Changing ISP from Synetrix

[Ultra_Charge]

Has anybody done this yet, so so fed up with all the issues we keep getting with Synetrix and have finally had enough, we host our own email, but website and internet with synetrix still.

soo has anybody changed from synetrix?

If so:

• Who did you go with?
• Did you experience any problems?
• How much time did it take?
• Has it cost the school a lot of money?

would be really interested to hear peoples opinions on this, especially after reading some of the other threads about synetrix.

[Edu-IT]

Do you also have your own filtering solution?

[Ultra_Charge]

we do indeed, host it all onsite.

[tom_newton]

Did someone say... filtering? As far as I know, most of our customers in Synetrixy areas have just replaced the filter, not the ISP bit. If I hear any different, I will let you know!

[GrumbleDook]

For our non-school educational sites that are not on EMBC (and a few that are) we are now sticking smoothwall on some old boxes as a test solution. Some of the lines are BT (other providers are available) and others are council lines.

But these are quite different to some of our schools. I still push schools to stick with EMBC / Synetrix and work with the LA to sort out problems. What is your LA's take on the problems?

[Ultra_Charge]

thanks for all the replys, we have been trying to get along with synetrix now for quite some time, but keep comming up against the exact same problems, but in a different disguise, the latest is the inability to send emails to certain other ISP's because Synetrix is so poor at filtering spam, many of their locations are now being used as Spam Relay points. this has puth them on a black list which some ISP's use. normally it wouldnt be a big deal however one of our Governors are using an ISP which has blocked Synetrix. Synetrix have so far no solution to the issue and predict this to take a very long time to solve.
which is just what i needed to hear.

[tom_newton]

You could route mail out of an external smarthost if that's your "only" (I say that advisedly ) issue with remaining on synetrix. Would cost a few $ to host, but not prohibitive.

[GrumbleDook]

Good practice on RBCs would be to block port 25 apart from their mail relay / filters so trying to use another smarthost is not likely to work.

[Abaddon]

thanks for all the replys, we have been trying to get along with synetrix now for quite some time, but keep comming up against the exact same problems, but in a different disguise, the latest is the inability to send emails to certain other ISP's because Synetrix is so poor at filtering spam, many of their locations are now being used as Spam Relay points. this has puth them on a black list which some ISP's use. normally it wouldnt be a big deal however one of our Governors are using an ISP which has blocked Synetrix. Synetrix have so far no solution to the issue and predict this to take a very long time to solve.
which is just what i needed to hear.

We are currently having the EXACT same problem with mail from school to a governor.. Synetrix blame the other ISP, the other ISP say it's not their problem...

[john]

Good practice on RBCs would be to block port 25 apart from their mail relay / filters so trying to use another smarthost is not likely to work.

Its all well and good them doing that but when there mail systems are junk and loose mail, take 2 days to deliver emails with logs to prove said delays, make examination paperwork arrive the day after the kids sat the exam (AQA do all stuff via E-mail now thus we get the sticker every morning via e-mail, well should!) and they cannot find it but know its going missing it means schools loose vital communications

No amount of complaining and asking them to fix the problems makes any difference (ask the guys at Smoothwall about our 6 month long issues with the upstream proxys loosing data.....)

I wonder how many users I can get sat on my ADSL with static IP using the email at home meaning I can cut them out of my email systems forever (yes Tony that "lovely" webmail you saw at BETT is going, 5 weeks and counting!)

[GrumbleDook]

@John

Just trying to point out that if someone is looking at sticking with an ISP then it is not just the filtering that might need tweaking. And yes ... I can see why there are issues with the email.

[tom_newton]

I would hope opening 25 to a specified smarthost might be easier than fixing a totally shot mail system

[GrumbleDook]

Some RBCs will not do this at all. The idea is that all mail in and out of the WAN *has* to go via the provided relay / filter. It removes the chance of mass-mailing trojans sending stuff out, it reduces the spam getting into schools, means that certain language is prevented from reaching kids ...

The down side is that should something be black-listed then it is a pain to sort and it affects a large group of people. Some ISPs are a tad lax with updating their blacklists and will not accept that some hosts have been sorted.

[tom_newton]

In fairness, *most* RBLs are complete tosh thes days largely because spam doesn't tend to come from open relays any more - rather it comes from botnets

[Ultra_Charge]

We are currently having the EXACT same problem with mail from school to a governor.. Synetrix blame the other ISP, the other ISP say it's not their problem...

Yeah, we discovered that synetrix is infact black listed as previously stated, it took us a long time for them to admit that they are actually at fault here.