Master Reseller - Mailer Daemon Masking Help Needed - Knowledgebase

Portal Home > Knowledgebase > Articles Database > Master Reseller - Mailer Daemon Masking Help Needed

Master Reseller - Mailer Daemon Masking Help Needed

Posted by outposter, 07-09-2008, 09:02 AM
Hi! We have been reselling for quite some time and recently became Master Resellers but with a different provider who we do not wish to disclose. We have enabled all masking techniques like private DNS, etc to prevent our resellers as well as our end users from knowing that we are Master Resellers of this certain company (lets call them 'xyz1234.com') but we are facing a major issue which our provider nor the datacenter folks have been able to solve. We are talking about the default 'Mail Delivery System/Mailer Daemon' email that rather explicitly indicates our providers name like "Mailer-Daemon@server01.xyz1234.com". All bounced emails carry this email address and any user of our service who pays attention to this email would just have to type xyz1234.com as indicated in the mailer daemon email to find who our providers are. So far nobody including our current resellers have noticed it but this is just a disaster waiting to happen. We dont have VPS or dedicated servers. Our Master resellers acoounts are hosted on 2 different shared servers and they both read like "server01.xyz1234.com" and "server02.xyz1234.com". We also understand that the default system generated email would indicate the hosted server name but is there any way we can mask it? We also do know that now, it is very difficult to hide where and with whom you are hosted. We dont mind our users/resellers finding that we are actually hosted at Caro.net and FDC (our datacenters) but we dont want then to see that we have bought our service from our service provider (i.e)xyz1234.com who is sourcing through Caro and FDC. We will very happy if someone could share a technique to avoid this. Any help will be greatly appreciated as it is completely useless to have private DNS when you cant hide this?kindly help pls. Jim Driver
Posted by foobic, 07-09-2008, 09:20 AM
I don't believe it's possible to hide the hostname of the server from a user on it. That's why many reseller hosts use an anonymous domain for their server hostnames - if xyz1234 doesn't do this then you may have to look for a new provider who does. But even then a quick Google will usually show which host uses which "anonymous" domain, at least once it's been out there for a few months. In short, on a reseller account you can't hide your provider from a client who's knowledgeable and determined to find out.
Posted by outposter, 07-09-2008, 09:48 AM
Thanks Cris but if I do remember, we did not face this problem when we were resellers of a different provider (who was hosted with Planet). Besides, can you pls elaborate on the "Anonymous domain for Server Hostname" part so I am unsure of what you are talking about. We have been scouting for a master reseller account with a lot of specific features we wanted and our current provider gave them all and that too at a special price. Other providers who are also hosted with Caro and FDC were not willing to accomodate all our needs. Plus, the support has been very good. Infact, they are more than willing to try out any suggestions that could prevent the above issue so, any solution is welcome. thanks once again. Jim
Posted by foobic, 07-09-2008, 10:10 AM
xyz1234 registers a new domain somerandomserver.com with private whois information and then uses that domain name for the server's hostname and anything else users might see (up to and including whois on the IPs). So now the user can easily find the name somerandomserver.com but can't link it back to xyz1234. At least, not until the Googlebot does its thing! If your current provider doesn't already know this then I'd be concerned about how much they do know... Hope it works out for you.
Posted by Skylar MacMinn, 07-09-2008, 11:57 AM
Actually that isn't possible, because I just so happen to have registered that domain anyways, you are basically right. In the end though, a determined person can still figure out who it is hosted with.
Posted by TonyB, 07-09-2008, 12:04 PM
Pretty much sums it up. Every provider you find uses anonymous domains for their servers. It's a rarity to find a provider who does not. It's not very expensive to do and it's easy to setup so it's surprising to see a host not doing it.
Posted by ldcdc, 07-09-2008, 12:35 PM
Rather than worrying about this too much, push for company growth, so that you get to the point where you can put your customers on your own dedicated servers, so you have anything to hide. You don't plan to use master reseller accounts forever, do you?
Posted by outposter, 07-09-2008, 02:15 PM
We are a small company who have just graduated from being a Reseller to Master Reseller. We are also into other services like designing and content. Atleast, we are glad to realize that we have mentors like you guys to guide us here. We will share these inputs with our provider and we'll let you know, if this solves the problem. Thanks and keep sending other solutions if there are any? Jim
Posted by TonyB, 07-09-2008, 08:37 PM
A VPS is an alternative route which would provide you with full control while still being cheaper than a dedicated solution. That way you can still sell reseller accounts and have control of the system itself. I figured I'd throw that out there as an alternative option to a master reseller account.
Posted by PremiumHost, 07-09-2008, 11:28 PM
Your master reseller provider is supposed to use anonymous domain for server hostname. xyz1234.com should be anonymous with no information that can link to the hosting company. If server hostname is already server.hosting-company-domain.com, it's unlikely that they will change setting on existing servers.
Posted by Skylar MacMinn, 07-09-2008, 11:48 PM
That is not always true, not all providers use these annon domains, let alone after a few months all you have to do is a google search to wield the result of what the companies "annonymous" domain is.
Posted by Manageandsupport_com, 07-09-2008, 11:54 PM
I do not think that you can hide the hostname. However most reseller providers now use ananymous hostnames, for example: servername.somedomain.com.
Posted by PremiumHost, 07-10-2008, 12:00 AM
Hosting providers don't need to use anonymous domain if they don't advertise service as private label. When someone provides master reseller account, i assume that it's private label. It's pointless to provide private nameserver for a private label reseller hosting plan when you use your domain in server hostname and set reverse dns with your domain name information. Last edited by PremiumHost; 07-10-2008 at 12:03 AM.
Posted by Skylar MacMinn, 07-10-2008, 12:08 AM
True, but you cannot always "assume" that it is. Crissic offered Master Resellers for a while, and we didn't have a private label system, but we did offer custom nameservers. We have an anonymous domain now, but back then we didn't
Posted by foobic, 07-10-2008, 12:31 AM
IMO there are two very good reasons for a reseller to use private nameservers, and neither relates to the dubious benefit of some limited anonymity: Professional appearance - typically the hosting clients must delegate their domains to the reseller's nameservers. It's clearly better to give them names based on the reseller's own domain.Flexibility to change providers - the reseller can move from one host to another without needing to ask all his clients to change their nameservers.

Add to Favourites Print this Article