Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Reseller Hosting : Resellers...??

[Amplify_girl]

Hello,

Any of you who are hosting with Alabanza servers offer access to SMTP Server..??
I recently received an e-mail from them (I had submited a "Request For a Quote" at Recellar) where they mention that they do..??

MikeA , Annette , and the rest of you who have servers there can offer that??
I'm not asking this directly to Alabanza's representatives because I'm still looking for a reseller host anyway, so maybe I can find one that offers SMTP access.
(CoolReseller, for example, has great prices, but many people I know DO NOT receive an SMTP account from their ISP, which make me wonder if I'll loose too many clients because of that!!)

Thank you!!

[MikeA]

We offer it, but charge extra for it. Once POP Auth version of sendmail becomes active, we may drop the fee.

Currently it's $10 per month. But we won't relay AOL.COM, MSN.COM or NETZERO.COM

If it helps, of the XXX clients we have, only about 5 of them use SMTP. No, I don't think that you will loose clients over it.

[JayC]

Originally posted by Amplify_girl
but many people I know DO NOT receive an SMTP account from their ISP, which make me wonder if I'll loose too many clients because of that!!)

Hmm... maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are saying, but I don't see how it can be that people do not receive smtp access from their ISP. I can't imagine anyone would be much interested in a dialup account from which they can't send mail!

Anyway, we offer smtp service from our Alabanza server, and also offer dialup and DSL internet access. In each case the customer gets access to an smtp server. Hosting customers use the one at Alabanza, ISP customers use a different one as required by our backbone provider. 99% of users don't care where the smtp server is, they just want to send mail.

[Laci]

My ISP wont allow me to use their SMTP unless I host with them I have 7 domains and my ISP wants 30$ a month per domain lesseee no way! Which leaves me with no way to send mail unless my host allows me access to their SMTP Which Annette has done for me for free

[UNIXIELHOST]

I am Alabanza Host and I do support STMP access, contact me for details.

Thanks
Regards,

[Amplify_girl]

Thank you!

One more thing: Is this $10 monthly fee charged per each domain/IP address resold??

Another thing to say is that I live in Brazil (and so do my clients) and since some months ago several companies invested in providing free internet access - which now is used by most of the users...
I don't think other companies use free ISPs, but many individual users do, and those would probably look for another company to host their website, because NONE of the free ISPs (as long as I know) offer SMTP e-mail ....
As I'm looking for a company where I can stay for a long time, it would be better not to risk choosing one where I won't be successful..

[B]Another alternative: Some time ago I saw some free services offering POP accounts.. with SMTP access, I believe.. Would anyone recommend/ suggest/ or not recommend one of those??[B]

Thank you all!!

[JayC]

Originally posted by Dana
My ISP wont allow me to use their SMTP unless I host with them I have 7 domains and my ISP wants 30$ a month per domain lesseee no way! Which leaves me with no way to send mail unless my host allows me access to their SMTP Which Annette has done for me for free

Really? So you pay for an internet connection and can't send mail through it? Gotta redo my business plan, I didn't think anybody would pay for something like that!

Seriously, if you don't mind, could you tell me where you are and how much you pay your ISP for dialup service? If this is a trend I should make myself aware of it!

[UNIXIELHOST]

I realized Amplify_girl has dedicated IP so that means she might use cablemodem, or T1 or DSL or something like that.

I would like to hear about her costs too

[JayC]

Originally posted by Amplify_girl
Another alternative: Some time ago I saw some free services offering POP accounts.. with SMTP access, I believe.. Would anyone recommend/ suggest/ or not recommend one of those??

I don't know what the situation might be in Brazil, but here in the US free ISPs are generally analogous to free web hosts: you get what you pay for. Free ISPs, here, generally mean banner ads, sometimes ads inserted as taglines into your outgoing mail, and generally more connection problems/busies/etc.

The large majority of our ISP customers are businesses and wouldn't use a free ISP because of the advertising alone. But there's certainly an expectation when you're paying roughly $20 a month for a dialup account (roughly, ours are less than that) that it will work, that the line won't be busy, and that support will be available. There's less of that expectation with a free service, and that lessened expectation is generally met.

