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On your status page you have just added:
"Resolving PHP/CGI email issues on the server.: We are in the process of correcting a minor misconfiguration on the web servers which allowed mail to be sent without correctly specifying who the mail was sent from. If you are currently making use of a Formmail script or PHP email, please make sure that any emails your script tries to send are configured to be sent as coming from a Freeola Hosted email address."
Can Freeola say if this means you now MUST use the 'from' field in your forms?
The Freeola help pages say:
"From:You can also set the from field; this will be reflected in the "From:" field in your mail client, i.e. the sender of the email. So if you have more than one form you can easily see which is which.
"
I don't use this field - but if it is now to become mandatory then can you say how much notice you are giving before the changes take affect?
The formmail issues have been going on for quite a while so I hope if this field is now mandatory you don't suddenly introduce it without proper notice!
Thanks in advance from a slightly worried user!
"Resolving PHP/CGI email issues on the server.: We are in the process of correcting a minor misconfiguration on the web servers which allowed mail to be sent without correctly specifying who the mail was sent from. If you are currently making use of a Formmail script or PHP email, please make sure that any emails your script tries to send are configured to be sent as coming from a Freeola Hosted email address."
Can Freeola say if this means you now MUST use the 'from' field in your forms?
The Freeola help pages say:
"From:You can also set the from field; this will be reflected in the "From:" field in your mail client, i.e. the sender of the email. So if you have more than one form you can easily see which is which.
"
I don't use this field - but if it is now to become mandatory then can you say how much notice you are giving before the changes take affect?
The formmail issues have been going on for quite a while so I hope if this field is now mandatory you don't suddenly introduce it without proper notice!
Thanks in advance from a slightly worried user!
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Hi Loki
I dont do SPAM Filters you filter out most of the SPAM for me :-) I just send and receive emails from Outlook Express so if its a SPAM filter thats to blame it may be the Freeola one? or perhaps its in the queue along with messages from the forms :-)and may turn up next week. My wife and I are registered under seperate accounts she got the service message, for her domain, but I have several domains and got no service messages.
Kev
I dont do SPAM Filters you filter out most of the SPAM for me :-) I just send and receive emails from Outlook Express so if its a SPAM filter thats to blame it may be the Freeola one? or perhaps its in the queue along with messages from the forms :-)and may turn up next week. My wife and I are registered under seperate accounts she got the service message, for her domain, but I have several domains and got no service messages.
Kev
Digitrader wrote:
> I also have now made the changes that were mentioned and tried my
> forms out and the messages are still delayed? please advise what
> to do next! :-(
We are currently testing to see what impact this has had on the speed of the service. It is possible that closing this loophole has not entirely solved the issue and we will continue to work for a solution if that is the case.
I am also extremely unhappy that this problem has not been able to be resolved more quickly and I will push hard for a solution to this problem as a top-level priority for our Systems team.
> I also have now made the changes that were mentioned and tried my
> forms out and the messages are still delayed? please advise what
> to do next! :-(
We are currently testing to see what impact this has had on the speed of the service. It is possible that closing this loophole has not entirely solved the issue and we will continue to work for a solution if that is the case.
I am also extremely unhappy that this problem has not been able to be resolved more quickly and I will push hard for a solution to this problem as a top-level priority for our Systems team.
Digitrader wrote:
> Hi Loki
> Our messages must have crossed, one of our Domains received a
> Freeola service message this morning about this change in code,
> but NO other domains have yet had this message? how is that?
> sureley every Freeola hosted Domain should be aware of these
> changes.
>
> Kev
The service bulletin should have been sent to an address for Freeola account that is set up to use a Freeola e-mail/website service. We did not however send to multiple addresses that forward on to the same account. I do not know of any reason why it would be send to some accounts and not other valid accounts.
Have you checked any spam filters on your e-mail in case they were intercepted by your e-mail service? If you want to follow up the issue with particular address, please contact our Customer Support team who will be able to look into individual examples for you.
> Hi Loki
> Our messages must have crossed, one of our Domains received a
> Freeola service message this morning about this change in code,
> but NO other domains have yet had this message? how is that?
> sureley every Freeola hosted Domain should be aware of these
> changes.
>
> Kev
The service bulletin should have been sent to an address for Freeola account that is set up to use a Freeola e-mail/website service. We did not however send to multiple addresses that forward on to the same account. I do not know of any reason why it would be send to some accounts and not other valid accounts.
Have you checked any spam filters on your e-mail in case they were intercepted by your e-mail service? If you want to follow up the issue with particular address, please contact our Customer Support team who will be able to look into individual examples for you.
GWD,
The 'from' field was always intended to be required information - it is the only way that we can ensure that the service is being used by a valid Freeola account.
The fact that the form was working without a 'from' field was due to a server misconfiguration. We had to take urgent action to correct this misconfiguaration when we had evidence that spammers were exploiting this facility to send mass mailings without verified Freeola accounts.
Unfortunately, the Form To Mail page of the Support section did not make it clear that the 'from' field was required. This was an error by a member of the team that updates the site, and we were not aware of the lack of clarity on the page until this week. For that, I apologise unreservedly and also for any inconvenience caused by the change.
The 'from' field was always intended to be required information - it is the only way that we can ensure that the service is being used by a valid Freeola account.
The fact that the form was working without a 'from' field was due to a server misconfiguration. We had to take urgent action to correct this misconfiguaration when we had evidence that spammers were exploiting this facility to send mass mailings without verified Freeola accounts.
