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FAKE SUPPORT EMAILS 10/12/2020

Just another reminder about fake emails that pretend to be from support @ eis.net.au or some other administrative address. These emails are increasing in frequency again, their objective is to make you disclose your email username and password, or click on some link that takes you to a malicious website. They usually pretend your account is locked or you mail box has run out of space.

You will never receive an automated email from eis.net.au asking for you to disclose your password. That's a sure sign it's a fake.

Most of these emails originate from overseas, eg. if you attempt to reply to it, the address will usually not be an @eis.net.au address. You can always view the real address where a suspicions email came from by selecting "view headers" in your email program, and that will show you all the servers the message passed through to get to eis.net.au and you can follow the trail back to the source of the message.


POWER OUTAGE 2/10/2020

We have been informed by the Body Corporate of 344 Queen Street Brisbane, that power to the building will be isolated from 8pm Saturday the 10th of October to upgrade the electrical services. Power is expected to be restored to the building by 6am Sunday October 11. Expect some access to email and websites may not to be available during this window.


OPENWEBMAIL REMOVAL 15/9/2020

We are in the process of upgrading mail.eis.net.au to support modern security protocols.

This will necessitate the removal of the openwebmail webmail program as it required some security hacks to run on modern versions of the Perl scripting language that it is written in.

There are still a handful of people using openwebmail, who need to start using the roundcube webmail program instead. Roundcube has way more features, a cleaner, less clunky interface, the only reason I can see for using openwebmail is people have bookmarked the URL so they never see the roundcube login.

We will be sending out notices to those people.

The openwebmail service will still remain available for a while at openwebmail.eis.net.au it wont be receiving any new mail from the outside world.


NEW MAIL GATEWAY 15/7/2020

We are testing a new incoming mail filtering gateway using the Proxmox Mail Gateway software.

It sends a daily summary email of the suspected SPAM emails it has quarantined that day.

There are 4 options. Blacklist, Whitelist - if you are expecting more emails from the same, or Deliver, Delete - if it's a once off email.


POWER COMPANY WORKS - OUTAGE 15/5/2020

There will be a short power outage on some services between 10pm and 11:30pm this evening as the power company conducts some repairs.


COVID-19 VIRUS 22/03/2010

The eis.net offices are closed at the moment, with staff working from home because of the coronavirus. No timeline on how long we have to do this, I presume many of you are in the same situation. In case people don't know much about the virus, here is a youtube video that explains the basics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtN-goy9VOY


XMAS NEW YEAR 2019 22/12/2019

The eis.net offices will be closed for the Xmas New Year break from Tuesday afternoon the 24th. of Dec. 2019 to Thursday Jan 2nd. 2020. Services will still be monitored during that period, email support will be available, phones are to be diverted to the after hours message service and checked periodically. If you have any problems, leave a message with your contact details and we will get back to you.


RANSOM EMAILS 17/12/2018

We have had several people report a new wave of ransomware emails coming in, they typically share the same format, presenting your email address, and showing some password you have used on a forum or other compromised service, possibly years ago, then claiming that they have videos of you watch porn or some other nonsense, finally demanding a ransom payable in Bitcoin.

Don't respond to these emails, check the password they have of yours, if it is the same as one you are currently using somewhere, go and change it a.s.a.p. Remember, these people don't know all the places you used the password, only the place they stole it from, which gives you a good chance to go and change it.


MAINTENANCE 15/5/2018

There will be a short outage this evening to perform maintenance on the firewall router at 344 Queen St. Should only be a 10min interruption.


XMAS NEW YEAR 2017 6/12/2017

The eis.net offices will be closed for the Xmas New Year break from Friday afternoon the 22nd. of Dec. 2017 to Tuesday Jan 2nd. 2018. Services will still be monitored during that period, email support will be available, phones are to be diverted to the after hours message service and checked periodically.


NBN HFC ROLLOUT SUSPENDED 1/12/2017

NBNco has informed us they have suspended the roll out of new NBN services on their Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network due to some technical issues for 6-9mths. This is quite a surprise to the industry as I know a lot of customers were looking forward to getting NBN on HFC to replace their ADSL services. Hopefully NBNco will sort out the problems sooner and resume the HFC roll out.


SPF EMAIL TAGGING 14/05/2016

We are gradually adding a new tag to the subject of some incoming emails which says [SPF:fail] When you see that in the subject, it means the email didn't arrive from a mail server that was authorized to send emails from the domain name that it claims to be from.

