When it comes to email services, you have three choices. (1) You can use a number of free emails services (GMail, Yahoo mail, Juno, etc.), (2) you can purchase an email service (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, etc.), or (3) you can create your own email server. 

If you are using option #1, stick to one of the more well known providers. In some cases, some sites may block emails from certain unknown free email providers out of fear that they may be spammers. Typically, you only need to be concerned if you are using this email address to register for something online, but you certain spam filters may quarantine certain emails. 

If you are using option #2, you should not have any issues with the emails you SEND being blocked by another email server. 

If you are using option #3, you must make sure that you have set up your email server correctly. High Impact Missions has had several support issues involving  email servers that have not setup up the Reverse DNS Lookup (aka. “PTR record”) correctly. 

Typically, it is the internet provider for a client site that would make this entry on their DNS server.  In some cases you can do it yourself depending on who is hosting the DNS, but most of the time you must make a request to your ISP. (e.g. AT&T, Cox, Comcast, etc.) 

One question H.I.M. has been asked is why emails sent to a specific recipient are blocked while all others are received normally. This is because it is up to the receiving email server to determine if the sender is obeying all the rules. In the case of Reverse DNS, companies like GoDaddy see the absence of a Reverse DNS or an incorrect Reverse DNS as an indication of potential SPAM activity. Some companies are more aggressive in their battle against spam, while others let all emails go through. In the case of GoDaddy, for example, the sender will receive an email that their email was blocked, and their will be a link to go and “unblock” the sending email server’s IP address. While using this link to unblock the sending IP will work temporarily, the block will most likely return shortly. The only way to fix the issue is for the sending email server to correct the incorrect Reverse DNS configuration. 

Reverse DNS has to be set by the company responsible for the IP address. This is usually your ISP. They do not have to host your domain - if they tell you that the cannot set it because they aren't responsible for the domain then they are wrong. Similarly, if you are told to speak to your domain name registrar (usually because they don't host the domain) then ask to speak to someone who knows how DNS on the internet works. 

If your ISP will not change the reverse DNS, which is often the case with DSL type connections or a connection that uses dynamic IP address, then you may have to look at using an SMTP Connector to ensure that your email is delivered correctly.

Your domain management also handles where your emails are handled. And, again, your email server does not need to be in the same place as your hosting or your domain management.

When a customer wishes to transfer a domain to High Impact Missions, there are some basic things that they need to understand.

1. The transfer can take about a week to complete the transfer of the domain itself. This involes coordination between the prior domain manager and High Impact Missions.
2. Once the domain is under the control of High Impact Missions, the "nameservers" can be changed. The "nameserver" is the address, so to speak, of your website. There is an address for your hosting (called "A records") and an address for your email server (called "MX Records").
3. Once the nameservers are switched, it can take up to 72 hours to propigate across the Internet. When someone types a website address (e.g. "www.highimpactmissions.com") into a browser, there Internet Provider (aka. "ISP") has a database of where every domain name is hosted (the "IP address"). As you can imagine, this list is quite vast and is not completely updated every day by the Internet Provider. Every ISP is different, that is why some people seem to see the "new" hosting location for your website before others. And that is why it can take up to 72 hours for the change to take effect for everyone.
4. During the 72 hour window, emails become interesting. If someone sends you an email, their ISP will decide to which email server to send the email. Some ISP's will be pointing to the "new" email server, and some to the "old." That means that during the transfer, the customer must check BOTH email accounts. No emails will be lost, but there is no way to tell which account the emails will go to. Even though both the "old" and "new" email servers have the same email address (e.g. "sales@highimpactmissions.com") they have different email servers. This is not unlike someone having the address "123 Main Street" in one city and "123 Main Street" in another city.
5. To be safe, it is best to allow up to 7 days after the transfer starts, just to make sure every ISP has received the change. At that point, the customer can safely cancel their previous domain, hosting or email service, as applicable.

This is a general description of the process. Please contact High Impact Missions directly for details on how your specific situation may differ.

To add a misison trip, you must log into MissionLink with a user ID that has been given "Missions Admin" authority. Once you have done so, you will notice that a "Teams Admin" link will be available under the "Admin Links" section on the bottom of the Navigation bar.

The following screen will allow a new mission trip to be added.

Mission Trip Name - This can be an name 25 characters or less. This will be the name that appears in the drop list on the Navigation bar. Typically this includes the name of the country and the year of the trip.

Departue and Return Dates - These dates are used to generate the menu for the "Live Updates" feature of Mission Link Platnium. Enter the dates in the format specified on the screen.

Total Cost / pp - This is the total cost that each peson on the trip needs to raise. This value will be used on the fundraising screens to calculate what each team member has left to raise. Do not enter commas.

Destination Name - This is the name of the county that is being visited. Currently, MissionLink only supports one country name in this space. This country name will be used to present the correct Nation Profile. If you are visiting a nation that is not listed, contact High Impact Missions Support to have it added free of cost.

Local Folder Name - This is the name of the folder that will hold the team documents that are uploaded. If you have not been given FTP access to your folders, please contact HIM Support to have these folders setup.

Allow Public Access - Selecting "Yes" will allow anyone to see this mission trip in the drop list on the Navigation bar. This is important for Mission Link Platnium where people will be accessing the website to view multimedia content uploaded by the team while they are on the field. Selecting "no" will make it so that only valid team members for this mission trip will be able to view this trip in the list once they log on.

Live Updates Menu Type - Pertains only to Mission Link Platnium. This indicates how the visitors will be accessing the multimedia content as it is uploaded on a daily basis.

Press "Save" when you are finished. These values can always be edited by a Missions Admin user.

There are advantages to going through a podcasting host. They handle the storage and bandwidth on the retrieval, and you can also charge money for the content available through the podcast. Usually, none of these things are important to most churches, so it is better to host the audio content along with the rest of your website.

The problem that is more likely is that the client computer may not have the specified font installed on their computer. In such cases, the client computer is forced to chose another font to display the page. To cover themselves, web designers can specify a list of fonts to use. If the first one in the list is available, use it. If not, use the second one in the list. Etc.

To avoid this issue, a web designer should chose only the "common" fonts that all computers (Max and Windows) are likely to have installed.

Here are some links that list suggested guidelines:

http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html

http://www.angelfire.com/al4/rcollins/style/fonts.html

]]> http://www.highimpactmissions.com/faq/index.php?action=artikel&cat=8&id=27&artlang=en Fri, 09 Nov 2007 04:11:00 GMT