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  1. #1
    Hi,
    Apology in advance that my 1st post in this forum comes in the form of a question.
    Background
    I'm a network administrator of a magazine publishing company called Metro Asian Food. The magazine is in Chinese and available for free at various places in New York City.
    We have a free club called MAF Club for members to receive discount coupons and community events across NYC. We have about 2000 members that signed up to that club.
    Our website and email is hosted with 1and1.
    Problem
    Two weeks ago we sent our first newsletter to the members + some non member businesses that we have communicated on emails before. On the same day, we received a warning from 1and1 saying account is going to be shut down. The next day, the email sending capability was disabled. We thought that was because we have included some non-members.
    The program we used is called PHP List. We then used an SMTP account to send it through 1and1 email server. Before sending the 2nd time, I've called and talked to one of the admins (I believe) at 1and1 and asked specifically about it. They said as long as the list is opt-in and as long as we are under the bandwidth usage limit, he's got no problem.
    Last week, we sent a 2nd newsletter. This time to all the members who have explicitly signed up to that club (via email, events, and online). Same thing. Email sending privileges revoked. The worst part is
    1. 1and1 abuse team does not have a phone number.
    2. All they say in the email warning is "got complaints within the last few hours." We don't know who. We don't know why. We don't even know if the complaints are from other email admins or from our competitors (we are market leader in the free magazine market) who signed up and tried to disrupt us.
    3. They said, the 3rd time they'll be shutting down our entire contract (meaning 8 websites affecting 8 different companies).
    2,000 weekly emails to our club members (all opt-in) should not be that big of a deal. Obviously for 1and1, it is.
    Question
    Given the situation with our host, I've been looking at using a Bullet Proof Hosting, just for sending our newsletter. The lowest rate I've found is with bphosting.org for $800/3 months. However, their website is slow and intermittent making me wonder what the performance is going to be like. Also most people who uses BP hosting are sending millions of SPAM a month. Our volume would be less than 10,000 a month at the most. Seems like an overkill and hard for me to justify the cost to the management. Does anybody know a better BP host with lower cost?
    Given the cost of BP host, I'm wondering if I should just be looking at just regular hosting companies that are reasonable, who will listen to our side of the story instead of just shutting us down for no reason? Does anybody have experiences with such a host?
    Thank you for your help.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    1,275
    Hello Zawmoo and welcome to WHT!!!
    Sorry to hear your problems with 1&1. The number for their abuse department is +1-877-206-4253 for your reference. You seem to be sending a large about of emails. I would recommend checking out an emailing service for sending them. Something like http://sendloop.com/pricing.php and http://www.icontact.com/lp/email-marketing-tab2.php. These are more efficient and will have a less chance of someone complaining.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    Are you offering a way to opt-out of the mailings? I think 1&1 should pass you more detailed information as to who is complaining so that you can remove them from your mailing list but that depends on their privacy policy - I don't generally handle abuse issues myself so I am not familiar with the laws/regulations myself.

  4. #4
    How many emails per month are you actually trying to send out. If you're looking at hosting to send email which has a price tag @ 800/ 3 months... you are either being ripped off or you have very high needs.
    For moving large amounts of email... I would recommend not doing that on your hosting account. Based on the way 1 and 1 acted about this however, I would recommend not only finding a separate host for your emailing and then finding a new host for your website(s)

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Posts
    1,275
    How many emails per month are you actually trying to send out.
    The OP expects around 8000+ emails/mo
    Hi,
    2,000 weekly emails to our club members (all opt-in) should not be that big of a deal. Obviously for 1and1, it is.
    Our volume would be less than 10,000 a month at the most.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Here Today - Gone to Maui
    Posts
    9,966
    For sure, I'd make sure I had a backup of everything before you send another mailing - and as recommended by AquariusADMIN, start looking for a new host for your websites.

  7. #7
    GCM,
    Thank you for the phone number. For the life of me, I don't know why the 1and1 support people couldn't give me the number when I asked. May be they don't want to give this number out too easily.
    I'm checking out the website that you have suggested right now.

