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"Freeola 'form-to-mail' script running slow/stopped! (1st December)"

Hi,
I've noticed the Freeola form_to_mail.php script is running slowly today.

It's been working fine since you guys added extra security to stop the spammers swamping it a while back - up until today.

I had been getting a few spam emails using the Freeola script over the last few weeks (not today though) so perhaps the idiots have started attacking it again?

They always provided the from address as [email protected] in the form.
A Google on this shows the address is used a lot by spammers!

They must be running the script remotely as I don't see their IP address visiting my sites when the message arrives.

Please let me know if you need any more info.

I remember you mentioned that you now have better control/monitoring in place, is it confirming a problem?

Thanks for that.

Where I said:
"As the problem also seems to affect the email response time from the ticket system I would have thought using the Status Page and this forum would have made sense - I must be missing something."

I didn't mean normal email (that seems fine), your ticket system also uses a form mail page (not the standard script but it's still running very slow). When I raised the support ticket at the start of this (and updates/replies since) the confirmation/response etc. didn't arrive until either the next day or many many hours later.

It looks as if Freeola replied to me at 12.05pm Saturday after I raised the ticket - BUT the message didn't reach me until 05:00am Sunday!

Obviously an update here or on the Status page wouldn't have worked the same.

My apologies if we have not been as quick as we can in responding to your forum posts, I have been running my own tests on the Formmail scripts across yesterday and this morning in order to provide more information to the people on the forum and to other staff members.

The backlog on the formmail is gradually clearing, though it is still taking around 2 hours for new formmails to arrive. I am not aware of this impacting any mail sent normally (not via the webservers), if you are experiencing problems in this vein, please get in touch with support either via ticket or telephone, so that we can investigate the matter on an individual basis.

I would expect things to be back to normal across the course of today.

Digitrader wrote:
> Hi GWD is it just me? or is there a big lack of staff moderators
> looking at this forum? they are very slow to respond to your
> questions, I know they are busy doing a paid job, but they
> always seem to find time to chat on other forums.
>
> Kev

Hi Kev,
No it's not just you :)

I thought communication had improved in the last few months, here on the Freeola Forum and with the updated Service Status Page that can now show advisory information as well as service outages. But not it seems for this issue.

This form_to_mail problem and it's handling has more than a touch of 'deja vu' to it!

When there are service issues, good communication is a must.
Via my ticket I asked why the Status Page hasn't been updated - Freeola have responded saying that the problem has been resolved and normal service will resume soon...

Freeola have 10,000's of websites so I guess there must be 1000's of people that use this service. I guess they are totally unaware or have all raised individual support tickets asking similar questions?

As the problem also seems to affect the email response time from the ticket system I would have thought using the Status Page and this forum would have made sense - I must be missing something.

Hi GWD is it just me? or is there a big lack of staff moderators looking at this forum? they are very slow to respond to your questions, I know they are busy doing a paid job, but they always seem to find time to chat on other forums.

Kev

Are you (Freeola) able to say when the backlog is likely to clear and normal service will resume, as things still haven't returned to normal for me?

Hopefully your 'system management' is able to give you some indication of the situation.


Nothing has been posted on your Status Page(!) so I just have to keep telling my clients "it's all under control".

It's typical these problems occur just when you don't need them!

Thanks for the update.

The problem with the spam has how been resolved, sorry that it took longer than usual, the spam was being sent in a new way that I was not able to track down and had to be passed to our Systems team to resolve. No mail will have been lost, all formmails should come through within a few hours at most.

UPDATE:

"Thank you for your e-mail. We are aware that the form-to-mail script is running slow at present. This is due to spammers abusing this script and server it is running on. We are aware of this and we are looking into solving this issue ASAP.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused."


This is from my support ticket - it was sent at 12.05 yesterday soon after I raised the ticket, but only arrived at 05.00 this morning as I guess it uses some of the sendmail services that are being effected.

The test messages I sent yesterday also came in overnight - one taking around 9 hours to arrive.

Can I ask that Freeola update the Status page to show this on-going problem?

Thanks.

Digitrader wrote:
> Hi GWD
> Yeah our forms are not delivering either.
>
> Kev


:(
It's not looking very well.

I'll update this thread when I get a reply to my 'Support Ticket'.

austrian-adventurer wrote:
> Where can i find freeola's scripts??.... been looking but must
> bea bit stupid!! Thanks...

Hi - welcome to the forum!

The Freeola form script is here: freeola.com/support/form_to_mail

Lots of general Freeola info and guides here: freeola.com/support



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