Sponsor's Message

Well, while that may have been the informal motto of the US Postal Service, it sure doesn't seem to have been the motto of Xtra in recent times.

It would appear as if NZ's largest ISP has been having some rather major problems with its email system -- problems that, perhaps coincidentally, got a whole lot worse shortly after the company announced that it would soon be adding spam filtering.

Now, although I used to use Xtra as my main ISP, I was never stupid enough to rely on them for my incoming email. I prefer to hand that sort of critical service over to a specialist service provider who isn't being constantly distracted by having their fingers in too many pies.

As it turns out, that was a very sensible decision.

However, I did still use Xtra's SMTP server for outgoing mail and there were regular occasions when I noticed that my outbox would back up as Xtra's servers refused to respond.

Now let's be fair -- *all* ISPs have outages from time to time.

Software has bugs, hardware fails, mistakes happen. To expect 100% up-time from any provider is totally unreasonable.

One has to ask however, whether Xtra could improve its game a little when it comes to fixing problems associated with the single most important service the Net provides.

If you're a business and you can't browse the web then that's a pain but it's unlikely to cost you money or lose you customers -- after all, if you *really* need to check out a website you can always rush down to the nearest cybercafe.

However, when your email's not being delivered in a timely fashion -- or at all, that's a whole different kettle of fish and the effect on your bottom line can be dramatic.

It's even more annoying when you rush off to Xtra's status page and you're told that "there are no problems" or the problem is acknowledged but the resolution time just keeps on slipping and slipping.

So what do you do to protect yourself against email foul-ups if your regular ISP just isn't able to provide a reliable email service? (some do, some don't)

Well my first recommendation would be to get your own domain name. Ditch the myname@myispsname address if you're using one. For the sake of a dollar or two a week you're much better off getting yourself an address that allows you to shop around for an email service provider -- allowing you to dump any company that doesn't perform without having to change your address.

Then, if email is *really* important to you, be prepared to pay a little more to use the services of a company that specialises in providing professional email services. Don't be afraid to ask prospective suppliers what their up-time has been over the past 12 months, whether they have 24/7 support and what their contingencies are for things like power outages, connectivity failures, etc.

And finally, if you think you're having email problems, let your customers/friends know about it and have them CC any important correspondence to a free email account such as that offered by Yahoomail, just in case.

I find it amazing that the same people who insist on buying "brand name" PCs and understand the importance of buying quality seem to turn off their brains when it comes to selecting email providers.

So who are you using for your email services and why?

If any Aardvark readers want to share an opinion on today's column or add something, you're invited to chip in and have your say in The Aardvark Forums or, if you prefer, you can contact me directly.

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