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Conexion Technical Support
Browse our answers to many frequently answered questions or contact us for any
of your technical issues.
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| Mail Questions |
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Q: I get a non-delivery notice from your server with the comment: "Maximum
message size exceeded". Do you have a maximum size for messages?
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A: This message does not come from our server, but from the server our server
is trying to deliver to, and our server is just telling you what the remote server
reported. The destination server denies reception of the message because it is
bigger than allowed. Specially Hotmail and other "free" e-mail services have
pre-established limits.
In this case, there are 2 things to do: Break the message down into smaller
sections or tell the recipient to get a "real" mailbox.
Our servers have no pre-established limits for reception nor sending.
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| Q: How do I access my mailbox just using a browser when I'm travelling? |
A: Go to http://mail.conexion.com using any web-browser. You will be presented with
a "Enter Network Password" dialog box. Enter your user name and password. Under "domain"
write conexion.com. Remember that if you check the "Save this password in your password
list" box, then the password may be stored on the machine you are currently working at, so
always leave this unchecked when you use a public computer. Then click on OK.
You will be taken straight to your inbox where you can preview and read incoming messages.
On the left pane you will find two large buttons, "Folders" and "Shortcuts". Under shortcuts
you find the "Log Off" button to close your session with the server.
Under Folders, you'll find many more folders than just your Inbox. You even can make your
own folders that reside on the mail server. A further explanation is given in the IMAP section here.
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| Q: What is the best mail program? |
A: We specifically recommend not to use Eudora: It has proven unstable, with corrupted message bases,
unexpected behavior, crashes and similar scenarios. (Besides that we always get the support questions
and people believe the problem is here... just because of that lousy mail program). Outlook and Outlook
Express are better choices, although they lack essential features like selective message preview and
selective download. And we get too often a request like "I have 20 Megabytes stuck in my mailbox. How
do I delete that message?" A snap with the right software. Else read next entry below...
Of course we have our favorite: After many years with Pegasus Mail, and repeatedly trying other
programs, this is still the best and most feature rich Internet mailer. The only thing that may
scare newbies is that it's a bit hard to set up, but if you have patience enough to read some
manuals then it's the mailer of choice. And its free! Look at Pegasus mail's Web-site!
Outlook and Outlook Express have improved essentially in the last years, although the recurring
security issues and eternal Virus attacks it is target for makes it second choice in my opinion.
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Q: I got some messages stuck in my mailbox. Can you delete it for me?
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A: We are answering requests like that almost daily, and here comes the recipe for doing it yourself. Actually that should be a feature of every mailer to preview messages stored on the server and provide you with the option to delete that infamous 15 Megabyte .tif attachment some good-meaning and evil-doing soul has placed in your mailbox.
Actually many people think that something is wrong with the service (that is: us!) after getting desperate waiting for the download of those elephants while it actually just is an oversized mail in the mailbox.
You can use the web access to your mailbox to preview and delete messages based on size. Follow the steps outlined under Web-access to connect to your mailbox. In the right-most column you will see the size of each message. You can sort the messages based on size by clicking the Size column header.
Highlight the message you want to delete and click the delete button on the toolbar. Don't forget to empty the deleted folder by clicking on the icon (empty deleted items folder) when you're done, else the message will stay in the deleted items folder and contribute to the total message volume in your mailbox.
Another way is to use Telnet to your mailbox. Although this is a bit more tedious procedure, it allows you to delete messages even without a web-browser, just using Telnet. Don't start with this unless you are comfortable using Telnet, though.
First: Make sure you are connected to the service.
1) Start telnet (choose "Run..." from the Start menu and type telnet)
2) On the menu line of telnet, choose Connect -> Remote System.
3) You get a Window titled "Connect". Under Host name write mail.conexion.com.gt, under Port: write 110. Then press .
The response you get back should be like:
+OK Microsoft Exchange POP3 server version 5.0.1461.55 ready
At this point, if you don't see what you type, it's because the "Local Echo" setting has been turned off in telnet's Terminal > Preferences settings, but that is not critical as long as you type correctly. Proceed to next step.
4) Type:
user
That means you peck: user and a space and your username without the angled brackets and hit Enter.
5) Type:
pass
That means you peck: pass and a space and your password without the angled brackets and hit Enter. Remember PaSSworDS are always CASE SENSITIVE!
You should get a prompt stating a successful login.
6) Type list
This gives you a listing of messages. The number of the message including the size in bytes. Here you can identify the elephant.
7) Type dele (n)
You peck: DELE followed by the number (n) of the message you want to erase.
