Business web/mail host?

J_B

My friend runs a small family business making wooden 'sheds' (Smiths Sectional Buildings)
He asked me to look at his computer as he was getting loads of 'adult' spam - "click here for a good time with me tonight" type of stuff

My first thought was to ask his mail/web host to filter this out at source.
My friend commented that he wasn't getting very good service from this company (NetBiz Group from Stoke)

"They only seem interested when they are selling you something"

I phoned the hosting company to ask if it would be possible to filter out the spam at source. I was put on hold (listening to the usual nonsense about how 'we deliver solutions to meet your business needs') and then spoke to the 'account manager' who said that she would 'look into the problem and get back to me tomorrow'

"Don't hold your breath" my friend told me!

She didn't call me back today so I called her at 4.30pm to be told that she was on the phone and would call back - she didn't!

Anyway, knowing nowt about this sort of stuff, could anyone suggest a better company to host their business website and e mails???
They don't want to run it themselves, and I don't think I want to do it for them either, although I could possibly help a little if required.

buglawton

You can point the your domain to Gmail for example, and still keep me@myowndomain.com

There's also a business service from Google:
https://www.google.com/work/apps/business/products/gmail/

Any ways, all spam filtering will be done by Google henceforth.
Other brands of email are available.

Cornucopia

None of these hosting companies are particularly expensive.

If you had said that you/they wanted to DIY, I would have suggested a Free service I found a couple of weeks ago: https://www.freehosting.com/ It looks/feels a bit more professional than other free services I've seen.

Otherwise, the usual UK suspects like 123-Reg, UK2.net and FreeVirtualServers (they aren't free), are all good.

Fightsback

Cornucopia wrote: »

None of these hosting companies are particularly expensive.

If you had said that you/they wanted to DIY, I would have suggested a Free service I found a couple of weeks ago: https://www.freehosting.com/ It looks/feels a bit more professional than other free services I've seen.

Otherwise, the usual UK suspects like 123-Reg, UK2.net and FreeVirtualServers (they aren't free), are all good.

A quick whoiis says the domain and website is already with 123-reg/webfusion (aka HEG) so I would assume that they have mailboxes already with their website package and just need to set the MX records, spam filtering is included.

http://whois.domaintools.com/smithssectionalbuildings.com

Edit: an interesting story here on Netbiz:

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Wound-company-taken-ex-boss/story-12555330-detail/story.html

Netbiz web limited is currently in liquidation:

https://www.duedil.com/company/07354368/netbiz-web-limited

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2126691

J_B

Fightsback wrote: »

A quick whoiis says the domain and website is already with 123-reg/webfusion (aka HEG) so I would assume that they have mailboxes already with their website package and just need to set the MX records, spam filtering is included.

Not fully understanding what you are saying, sorry , but the account manager phoned me back today to say that she had arranged to increase the spam filtering.

Fightsback wrote: »

Edit: an interesting story here on Netbiz:
http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Wound-company-taken-ex-boss/story-12555330-detail/story.html

Yes, but that was from 2010!

Fightsback wrote: »

Netbiz web limited is currently in liquidation:
https://www.duedil.com/company/07354368/netbiz-web-limited
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2126691

Hmmm, well, they are still trading!

Anyway, 'we' are looking for someone better - any other suggestions?

Fightsback

J_B wrote: »

Hmmm, well, they are still trading!

Anyway, 'we' are looking for someone better - any other suggestions?

Liquidated twice in 5 years with the same boss :whistle:

I told you as have others, 123 reg.

https://www.123-reg.co.uk/make-me-a-website/

pinkteapot

123-reg are shockingly bad. They refuse to delete credit card details that they hold, even when you've cancelled all your products with them. Their customer service is atrocious. I was with them for a few years but have moved all my sites and domains away now. The hoops they make you jump through to cancel are ridiculous.

I rave to anyone who'll listen about Vidahost - https://www.vidahost.com/

Customer service is a UK call centre which open from 9am - midnight 365 days a year. Every year they email me to remind me they're open on Christmas Day! Phone's always been answered quickly when I've rung.

If you don't want to call, they also have an email / support ticket system and the longest I've ever waited for a reply is 15 minutes.

I had brilliant service from them a couple of months ago. Registered a domain for a new small business I was starting. A couple of weeks later I sent a support ticket asking what the easiest way was to add a hosting package to that domain name. They replied and pointed out that I had a multi-site hosting package already, where I have another website with a different domain, so I could just set the new site up on the hosting I already had. Really honest of them - they could have just added another hosting product to the new domain and I would have been paying more and been none the wiser.

chunter

pinkteapot wrote: »

123-reg are shockingly bad. They refuse to delete credit card details that they hold, even when you've cancelled all your products with them. Their customer service is atrocious. I was with them for a few years but have moved all my sites and domains away now. The hoops they make you jump through to cancel are ridiculous.

Seen nothing till you see the stuff 1and1 get up to!

InsideInsurance

CSNewMedia always were good when I used them for my business.

Which email client is he using for his accessing mail?

Whilst you can certainly put spam filters and blocks in place these things are not perfect and you may find you are also blocking legitimate emails. I'd argue this is an increasing problem as more of the sort of spam you are talking about is sent from botnets etc and thus are regular mail servers and not bulk mailers.

Personally I just had filters for keywords on my email which moves suspect emails into the junk folder which I scan once a day to ensure nothing else has accidently been caught

J_B

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Which email client is he using for his accessing mail?

He uses M$ Outlook and also has 'paid for' AVG which marks suspected messages as SPAM, so, I have set up a filter to put all these into his junk folder.

Not spoken to him for a few days but will visit for a progress report soon ....