The real owner of the domain didn't want the email blocked, just tagged. For the technically inclined, you can read more about Sender Policy Framework (SPF) here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework


EASTER MAINTENANCE 24/03/2016

There will be some short outages of some mail/web services over the Easter weekend time to update the operating systems on two of the hosting servers.]]


XMAS NEW YEAR 2015 2/12/2015

The eis.net offices will be closed for the Xmas New Year break from Thursday the 24th. of Dec. 2015 to Monday Jan 4th. 2016. Services will still be monitored during that period, email support will be available, phones are to be diverted to the after hours message service and checked periodically. We hope everyone has a peaceful holiday, and ready for a big year in 2016.


SCHEDULED SERVER MAINTENANCE - PLANNED OUTAGE 14/11/2015

There will be an outage of some mail/web services from 2am Brisbane time on 14-Nov-2015 to de-fragment and rearrange drives in two of the hosting servers. It may take up to 2 hours but we are hoping it will go faster than that.


POWER COMPANY SUBSTATION FIRE - UNSCHEDULED OUTAGE 17/10/2015

A fire at an Energex substation located at Hutton Lane in the Brisbane CBD, caused widespread power outages this morning to about a quarter of the Brisbame CBD, this may have caused interruption to some services.


POWER COMPANY WORKS - OUTAGE 9/9/2015


The power work mentioned below caused a small unexpected outage this morning, a surge whilst they were working, took out the power supply on a firewall router in the server room which has since been replaced. We apologize for the interruption.


POWER COMPANY WORKS - PLANNED OUTAGE 28/8/2015


The Body Corporate is installing some Power Factor Correction equipment recommended by Energex at 344 Queen Street which will cause the power for the building to be shut off completely

The work will be conducted between the following times:

Wednesday September 9th, 2015: 1:00am - 5:00am

The eis.net hosting servers at 344 Queen Street, have 8 hours standby power which should cover this outage, so we don't expect any service outage.


WEBMAIL 11/8/2015

eis.net have introduced Roundcube webmail as a modern alternative to the Openwebmail system which we have been running for many years for @eis.net.au users. You can try Roundcube webmail by going to http://roundcube.eis.net.au Openwebmail is still available at http://mail.eis.net.au the same username and password are used for both.


XMAS NEW YEAR 2014 5/12/2014

The eis.net offices will be closed for the Xmas New Year break from Wednesday the 24th. of December 2014 to Monday Jan 5th. 2015. Services will still be monitored during that period, email support will be available, phones are to be diverted to the after hours message service and checked periodically. We hope everyone has a good relaxing break, after those recent wild storms, Brisbane certainly needs one!


WILD STORMS HIT BRISBANE 27/11/2014

According to the ABC new Golf-ball-sized hail has smashed windows and strong winds have flipped aircraft as two storm cells formed a super cell and swept across south-east Queensland.

About 82,000 customers are without power across the region after the severe thunderstorm struck about 4:45pm (AEST)

This has caused interruption to DSL services in many areas hit by the storms. The services should gradually come back up as power is restored.


G20-INTERRUPTION-BRISBANE 14/11/2014

With the G20 summit of world leaders coming to Brisbane, access to the CBD is severely restricted for security reasons. The eis.net office will be closed on Friday 14/11/2014. Phone will be diverted out of the office and answered as usual.


UPDATE- POWER COMPANY WORKS - PLANNED OUTAGE 24/2/2014

It seems the Energex substation maintenance only caused a power outage of 7minutes, which probably means they couldn't complete the work and have to reschedule the outage again.


POWER COMPANY WORKS - PLANNED OUTAGE 16/1/2014

Energex will be undertaking some necessary maintenance work on their substation located within 344 Queen Street.

The work will now be conducted between the following times:

Sunday February 23, 2014: 5:30pm - 1:30am

The eis.net hosting servers have 8 hours standby power which should cover this outage, however if Energex are slow it may cause a shutdown of the web hosting and mail servers. In the past there hasn't been much problem. They do this maintenance every few years.


XMAS NEW YEAR 2013 16/12/2013

Our offices will be closed for the Xmas New Year break from Tuesday the 24th. of December 2013 to Monday Jan 6th. 2014. Services will still be monitored during that period, and email support will still be available. We hope everyone has a good break, and Australia wins the Ashes back in the cricket.


SCAM EMAILS 16/12/2013

We have been alerted to another round of fake emails this time pretending to be from office automation equipment like faxes or scanners. The email contains a .zip file they want you to click on which most likely contains a virus or malware You won't get a legitimate email from eis.net office equipment. The tell tail sign is the address the email is sent from is not really eis.net.au. You have to display message headers in your email program to see that, as it will usually have a fake From: address. In Outlook you normally right click on the message and select Internet Headers from the Options. On Mac Mail you select View ->Message -> Long Headers from the menu at the top of your screen.


