Frequently Asked Questions
These helpful guides are offered ‘as is’ and no responsibility is accepted for implementation.
The exact procedure may vary depending on your email software and version.
In the case where you are using a 3rd party modem rather than an Vodfone supplied one, there are manual settings you need to enter to ensure your modem works correctly.
Username: vodafone@vodafone.ie
Password: broadband
Encapsulation: PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet)
Multiplexing: LLC-based
VPI: 8
VCI: 35
MTU: use default setting
DNS: auto assignedPreferred DNS: 89.19.64.164
Alternate DNS: 89.19.64.36
Go to your iPhone or iPad’s Settings > scroll down and tap Accounts & Passwords > Add Account.
Note: If you’re on iOS 10, go to Mail > Accounts >Add Account.
Select Exchange.
Enter your Office 365 email address and a description of your account. Tap Next.
Tap Sign In.
Enter the password associated with your email account.
Tap Sign in or Next.
The Mail app may request permissions.
Tap Accept.
Choose the services you want to sync with your iOS device and tap Save. You’re done!
Open the Email app and tap Add Account if it’s your first time.
Or, go to Settings in the app > Add account.
Enter your email address and password.
Tap Sign in.
If you’re prompted to select account type, choose Microsoft Exchange to sync contacts and calendars.
Tap Yes or Ok to confirm settings and permissions.
On any web hosting system, customers are able to upload their own content. This can include anything from simple HTML files and images, to complex web applications containing components from a number of sources. Because we cannot control the security or quality of scripts & applications uploaded, the customer must naturally assume responsibility for anything they place on our servers.
Having your site hacked or otherwise compromised is not a trivial matter. At the very least it will result in your site being deactivated and archived, so it will be unavailable for a significant period of time. You will also have to expend time & cost in repairing and/or securing your website against repeat compromise. If your site stores personal information about your customers or members etc, there may be data protection implications and possible liability issues. If the compromise includes phishing or fraud perpetrated on others, then this may involve law enforcement agencies, evidence gathering, etc.
There are several broad categories of web application uploaded by customers:
* Simple websites that consist almost entirely of simple HTML files and/or images and do not interact with the user – these are often called brochureware or static websites.
* CMS or eCommerce sites based mainly on well known components or applications written by third parties. This includes sites that use open-source applications like WordPress, Joomla, osCommerce, zenCart, DotNetNuke, etc etc as well as commercially licensed applications. These applications often also include modules or plugins developed by others.
* Bespoke sites that are designed by or for the customer (perhaps in house, or by a contracted web developer). They may consist of entirely custom code, or may include components or modules written by others.
Many sites combine a number of approaches, a Joomla site may contain customized templates or modules, a mostly static site might use WordPress to implement a blog. In general, the more complex your website, the more susceptible it is to compromise, and the more time and effort must be expended on keeping it secure. However, any website can be the subject of attack or compromise in a number of ways:
Even the simplest websites can be compromised or hijacked if the FTP or other access details (such as hosting control panel) are compromised – this can happen (for example) if the designer’s computer has been infected by malware that steals passwords & other sensitive information and is becoming increasingly common. The best defense against this is to ensure that you change your FTP password after every update to your site, and ensure that all computers you use are regularly scanned for viruses and other malware using at least two reputable packages. Ensure also that your FTP program does not store its passwords in Plain text, and always ensure your passwords are complex – a good password will contain uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers and including symbols such as !, *,#, $ etc.will help.
Sites based on open-source software (Joomla, osCommerce, etc) are the most commonly attacked. Because the source code for these sites is in the public domain, security holes and vulnerabilities in such applications are found on almost a weekly basis. If you use *any* third party software on your website, you should subscribe to security notification & announcement lists provided by the vendors and ensure that the software is upgraded immediately when new security releases are available. If you are not happy to do this yourself, you should ensure that you have a maintenance contract with a security professional or web designer that has knowledge of such matters. This applies not only to the main software you use (such as Joomla or WordPress) but also any third party plugins, modules etc including site templates.
Bespoke sites are also not immune from compromise. If you are using thrid party components such as file uploaders, media managers, guest books, HTML editors etc, you must likewise ensure thsat they are regularly checked and updated. Bespoke sites are becoming increasingly targeted by sophisticated automated analysis tools that probe for out-of-date or badly secured third party components, and that probe your site’s scripts & forms to identify SQL injection points, file disclosures, XSS attacks, poor sanity checking on variables, insecure web-to-mail forms etc.
Cybercrime is big business and every compromised website or machine is worth money to the criminals. This means that they are expending massive resources on developing ever more sophisticated tools to probe & compromise your website in order to use it to relay spam, probe other machines, defraud other people, or become part of a army of compromised machines that can be used to attack large businesses or sometimes even whole countries.
The days of designing a site (or hiring somebody to do it for you) and then simply forgetting about it are long since gone. If you did not design your own site, then you need to ensure you have an active maintenance contract with a developer who is familiar with your application and is versed in security practices to ensure your site is regularly checked and updated. If you design and maintain your own site, then you should regularly audit your code and components for security weaknesses and best practice.
Vulnerabilities on Your Computer
Make sure the computers you use are free of spyware, malware, and virus infections. If the security of the computer you’re using to update your website is compromised in any way, then this can be used as a route to compromising your website in turn. Usernames and passwords could be detected, as could FTP details for your web site.
A high quality anti-virus software and personal firewall are an absolute necessity and must be kept up to date. In addition, you must always keep your operating system and any other software you use, especially your web browser, up to date to protect you from security vulnerabilities.
