Southern Utah Technology & Design Computer Consultants

[EDIT]

So it’s now Oct 2008 and would you believe that Qwest is still to resolve this problem or contact me.  My client ended up just sending the information to a different email address.  Oh well.

[/EDIT]

[EDIT]

Well instead of 2 days I’ve given it 2 weeks and guess what?  That’s right, not even a peep from Qwest in the form of a response to my emails.  So now I’m just really frustrated with the incredibly poor customer service of the Utah telephone monopoly.

[/EDIT]

So one of our customers was having issues sending email to a qwest.net email account.

Here’s the error that she received:

SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<*******@qwest.net>: host mx2.qwest.net [207.109.18.197]: 554 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [**.**.***.***](My IP Address) blocked using bl.qwest.net; IP **.**.***.*** (My IP Again) is locally blacklisted

So I first tried calling Qwest’s general support number. That was my first mistake. The incompetence level of tier 1 is astounding. If it doesn’t show up on their screen and there buddy on chat can’t figure it out their pretty much useless and instead of escalating you, try to blame the problem on somebody else.

Eventually they came to the conclusion that this was not their problem and told me that I needed to contact the people over at Qwest Office support. So I made the mistake of believing them and contact Qwest Office support. Per their instructions at http://www.qwestoffice.com I first tried sending an email to support@qwestoffice.com to which I of course received no reply. At least the message didn’t bounce though. Then I tried calling 866-881-3689 their 24 hour support number. I explained the problem to them and they told me that mx1.qwest.net is maintained by the DSL department and I would have to contact them with the problem. I was then transferred to DSL Support.

At this point I’m really getting frustrated. Nobody like to be bounced around.

After some time reexplaining the problem again to the people over at Qwest DSL they respond that “That problem is because that address has been ported over to Qwest Office and that’s what’s causing the error and that if I contacted the Qwest.net customer and had them place a support request that the problem could then be resolved.”

Great finally at least an answer albeit a terrible one. Why should I have to contact my client and have them contact their client just to have the qwest.net customer have to spend 2 hours on the phone trying to troubleshoot with qwest a qwest problem?

Well the story doesn’t end here. Being the astute administrator that I am, I think that answer that they gave me makes no sense. I wasn’t getting an address not found error. I was getting your server has been blacklisted error. So I get smart and send the qwest.net customer an email from my Gmail account. Would you believe that the message went through. OH MY GOODNESS, TIER 1 WAS WRONG AGAIN!!!! What a surprise that one was.

This post is really getting long. But I think that’s the point that I’m trying to make. Why doesn’t qwest have a page that google can spider so I can actually find a way to contact the qwest internal blacklist adminstrator. Hopefully that’s what this page turns into.

So now I call up my trusty Qwest Sales Rep. He of course doesn’t handle the support side but told me to try the live chat help line on http://www.qwest.net site. So that’s what I’m doing now while I’m writing this post. Here’s how that went.

User Jon Heaton has entered room

Qwest Analyst Donny has entered room

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 12:56:07 MDT 2008)>

Thank you for contacting Qwest QuickAssist - DSL Technical Support. My name is Donny and my tech ID is DH1. I apologize for the issue you are having. That is something I can help you with and I’ll attempt to get this resolved for you as quickly as possible.

Can you please provide me the following pieces of information so that I can begin a ticket as well as gather network information on your issue:

Your DSL phone number and email address.

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 11:58:12 MDT 2008)>

I don’t have a DSL phone number. I am a Web Hosting Server administrator and my customers are having difficulty trying to send emails to qwest.net customers. Your server is bouncing my emails back saying that my server has been locally blacklisted.

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 11:58:23 MDT 2008)>

This is more than likely a Tier 3 support problem.

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 12:58:36 MDT 2008)>

I would be happy to try to contact Tier 3 if you believe it’s a Tier 3 issue, however it may be some time before I can do that for you. Here in chat we work with several customers all at the same time and making calls to Tier 3 often takes time. If you would like to wait, I would be happy to work on that for you. Otherwise, I may suggest calling into us directly and have a tech work directly with you.

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 12:00:16 MDT 2008)>

I would be happy to wait. I’ve already spent 2 hours on the phone today with Tier 1 support and I’m tired of dealing with them

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 12:00:27 MDT 2008)>

At least this way my ear won’t get sore.

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 12:59:28 MDT 2008)>

I’m in Tier 1 sir.

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 12:59:35 MDT 2008)>

I see.

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 12:59:42 MDT 2008)>

I’ll be with you as soon as I can.

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 13:14:49 MDT 2008)>

Here is the response from Tier 3 regarding your issue: Analyst David(Mon Jun 23 13:07:17 MDT 2008)>He can send an email to postmaster@qwest.net with examples — the headers will be helpful as well & our postmaster group will remove him from the blacklist if apporpriate & reply to let him know

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 12:17:17 MDT 2008)>

ok just a minute I’m sending the message.

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 12:19:37 MDT 2008)>

The message appears to have been delivered. Do you know approximately how long it should take for them to process the emai from me? Or to respond to me?

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 13:18:51 MDT 2008)>

It can take up to 48 hours.

