I'm So Annoyed I Could Spit

Over the last week I've changed Internet service providers from Dodo to Pacific Internet and activated 2 domains I had registered with a web hosting company called Crazy Domains a Perth Western Australia based company.

The first of the domains feral-penguin.com.au was set up and I went in and set up email addresses, and modified the default message via ftp and everything looks hunky dory, and you beaut. Changed all our emails over and made sure our regular contacts are informed of the change of email address, no worries.

The second domain adailypenguin.com proved to be somewhat of a problem, they told me it was a goer, I even logged into the control panel and set up the email address, but then things went pear shaped. I was unable to connect to the server.

So I call up the help desk, as one does, this was on Friday, and talk to the help desk person. Just before I go on I should point out that I chose this Crazy Domains because their default server option is Linux (Debian to be precise). So I talk to the help desk person, who wants to know if I'm using Outlook or some other email client, when I tell him it's Evolution on Linux, he says we don't support that client or that operating system.

Ok fair enough I say to myself, nobody does apparently. I inform him that I went with Crazy Domains because they offer Linux. No comment was the reply I got. So we get into the details of the problem and namely that while I can in fact log in to the control panel and add/delete email addresses; I can't access the email address from my client. In fact the client is reporting to me that the server is un-contactable.

His response to all of this is that as I'm not using Windows or a Windows based email client and that the problem must be at my end as he has no trouble seeing the adailypenguin.com mail server. This in spite of the fact that as I pointed out, the feral-penguin domain is working perfectly with my email client. In the end he tells me that because I'm not using Windows he is not prepared to go on with the help call, and that I need to get a technician to look at my set up.

On Saturday I fired up the Windows XP virtual machine and tried to access the email server from Outlook Express mostly in the hope that I will get some error messages that I can ram down this persons throat. Indeed I do and I send these back to him - actually as far as I am aware he only works weekdays and he probably still hasn't received those e-mails. I also add in some additional tests such as surfing to http://www.adailypenguin.com which naturally and as the server hasn't been configured or configured properly, it takes me to a page that informs me the domain is currently parked.

So I gather up all of this plus the results of pings I did to adailypenguin.com and feral-penguin.com.au (a ping to adailypenguin.com resulted in a response from the Crazy Domain name server, while a ping to feral-penguin.com.au, naturally resulted in a response from the actual virtual machine that the server resides on) and posted all of this information to the 24/7 email help desk which is the only point of contact with Crazy Domains on the weekend.

Up until now (10:32 Sunday morning) the only response I've had back from Crazy Domains help desk was an automated email informing me that someone will read the original email and have a look at the problem. I've not yet received any response from them to let me know the problem is resolved or that it was indeed at their end or not.

By the way, they did offer a windows server as an upgrade because, as the sales person pointed out it's more expensive than the Linux option. Somehow that didn't fill me with confidence..

As of early Monday morning they appear to have fixed the problem, but have so far, 24 hours after fixing the problem, not bothered to inform me.