Site access speed, and black-listing.

#1 11-24-2007, 09:08 AM

Hi,

A couple of questions before switching to HostGator.

Quick summary:
1. How fast will access to my HostGator site be?
2. Black-listing?

1.
Currently I have my website hosted with my ISP, and a domain name registered with a third party which simply forwards to my site.

I'm planning to move both to HostGator, but am curious about what change in access speed I should expect for visitors to my site.

Going directly to my site currently seems quite fast, but I'm in Australia, where my site is hosted, so maybe it's not so fast elsewhere in the world:

http://web.aanet.com.au/robertw/Stella.html

Going to my site via the domain name can be noticably slower sometimes I've noticed:

http://www.software3D.com/Stella.html

So by comparison to my existing setup, is there any way to get an idea of how fast access to the site would be once hosted on HostGator?

2.
I have discovered that it I give a link to my domain name in an email to yahoo users, it will ALWAYS go into their trash can (unless I'm in their address book). If I give the direct link to my site it gets through (generally!). After moving to HostGator though, I plan to always refer to my site using the domain name.

So why does this happen? Has my domain name become black-listed with yahoo for some reason, or is it to do with my current registrar? Can I fix it? And if I switch to HostGator, will I still have the problem? (If so it will be worse because I will only be referring to the site using the domain name).

Thanks,
Rob.

Sam · #2 11-24-2007, 09:20 AM

Quote:

1.
Currently I have my website hosted with my ISP, and a domain name registered with a third party which simply forwards to my site.

I'm planning to move both to HostGator, but am curious about what change in access speed I should expect for visitors to my site.

Going directly to my site currently seems quite fast, but I'm in Australia, where my site is hosted, so maybe it's not so fast elsewhere in the world:

http://web.aanet.com.au/robertw/Stella.html

Going to my site via the domain name can be noticably slower sometimes I've noticed:

http://www.software3D.com/Stella.html

So by comparison to my existing setup, is there any way to get an idea of how fast access to the site would be once hosted on HostGator?

You can signup for a plan and if you don't think that it is fast enough then you can get a refund within 30-days of opening the account

But HG are really fast

Quote:

So why does this happen? Has my domain name become black-listed with yahoo for some reason, or is it to do with my current registrar? Can I fix it? And if I switch to HostGator, will I still have the problem? (If so it will be worse because I will only be referring to the site using the domain name).

Your ISP's mailserver could have been blacklisted..

If it is just you ISP's server that has been blacklisted then you won't get the same problem with HG

gwyneth · #3 11-24-2007, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

Your ISP's mailserver could have been blacklisted..

If it is just you ISP's server that has been blacklisted then you won't get the same problem with HG

Ah, Sam, I think you interpreted his problem exactly the opposite of what he meant.

He is using "direct link" to mean host/user/~page and "link to domain name" to mean domain/page. The former goes through in email to Yahoo; the latter does not.

Goddess Dix · #4 11-24-2007, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobertWebb

So why does this happen? Has my domain name become black-listed with yahoo for some reason, or is it to do with my current registrar? Can I fix it? And if I switch to HostGator, will I still have the problem? (If so it will be worse because I will only be referring to the site using the domain name).

Rob- You're getting your terminology confused. Blacklisting is when an ip has been idenitifed as a source of spam and put on one or more lists that different mail providers check before accepting mail. This is a problem with shared hosting everywhere, because many people share the same ip address. Essentially, if you end up sharing a box with someone identified as a likely spammer, you suffer by association. HG is pretty good about addressing this, and the new mail gateway stuff you've can see discussed elsewhere on the forum is specifically meant to address this by switiching around the ip's used for outgoing mail to make it less of a problem.

What you're describing sounds like you're tripping yahoo's spam filter, which is however yahoo has it set up and what rules it runs before delivering mail. If your domain was blacklisted by yahoo, it wouldn't get that far to make it into their spam box, most likely. They're going to reject it before it hits the mailserver in that instance.

Goddess Dix · #5 11-24-2007, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam

Your ISP's mailserver could have been blacklisted..

does yahoo blacklist into the spam folder? 'cause i just told him i thought it wouldn't even hit the server if he was blacklisted, since that's often how it will be handled...

Sam · #6 11-24-2007, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goddess Dix

does yahoo blacklist into the spam folder? 'cause i just told him i thought it wouldn't even hit the server if he was blacklisted, since that's often how it will be handled...

Not sure, i haven't used Y! in a year or so

slapshotw · #7 11-24-2007, 04:11 PM

Yahoo has two levels based on IP--bulking, and deferring/blocking. If your IP reputation is so-so, you'll get bulked. If your IP reputation is terrible, or you try to send Yahoo too many messages at once, you'll get deferred or blocked.

Goddess Dix · #8 11-24-2007, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Yahoo has two levels based on IP--bulking, and deferring/blocking. If your IP reputation is so-so, you'll get bulked. If your IP reputation is terrible, or you try to send Yahoo too many messages at once, you'll get deferred or blocked.

Thanks for the clarification, Matt. Good to know.

#9 11-24-2007, 08:40 PM

Thanks, still confused though :-)

When you say mail is blocked based on IP, does that mean the IP from which I send the email? Or the IP associated with any link I might give in the email? Because the latter seems to be the problem.

Gwyneth is right. The direct ISP link gets through, the domain name link (which just forwards to the the ISP page) does not (always goes to junk folder).

So it's guilt by association with other users of my current domain registrar, even though they're not hosting my site? If that's the case, switching to HG should fix things straight away, no?

Doh! I just did a test and even my domain name link now gets through to a test yahoo account OK. Sorry, had been a while since I last tested this, and it looks like yahoo have fixed it now anyway :-/

Thanks,
Rob.

slapshotw · #10 11-24-2007, 11:25 PM

The IP it comes from. I was answering another question in the thread, and don't think it has to do with the link you're putting in your mail.

gtgeorge · #11 11-25-2007, 06:55 AM

Actually links etc in the email could end up increasing your spam score which ultimately could cause a blocked delivery or redirect to spam folders. While not actually blacklisted, the end result of non delivery occurs.

slapshotw · #12 11-25-2007, 10:38 AM

Yes--just to be clear, there are two *completely separate* processes going on. IP reputation, and content scanning. Your IP must first get through the IP reputation check before it is considered for content scanning. The IP reputation comes mostly from spam complaints or trying to send thousands of messages at a time. The content check includes things like the words you say and the webpages you link to.