News and Updates

This category contains information about events that may affect your service such as maintenance or outages. It also contains announcements on new products releases and enhancements.

Planned Maintenance

December 5, 2019 – We discovered a slight problem with the work done on the mail server system during the last maintenance.  Although the system is working well (we in the office have noticed a huge difference in performance), there is a configuration error that affects data redundancy.   We’ve got to correct that issue which will require stopping mail services briefly once again.  We are planning on doing this Tuesday, December 10th, in a window between 11:00pm and 2:00am CST.    During that time, email services will be unavailable as data is migrated.  We will post updates here as the work proceeds.

December 10 11:00pm – Maintenance is starting.

Update 11:35pm – Maintenance completed.  All services are running normally.

 

Again, if you have any questions, please contact us at support@internetpro.net, call 256-547-6817, or chat using the window at the lower right of this screen.

 

2019-12-11T05:35:12-06:00December 5, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Planned Maintenance

Maintenance Phase 2

December 2, 2019 – After completing “phase 1” of our email system changes, we’re ready do move to “phase 2”.   We will be performing this maintenance starting at 11:00pm Tuesday, December 3rd.  We expect email services to be offline for about 1.5 hours (a bit longer than Phase 1). The actual maintenance window will extend until 2:00am to give us time to complete all upgrades.  Once this is complete, there should be no more interruptions for quite a while.    We do have to block email access for the allotted time to insure that all email is completely synced to the new filesystem and so that no email gets lost.   We appreciate your understanding.   Updates to Phase 2 will be posted here.    We will also be using the time to update some web servers to newer operating systems.  These upgrades will take some web services offline briefly during the maintenance period, but we do not expect any one service to be out during the entire maintenance window.

December 3, 2019 11:00pm – This maintenance is starting. Email services have been stopped so that the data can be synced to the new storage.

Update December 4, 1:20am – The good news is that the mail server system maintenance went great and mail services were restored in right at 45 minutes.   The bad news is that some web server maintenance went badly resulting in this site as well as others going offline.   We are still working on that, but we are making progress on restoring the sites (as you can see here).

Update 3:55am – The maintenance on the affected web server is complete.  It went a bit long, but everything should be working as expected. If you experience any issues with a site, please contact us.

 

If you have any questions, please email support@internetpro.net, call 256-547-6817, or access the chat window on the lower right of your screen.  Please note if using chat, it may take 2-5 minutes for a response. Please allow us time to respond.

 

2019-12-04T09:55:37-06:00December 2, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Maintenance Phase 2

Virus/Trojan Spreading

November 22, 2019 2:30pm– We’ve been seeing the spread of a virus/trojan in the Trickbot family.  These are spread using the older Word document format (files ending with .doc).  They are not being spread using the newer Word document format (ending in .docx).   We are temporarily blocking all .doc attachments to try to limit the spread of this trojan.  If you need to send someone a .doc file and you can’t convert it to .docx, we recommend that you put it into a .zip archive first and then send it.    Normally, .doc files can be converted to .docx by just using a version of Word newer than 2003 and saving it as the new format. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Update 4:00pm  –  It seems that we have inadvertently blocked .docx files as well even though we explicitly told the system not to.  We are investigating the issue.
Update 4:15pm – We’ve corrected the issue so only .doc files are being blocked as we originally intended.

November 25 – 2:30pm – We do understand that the blocking of .doc files is an inconvenience for some customers and we do apologize.  However, since 6:30am today, we have blocked very close to 3000 of these viruses and have been able to keep at least one customer from spreading this infection.

November 26 – 9:00am – We’ve seen a drastic reduction in the number of .doc files being blocked, so we believe the majority of infected computers have been found/cleaned/quarantined.  Therefore, we have removed the restriction for .doc files.

Update 11:30am – It seems that we were a bit premature at lifting this restriction.  We’ve gotten complaints of this virus continuing to spread, so we’ve applied the restriction to .doc files once again.

