This is an update to the previously reported email delay problems. A copy of the last announcement can be seen here:-
http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1192115388.htm

As reported in the last post, we are continuing to investigate occasions during the day when our email platform intermittently refuses to accept new connections. This normally occurs when the platform is busy, and can result in short delays when a sending host tries handing email over to our servers.

In addition to this we have identified a further issue with the rDNS blocking script we've been using to reject email from hosts without a reverse DNS entry. We found that the script was exhibiting strange behaviour in the live environment and encountered some examples where customers' email had been temporarily rejected when it shouldn't have been.

Upon looking into this further it transpires that the Operating System used by the servers on the live mail platform (Solaris) is behaving in an unexpected fashion when compared to the other environments the script was tested in. We have contacted the Operating System vendor to query this and in the interim disabled the rDNS checking.

This will remain disabled until further notice during which time email from hosts with missing rDNS entries will be delivered to customers mailboxes.

Further details regarding our longer term plans for our anti-spam systems will be announced shortly.

Kind Regards,

Bob Pullen
Customer Support