ArtSites Updates

We have come across a few email issues over the last few days. This has come about due to new policies that some US Internet Service Providers, Comcast Internet and AT&T (including SBC), that have block all email coming from our servers. They have mistakenly branded our servers as spammers (we don't spam!)

The problem is that the way that we forward email to our customers email accounts, any spam that might get passed along with legitimate email that our customers get, will be seen as spam coming from our servers. In my opinion, this is the wrong way for these companies to behave (and I've detailed why I think so in this fairly technical article that I've posted on my personal blog) but they are giant conglomerates and we have to play by their rules.

We have taken actions to minimize the chance of a re-occurrence of this problem. We have implemented spam filtering of email before it is forwarded to your email accounts. Don't expect it to be 100% fool proof but that in combination with whatever spam filtering you already use, it may stop some additional spam from reaching you. The one big problem with any spam filtering like this is that it's possible that it might misidentify some legitimate email as spam and bounce it (send an error message) back to the sender. There is not a lot we can do to prevent that other than to suggest that the sender resend the message. It is more likely to work on the second attempt. Hopefully this won't happen too often.

I do think that in the long run, email will be replaced by newer technology. Unfortunately that new technology has not emerged yet. Until then, it will be a constant battle to keep the email systems running and for them to not be overrun by spam.