8) Type quit
Note that if you don't type quit and just disconnect your mailbox will NOT be updated and you must start over.
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| Q: I received a message stating: "Your mailbox is over its size limit" |
A: You may get a detailed message like "Your mailbox has exceeded one or more size limits set by your
administrator. Your mailbox size is 10384 KB" for example. The
implications are:
Basically we do not restrict mailboxes in size. This is a warning
only that does not have ANY consequences, even if your mailbox size
exceeds 100 Megabytes.
Almost all client mail programs have an option to leave the mail
on the server and/or reject mail to be downloaded based on size.
Using either option will result in mail piling up at the server, be it
because the client does not wish to have it deleted on the server
although the mail has been received, or some messages exceed the size limit
set in the client's mailer, and thus never have been downloaded.
However, a mail server is not meant to be backup storage for eventual
data loss at a client machine. We think that 10MB of mail storage is a
reasonable threshold for letting the client know that the mailbox is
growing huge.
I only can stress again: Pegasus mail has some rough edges, it is not a
Microsoft product, but it has a lot of features other Internet mailers are
plain missing. For example, in
Pegasus Mail using "MENU> FILE > SELECTIVE MAIL DOWNLOAD"
presents you with a listing of all the mail you have at the server, (just
retrieving the mail headers), then you can decide which one to download, delete from the server, or both. I have not seen any other
mailer with that feature so far. Besides the quick and dirty Telnet
procedure described above. You may download the latest version of Pegasus
mail here.
If you do not wish to receive mail exceeding a certain size, let us
know. A size threshold is established much more efficiently on the server, and we can set the
server to reject mail based on size, and the sender will even get a
notification to the respect. |
| Q: What does SMTP mean? |
A: Simple mail transfer protocol. It's the standard on which
all mail transport on the Internet is based on, and it defines in which manner two servers
communicate with each other in order to deliver mail. You may have seen the
expression SMTP in the
configuration of your mailer, and here it refers to the name of the mail server your mail
program should direct outgoing mail to. In our case, the SMTP server name is
"mail.conexion.com.gt" |
| Q: What does POP mean? |
A: Post Office Protocol. Also a standard that defines how two
machines should communicate with each other in order to download mail from the mail
storage. The POP server name is also a mailer configuration parameter that tells on which
server your mail is stored. Pop3 is the most widespread mail access protocol
in use. Our POP server name is "mail.conexion.com.gt" |
| Q: What does IMAP mean? |
A: Internet Message Access Protocol. This
standard was developed after people realized that just one Inbox on the
server may not be enough.
It basically allows to access more than one folder on a server that
supports IMAP. In fact, most modern mail servers support a variety of
options for the user, and the Internet standard "IMAP" is a
protocol that allows any IMAP server to communicate with any IMAP enabled
mail client program. The drawback of IMAP is that it is a bit less efficient
than POP concerning mail transfer.
One of the reasons you may want to use IMAP is: If you sometimes use Web-access
to your mailbox, then mail you have sent using web-access will stay on the mail
server in the Sent Items Folder. However, you want them to be on
your local machine's harddisk...
Here one configuration example for Outlook Express:
Basically what you have to do in to create a new mailbox under Tools... /
Accounts... / Mail / Add / Mail. Configure it as you would configure a POP
mailbox, except when it comes to "My incoming mail server is a....". The default is a pop
server, change it to IMAP and complete the rest of the configuration. Once you logon to this mailbox, you will be presented with all the folders
on the server, which look pretty much as the default personal folders that
are installed on Outlook. You may need to expand the folder list by
clicking on the + before the top level item.
Now you can select the messages in the right pane in the server mailbox "Sent Items" folder and drag them onto your Personal (local) Folders "Sent Items"
which resides on your harddisk. This may take some time to transfer if the
messages are large.
Please note that although we offer the feature of IMAP, it is not
officially supported. That means that questions concerning the use of IMAP
must be resolved by you reading the respective manuals for the particular
mail program you use. |
| Q: I got a notification that a message is still on queue 4
hours after I have sent it, and every 4 hours later again. And finally the message is
returned to me. Why?
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A: After you have sent a message, the server tries to deliver
it to it's final destination immediately. If this fails, it will re-try in intervals. If
that still fails and 4 hours have passed, you will get a notification in order to let you
know that this message was not delivered. In case the message is still not deliverable,
this notification will be repeated every 4 hours. If 12 hours have passed like that, the
server gives up and returns the message to you.
We have chosen to keep this maximum queue time rather short. Other services generally have
4 days queue time.
