As widely reported in the media, many New Zealand Email users have been having major problems with Telecoms Yahoo Xtra email system, where users email accounts appear to have been compromised and have been sending out spam emails, containing links to possible malware.

This problem with Yahoo Xtra email addresses, has both affected both people receiving the emails, as well as the owners of the email accounts, who have had their email accounts hijacked and have been sending out the spam emails. This has resulted in these users being locked out of their email accounts, until they update their password, causing a major inconvenience for them. It appears that Yahoo Xtra users email accounts have been sending out the  spam email to either their contact lists, or to people they have previously emailed via their webmail system.  Our own email system has literally received hundreds of spam emails from the Yahoo Xtra servers, from clients who still use Telecom as their ISP, and also use Yahoo Xtra for their email.

At the Lounge Network we do also have our own Telecom Xtra Yahoo email addresses, which we use for testing. We have a pretty strong password on it, using both letters and numbers, and that too got compromised, and we were also locked out until we changed the password to a new one.We don’t know what the cause of the problems with the Yahoo email system is, as there is very little information on the Telecom website about it. However it appears to be a very similar problem that occurred many months ago.

We don’t think these sorts of ongoing problems are good enough, especially with the lack of information about why it has happened, and what is being done to prevent it happening again. So we suggest that our clients do not use Yahoo Xtra email accounts, especially if they are a business user. In fact, in general we now suggest not using any of the free email services that ISPs provide. We have written our 10 top reasons why people should avoid using the free ISP email accounts that are given to them which you can read here.

Our recommended option for an alternative email address, is buying a NZ Domain Name, and setting up a Domain based email account, so you can have any email address of your choosing (eg info@yourbusiness.co.nz). This should be paired with a reliable NZ based email hosting provider, like the Lounge Network.  A domain based email address is portable, and potentially it allows you to have an email address that you can keep it for life, as long as you retain ownership of the domain and don’t let it expire. A domain based email address also looks professional. Even a small business can set-up multiple email addresses and forwarders, so a small business can look larger than it actually is.

At the Lounge Network we can help you move to a domain based email system, and we offer a comprehensive business grade system, hosted here in New Zealand.  Compare this to Yahoo Xtras system which is hosted and managed offshore.

All you need to do is contact us with your requirements, or signup to our Business Hosting Plan,which offers both Premium Unmetered Web Hosting and Email. We can manage everything from your domain name registration, setting up as many email accounts as you need, and it is all hosted in our single unified hosting control panel. If you already have a domain name, all you need to do is provide us with your domains UDAI code, and we can transfer it across into your control panel, and get it all up and running for you.

The Lounge Network has been a Premium NZ provider for web hosting and email hosting services for over 12 years. Our hosting services are of a Business Grade and our business hosting servers are based in Auckland New Zealand, for fast loading and response times. Our support is also 100% New Zealand based, and best of all we are 100% NZ owned and operated. Many hosting providers operating in NZ are now overseas owned and supported, where their profits and jobs get sent overseas, but being NZ owned we reinvest back into the NZ economy.

If you are interested in switching to our services,  for NZ Domain Name Hosting / Web and Email Hosting, you can signup here, or if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.