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 12:21:17 MDT 2008)>

Ok. I’ll let my client know that it is Qwest’s fault that they cannot sending their advertising proofs to their client for up to 48 hours from now while we wait to have this request processed. I’m sure they won’t be happy with this but I guess there is nothing more I can do about this.

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 13:20:29 MDT 2008)>

Is there anything else I can assist you with today?

Jon Heaton(Mon Jun 23 12:21:46 MDT 2008)>

That’s it thank you.

Analyst Donny(Mon Jun 23 13:20:48 MDT 2008)>

It has been a pleasure working with you today. Please bookmark the High-Speed Internet site at http://www.qwhelp.com You can also download the QuickCare program from there.

Order all of your new services such as DirecTV, Cellular Service, VoIP, or Telephone Services at http://www.qwest.com/residential/refer/index.html Use the REFERENCE CODE of ‘dxhans5′ and you will be offered the best deals and promotions running right now on all of our services.

Again, my name is Donny and my tech ID is DH1. Thank you for contacting Qwest QuickAssist and have a good day.

I really liked the sales pitch there at the end. So I’ve sent the email to postmaster and am now patiently awaiting 48 hours for the reply. What do you bet I won’t ever see a reply just like the support request to Qwest Office? Oh well. I hope I get this figured out and this is at least useful to somebody else later.

So blog posts are turning into more of a monthly than weekly thing. I think that’s a good sign that business is moving along.

Now on to the topic. With computer security and online identity theft such a concern today, Dominik Reichl has come up with a really handy Open Source (FREE) utility to help you keep all of your vital passwords safe. It’s called Keepass. Keepass (according to their web site http://keepass.info) is “a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).”

I use it in my company and in my home and I recommend that you do too.

Here is the download page: http://keepass.info/download.html

Unfortunately the time that people think about data backups is about 10 minutes after you really needed to. Loss of your computers data can be devastating to you and/or your company. The old saying better safe than sorry particularly applies to your computers. Hardware failure occurs all of the time. Hard disk heads can only re-magnetize a hard disk platter so many times, particularly in those pesky Windows XP temporary files cache locations.

Here are a few things to consider when you want to backup your important data:

1) Try to store your data in a central location.

If you are running Windows, Microsoft has made this somewhat easy for you. All of your data related to you is in your Profile Folder. (Desktop, My Pictures, My Documents, Bookmarks, Addresses) Some of these things are harder to track down than others. If you’re like me and don’t like to clutter up your My Documents folder with work related things and keep some data right on your hard drives root then make sure and back up that folder too.

2) Don’t backup your data to the same drive.

I know this seems like common sense but it must be said. A drive failure causes all data on that drive to be lost. Data storage is very inexpensive these days. (This is where the prevention comes in) Get yourself a second hard drive. The easiest way to do this is an external hard drive. Slightly more expensive but can be really convenient.

3) Smoke alarms save people not data.

It’s been said, “if your data doesn’t exist in three places, it doesn’t exist.” Guess where the third place should be? Any other building that is not where your computer is located. If your data is at the office, take it home. If it’s at home take it to the office, if it’s at the office take it home. Remember that external Hard Drive you just bought? While your ordering that why don’t you make that two. Once a week swap your two backup drives. This way if building burns down, is broken into, or suffers an explosion you won’t be up a creek without a paddle.

There are many software backup solutions out there. Some with more bells and whistles than others. If you are looking for something simple, Windows has a build in backup utility. You can find more information about it here.

Company wide backups are a bit trickier. (Warning: Shameless plug ahead!!!) Southern Utah Technology and Design LLC can help you in that department. We offer advanced company backup systems that will give you automated incremental (Save Changes to individual Files) backups of your data.

With all that said remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Protecting a company’s information is important no matter what size of a company. Companies and individuals are moving into a digital age. In order to ensure the security of company information proper password procedures need to be followed. Some useful tips in order to have proper security are as follows:

1. Increase password length – Most web sites and software programs require a minimum of 6-8 characters. This is a safe bet but having a longer password makes cracking the password more difficult.
2. Use numeric, capital letters and special characters – By using numeric numbers, capital letters and special characters it eliminates certain types of password attacks such as dictionary attacks where common words and phrases are used to determine the password.
3. Avoid writing the password down – By writing the password down and displaying it on the monitor or desk it makes it assessable for anyone walking by. This defeats the purpose of the password in the first place.
4. Changing the password – Changing your password every so often say monthly or every few months helps eliminate someone from using old or previously used passwords to gain entry to current sensitive information.
5. Have multiple passwords – Having multiple passwords can reduce what an attacker can gain access too. One concern for an individual is remembering all the passwords. A good way to do this is to use a password locker. A password locker is a digital filing cabinet, which stores your passwords in an encrypted file. You then only have to remember one password.
6. Use the first letters of a phrase – An easy way to create an easy to remember password is to use the letters of a phrase with easy to remember numbers. IE: ILtWomC23 (I Love to Work on my Computer 23)

Password security is vital in protecting company’s digital assets. By using the above tips, possible violation can be avoided.