Hosting/Email accounts often get suspended because it was discovered that they were sending spam.  This is the result of being invaded by some form of malware on one or more of the devices you use to access the suspended email.  This can include not only desktops, but also phones and tablets.

In order to have your hosting/email account unsuspended we have to be sure that all of these devices have been cleaned. After the necessary steps have been taken to clean up these devices we will enable your account and change the offending email's password.

We ask that you complete the following tasks:

Install, UPDATE, and scan with the following free programs: Eset, MalwareBytes, Spybot.  If you have another antivirus program currently installed, please uninstall it before downloading and installing these.  After you have completed one scan with each of these, make sure to click the necessary button to "fix" the problems, then restart your devices and scan one more time.  Links to download these are provided below.

Windows users:

WINDOWS:

http://www.eset.com/us/download/home/detail/family/2/?trl=ea     (the 30 day free trial)

http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button

http://spybot-search-destroy.en.softonic.com/download

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MAC

http://www.eset.com/us/download/home/detail/family/172/?trl=cp

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Thank you!

The vast majority of the time when an e-mail account has been compromised and used to send spam those doing it harvested credentials through some type of malware or virus. In order to stop that we soft disable that email account(incoming mail to your account will still make it to our server) from an unaffected computer until you can scan with malware and virus scanners to clean the keylogger or whatever might be on your computer or device. It's impossible to know which device was used so it's important to scan them all (phones, desktop, laptop, tablet, etc). Scanners for mobile devices are available in the various app stores. It is a good practice to scan your computers occasionally even if you have no reason to suspect being compromised.

To get your e-mail going:
After downloading the software click "update" in each of them to make sure you have the latest threat detections. Then scan and "Fix." We recommend restarting the computer and scanning once more if you've received positive hits for the malware or etc. Once you've been able to scan your computer let us know and we'll give you a new password. You can either enter this new password into your mail clients or change it to something new that only you know via your account control panel. If you do this DO NOT change it back to the old password.

http://www.eset.com/us/download/home/detail/family/2/?trl=ea (the 30 day free trial)

http://spybot-search-destroy.en.softonic.com/download

https://www.malwarebytes.org/

MAC

http://www.eset.com/us/download/home/detail/family/172/?trl=cp

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Thank you!

This shows up due to a flaw in Outlook and Outlook Express, it is caused by the Fully Qualified Domain Name not being populated in the HELO field.  QWK.net servers check for the FQDN as a means to prevent SPAM.

To resolve this issue you can enter an FQDN in windows and the problem will go away.

In Windows XP

Click START

Click Control Panel

Click Network Connections

Right Click your Internet Connection

Click Properties

Click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) then click Properties

Click Advanced

Click the DNS tab

In the field titled "DNS suffix for this connection:" enter mail.yourdomain.com

Substitute yourdomain with the domain of your email address

You will be able to send email as normal

For Windows 7 follow these instructions

Click the Start/Windows Button

Click Control Panel

Click "View network status and tasks"

Click Change Adapter Settings

Right Click your network connection and click Properties

Click on "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" and click Properties

Click Advanced

Click the DNS tab

In the field titled "DNS suffix for this connection:" enter mail.yourdomain.com

Substitute yourdomain with the domain of your email address

You will be able to send email as normal

These are emails that are automatically generated by our email servers to notify you of unsuccessfully transmitted emails.  The contents of these emails are detailed and necessary to help track down why the email failed.  Often you will find a link somewhere in the middle of the bounce back email which will lead you to more detailed information about why it failed.

Typically, if one of our customers is using an email address hosted by us and they receive a bounce back when sending an email, the issue will likely be either your email client configuration settings (i.e. Outlook, Thunderbird, MacMail…), or a blacklisted QWK.net email server (if this is the case call us immediately).

If you begin recieving multiple messages like this it could also mean someone has compromised your e-mail account and is sending spam without your knowledge. In this case, also contact Qwknet immediately. We may temporarily suspend service to your e-mail account, but this is to protect your personal information and our other customers on your shared server. If we are not notified and find it first it may result in the temporary suspension of your entire hosting account. We will help you resolve this problem as quickly as possible.

Now, if someone that is not a customer of ours gets a bounce back email when sending to you, then the issue is on their end (meaning their email client configuration settings or their email servers). Finally, other possibilities for bounce back messages are blacklisted IP addresses (provided by your Internet Service Provider), or you have an SPF record configured incorrectly.  These are much less common, but are common enough to note.

If the issue is your email client or our mail servers, feel free to give us a call and we will be happy to assist you.  If the bounce back was received on the other end, they will need to contact their email service provider or ISP.