Geesh! I was surprised to discover that sending email to EdsaMail addresses resulted to failure on my mail servers. I don’t think the problem is from my end since all emails sent through my mail server are sent successfully and my DNS servers are functioning pretty well since it’s directly connected to ROOT servers and doesn’t just forward queries to my ISP’s DNS servers.
Here’s the log I see in my personal mail server using QMail-LDAP (replaced real edsamail username to XXX):
@40000000429282bf21ca9ca4 starting delivery 3287: msg 331217 to remote [email protected]
@40000000429282bf21cac3b4 status: local 0/10 remote 1/20
@40000000429282d32241d42c delivery 3287: deferral: Sorry,_I_couldn't_find_any_host_by_that_name._(#4.1.2)/
@40000000429282d32241ff24 status: local 0/10 remote 0/20
Thinking that EdsaMail is a mail service provider, I don’t think this kind of error should ever occur. It’s ok if it’s just a personal mail server of some wannabe geeks, but for a company hosting email solutions, this is quite unacceptable. This is not the first time that this occurred for I’ve seen this error before in some mail servers I host. In fairness to EdsaMail, this is an intermittent problem meaning that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
I think the problem might also be in their DNS servers, namely ns1.edsamail.com.ph and ns2.edsamail.com.ph for when I try to query MX and NS entries on the said servers for their domain, I get a timeout. This means their DNS servers doesn’t reply for domain queries on edsamail.com.ph. I’m not sure if their DNS servers are down or if they are blocking DNS queries for their own domain which shouldn’t be the case. This are the results of the dig command to query their domain info:
# dig @ns1.edsamail.com.ph edsamail.com.ph ANY
; < <>> DiG 9.2.3 < <>> @ns1.edsamail.com.ph edsamail.com.ph ANY
;; global options: printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
# dig @ns2.edsamail.com.ph edsamail.com.ph ANY
; < <>> DiG 9.2.3 < <>> @ns2.edsamail.com.ph edsamail.com.ph ANY
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 20041
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;edsamail.com.ph. IN ANY
;; Query time: 134 msec
;; SERVER: 203.177.1.18#53(ns2.edsamail.com.ph)
;; WHEN: Tue May 24 10:42:52 2005
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 33
# dig edsamail.com.ph ANY
; <<>> DiG 9.2.3 < <>> edsamail.com.ph ANY
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER< <- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 54398
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;edsamail.com.ph. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
edsamail.com.ph. 80192 IN NS ns1.edsamail.com.ph.
edsamail.com.ph. 80192 IN NS ns2.edsamail.com.ph.
;; Query time: 36 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Tue May 24 10:43:00 2005
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 69
# dig edsamail.com.ph MX
; <<>> DiG 9.2.3 < <>> edsamail.com.ph MX
;; global options: printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
The way their DNS servers reply to queries is kinda weird, and worst of all, they don’t provide MX records for their domain. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong, but definitely this kind of domain query replies cause mail servers not being able to send email messages to EdsaMail users. 
Oh well, I just hope they do something about this since this is not a good business case for such company.
Popularity: 5% [?]
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:47 am
Is EDSAMAIL out of business? Even the website can not be found.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:52 am
I don’t think so.
I know some people who are still subscribed to their email services and I can still access their web site every now and then.
But definitely they have to do something with their network or they may really be out of business with too many unsatisfied customers.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:43 pm
I noticed Edsamail’s website is down as well. I am worried that their presence keeps on getting more worse. Unfortunately, I have just paid for a year’s subscription. Just when they have marketed that they have increased inbox size to 10mb, this is what most of us paying users will get. arrgh.
June 24th, 2005 at 8:39 am
I think they are having problems with their DNS servers which is definitely not good especially if you are hosting email services since DNS failures oftentimes results to emails getting lost and sites being inaccessible. It’s like losing your address in the cyber space so people won’t know where you are.
But on the bright side I think they have opted to use 3rd party DNS services from EveryDNS (http://www.everydns.net) for their DNS servers based on the network traces I did yesterday. This is a free service but EveryDNS claims that they have reliable services so hopefully EdsaMail would benefit from such reliability if it’s true.
June 24th, 2005 at 9:07 pm
give up na ako sa edsamail,bite the bullet na on advanced subscription,but who will run after them???dti??sec??ntc??bir??
June 24th, 2005 at 9:25 pm
you can try to get a refund Eric, I think it’s but right for them to give back your money since though as much as you want to use the service you paid for, most of the time it’s not available and has not been reliable enough to serve its purpose .. I’m sure we have some law on such customer protection..
June 27th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
Ok. I have trusted Edsamail since it is a product using the Philippines (well, I liked my address).
Since on a certain date, I could not access edsamail. Ever since, I cannot access the mail server and the website!!! I just paid last May when my service got shut down and this is what I get?!?!?!?
What the hell? Are they cheating on us? I have place SEVERAL ONLINE ACCOUNTS through this e-mail!!!
*Note: My e-mail is my Yahoo! Mail that I typed into this submission field. I’m complaining about my Edsamail.
June 27th, 2005 at 8:16 pm
I really hate edsamail. But I have no choice since this is my address for the last 4 years? Its like loosing your SIM card. Ulitan na naman lahat.
June 27th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
I emailed customer service and they said you have to access their website to retrieve the mails. BUT……….
1) the website is always down
2) there is no landline phone for edsamail.
3) if ever you access the new edsamail landline phone for customer service, it is always busy 24 hours a day.
June 27th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
I think edsamail is now trying to restore their website and this might include their email accounts as well.
I just checked their website and it seems they had installed SquirrelMail, a popular web based email client. I’m just not sure if it works since I don’t have an edsamail account to test with.
Well, with all the complaints people say about edsamail, I guess they have a lot of catching up to do in order to prove the reliability of their services. It should also be but proper for them to give refunds or rebates to make up for their downtimes.
June 28th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
I’ve been using edsamail for three years now and every year, their service seems to deteriorate. I just renewed my annual subscription this month and then I get this kind of service. This really sucks!!
June 29th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
I am one of edsamail’s loyal customers. I always paid my dues 6 months in advance and lately I have noticed na nag-loloko na ang edsamail. Last month I retrieved my emails for hours wherein the same process took only several minutes or seconds during their early days. May pag-asa pa ba itong edsamail na ito, I was informed na by June 24 everything will be fine and will be back to normal pero it’s already June 29 pero wala pa ring progress yata. May bago ba kayong balita if their services will be back?
June 29th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
Their website at http://www.edsamail.com.ph says that Edsamail subscribers can temporarily check their emails using webmail while they are working on repairing the massive hardware failure they experienced.
They also mentioned, that they are working on allowing Edsamail users to use Outlook Express to check their emails, but they didn’t mention when this would happen or when they would be done fixing their system.
I just hope they do it fast, since based on this blog entry I have, a lot of people aren’t happy with what’s happening with EdsaMail.
July 12th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
What is this edsamail? Why do you all use it? Any particular reason?
If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.
Thanks,
David U.
July 12th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
EdsaMail is a widely used email service provider in the Philippines. Based on the information they posted on their website (which has only been accessible recently) they had a massive hardware failure which had caused their mail servers to fail, thus resulting to their customers not being able to send and receive email messages through their services.
But right now, I think EdsaMail was able to revive its mail servers and customers can now send and receive email by either using their web based email interface or Outlool/Outlook Express.