  8. #8
    MikeDVB,
    Thanks for the reply.
    Yes. All the emails have footers at the bottom that said they've received the email because they are a member of the food club. However, I have to admit, we don't have the IP address information as we did not have that ability before; also because a lot of them are trade show sign-ups or phone-ins. So, our email couldn't be like some newsletters I've seen (you have signed up from IP xx.xx.xx.xx on dd:mm:yy from blahblah.com/signup.html).
    We do have a link to unsubscribe at the bottom of our newsletter. These two are actually required by 1and1 for sending newsletter.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Quad Cities, Iowa
    Posts
    1,606
    I am not sure with PHP-List, but other mailing list software allows you to add addresses with the ability of sending them a verification email. The verification email has a link they need to click to confirm their subscription.
    This is what is known as double opt-in, and depending on your software could be implemented for both online and offline signups to the list. This will also allow you to store their signup IP if you wanted to.
    You could add an unsubscribe link to the header of the emails for a few mailings as well, some people are to lazy to scroll down. This will allow those who really don't want to be on your list an extremely easy way to get off. After a few mailings, you can take it out of the header.
    I'd recommend moving away from 1&1 for both hosting and emailing. Even if you use a secondary host to send out the mailings, 1&1 may get trigger happy and shut off your account because your domain was listed in the mailing. If you do choose a new host, be sure to tell them upfront about your email marketing (even if you don't use their server for the emails). Letting them know beforehand, and finding out their policies beforehand, should keep your site safe.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    942
    If you have your domains registered through 1and1, make sure when cancelling you specify you only want to cancel the domains (I'd personally transfer them away from your host to enom, namecheap, or many other domain registrars out there. Not recommended to keep your domain with your host. Especially 1and1, I've heard nothing but horror stories of people loosing their domains becuase they didn't specify they wanted to keep their domains.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ashburn VA, San Diego CA
    Posts
    4,615
    You wouldn't normally choose BP hosting unless you were a professional spammer. Chances are the BP host's IP blocks are so black listed that hardly any of your emails will be delivered anyways.
    Go with a legitimate mailing company or get a dedicated server and manage your own email server.

  12. #12
    If you have your domains registered through 1and1, make sure when cancelling you specify you only want to cancel the domains (I'd personally transfer them away from your host to enom, namecheap, or many other domain registrars out there. Not recommended to keep your domain with your host. Especially 1and1, I've heard nothing but horror stories of people loosing their domains becuase they didn't specify they wanted to keep their domains.
    Thank you for this. Actually, our domains are registered at 1and1. However, if we find a new host for sending newsletter, it'll be with a new domain related to the club. But, separate domain name nonetheless.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    it seems on line ;)
    Posts
    933
    This service is great and not expensive:
    http://www.elistas.com/pro/services.html
    You can use your domain or subdomain. It is about usd $250/yr, even less

  14. #14
    FastServ
    Actually I was thinking about having our own email server to send out. We have dedicated T1 with fixed IP and Covad. Even though I normally deal with Windows servers & clients, I'm quite comfortable with setting up SSH, Postfix with on BSD (or) Linux servers. So, a dedicated server setup shouldn't be any problem either. However, our senior admin is against it due to management complexity.
    Our package with 1and1 is VPS II. So, we can ask PHPList program to send it directly from VPS (without going through 1and1 mail servers). However, sent from VPS, all our newsletter ends up in Junk at Hotmail. I've checked the IP and we're not on any DNS blacklist at all. I don't know if this situation will change if we use a different host with different IP block.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Indiana, USA
    Posts
    19,196
    My primary advice would simply be to move to another provider that isn't so large and can provide you the individual customer service that you really need. Many large providers are quick to terminate accounts based upon abuse reports (spam complaints included) as they don't have the time to spend on a per-customer basis where smaller hosts often have the time and the ability to investigate and help you resolve the abuse issues without having to terminate your account.

  16. #16
    MikeDVB
    Can you recommend such a host?
    With so many smaller hosting companies out there, it's hard to pick one. There are some that came to mind. Some of my previous customers have used a company called Hurricane Electric (he.net) and their connection seems very fast. However, I don't know if they are small or big. Also hostgator seems recommended by quite a lot of people in this forum.
    In the mean time, I will look around this forum and see if I can select a few more to inquire. Thanks.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    81
    My primary advice would simply be to move to another provider that isn't so large and can provide you the individual customer service that you really need. Many large providers are quick to terminate accounts based upon abuse reports (spam complaints included) as they don't have the time to spend on a per-customer basis where smaller hosts often have the time and the ability to investigate and help you resolve the abuse issues without having to terminate your account.
    Mike, just gotta ask, where in Ind, I'm right across the Ind border in Oxford Ohio.

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