Unscheduled server scheduled outage 29/9/2012

A cabling fault at Fortitude Valley caused a break in connectivity to our Brisbane web hosting servers from some parts of Australia early this morning, this has now been rectified.


Mail server scheduled outage 6/7/2012

This weekend (7-8 July 2012) there will be a few short outages of the mail server that hosts @eis.net.au mailboxes between 11pm and 12pm Saturday night, as we migrate the contents to another server as part of an upgrade program, to introduce more features, in particular with the webmail side of things.


DNSChanger virus alert 18/5/2012

Please be advised that a malicious virus - titled DNSChanger - has become an increasing threat within various business computer networks. It is believed that, after 9 July 2012, we are likely to receive an increased number of support calls from infected customers seeking help in connecting to the internet. We recommend that you visit http://www.dns-ok.gov.au and follow the appropriate steps to ensure your systems are not affected.


SCAM EMAILS 25/3/2012

We have been alerted to another round of fake support emails asking for personal details. Don't reply to this type of email. Just delete it. You won't get an email from eis.net staff asking for passwords and other sensitive information. The tell tail sign is the link to click on is .ms which is the country of Monserat, not eis.net.au. A list of country codes can be found on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains


Here is an example of the fake email: 

From: "Eis.Net.Au" <no-reply@eis.net.au>
Date: 23 March 2012 5:52:50 AM AEST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Admin-Eis.Net.Au

Dear Email User!
Your mailbox has exceeded the set quota limit.You may not be able to send 
or receive new mails effect from on the 26th of March 2012, until you 
upgrade/increase your quota limit.

Click the following link:  http;//accountsupgrades.net.ms  and input the vital 
information to increase your quota limit.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Admin-Eis.Net.Au
14/344 Queen Street BRISBANE QLD 4000
Website: www.eis.net.au
Copyright (C) 2012 System Administrator.


XMAS NEW YEAR 2011 15-Dec-2011

Our offices will be closed for the Xmas New Year break from Friday 23rd of December 2011 to Tuesday Jan 3rd. 2012. Services will still be monitored during that period, and email support will still be available. We hope everyone has a good break, and we don't get a repeat of the QLD floods again early in the new year!


UPDATE ON BRISBANE FLOOD OUTAGES 16-Jan-2011

Energex have restored power to the Brisbane CBD. All services are back to normal.


UPDATE ON BRISBANE FLOOD OUTAGES 14-Jan-2011

We were asked to evacuate 344 Queen Street Tuesday 11th. of January.

Energex started cutting power to sub stations in the Brisbane CBD on the morning of Wenesday the 12th. of January. The power to our data center at 344 Queen Street was cut around 1pm that afternoon. This impacted email and several web hosting services for some time. Power has now been restored but the lifts in the building have been damaged by the flood waters, so people have been asked to work from home.

There are many breaks in telecommunication cables right throughout SE QLD on top of the power outages, so Internet services may still be down in your area. AAPT clients on the Edison exchange should note that some equipment in the exchange has been damaged by the floods, and replacement should be early next week.


BRISBANE CBD POWER CUTS DUE TO RISING FLOOD WATERS

11th of Jan 2011 ENERGEX on standby to switch off some of Brisbane CBD – REVISED

ENERGEX has revised its Brisbane flood response and crews are on standby to switch electricity off to some low lying areas of Brisbane from 8:30 tomorrow morning (12 Jan 2011) for safety reasons.

This area is identified by Brisbane City Council flood mapping along the Brisbane River and its tributaries.

CBD areas will be shut down progressively as floodwaters rise. ENERGEX says the decision to shut power off is never taken lightly and is only undertaken as a safety precaution.

The outages could impact approximately 100,000 customers with restoration times dependent on the rate that floodwaters recede and the amount of possible damage caused to electrical equipment.

Similar safety plans were implemented by ENERGEX earlier this week in Gympie.

This evening just after 11pm ENERGEX also commenced the de-energisation of parts of Ipswich CBD in preparation for flood inundation.

Affected areas will be re-energised on a case-by-case basis and only if it is safe to do so. Some areas could be without power for extended periods.

More information about flood prone areas can be found on the Brisbane City Council and Ipswich City Council websites.

ENERGEX is also urging people with medical conditions that rely on electrical-powered equipment, as well as refrigerated medications, to keep in close contact with their medical practitioner and seek advice.

