Blog - New Email Trouble Shooting Reports

TWS now offer formal email trouble shooting reports.

This is actually part of a broader reporting process which will also include server and general trouble shooting and will essentially all be the same end product, just formatted differently.

Whilst TWS has been dealing with email issues for decades, the process has always been centred around the exchange of emails. This new process formalises the process a little more now such that the client gets a report of the issue and the corrective action taken for reference. Whilst many clients mike not care in the slightest to look at the report, it serves a much broader purpose.

Obviously it caters for the people that are curious to know what the issue was and have some understanding of how emails work.

Further, it reassures that some action was taken. From experience, many ticket systems by hosting companies leave a lot to be desired, with the reasons for issues never being explained and the conclusion often left vague, with simple responses, such as Can You Try It Now It Should Work.

However, the most important feature of this process which makes it worthwhile is that it acts as a scratch board to actually resolve the issue. In the first instance there is space for any mail rejection message. Historically this was often possibly sent over, but generally glanced at before some sort of corrective action was explored, and then lost in the general stream of emails. By placing it central in the scratch board, its right there for immediate reference.

The message can then be directly referred to in the general notes area.

However, there are also spaces for other details such as spf, and DMARC records, so they too can be directly referenced if required in the same report. Further, there are spaces for POP£ server details and ports etc, as well as IP, domain and black list details so that if the issue is related to black listing that can be recorded in a way that builds up a picture of what is going on.

All this is then exported to a report, along with the corrective action and an open/closed status and reference number for any future use.

And moreover, the report only exports fields that have been used, so if the SMTP details are not relevant, then they do not appear in the report.

In short, this means that TWS can accompany any response to a problem with effectively the working maths to show what the problem was and how it was resolved.

One of the advantages that this process offers is that fewer things are likely to be overlooked. For example, when emails are rejected, the first thing to look at might be black lists. However, from experience, it can take a lot of time to actually consider whether the issue was related to a missing or incorrect spf record. This process will prompt an earlier review of the spf record as the report scratch pad or working note pad has a space for it, thus providing a structured series of hints for things to consider, and at the end of the day offer a better service.

The report comes out at two pages or so, maybe more, and is quite complex, but as it’s not something that takes any time at all to produce, and is rather the product of the note pad as a tool to examine the problem, it’s a win win, the problem is resolved sooner and the workings can be exported for general reference.

It seems a little late in the day, after 22 years of just having a look into things, but in line with the ISO objectives to improve services, its a clear step forward.

This will also be followed by formatted work pads or server issues and general issues.

Emails are an important aspect of business and often go hand in hand with hosting and managing a web site, and having a company that is at hand to support you with both is handy, and it is hoped that maybe this formal trouble shooting process will be a deciding factor in any new customers migrating to TWS as their web and pop/imap based email service provider.