1&1 botches Microsoft Exchange update

By Chris Williams 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/08/1and1_exchange/

Budget hosting provider 1&1 Internet has hit problems while updating its Microsoft email platform. Customers have been unable to access web mailboxes for more than 24 hours.

Reg readers quickly spotted the problem and were told that the firm, which also owns gaffe-prone West Country hosting oufit Fasthosts, didn't know when the problem would be sorted.

We received this statement from 1&1 on Friday afternoon explaining the outage:

Some of our customers using Microsoft Outlook Web Access have in the past 24 hours experienced a problem accessing their mailbox. No customers using 1&1's Linux mail servers nor MailExchange customers have been affected.

Following preparations for an update to new software for Microsoft Exchange 2007 Front-end, one server serving the Outlook front-end has partly been inaccessible as a result of a change in its IP address. The IP address of this server was apparently made available too late for some DNS servers for some ISPs, resulting in some hundred customers using these DNS servers not being able to access their mailbox via Outlook Web Access.

The vast majority of DNS servers have already incorporated the change to this Exchange front-end server, however, due to different DNS server configurations run by ISPs and users, a number of users may still be experiencing a reduced performance. Customers experiencing such an issue can try to refresh their DNS cache with the command IPCONFIG/flushdns. An alternative work-around would be to use a different mail-client other than OWA until the DNS-server has fully updated.

 

Millennium Data Systems Acquires VistaPages Inc.

Vaughan, Ontario Canada – July 31, 2008 – Millennium Data Systems, an emerging Canadian managed services company announced it has acquired the assets of VistaPages Inc. (www.vistapages.com), a Toronto based managed hosting provider.

“VistaPages operations team and their 5,000+ SMB customers will now have access to a greater breadth of services and product offerings via Millennium’s suite of hosted and managed services”, commented Paul Di Benedetto, Chief Technology Officer at Millennium.

“The acquisition of VistaPages reinforces our business mandate to aggressively grow our managed services practice via accretive acquisitions”, added Tony Di Benedetto CEO of Millennium Data Systems. “VistaPages is the second acquisition for Millennium in 2008, the first being HostVector and we will continue on the path of acquiring additional managed service providers”, added Di Benedetto.

Management expects to have VistaPages completely migrated onto Millennium's national IP Network by end of August 2008. The national network allows clients to deliver content in a more efficient manner to its targeted audience by reducing latency and network hops.

We do hope that the acquisition goes better than the recent Millenium Data Systems acquisition of Hostvector that resulted in days of downtime. Start praying!

About Vistapages
VistaPages, Inc. is a privately-owned organization located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At VistaPages, we understand that our customers' web sites are important and they require reliable services to ensure that service is not interrupted. We have established a solid foundation to offer a reliable, easy to use and low cost web hosting solution for small-to-medium sized businesses.

VistaPages is a leader in providing its customers with a reliable solution to individuals and small to large-sized businesses, helping thousands of customers get their web sites online, with ease.


For more information please visit; www.millenniumdata.com or contact;
Millennium Data Systems
905-669-4700

College Classes On Malware Writing Still Piss Off Anti-Virus Firms

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080803/1834441874.shtml

Over five years ago, we wrote about a college that was starting to offer a new computer science class in writing computer viruses. And, of course, various anti-virus companies went ballistic, claiming how dangerous it was. Yet, as we pointed out at the time, anti-virus companies don't have the greatest track record in actually stopping viruses -- so it seemed only reasonable to teach people to better "think like the enemy." Anyway, it appears not much has changed. Theodp writes in to let us know about an article in Newsweek about a very similar course being taught at Sonoma State University by George Ledin, where students are tasked with creating their own malware.

Once again, various security companies are condemning the technique, even sinking so low as to compare Ledin to A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology to North Korea. They even insist they won't hire his students -- which seems particularly short-sighted. As Ledin points out, it appears that this is really more about the security companies wanting to keep the world more scared than they need to be of malware, so as to pretend that they're the only ones who can solve the "problem" -- when the truth is they're not very effective at it. He complains that anti-virus firms keep their code secret (thank you, DMCA). He points out that if they were willing to open it up, and let lots of folks work on improving it, it would get much, much better. All he's trying to do is help more people understand the enemy without first having to work at one of those companies that's been so ineffective in stopping malware -- in the hopes that maybe some of his students can actually come up with a better soltuion.

