Cpanel Advice: Please Read! SPAM IN YOUR EMAILS!

[Billy!]

I would like to offer some good advice to people who Host thier sites with Hostgator or any other Webhosts who provide Cpanel. Please Check your "Mail" feature.

I just check all of my sites Mail in the Mail section.

All of my sites do not have webmail set up, but I was surprised to find tens of thousans of spam mails and I dont even have any email accounts set up!

This was causing me to get 'iNode" warnings that my account would be soon suspended and I should upgrade my site to Dedicated Hosting, something I cannot afford!

Go to http://www.yoursite.com/cpanel

Steps

1. Click on Mail
2. Click on Webmail
3. Click on Horde
4. Login
5. Click on Mail

SURPRISE! Do you too have thousands of Spams ... even if you dont even have an email account set up?

If you folder is full of thousands of Spams then do this...

6. Click on Folders
7. Tick Inbox
8. Choose Empy Folders from the Drop Down box above
9. Click Empty Selected Folders
10. Do this regularly before you get an email from Hostgator like this:

WARNING: gator85.hostgator.com: comscout: 63970 inodes

Server: gator85
User: xxxxx
Email: xxxxx(Owner)
iNodes: 63970 (warning)



Date: Sun Jul 27 00:22:59 CDT 2008
Email: xxxx
Account Name: xxxxx
Server: gator85.hostgator.com
iNodes (Files): 63970/50,000 (127.00%)

Hello,

To maintain the highest level of performance on our shared servers we have a maximum inode (file) limit of 50,000 inodes (files) per account. The size of the file does not matter, only the number of files. For example, a DVD image (say, 4.5gb) only counts as one inode, or file. Our limit, as outlined in our terms of service, is 50,000 files per account. We generally don't hold people strictly to this limit, but at the same time we expect our users to respect the limits of the system. When an account has hundreds of thousands of files, it significantly degrades overall disk performance, as each file on the disk must be tracked/indexed.

An easy analogy would be a table of contents or glossary for a book. If the book only has a few hundred pages, the index or glossary is likely to be small and easy to search. If the book has 5,000 pages, finding what you want might take significantly longer. The file system on a server works in a similar way, just on a larger scale. Our experience has shown that 50,000 files per account is a fair number, and accounts that exceed that by a significant amount cause disk performance issues. This message is to inform you that the listed account has significantly exceeded our limits for disk inodes/files and could potentially lead to disk issues.

It is also important to realize that accounts that exceed the inode (file) limit are not backed up by our courtesy weekly backup service, per section 7b of our Terms of Service. Of course, we advise every user to run their own backups to be safe. Accounts over our the 50,000 inode limit are bypassed so that backups can complete in a timely fashion for everyone. Otherwise, accounts with hundreds of thousands or more inodes will utilize more server resources than other accounts, and could lead to file system errors on our backup servers.

This account will be re-checked again in 7 days to verify it is below 50,000 files. If this account remains above the maximum inode limit after repeated checks, we'll have to review the situation further and advise a course of action. It is critical that one of the following actions take place before that happens:


a) reduce the number of inodes/files. This change must be permanent; if you have a high number of cache files or similar, and you expect them to naturally exceed the inode limit again in the future, the configuration must be changed to limit the total number of cached files.

If you are completely unaware of the source of the inodes, it may be that you have left your default mailbox enabled, and never cleared it. Over time, it can fill up with spam, consuming hundreds of thousands of inodes. If you have a catch-all enabled on your account, this can greatly increase the amount of mail/spam that our account receives and will raise your inode usage quickly unless routinely emptied. If you would like assistance clearing these folders from unwanted email or removing the catch-all from your account, please let us know and we would be happy to assist you.


The default mailbox is located at:

/home/xxxx/mail/cur
/home/xxxxx/mail/new


b) upgrade to dedicated service, where inode counts are no longer checked. In many cases, accounts that significantly exceed our inode/file limits have simply outgrown the shared environment, and a dedicated server is the logical choice. In many cases, the transfer from a shared to dedicated server will incur no charge. In rare situations, accounts with excessive numbers of accounts or users may require a fee; the transfer department would advise you of that fact prior to the transfer taking place. If you've read this far, it's clear you're serious about taking care of the issue and we can offer you 50% off off the first month's purchase of a dedicated server. To receive the discount, please:

- Reply to this email stating you'd like to upgrade. You will
automatically be assigned a ticket number, which will be
visible in the subject line. You may need to confirm your
email if this is the first time you've ever sent us a
ticket or emailed one of our departments.


- Order a dedicated server:
http://www.hostgator.com/billing/order/orderwiz.php

- Email [email protected] after placing your order. This
promotion is unadvertised, and must be manually approved.
You must reference the ticket # you receive (above) to
qualify for the discounted rate. This promotion only
applies to dedicated servers priced $ 219.00 or higher.


We thank you for taking the time to resolve this issue. If you have any questions or perhaps you are not sure what could be causing the high number of inodes, we can help you with that. Simply reply to this email and we will be more than happy to assist you.

As soon as I deleted all of my emails, guess what .... I already have 4 Spam emails, that is very quick!

I have 4 main sites with hostgator and this how much emails I have without knowing:

Site 1: 27,237 Spam Emails
Site 2: 43,438 Spam Emails
Site 3: 7,398 Spam Emails
Site 4: 63,972 Spam Emails

This is who one Spam was from:

To: [email protected]

So the spammers send the emails to gator257.hostgator.com and so forth!

That is crap! Surely they can fix it, as I say, I dont even have a email account in my Cpanel!

 

[CrazyTech]

Right, this is a default feature in most control panels where you have what is known as a catchall account. Just have the mail delivered to that inbox go to :fail: and you'll be fine...or you can automatically delete it. Either way, you shouldn't have to periodically login to delete a large number of emails.

 

[~ServerPoint~]

I believe if you want to delete all messages in bulk you need to ask your support team and they will.

 

[weblord]

you can also set it up to pipe in to a program

http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/11/cpanel/mail_catchall.html

Setting Up the Default Email (Catch-All) Options
Steps

1. The first option is to "Send all unrouted e-mail for" a particular domain. Choose the domain you want to setup the "catch-all" email from the drop down menu.
2. Then choose one of the following options:
* Forward to an email address - Click on this option to forward all mail that is sent to an invalid email address to a particular email address that you choose. Then enter the email address you want the "catch-all" or default email to go to in the "Forward to email address" text box.
* Discard (Not Recommended) - Select this option to have the system discard or delete all mail that is sent to an invalid email address. This option is not recommended as you may delete important email.
* Discard with error to sender (at SMTP time) - Select this option to have the system discard or delete all mail that is sent to an invalid email address. An error email message that you specify will be sent to the sender of the email. Enter the error message you want the sender to see in the "Failure Message" (seen by sender) text box.
* Pipe to a program - Select this option to have the system send all invalid mail to that program or script on your server. Enter the path to the program or script in the text box.
3. Click on the Change button.
4. You will see a confirmation message based on the option you chose in Step 2 above.