Spam Protection Better Passwords

As part of our recent upgrades to ITAG-1 and ITAG-2 servers, we have implemented stronger spam and security protective measures.  Here is a quick rundown of some of the features that may affect clients with web sites on those machines.

Strong Passwords
From now on any new passwords for email, cpanel and ftp must be much stronger! This means you should use 8-10 characters, and vary uppercase with lowercase and numbers.  I like to swap out numbers for vowels in an easy-to-remember word or phrase.  Try an @ instead of an a, and 3 instead of e.  Say cheese! becomes S@ych33s3! – easy to remember, but very strong!

Stronger Spam Protection
What this means for you: You should now use SMTP authentication when you check your mail. Many Mail clients do not send proper HELO names, but IF they use SMTP authentication then the check will not refuse their mail. there is a good info page for setting up your mail client for SMTP auth at http://www.webhostinghub.com/support/email/email-troubleshooting/email-invalid-helo-name YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL IT IS A PROBLEM. DO THIS NOW! 727-821-0434 FMI

Better Password Protection
– Only strong passwords will be accepted by the latest Cpanel.
– I’ve also installed brute force protection on the new servers. here is the way it works. If an incorrect password is repeatedly entered for a user, that user becomes locked while the attack is ongoing. once the attack is finished, the account remains locked for 5 minutes; then the ip address that was doing the attack is blocked for 2 weeks and all other ip addresses are restored.
What this means for you. If a password for an account is entered incorrectly 5 times within 15 minutes, the ip address gets locked out for 2 weeks. I can remove the lock. I can also Whitelist ip addresses for those with a static ip address. Users can prevent themselves from being blocked by only attempting wrong passwords 4 times within 15 minutes. The brute force protection applies to cpanel, smtp auth, pop, imap, ftp, and ssh logins.

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