When your name gets turned against you

The following column is cute in a sadistic kind of way. We've all come up against similar walls when dealing with the unresponsiveness of large corporate conglomerates. Probally why most people give the best reviews for the smaller hosts

By Daniel Rubin Inquirer Columnist

Don't even start with the jokes. He's heard them all before. And he is not amused. You're either broken or made stronger when you grow up in 1940s West Philadelphia and your last name is Libshitz. And Dr. Herman I. Libshitz, retired radiologist, is no pushover. Verizon is learning this the hard way.

This spring, the 69-year-old physician and his wife, Alison, were trying to upgrade the Internet service in their summer place in Rehoboth Beach, Del. They had dial-up. They wanted DSL. When it was time to enter their user name and create an e-mail address, Verizon wouldn't let them complete the job.

This is how the doctor remembers it:

"We called their help line, and got a wonderful young man in the Philippines who told us: " 'We can't install it because your name has - in it.' "

I asked the doctor how I was going to print that. He said, "Just say it's a word contained in Libshitz."

He'd defended his family name with his fists as a boy at 58th and Pine. He wore it proudly on his Air Force uniform during the Vietnam era when he was defending his country. He'd displayed it on white coats at Hahnemann and Jefferson, then at Duke and Texas, where he spent most of his distinguished career, before retiring to Chestertown, Md. He'd signed it to 200 academic papers and six texts. The doctor asked to speak with a supervisor.

What's in a name

The Libshitzes got the same answer from the supervisor, who suggested they try misspelling their last name. That wouldn't do, either.

The couple uses Libshitz in its e-mail address with Prodigy. So there had to be some way around the rules, the two figured. The doctor went for a third opinion. This involved a little subterfuge. He dialed the Verizon number for billing disputes. He explained his problem, "and the first person said, 'That's outrageous,' and put me on to a second person, who said he'd never heard of such a thing."

A third supervisor, from a help line in Norfolk, Va., agreed as well, but said the only person who could help was in Tampa, and that man would have to call India to get them to change the computer code. No one called him back.

Several days later, Libshitz received a letter from Verizon's customer-relations desk in Everett, Wash., informing him that he could not have the user name because it didn't comply with company rules. So the couple returned the Verizon DSL kit.

"If I can't use my own name, I'm going to stay with my AT&T dial-up," the doctor said. "The hell with them."

Ten-hut!

What he wants, he says, "is for these people at least to stand at attention to explain themselves. I don't know if you've ever tried to get to Verizon. . . . You cannot get to them. They are insulated from things like this." I called Sharon B. Schaffer, a Verizon spokeswoman, who offered a refreshing answer to my question as to how this happened.

"I don't have a clue," she said. "Actually, I'm kind of surprised. If this is Dr. Libshitz's name, your name is your identity. He's had this his entire life. . . . I think he needs a little bit of personal attention."

A couple days later, she e-mailed me a formal response: "As a general rule (since 2005) Verizon doesn't allow questionable language in e-mail addresses, but we can, and do, make exceptions based on reasonable requests. The one from Dr. and Mrs. Libshitz certainly is reasonable and we regret the inconvenience and frustration they've been caused."

The doctor said he was willing to try again, but grudgingly. "These people have no trouble putting me in their phone book. They send me mail with that name, they send me a bill routinely, and they cash my checks with Libshitz on it. They just offended me."

original www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/26089374.

Dutch vacuum salesman pumps Google for €1m

By Chris Williams

www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/01/dutch_vacuum_knol_google/

A Dutch vacuum cleaner salesman is demanding a massive payday from Google in exchange for control of his company's web address, Knol.com.

The advertising giant is aiming to end its heavy reliance on Wikipedia for useful search results by brewing its own web encyclopedia, Knol (it's short for knowledge, apparently). The new site differs from Wikipedia's free-for-all/Sum of All Human Knowledge™ editing policy by giving individuals ownership of articles they write, and allowing more than one article on the same topic. It being a Google venture, there's plenty of contextual ads, too.

There can't be many who dare twist Google's arm in a business deal these days, but Hilco Knol, 43, registered Knol.com years ago, long before Google's Wiki-beating plans were made public. His firm uses the address to resell professional steam cleaning equipment.

Acccording to a translation from Dutch newspaper AD, Knol has received a buyout bid carrying five zeros from Mountain View, but he refuses to part with his domain for less than €1m. He said: "It would only be interesting if Google made an offer with six zeros, because the Dutch tax rate of 52 percent would leave too little on the table. An offer in the million Euro range would make things a lot more fun."

When Google first announced Knol in December last year, it hadn't bothered to contact Hilco about the domain. He argues that changing all his company stationery and publicity will be an expensive endeavour. In the meantime, visits to Knol.com have rocketed. ®