Categories
Announcements Changes

Mail: Return of Cloudmark Authority

We’re adding Cloudmark Authority back into our system for mail filtering. The CMAE_1 rule for SpamAssassin will return and new features for the account control center will be developed. (See our previous announcement here.)

The difference this time around is that we’re not using a SpamAssassin integration. We’re integrating it directly into our content filtering module which is account control center aware and SpamAssassin is configured to look for the presence of a header added if a message is determined to be spam.

More updates to come.

UPDATE (Dec. 23, 2016): Scoring is now enabled. The CMAE_1 rule is currently configured with a score of 1 if detected as spam and X-CMAE-* headers will be added for all messages. We may change the default score in the future. You can adjust the CMAE_1 score in the SpamAssassin preferences section of the control center, if desired.

Categories
Announcements Changes

Mail: New Spamtrap-Based SpamAssassin Tests

We’ve added two new SpamAssassin tests using on our spamtrap data.

RCVD_IN_ROLLERNET_TRAP – This test means that an IP address matched one that was seen in the headers of a message submitted to a spamtrap. Since this includes all headers it’s possible for a faked IP to end up on this list, but at the same time that faked IP is being used as part of a spam run. Useful for scoring but possibly not outright blocking due to all headers being considered. Default score is 1.5

CLIENT_ROLLERNET_TRAP – This test means that the client IP address has submitted to a spamtrap. This should generally be safe for blocking and scoring since the IP is the actual connecting client address when it submitted something to a spamtrap. Default score is 3.

The spamtrap will exclude an IP address if it’s listed on DNSWL.org, but we do not check any further to see who the IP address belongs to. For example: if Gmail started spewing spam into the trap their IP addresses would be listed (unless it’s on DNSWL), so if gmail.com is critical to you and you want to use the spamtrap data you would want to add your own whitelist entry for gmail.com.

Categories
Announcements Changes Status

Mail: New URIBL Restrictions on SMTP AUTH

Starting on December 19th we’re no longer going to accept mail submitted to our SMTP AUTH system with a URI classified as black, grey, red, or gold on URIBL. These categories contain domains that are either actively used by spammers or found in unsolicited bulk mail. This is currently being treated as a trial change.

The “grey” category is a special case. It contains domains that are used by bulk or commercial mail, which may not be spammers in the strict sense, but are nevertheless against our policy for SMTP AUTH submissions (no bulk or marketing mail).

Our goal is quality of mail through our submission system in order to maintain a high reputation for our customers that depend on us for routine communication. Because we are not a “bulk mail” outfit we are unfortunately unable to accommodate bulk mail use cases, and it would be more appropriate to use the mailer’s service to send bulk mail instead of ours.

If you find you’re having trouble submitting messages after this change, contact support so we can investigate. Marketing-type mail should be sent directly to the intended recipient and not rely on forwarding or resending.

Categories
Announcements Changes

Mail: New Header X-Rollernet-Client

We’ve added a new header to mail we handle called “X-Rollernet-Client”. This header will contain the IP address of the server that connected to us without having to handle “Received” headers. This will put the client IP at the fingertips of customers that want post-process their mail and need the client address for any reason.

The IP address will be formatted in square brackets and IPv6 addresses will be fully expanded. An error is indicated by empty square brackets.

Normal IPv4 client example:

X-Rollernet-Client: [192.0.2.10]

Normal IPv6 client example:

X-Rollernet-Client: [IPv6:2001:0db8:4001:0c0b:0000:0000:0000:022b]

Error example:

X-Rollernet-Client: []
Categories
Announcements

Advanced Business Broadband is Coming in 2017

UPDATE 2: Officially canceled as of April 10, 2017. See announcement: Advanced Business Broadband – Project Canceled

UPDATE:  As of January 2017 work on this new service has been suspended until further notice. The license holder of the band we needed to lease from may no longer be issuing leases at this time. Rollernet was supposed to obtain spectrum leases in December 2016 to compliment our equipment purchase, but the license holder has not followed through with a lease agreement as of January 17th. Unfortunately without a spectrum lease we can’t operate equipment and we must regretfully suspend work.


We recently finalized plans to start work on a new service we’re calling “Advanced Business Broadband”. This service will fill the middle gap in our business internet options which are currently offered as “basic” or “dedicated internet access”.

Advanced Business Broadband will be available with the following tiers: 20×20, 50×50, 100×100, 150×150, and 200×200. Pricing is expected to be between $400 and $800 per month. Like dedicated internet access this is a licensed service that enjoys the same protections, low latency, high speed, and true symmetric bandwidth with a service level agreement. Advanced business broadband also comes with all the benefits of local content from peers on TahoeIX plus new peers like Hurricane Electric which will continue to enhance our customer’s connectivity to the world beyond what other ISPs in Reno/Sparks that don’t peer at TahoeIX are able to offer.

This will also help companies that want to colocate equipment solve the “last mile” problem: a quality connection is needed to take advantage of the protections that local colocation offers to their business servers, but don’t want to (or can’t) pay the high prices other providers want to charge for a connection back to our facility.

rollernet-advanced-system-coverage-proposed

Our planned coverage area consists of the majority of the commercial and industrial areas in Reno and Sparks along the Truckee River and I-80 corridor and east of US-395. Right now we’re targeting February 2017 for early deployments, which if equipment arrives in January will allow us to do burn in and development testing for 30 days before releasing it to the early adopters. These timeframes are tentative: actual dates will depend on when we start receiving equipment.

As things progress we’ll post updates to our Twitter account @RollernetNV so follow us for the latest news. If you’re interested in being an early adopter send an email to sales@rollernet.us to register your interest. We’re planning on offering some discounts and incentives for early adopters.

Disclaimer: Advanced business broadband is still in the development stages. We may need to tweak plans, pricing, SLAs, or coverage once we actually have equipment in hand.