder on your system, by copying files by dragging files out of the window, or posting files by dragging files into the window.

Special Notes:
It is important to understand that there is a difference between Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer. You will use Windows Explorer for these instructions! You should NOT use Internet Explorer. :: You can connect with Internet Explorer and pull files down, but you won’t be able to post files up.

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For OSX Users, the best bet is to purchase an application to perform FTP tasks.
Our preferred applications are Transmit from Panic Software, and Fetch.

Just goto: http://www.<yourdomain>.com:2095

In the popup window enter your email address as your username, then your password.
(Please contact Pinion Media support services if need them sent to you.)

The next page that comes up lets you choose which web application you would like to use to for your email.
I personally prefer SquareCube or NeoMail, but they all perform about the same tasks.
From there, it will look quite intuitive to what you are used to seeing in Gmail or outlook.

As always please contact Pinion Media if you have any questions with these instructions or need additional technical support.