A "maximum retries exhausted" message can have many reasons: Either the
destination server is down for extended periods, the route to the destination is too long
or cannot be reached, or our link is down (God beware!), or in more seldom cases a
misconfiguration of the remote server DNS Mail exchange (MX) record that points to a
non-existent SMTP server.
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| Virus Issues |
| Q: I got a message from "Virscan@
conexion.com" telling me about a Virus in a message I have received.
I opened that message. Does that mean that my machine is infected now ?
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A: We have a Virus scanner in effect on the
mail server. It will detect almost 100% of all e-mail borne virus both in
the message body and in attachments.
IF you get a message from Virscan@ conexion.com then the virus
scanner has done it's job and either removed the virus from the
message or repaired an attachment in a message. The difference is
that some files like Word documents may be infected but may still carry
valuable contents that you are interested in. So IF the attachment is
repairable, it will be cleaned and the clean version delivered to you. If
it is beyond repair, it will be deleted. So getting a message from the
virus scanner actually means that you just have been saved from a
potential virus attack.
The Virus scanner will never detect 100% for the simple reason that a
virus may be completely new and spread fast through the Internet while
there is no current detection mechanism in place on the server. That also
means that we cannot issue guarantees that there is no virus in any of the
messages you receive. No service provider ever will be able to guarantee
that.
The virus scanner is a value added service for your protection and
convenience and has proven to be very effective and has saved our clients
a lot of grief. Still there is the slight possibility that a very new
virus may slip through the defenses. Also keep in mind that if you
use another mail service you may not be protected from virus coming that
way.
A virus scanner depends on "virus definitions". These are
collections of the signature of every current virus, and there are approx.
62.000 of them at the moment. These definitions must be updated on a
regular basis. A new Virus requires a new definition. The updates happen
automatically at our server, and in case of a major outbreak even
manually.
Although there are mechanisms to detect unknown virus, these mechanisms
are unreliable and lead to too many false positives. |
| Spam Issues |
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Q: I'm receiving tons of Spam messages. Can you
block these messages?
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A: SPAM (AKA unsolicited commercial e-mail) is
one of the real nuisances of the Internet. The short answer is:
Unfortunately not.
The long answer is: We do everything within reasonable margins to block
spam sources and messages. We have a spam filter on the server that takes
out the most blatant cases of spam. But this filter must not mistake
legitimate mail for spam, so it is running on a rather conservative
setting, saying that we rather risk that you receive a spam message than
risk to block legitimate mail.
Currently we block mail from Korea (.kr) and large portions of Argentina
(.ar) and namely infovia.com.ar... This is because huge portions of spam
come from servers in these countries. The block will remain until the
responsible service providers clean up their act. If you need to exchange
mail with users of any of these providers, tell your correspondent to
switch to a provider that does not tolerate spam.
Here some rules: NEVER EVER publish your e-mail address anywhere. Not
on Web-sites, not when you are asked to enter your e-mail address when you
are surfing the web etc. Also mailing lists and discussion boards that
distribute to large numbers of subscribers are risky. Only give your
e-mail address to friends and family and contacts. A reputable vendor is
probably OK, too. For the rest of the cases, use a disposable e-mail
address at Hotmail or Yahoo or other free services.
If you must publish your e-mail address, for example when you
run a Web-site and you need to, there are 2 tricks: Either represent your
e-mail address as a graphic or use the following code snippet that you
include in your page:
<![CDATA[<script language="VBScript">
<!--
Dim lead, trail, epost
lead="users"
trail="conexion.com"
epost=lead & "@" & trail
document.write("Write us an <a href='mailto:" & epost & "'> Email<a/>")
-->
</script>
]]>
When you run this, it will look like below. The difference is that the e-mail address does not appear in the HTML code as entire string. First when a browser looks at the pages with script support, the fragments are concatenated to a valid e-mail address.
Both methods makes the e-mail address unreadable by automated
e-mail extractors (the tool spammers use to find addresses). However, all this is inconvenient for the user. Anyway, once you publish
an e-mail address, you can be certain that the address will be found by
these sharks and will receive spam at one or another point. Ultimately,
only legislation will be able to stem the tide of spam.
We have been asked if we sell our address lists:
OF COURSE NOT! All halfway decent service providers will never disclose
e-mail addresses of their clients. If you receive spam, then you have
disclosed your e-mail address somewhere and somehow. And once compromised,
it will continue to receive unsolicited mail.