December 9, 2019 – 5:00pm – We’re stopping much fewer .doc files now and we feel that many of the ones we are stopping are legitimate (based on tech support contacts).   Therefore, we’ve again lifted the ban on the .doc files.  If we see an uptick of the trojan spreading again, we’ll block them and post updates here.

 

If you have any questions about this temporary policy, please email us at support@internetpro.net or utilize the chat window in the lower right part of your screen.

 

2019-12-09T22:56:46-06:00November 22, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Virus/Trojan Spreading

Planned Maintenance

November 22, 2019 – We will be performing some planned maintenance on our mail server system starting at 11:00pm Thursday the 28th (yes, Thanksgiving).   The maintenance window is 3 hours ending a 2:00am on Friday the 29th.   During part of the maintenance window, email services will be inaccessible.   We’ll do our best to keep the time to a minimum.   We are implementing a new storage system which will improve performance and allow future growth of our email offerings.   This will be “phase 1” and after it is complete, we’ll be moving data to the new system.  Once the data has been synchronized, we’ll have another brief maintenance window to finalize the sync and make the storage system live.  We will announce this second window when we have more information on the timing.

During these windows, no email will be lost.  While the mail server system is inaccessible, any incoming email will “queue up” and wait for the system to come back online.  After the system is online, all delayed email will be delivered.

Update:  November 28 – 11:00pm – Maintenance has started.  Mail services going offline starting now.  Updates to follow when back online.

Update: 11:25pm – All services are back online.  We don’t expect any further interruptions for “phase 1”.

 

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at support@internetpro.net, call 256-547-6817, or utilize the online chat window in the lower right corner of  your screen.

 

2019-11-29T05:26:42-06:00November 22, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Planned Maintenance

Comcast Issues

November 20, 2019 1:00pm – We are seeing city wide issues with Comcast today (busy day…).   These are showing up as internet down completely or very slow speeds.  For most customers, powering down the modem, waiting for about 10 seconds, and powering it back up has been resolving the issue.  Please note:  It is taking longer than usual after the power up before internet is restored.  It may take up to 10 full minutes.

 

We have seen these issues very widespread in Rainbow City and reaching to downtown Gadsden.

 

 

2019-11-20T19:11:00-06:00November 20, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Comcast Issues

Server Blacklisted

November 20, 2019 – 11:00am – We have received reports indicating that we have been blacklisted by Barracuda’s spam system.  Barracuda’s spam filters are in wide use, so this affects many recipients.   We are working to find out the reason for the blacklisting and are asking to be removed.   These type of listings take a bit of time as not all internet service providers and mail server operators synchronize their lists at the same time or in the same interval.   In the mean time, if you have sent email to a recipient and received a bounce, you can ask the recipient to put you on their whitelist so that your email will flow until this is resolved.

A sample bounce message will contain this information:

–BEGIN

Remote host <IP address> does not like recipient <recipient email address>
Remote host said: 554-Service unavailable; Client host
[mail.internetpro.net] blocked using 554-Barracuda Reputation;
554 http://www.barracudanetworks.com/reputation/?r=1&ip=74.252.14.252

–END

We do apologize for the inconvenience and will post updates here as we have them.

Update 11:22am – It seems that Barracuda Networks is having some issues.  This may be the reason for the apparent blacklisting.  Their website and reporting tools are almost unresponsive and their monitoring service is unreachable completely.

Update 11:40am – We’ve been able to submit a removal request and are awaiting the results of that.  In addition, we believe we’ve tracked the cause of the listing.  Surprisingly, the source sends very little spam, which is probably why only one blacklist has listed us.  We’ve blocked the possible source and are continuing to look for any other issues.

Update 1:15pm –  We’ve confirmed removal of our servers from Baracuda’s blacklist.  However, some ISPs and spam appliances will take some time to update their local lists.  In our tests, some email is still being rejected, but we expect this to clear over the next few hours.

 

2019-11-20T19:24:01-06:00November 20, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Server Blacklisted

Comcast Outage

November 12, 2019 –  Starting at approximately 1:15am CST, our systems detected an area wide outage of Comcast. This is affecting many of our customer phone systems, VPNs, and other services.  We are investigating.

