Dear Sir/Madam,

As you may already be aware, most Hostway email customers have already migrated to the MFG (Mail Filter Gateway) Email platform where they are now enjoying a high quality email service that is fast, reliable and practically spam free.

The time has now come for all remaining users of our legacy IMAIL platform to move to the MFG platform.

Please read the following information carefully to check how you will be affected, and direct any questions to our Support Team who will be happy to help you through the migration.

This email is directed at Hostway IMAIL users only. Our apologies if you have received this email in error.

//Hostway Support Team

_______________________________________

Why is Hostway introducing a new email cluster now?

As we have grown, Hostway UK has collected a number of disparate mail systems, some of which are not as reliable or flexible as we'd like. The time for a new platform that replaces these individual systems with one service that will meet our customers' needs - not just now but well into the future - has come.

We regret that we can no longer support the IMAIL platform in isolation.

What will the key benefits be?

The new MFG platform will offer a much more resilient service as the system is setup as an HA (Highly Available) solution with no single point of failure in the entire mail cluster structure.

• Improved spam and virus detection on a POP3 based platform

• You will have access to the latest web-based email manager SiteMail 7.0

• Standard mail storage size will be 50MB

• Authorised mail attachement size will be 25MB

When & How are migrations to MFG happening?

• IMAIL Account migrations are will be carried out by our team in TWO PHASES:-
  
  A first, small group of domains will be migrated from 10h00 GMT
  on Tuesday the 17th of Februray (primarily for script testing)
  
  The majority of domains will be migrated from 10h00 GMT
  on Tuesday the 24th of Februray.
  
  

• Once the zonefiles have been changed (at 10h00 in the morning on each day respectively), there may be a period of a few hours where emails continue to be sent to your IMAIL server (due to nameserver caching). These emails will be moved to your MFG accounts by us following migration, so that you don't lose any email.
  
  
• Once the zonefile has been changed, you will no longer have access to your IMAIL accounts. However, we will not de-commission the IMAIL server until the 28th Feb, thus allowing for any post-migration issues to be dealt with.
  
  
• Please read the section below to find out what you need to be aware of, post-migration. In summary the main points to note are:-:
  
  1. You will need to change the mail server settings in your email client (e.g. Firebird, Outlook,...) to:
  
  mail.mydomain.co.uk as server for receiving mails

  and smtp.mydomain.co.uk as outgoing server
  
  
  2. neither signatures nor address books will be migrated.
  
  3. the catch-all feature will not be available after migration.
  
  4. any mailing lists you have set up will not unfortunately be retained.
  
  
  ( See below for more detail)

What do I need to be aware of?

1. Existing Mail, Folders, Contacts and Signatures

All Emails and Folders stored on the server will be copied across to the new MFG platform, regardless of previous platform. However it is still sensible to download important emails you wish to keep to a local place, if you have not done so already.

Unfortunately it will not be possible for us to retain the saved CONTACTS and SIGNTAURES settings saved in your existing SiteMail interfaces.

We therefore advise all customers to make a physical note of these settings so that they can be reapplied once the migration is complete.

Your new SiteMail login page will be
: http://sitemail.hostway.co.uk

2. "Catch-All" removal

ALL accounts will lose the 'catch-all' address as we move accross to MFG.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused, however the reason for its removal is that it is by far the single most spam-receiving mechanism on our system, and alternative ways of organising mail without having recourse to this mechanism do exist. We are happy to advise on this.

3. Non-local/externally held DNS

Customers who do not host DNS locally with us will need to update their own MX records. The new MX Records are published on the MFG Email Migration Page.

We will be contacting separately those people who have domains for which we cannot update the zonefile ourselves.

4. POP/SMTP Authentication change

You will need to change your method of POP and SMTP Authentication from logging into POP/SMTP with 'user@' to 'user@domain.com' (ie to using the complete email address for both settings).

Under SMTP settings we will also require 'SASL authentication'.

Illustration: If your POP or SMTP username is currently formated as just 'user' (with no @ sign, or domain after it), it will need to change to 'user@yourdomain.com'

If your Mail client (e.g. Outlook) prompts you for your login when checking mail after the migration, it is likely the above change needs to be made in your account's settings.

5. Potential Service Disruption / Loss of mail

Whilst we will do everything in our power to minimise any loss of mail or disruption to delivery, it may be that some emails are not received during the time of the migration due to the nature of the work. We regret that this risk is unavoidable.

_______________________________________

Where can I get more information?

You can get further information & instructions at the MFG Email Migration Page

We will also keep our usual Service Status Page updated with regular progress reports where necessary once migrations begin.

Contact/Questions

Please direct any questions you may have to our Support Team here in the UK:

Technical Support
support@hostway.co.uk
+44 (0)845 230 1880
08h00 - 17.00 Mon-Fri

_______________________________________

We thank you in advance for your patience as we undertake this work with a view to improving the service we provide to you.

Sincerely,
 
// Hostway Support Team

__________________________________

 
www.hostway.co.uk || www.hostway.co.uk/itspersonal
 
*0845 230 1880 within the UK or +44 207 538 8000 if outside the UK, 24 Hours, 7/7.