Unfortunately, the Form To Mail page of the Support section did not make it clear that the 'from' field was required. This was an error by a member of the team that updates the site, and we were not aware of the lack of clarity on the page until this week. For that, I apologise unreservedly and also for any inconvenience caused by the change.
Hi Loki
Our messages must have crossed, one of our Domains received a Freeola service message this morning about this change in code, but NO other domains have yet had this message? how is that? sureley every Freeola hosted Domain should be aware of these changes.
Kev
loki wrote:
> Digitrader wrote:
> So do I now just add that line of code? and where about in the
> code to I add it? and will this resolve all the issues? so many
> questions
>
> Some details on using the 'from' field can be found in the
> Support section:
> http://freeola.com/support/form_to_mail/form_to_mail.php
>
> It is one step we are taking to deal with the speed issues, but
> we will continue working on the problem until it is resolved.
Our messages must have crossed, one of our Domains received a Freeola service message this morning about this change in code, but NO other domains have yet had this message? how is that? sureley every Freeola hosted Domain should be aware of these changes.
Kev
loki wrote:
> Digitrader wrote:
> So do I now just add that line of code? and where about in the
> code to I add it? and will this resolve all the issues? so many
> questions
>
> Some details on using the 'from' field can be found in the
> Support section:
> http://freeola.com/support/form_to_mail/form_to_mail.php
>
> It is one step we are taking to deal with the speed issues, but
> we will continue working on the problem until it is resolved.
I also have now made the changes that were mentioned and tried my forms out and the messages are still delayed? please advise what to do next! :-(
Digitrader wrote:
> So do I now just add that line of code? and where about in the
> code to I add it? and will this resolve all the issues? so many
> questions
Some details on using the 'from' field can be found in the Support section:
http://freeola.com/support/form_to_mail/form_to_mail.php
It is one step we are taking to deal with the speed issues, but we will continue working on the problem until it is resolved.
> So do I now just add that line of code? and where about in the
> code to I add it? and will this resolve all the issues? so many
> questions
Some details on using the 'from' field can be found in the Support section:
http://freeola.com/support/form_to_mail/form_to_mail.php
It is one step we are taking to deal with the speed issues, but we will continue working on the problem until it is resolved.
Thanks for the reply loki.
I see you've now updated your Freeola formmail help page stating the new 'from' field requirement.
I'm not too impressed with the way this problem has been handled. I first raised the question of abuse from your form script back in August last year [URL]http://chat.freeola.com/Web-Development-4-chat/Freeola-FORM-spam-using-the-Freeola-script-388.html[/URL] and for quite a few weeks it has been a nearly daily subject on here. For you to suddenly make an immediate change that requires users to update their code, without appropriate notice doesn't quite seem right to me!
I've changed one of my 'forms' to use the 'from' field but this message still hasn't arrived and it's now around 36 hours old?!
As I wasn't sure what changes you were making and when, I have started to test a third party perl formmail script (also based on Matts Formmail like the Freeola one) the replies from this script are virtually immediate. This script doesn't use a 'from' field but is perl rather than php - can you say if I am safe to start converting my forms to this script or are you likely to make further changes to other sendmail scripts?
I would rather continue to use the Freeola supplied script as it's less work for me - but currently even after making the required changes it doesn't seem to be working - perhaps you could also comment on this?
NB. While I'm typing this a client has just forwarded a freeola 'Service Bulletin' email dated 14/3/7, querying the contents - not an email I've received myself. If you had given fair notice of your changes so code could be changed and tested in advance, I would have been able to offer a better response to my clients. Perhaps you could think about implementing updates differently in the future?
I see you've now updated your Freeola formmail help page stating the new 'from' field requirement.
I'm not too impressed with the way this problem has been handled. I first raised the question of abuse from your form script back in August last year [URL]http://chat.freeola.com/Web-Development-4-chat/Freeola-FORM-spam-using-the-Freeola-script-388.html[/URL] and for quite a few weeks it has been a nearly daily subject on here. For you to suddenly make an immediate change that requires users to update their code, without appropriate notice doesn't quite seem right to me!
I've changed one of my 'forms' to use the 'from' field but this message still hasn't arrived and it's now around 36 hours old?!
As I wasn't sure what changes you were making and when, I have started to test a third party perl formmail script (also based on Matts Formmail like the Freeola one) the replies from this script are virtually immediate. This script doesn't use a 'from' field but is perl rather than php - can you say if I am safe to start converting my forms to this script or are you likely to make further changes to other sendmail scripts?
I would rather continue to use the Freeola supplied script as it's less work for me - but currently even after making the required changes it doesn't seem to be working - perhaps you could also comment on this?
NB. While I'm typing this a client has just forwarded a freeola 'Service Bulletin' email dated 14/3/7, querying the contents - not an email I've received myself. If you had given fair notice of your changes so code could be changed and tested in advance, I would have been able to offer a better response to my clients. Perhaps you could think about implementing updates differently in the future?
So do I now just add that line of code? and where about in the code to I add it? and will this resolve all the issues? so many questions
Hi GWD.
I believe that the change to require the FROM field takes effect today.
This is a requirement that should always have been in place to prevent use of the service by unauthorised accounts and its enforcement is urgently necessary to cut down on spam which has been slowing the service for all users.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.
I believe that the change to require the FROM field takes effect today.
This is a requirement that should always have been in place to prevent use of the service by unauthorised accounts and its enforcement is urgently necessary to cut down on spam which has been slowing the service for all users.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.
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