Update 2:15am – Comcast seems to have cleared up the issue.  It lasted approximately 50 minutes, but systems are online now in the Gadsden area.  We’ve detected a few down systems outside of Gadsden but expect that they are due to the inclement weather.

 

2019-11-12T08:20:03-06:00November 12, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Comcast Outage

AT&T Outage

October 22, 2019 – 8:00pm – AT&T is experiencing a *major* outage which is affecting many of our systems.  Phones are currently offline but are being redirected to tech cell phones as a failover.  Eventually, we’ll have time to actually implement real failover on our phone system so that doesn’t happen, but not today. 🙁    The outage is outside of our network, and we have not been able to get an estimated time to repair (ETR) from AT&T.   We are seeing reports online of the outages, and it seems to be widespread.  https://downdetector.com/status/att/

Update 9:45pm – After being on hold with AT&T, we’ve finally been issued a ticket to track the issue.  There is still no ETR, but it seems that AT&T is at least aware of the issue.

Update 10:00pm  – Service seems to be restored at least in this area.  We are seeing increased connectivity on our systems.

 

 

2019-10-23T03:08:15-05:00October 23, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on AT&T Outage

New 3CX App

The new 3CX app for Android has been released.  Release announcement blow:

The 3CX team has literally pushed the button with the release of the new 3CX Android App. This new app optimized for Android 10 and latest OS is available on 3CX version 16. This version completely replaces the old app which has been pushed to legacy.

The 3CX Android App now features a redesigned User Interface (UI), developed with speed and functionality in mind. It is packed with smart features such as Push Per Status allowing you to set enable or disable Push messages for each status; automatic GSM call priority over SIP calls, and secure calls by default.

Android App UI

Brand New UI redesign

The completely redesigned interface brings functionality to the forefront without sacrificing on design or compatibility with newer Android devices. Updated elements include an expanded and more intuitive screen, functional layout and shortcuts, as well as changes to the call screen and set status functions.

Connectivity reassured – Reconnect calls automatically

3CX will now automatically reconnect an ongoing phone call if you change between networks (for example move from WiFi to 4G) or temporarily lose the connection. All this without you having to redial the number.

Secure Communication
Default end-to-end secure communication

The 3CX Android App leverages the new tunnel encryption available in v16 to provide out-of-the-box, end-to-end secure communications. Whether in your network environment or on the road, simply access your extension with the new app. Upon making a call, you will get an on-screen padlock icon, denoting the call is encrypted.

Set Push Per Status

With one simple tap, you can configure your status and set the “Accept Push Messages” option when it suits you best. You can enable or disable Push messages for each status, to get calls on your 3CX app or on another IP phone.

Other enhancements

  • Quick action menu to take ownership of a chat or transfer from chat view.
  • Faster loading for chat conversations and contacts.
  • Attachments now stored and accessible in the “3CXPhone\3CX” device folder.
  • Ability to search by Company name.
  • GSM Call Priority.
  • Quick Mute to silence an incoming call.

Requirements

3CX Android App is only compatible with Version 16, which must have an active maintenance or subscription. It is supported on Android 7 Nougat, Android 8 Oreo, Android 9 Pie and Android 10 Q.

The older version of the 3CX Android App will no longer be supported and is considered a legacy app.

If you’re running an old version of 3CX, we recommend upgrading to v16 – it’s more secure, has plenty more features, and it’s free to upgrade. Alternatively, you will need to disable auto-updates from your Android device.

2019-10-07T18:16:41-05:00October 7, 2019|News and Updates, VOIP|Comments Off on New 3CX App

Mail Server Problems

September 9, 2019 – We are experiencing some technical difficulties with our email server. The webmail interface is currently down.

 

Update: 12:37pm – Service is restored.

2019-09-09T17:38:35-05:00September 9, 2019|News and Updates|Comments Off on Mail Server Problems
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