Have you ever gotten a spam message that looks like it came from your own e-mail address? Or, have you ever replied to a spam e-mail, assuming that it will go back to the person that actually sent it, only to have them tell you that they never did send it?

We recently had a web hosting support ticket where someone was convinced that our servers had been hacked, and someone was using their email to send out spam messages.

What happened was, they received a “reply” to a spam message that someone else received, that basically said to THEM, “hey, quit sending me spam!”

Our web hosting client scrolled down and saw that sure enough, it appeared as if this obscene pornographic e-mail solicitation came from them at their domain!

Of course, they were horrified, and sent us a support ticket.

In order for us to clearly show them that a spam message did NOT really come from their domain or their email address, it was necessary for them to view their mail header, which most people don’t know how to do.

An off-line parallel to this would be if someone were to call you on the phone and lie about who they were. You can’t STOP them from calling you, but if someone claims to be from the White House, and their caller ID clearly shows that it’s a different local phone number, then you know they’re lying, and you can hang up.

Unfortunately not enough people know that it’s possible to send e-mail claiming to be “from” a fake email address. I put together a two-minute video explanation, which I hope makes sense.

If you leave your mail on the server, then it will eventually fill up, and when people try to e-mail or reply, they’ll get “the mailbox is over quota” or  something similar as a bounce-back message.

When that happens, you are going to have to either empty some of the mail, or increase the size of the mailbox, which would only be a temporary fix, until it fills up again. No matter what the device, cell phone or desktop, you have to change your email program behavior.

The default behavior of all e-mail programs is to remove mail from the server once it’s been downloaded. However, as more and more people want to receive mail in multiple places, they have changed their mail settings, and have even been told to do so by the telephone company’s tech support, and now they are having problems.

Here’s how to correct the root cause, but remember – you still have to go empty your mailbox at your host.

The screen shots and steps are for Outlook, but if you use any of a dozen other programs, on your computer or your phone, the concepts are always almost identical…

Go to Tools – account settings -

Then highlight the mailbox and hit the “change” button -

Hit the “more settings” button in the lower right”

Go to the Advanced tab and UNcheck the box that says “leave mail on server”  (or at least set it to empty when your deleted items folder)

Don’t forget that if people are getting bounce messages now, you’re also going to have to login to your web hosting control panel, an empty out some of the mail that sitting there. Remember it’s not the number of e-mails that’s the problem, it’s generally the large file attachments that are filling you up past the quota that you have set for each mailbox.

I put this here as a quick reference for hosting clients  but I hope it helps others…

Qwest Internet service here in Portland Oregon has apparently begun to randomly block port 25 for its customers, just like Comcast did last year. This renders users helpless to send email using their own domain from their web host’s email server like most businesses do.

Also just like Comcast, they are not doing it to all users yet, and they have provided no notice to users for whom they have done this. It’s only due to spending several hours on the phone last summer that I can offer this solution.

If this has happened to you, simply open your mail client, go to the advanced properties of the mail account, and change your outgoing mail server (SMTP) from Port 25, to port 587, then save configuration, and restart your Outlook or Outlook express.

Port 587 is another port that many web hosts provide for exactly this situation. While I can attest to its success on the majority of hosted mail servers (including our web hosting servers in Portland), it may not work for everyone.

In the event changing to port 587 does not solve your problem, rather than calling Qwest, call your web host, and explain that “you suspect that your ISP has blocked port 25 for outgoing mail. What other port do they recommend you try?”

At that point, they will either open another port, or tell you the existing passport to use for their Web hosting.

The reasons Qwest (and Comcast) have done this to people with no notice escape me, but there ya go!