DNX E-mail Services:

 Server Equipment and Software
Discovery Networks is primarily a UNIX based hosting company. We currently employ eight E-mail servers. Three for inbound service, two for storage, one for outbound service, and two webmail servers.

E-mail is a highly volitile service, which is prone to abuse by outside parties. We utilize several methods to reduce the effects of abusive parties. We use Postfix for our MTA functions, Cyrus for our maildrops, Perdition for maildrop proxy, and Horde/Imp for Webmail. We also utilize Spamassassin, and SmapCop for UCE control.

Your Maildrop
Each E-mail account has a "Maildrop". The maildrop is where your received E-mail is stored. Although the terms "account" and "maildrop" can often be used interchanably, when talking about storage, maildrop is preferred. If you use the E-mail address such as "xyz@dnx.net", your maildrop is the group of characters to the left of the "@;" sign. (i.e. "xyz") The group of characters to the right of the @ sign is the domain. (In our example: "dnx.net") Maildrops are unique for any given ISP. Therefore, if a particular dnx client already has the maildrop "john" no one else may have that maildrop/account.

If you have a virtual domain, the E-mail address which you give people will be different. For instance you may have the domain: "your-domain.com", and you may wish for your address to be "sales". (i.e. "sales@your-domain.com") When we engineer your domain, we make a "virutal mapping" from your virtual E-mail address to your maildrop. This mapping does not change your maildrop! In the above example, E-mail received for "sales@your-domain.com" will be dropped into the maildrop "xyz". Often maildrops for virtual domains will be prefaced alike, so native maildrop names may be preserved.

WARNING!

  • Discovery Networks, Inc. will not be held responsible for any content you may receive via E-mail. Unsolicited commercial E-mail, (UCE) or often called "Spam", is an unfortunate occurance for people who have E-mail addresses. DNX does to the best of it's ability, reduce the receiption of junk E-mail. There is no guarentee our methods are fool-proof.
  • Inasmuch as we must grapple with inbound UCE, outbound UCE from DNX subscribers is very much under our control! DO NOT send UCE! Well will terminate accounts which knowingly send UCE outbound from DNX! See our acceptable usage agreement, which is the basis for the Internet access we grant you.
  • The contents of your maildrop is your responsiblity. DNX cannot be held responsible for any loss to the contents of maildrops. Any E-mail considered important to you should be downloaded to your local computer.

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    Quotas
    Your maildrop by default has a 20MB quota maximum collectively for all folders. (More can be available for an additional fee.) Once you reach this capacity, no more E-mail can be received for any address that maps to this maildrop, and deleted mail cannot be retrieved from the Trash folder. As stated previously, it's best to save any important or large E-mail on your local computer as backup and to relieve space in your maildrop.

    Over quota maildrops are a nuisance to us. It causes our servers to work overtime attempting to deliver mail which they cannot. This causes everybodys E-mail to be delayed. Maildrops which are consistantly over quota for which the owner cannot be contacted are considered "abandoned" and will be deleted!

    POP3 Service
    Post Office Protocol, (version 3), is a method of receiving stored E-mail from your maildrop on our servers to your computer. Once it has received all the E-mail, it deletes it from the maildrop. POP3 is the most common method for this purpose, and is the default for many browsers. There are three basic pieces of information you need to know when setting up pop3:

    • POP3 server - Several names may work, but the best is to use "pop3.dnx.net".

    • Account - This is your maildrop/account id from DNX.

    • Password - The password for your maildrop/account.

    Most E-mail programs require an SMTP server, see settings below.

    WARNING!

    To avoid needless aggravation, (see quotas below), you should never use settings such as: Keep a copy on the server. Doing so will fill up your maildrop and you'll stop getting E-mail for no apparent reason!

    Most pop3 implementations are weak. Many do not understand the concept of folders. As part of our efforts to reduce UCE, we place suspect mail into a "Spam" folder. If your E-mail program does not understand folders, you could lose mail placed there, (albeit probably fine), it also can cause your maildrop to go over quota, causing you to stop getting E-mail. POP3 does not work well when accessed from multiple locations. Often downloaded mail is trapped on one computer, but you need it on another! POP3 service is very stable and robust. However, if your E-mail needs are more than just casual, consider using the IMAP protocol instead of POP3.

    IMAP
    Internet Mail Access Protocol, like POP3 is a method of getting your E-mail from your maildrop, however IMAP is much more advanced. One of the most important concepts to understand about IMAP is the fact it controls your maildrop remotely. If you have an 8MB E-mail in your maildrop, you don't need to download it just to delete it, like POP3 does. You simply delete it. In other words, it only downloads the E-mail messages you want it to. IMAP understands folders, and because the mail stays on the maildrop server, it allows you to seemlessly get your mail from multiple locations. (At the office, at home, or out of town!)

    IMAP requires three pieces of information:

    • IMAP server - Several names may work, but the best is to use "imap.dnx.net".

    • Account - This is your maildrop/account id from DNX.

    • Password - The password for your maildrop/account.

    Most E-mail programs require an SMTP server, see settings below.

    WARNING!

    Because IMAP keeps it's contents on our mailservers, chances are if you don't regularly get your mail, your maildrop can go over quota, causing any new mail to be rejected. Be sure to clear your Spam and Trash folders regularly to avoid this situation.

    Discovery Networks, Inc. will not be held responsible for the contents of your maildrop. Although we regularly mirror the contents of your maildrop, any E-mail of special importance should be saved locally on your computer.
    SMTP
    Simple Mail Transport Protocol is the method of sending E-mail via the Internet. Commonly, E-mail programs do not send to the destination servers directly, but use a SMTP host, (or sometimes called a "Smart Host") to do the leg work for them. If you connect up through any of DNX connectivity services all that is required to know is the name of the SMTP server:

    • SMTP server - Use "smtp.dnx.net".
    If you are not connecting to the Internet though our services, or you are using DSL, the outbound SMTP server requires authentication, therefore the additional settings are required. (It wont hurt to use these if you connect locally.)

    • Account - This is your maildrop/account id from DNX.

    • Password - The password for your maildrop/account.

    • Server Requires authentication. This option, if present should be selected.

    WARNING!

    You should not select the option: "Server requires Secure authentication". This will make your connection fail!

    WebMail
    Webmail is a web page based IMAP client. It allows you to get your mail from anywhere that has a browser with an Internet connection. You can use webmail off the dnx home page, or directly: webmail.dnx.net Webmail also contains a calendar program and is a means to configure some general attributes of your E-mail account.

    There are two things to know when using webmail:

    • Account - Your DNX maildrop account.

    • Password - Your maildrop password.

    NOTES:

    • For an additional fee, DNX can engineer domain specific use of Webmail. This allows you to access the site like: http://webmail.your-domain.com, and will show the mail coming from your domain.

    • Secure Webmail is also possible. Call us to learn how to use secure webmail
    ETRN
    Clients with E-mail servers that connect intermittently, can use the ETRN option on their assigned secondary MX server to trigger a download. This method works well for dialup connections.

    Common Maildrop Domain Processing
    Common Maildrop Domain processing is a means of collecting all the E-mail for a virtual domain into a single maildrop. The contents of the maildrop are retrieved, (via POP3/IMAP), and then delivered locally by a local server. This method works fairly well, but has some caveats:
    • Mail to multiple recipients either gets delivered to only one party, or doubles.

    • Mail to "Undisclosed Recipeients" will often fail.

    If you currently utilize this method, we'll be happy to help you, however you should be aware of better solutions.

    NOTE: - Let us know if you need to use this method.