ENERGEX is also asking any customers who see damaged or threatened power infrastructure to stay well clear and to call ENERGEX’s priority line on 13 19 62.

The public is also being urged to keep out of flood waters near any electrical equipment and stay away from fallen powerlines.

ENDS


CHRISTMAS BREAK 2010

This year our office will be closed for Christmas/New Year break from 2pm Friday 24/12/2010 until Tuesday 4/1/2011. The network will be monitored as usual during that period, problem reports can be directed to support@ eis.net.au. We hope you enjoy the holiday break, and also hope that Australia wins the cricket.


ADSL INTERUPTION 30/08/2010

There will be a small scheduled 5min. interruption to ADSL services at 6:30pm whilst a router is upgraded. We apologize for the disruption, hopefully most people will be on the way home from the office. Everything should come up by itself without intervention.


PHASE OUT OF BRISBANE ONLY DIALUP NUMBER

From the 1-Jul-2010 we will be phasing out the old Brisbane only modem dialup number 3307-9800 in favor of a new national roaming number 0198-331-202 which is a local call all around the country. Please make sure you have switched over to the new number to prevent interruption of the service.


MORE SCAM EMAILS 8/9/2009

We have been alerted to another round of fake support emails asking for personal details. Don't reply to this type of email. Just delete it. You won't get an email from eis.net staff asking for passwords and other sensitive information.


Here is an example of the fake email: 


From: "SUPPORT  TEAM  2009" <techsupport@eis.net.au>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Sent: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:57:44 +0530 (IST)
Subject: Confirm Your Email Address

Dear eis.net.au Subscriber,
We would like to inform you that we are currently carrying out scheduled
maintenance and upgrade of our webmail service and as a result our email
client has been changed and your orignal password will be reset. We are
sorry for any inconvenience caused.
To complete your eis.net.au email account, you must reply to this email
immediately and enter your password here (*********)
***********************************************************
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW
E-mail Username : ......... .....
E-mail Password : ...............
Date of Birth : ................
Country or Territory : .........
***********************************************************
Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated
from our database.


OFFICE PHONES OUTAGE

20/04/2009 9am There is some sort of problem with the AAPT sub exchange in our building that is effecting all the phones lines that use AAPT ISDN. Apparently they "upgraded a switch at they Riverside center" on the weekend which cause the fault. The fault has been reported to AAPT an hopefully they will have it sorted out this morning. This also effects the old modem dialup lines on 0733079800 hopefully most people are using our national dialup modem number 0198-331-202 don't forget to put your full @eis.net.au email address as the username when using the 0198-331-202 number.



INTERUPTION 10/12/2008

A large power surge in the Brisbane CBD about 7:30pm Wed 10/12/2008 might have interrupted some users broadband services. Usually switching the power off on the broadband router for a few minutes and back on should be enough to get things going again.


EMAIL FRAUD 27/8/2008

We have received several reports of eis.net users getting the following fraudulent email this morning 27/8/2008 if you get the message don't respond it's juast a scam to get your username and password. We would never ask for that sort of thing in an email like that. 


Dear: eis.net.au Users,
We are currently carrying-out a maintenance
process to your eis.net.au account. To
complete this process you must reply to this
email immediately by entering your User Name
here (*********),and password here (*********)
if you are the rightful owner of this account.
This process we help us to fight against spam
mails.Failure to summit your password will render
your email address in-active from our database.
You can also confirm your email address by logging
into your account at:http://webmail.eis.net.au/
NOTE: You will be send a password reset message
in next seven (7) working days after undergoing
this process for security reasons.
Thank you for using eis.net.au!
EIS.NET.AU SUPPORT TEAM.


SMALL OUTAGE 26/8/2008

Expect a small half hour outage for some hosting customers 10:00pm 26/8/2008 as some equipment is relocated from the Riverside data centre.


POWER OUTAGE AT AAPT BRISBANE EXCHANGE 6/12/2007

About 9am Thur 6nd. Dec. 2007 a UPS failure cut a fibre toptic link to the Riverside Center in Eagle Street housing the AAPT telephone exchange and the 3rd Party room for for most major ISP's in the Brisbane CBD where they house equipment for peering and IP Transit. This caused access to the Domain Name and Email Servers at 344 Queen street to be un-contactable for approx 55min. until power was restored.


VIRUS UPDATES

There are tens of thousands of nasty computer viruses out there now a days, mostly on Microsoft Windows which is by far the most common system people have, and it is always good to keep your virus software up to date on a daily basis. Here are a few links to Anti-virus software vendors to keep you abreast of the latest virus definitions.

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