Don't use the "remove" links in spam messages. For the first,
you can waste an entire day to remove yourself from spam lists. Second,
most of them are bogus addresses. Last, if they are not bogus, then they
are often abused to verify that your address is alive and kicking, so it
can be spammed further. http://www.email911.com/resources/whatcanido.html
is a good starting point to read more about how to avoid Spam.
If you think the amount of spam it is getting too much, then we can
change your username and e-mail address to something else at the nominal
setup fee. (Currently Q. 25.-).
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| Q: What about Mail Filtering |
There is no doubt that the SPAM problem is increasing. At the same
time, the human resources necessary to address the problem can become
overwhelming for an ISP. I have myself spent countless hours tracking
message sources, manually blocked SPAM hosts from access to our mail
server etc., and there comes the day when you realize that there are
more drastic measures necessary. Well, those measures are in place here
since Oct. 2002, and is a highly automated system that blocks access
to our mail server based on a list of known SPAM sources that is dynamically
and continuously updated. This system is partially based on "Spamtraps", that
are mailboxes deliberately but optically invisible published on a web site,
with no with no real user behind, and with no other purpose than attracting
SPAM and feed the Anti-Spam list with occurrences, and partially from continuous
user input from connected systems and subscribers who are fed up with spam.
One of these systems is Spamcop (www.spamcop.net), which we are using as list provider.
This setup is surprisingly sophisticated and accurate. However, there is a minor chance
that legitimate mail
is blocked. As of this writing, I personally know of 4 cases where possibly legitimate
mail was blocked. That is my observation for entire 3 months where the filter has been
in action. Considering that we handle several thousand pieces of mail a day, I consider
this a tolerable quote, when you consider that the filter blocks several hundred SPAM
messages daily.
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| Q: What is your Spam policy? |
A: Zero tolerance.
You may maintain huge mailing lists and send mail to as many recipients as
you like. Under the condition that the recipient has given his/her consent
and actively asked for your specific mailing prior to receiving your mass
mailing. You are bound to maintain your mailing lists and honor requests
for removal immediately.
If you feel like trying to use Conexion as a server to distribute
unsolicited mail: Go ahead and try. It is the fastest way to terminate
your account with us.
In case of dispute: A dispute may arise when we receive a spam complaint
and the sender claims that this message was solicited. We will ask the
sender to prove that the mailing was based on an active subscription, and
then verify this with the party that complained and decide upon the
results.
If it becomes evident that the mail was not solicited, then the game is
over even for first time offenders.
This also implies that you can not use so-called "opt-in" lists
since most of them are bogus and the condition that an active
subscription to your specific mailing must exist has not been met. |
| Connectivity Issues |
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Q: What is the maximum connection speed on
dial-up services?
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A: 33.6 kilobits per second. We are aware that
most other providers offer up to 56k, and that is one of the long term
nightmares we are having with the local Telecommunications company, Telgua.
In order to provide 56k connectivity, we depend on certain services
provided from Telgua, and that namely are digital phone lines (channelized
T1/E1). The problem is NOT anymore that the equipment of Telgua does
not support it. The problem isn't either that we don't have the equipment
etcetera. The problem is that Telgua is not inclined or willing or
educated enough to provide us with
this service. Partially out of technical ignorance, partially because they
consider us competition to their dial up services.
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| Setup |
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Q: Is it not necessary to specify the DNS server IP numbers in the TCP/IP settings
for my dial-up configuration?
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A: Windows 9x, XP and 2000 use the DHCP (Dynamic host configuration
protocol) to request all the information about the IP address, default gateway and DNS server
IP numbers. All that happens automatically at the moment you
connect with a valid username and password.
If you need the DNS server IP numbers (be it you run Windows 3.x or Macintosh etc.), they
are: 168.234.192.200 and 168.234.192.150 for the primary and the secondary DNS server.
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| Passwords |
| Q: Can I change my service password on-line? |
A: No.
The reason why not is: Most people only need to change their password when
they think or know that it has been compromised. Let's assume someone has
gained access to your password, and passwords could be changed on-line,
then the person having unauthorized access could change the password to
something only he/she knows. And effectively freeze you out of access to
the service, thus hijacking your entire account.
Contact us and we will change your password free of charge. To
positively identify you, we will call you back at the phone number you
have provided us upon subscription. Or pass by the office.
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| Billing |
| Q: How can I see how much time I have spent on-line? Is there a Web-page? |
A: Just click here. You have the
option to view your totals or details and totals of your on-line time. This page is
only accessible on our Guatemala web-site. (www.conexion.com.gt), which is
restricted to users subscribed to our dial-up services.
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