HeartBeat
Our HeartBeat is meaningful and essential mainly
when internet-connection problems at your end need to be noticed quickly.
An example:
You run an in-house email server on a dynamic IP from a standard internet-access
provider (e.g. AOL, Tiscali, BT, ...).
You let your emails be sent directly to this server via direct routing, as opposed
to accessing them via POP3-access at your hosting provider (.e.g.
Ambos InterNet-Solutions)
or via a unified messaging service.
If your internet connection is interrupted due to a problem, the relation between
your IP and your account and the DNS configuration for direct MX routing to your
former IP still exist. Emails are still sent to the dynamic IP via which you were
previously connected to the internet.
What can happen?
| a) |
Emails cannot be received and are returned to the sender with
an error message, unless you use our backup--mail-exchanger service. |
| b) |
Your "former" dynamic IP was assigned to another customer
of your internet-access provider (e.g. T-Online).
Your emails can then reach his email server (if he is running one, otherwise
see a)). He rejects your emails with the error message "User unknown".
This certainly does not leave a positive impression on your customers. |
| c) |
As described under b), your emails reach someone else's email
server which, however, is configured so that it can receive them (default in the
case of Tobit David)!
Critical emails meant for you land in someone else's hands! |
The HeartBeat concept:
In order to prevent all 3 of the scenarios described above from happening, it is
essential that a faulty DNS configuration be noticed and corrected as quickly
as possible.
A faulty DNS configuration is the case when, for example, there is an IP change.
The more expensive your tariff, the faster our account-update software notices
this, independently of your router, and carries out a SetIP.
A faulty DNS configuration occurs especially when your internet connection is
disrupted and it isn't possible to connect again and carry out an account update.
This state is noticed by DynAccess at a speed depending on the tariff - in the case
of HeartBeat C after just 20 seconds. The faulty DNS configuration is replaced by
a neutral configuration. That is, we neutralise your account and configure it with a
neutral IP in order to prevent access to the wrong server.
The goal:
Only with the HeartBeat is it ensured that our backup-MX (backup mail exchanger) is
accessed correctly by the sending mail server. When you are back online, our backup-MX
sends you your emails automatically.
The HeartBeat was developed for the above scenario - however, even in the case of a simple
website it can be problematic if the surfer sees someone else's site due to a faulty DNS
configuration.
The HeartBeat technique:
The HeartBeat makes a large number of regular account updates possible - up to
17,820 daily in the HeartBeat C tariff. Here, we use connectionless UDP packets which
the account-update client sends to our HeartBeat server. 20 characters per packet are
transmitted, which leads to significantly less network load than would a full account
update via TCP.
Due to these regular account updates at short intervals, we can notice problems at your
end very quickly and neutralise your account after 3 missed HeartBeats. We do not deactivate
your account - we neutralise it, i.e. we configure it with a neutral IP in order
to prevent the scenario described above from occurring.
IP changes are noticed by the HeartBeat much faster than in the Business tariffs - in the case
of HeartBeat C almost immediately.
Read more in our feature description of
expiration time.
Via our
notification features we inform you quickly about the problem we have diagnosed.
Resumé:
DynAccess's HeartBeat is invaluable whenever critical applications are implemented with
a dynamic IP and wrongly routed information can have tragic consequences. The operation
of an in-house SMTP server is only one example.
Our HeartBeat can also be useful for server monitoring where
monitoring solutions such as
WhatsUp would be overkill. |