In my biased opinion, of course.

[Annette]

We do set up SMTP for clients (resold or not), and do not charge for it. The new servers have POPAUTH, so this is not an issue (and hopefully our new server will be ready by the end of the week). Until sendmail is upgraded on the old servers, it's a manual job. Since it only takes about two minutes, tops, it isn't really that big a deal to us. It also doesn't seem to be a big deal to very many people when you tell them to use their ISP's outgoing server, as we only have about 15 or so clients using it. Some people, who have particular problems with their ISPs, obviously need it more than others. Some others (not all), who can use their ISP's SMTP but don't want to, simply don't understand that they can put whatever they want in their email client's return address field and it will still show up as being from their domain unless someone looks very closely at the headers.

[Amplify_girl]

Me?? Dedicated IP?? No way! I use a regular phone line..

Believe it or not, my last ISP (a payd one) didn't provide POP3 (!!) also.. only a webbased e-mail, but I was still using another ISP for 'back-up' (this other one had only limited-time plans and cost too much, so I used it only for e-mail..)

Well, almost all paid ISPs provide SMTP access, but many people prefer the free ones - specially because there are HUNDREDS of free webbased e-mail services, which most people found to be more secure then storing e-mails at a personal computer.. (but not for besiness...!!)

As you said, JayC, here the things are different.. despite not offering SMTP access, the free ISPs are a perfect solution.. connecting is just as difficult (or as easy) as using paid ISPs and speed also.....
I don't know about support, but I NEVER used my ISPs support (being on the internet for 3 years now).
And, at last, they don't put ANY ads... (they just HOPE you'll want to visit their pages.. haha!...)

Thank you all for your help, and I'm still open to any suggestions...

[Learner]

Originally posted by JayC
So you pay for an internet connection and can't send mail through it? Gotta redo my business plan, I didn't think anybody would pay for something like that!

Actually JayC, even I was surprised to learn that there are several ISPs in some south asian countries that offer an internet connection without SMTP!!!

Some of these ISPs even charge separately for the two... a basic charge for dialup internet access + an extra charge for SMTP facility.

Seems my good ol' third world economy is much better is this regard (feature-wise), at least

It's altogether another matter that our general internet service & access speed is sooooooooo pathetic, it makes us go "aaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhh... GRRRRRR"

Learner

[Edited by Learner on 09-20-2000 at 07:11 PM]

[Laci]

Originally posted by JayC

Really? So you pay for an internet connection and can't send mail through it? Gotta redo my business plan, I didn't think anybody would pay for something like that!

Seriously, if you don't mind, could you tell me where you are and how much you pay your ISP for dialup service? If this is a trend I should make myself aware of it!

it is a trend..many ISP's are doing hosting and think they can stick it to you by with holding SMTP access...I can send mail from my ISP account for my ISP email address ..but he refuses to let me use it with my domains unless I host with him..I live in NH my only 2 choices for an ISP are Granite state, and Iamnow.net Granite state wants to charge me 30$ a month to use their SMTP (a not so sneaky way of making me pay for a hosting package) and Iamnow.net just refuses.

I cant pick another ISP because toll charges would apply I live in the woods *S*.

this is a fact Ive lived with for the past 3 yrs....soon I am going to a cable modem and wont have this dial up head ache

To answer your question I pay 25$ a month for my "unlimited " net access

[JayC]

Originally posted by Amplify_girl
Me?? Dedicated IP?? No way! I use a regular phone line..

Not a dedicated connection, but you do seem to have a static IP, judging by the fact that all of your posts in this thread are from the same IP. But there are (obviously) static-IP dialup accounts. You apparently have one, and I have had one from a local (New York) ISP for about the past eight years. My company also offers static IP on dialup accounts at an extra cost.




[Edited by JayC on 09-20-2000 at 09:12 PM]

[GordonH]

If your ISP doesn't provide SMTP you can run your own SMTP server as a service under windows:

http://www.argosoft.com/

Some web hosts provide a web based e-mail service for people without SMTP. We do a basic one as a free add on service.

Gordon