As your hosting provider, we will make sure that the machines hosting your website are well maintained and kept up-to-date with current updates and security patches. We will also take all possible steps to ensure your website is isolated from all other sites that we host, so that one compromised site cannot affect another.
However, the bottom line is that you are responsible for the security of any applications or content uploaded to your website. This is not a responsibility you should take lightly.
Unfortunately, website hacking and other compromise is an ever increasing problem. As your host, we provide a baseline secure environment by ensuring that our machines are regularly patched and updated, and that the versions of software we run are not known to be susceptible to compromise. Additionally, our hosting systems are designed to ensure that to the maximum extent possible, a compromise on one customer’s site will not affect another customer.
However, because a customer can upload applications or content that we have no control over, the responsibility for all uploaded content and applications rests firmly with the customer.
Having your site hacked or otherwise compromised is not a trivial matter. At the very least it will result in your site being deactivated and archived, so it will be unavailable for a significant period of time. You will also have to expend time & cost in repairing and/or securing your website against repeat compromise. If your site stores personal information about your customers or members etc, there may be data protection implications and possible liability issues. If the compromise includes phishing or fraud perpetrated on others, then this may involve law enforcement agencies, evidence gathering, etc.
We do not routinely scan customer websites, however we may from time to time become aware that a customer’s site has been compromised.
Such notifications may arise from a number of sources including:
* Third parties that are subject of attacks or probes from your website
* Third party security companies acting for banks or other institutions whose customers your site is targeting (phishing).
* Email recipients or providers that see large amounts of email spam originating from your site
* Search companies (such as Google) that identify malware or dangerous content on your site.
* Customer or other reports that their site is not working
Our procedure, upon receiving such notification, is quite straightforward:
* We will conduct an initial examination of your site including logs, suspicious files and any information provided by the notifier.
* If any compromise or other AUP violation is evident, we will deactivate the site immediately.
* We will examine site files and logs to identify the likely source of compromise*
* We will remove and archive the site files as a zip or unix archive – we will place this in the site root directory**
* We will notify the customer as soon as practicable afterwards.
If your site has been compromised, you should expect the site (and any applications etc) to be unavailable for an extended period of time.
* Identification of root cause is on a best efforts basis to identify the most likely source of the compromise. If an insecure application is identified that has known security vulnerabilities that could have enabled the attack, then we will not usually dig any deeper. If multiple vulnerabilities or compromises are evident, we will investigate only to the extent that we identify one potential source of compromise.
** Once compromised, all code and other files on the website should be treated with the utmost suspicion. Hackers sometimes make modifications to seemingly innocent files and reset time & date stamps so that they look identical to the original and are not obviously modified. For this reason, we forbid the unzipping of the archived site on our servers, and likewise you may not re-upload any programs or scripts that were contained in that archive. The reason we make the archived site available to you for download is only for the purposes of retrieving images or other media files that might not be available locally to you.
In most cases, where the site is based on third party applications or components, it will be necessary for you to rebuild the site using the latest known secure version of the application, and to apply any security patches or configurations recommended by the vendor. Where the site is of bespoke design (in-house or contracted developer) you will have to conduct a detailed security assessment of the application and confirm to us that the vulnerability has been removed before you restore the site from your own known-good copy.
The archived site may be of assistance in rebuilding your site locally. Additionally, we do not usually remove database content, but please be aware that it is possible that your database content may have been altered or downloaded and that it may contain malicious or dangerous content so should be thoroughly checked before being reused.
In all situations, the site owner is required to confirm to us the measures taken to address the issue before the site may be placed live on our servers.
Note that in the event of website compromise resulting from customer supplied application or content, we reserve the right to charge the customer on a professional services* basis for any support time required over and above the steps outlined above. This includes time expended in retrieving content, assisting in the restoration of the website, conducting further investigations into the source of the compromise, or interfacing with law enforcement or security consultants regarding the incident. In the case of a second or subsequent compromise, whether related to the original incident or not, all support time expended will be billed to the customer.
To access POP email accounts hosted on our platform:
Go to http://webmail.lancast.ie and enter your username (email address) and password
To access Office365 email:
Go to http://portal.office.com and enter your username (email address) and password
As an alternative to sending email via LANCAST’s outgoing SMTP server, you can instead send using your ISP’s SMTP server.
(Some ISP’s may require you to use their own SMTP server rather than 3rd party)
Eircom
mail1.eircom.net OR mail2.eircom.net
Vodafone
mail.vodafone.ie
Magnet
smtp.magnet.ie
NTL and UPC
smtp.upcmail.ie
Smart Telecom
smtp.mysmart.ie
Irish Broadband
smtp.irishbroadband.ie.
Digiweb
smtp.digiweb.ie
O2
smtp.o2.ie
Ice Broadband
mail.icecomms.net
Clearwire
smtp.clearwire.ie / mail.clearwire.ie
Imagine Broadband
mail.imagine.ie
Perlico
mail.perlico.ie
3
mail-relay.3ireland.ie
UTV Internet
smtp.utvinternet.com
To register a .ie domain name you need to prove the following:
A connection to the island of Ireland
– For Businesses wishing to register a domain name this is normally a copy of an Irish Business certificate
Prove your Identity
– For individuals this is normally an official document like a passport
A full list of the accepted documents for the different categories can be found here – https://www.iedr.ie/register-a-domain/document-requirements/
Transfer requirements
You can only transfer a domain that you already own but was registered through a different company**. The process for transferring a domain name varies depending on the domain type. Please refer to the instructions below with regard to the TLD you wish to transfer before placing the transfer order.
.com/.net/.info/.biz/.org
Before initiating a transfer request, please ensure that the domain is UNLOCKED for transfer and that you have the domains authorisation code (EPP code). This code must be input when placing the transfer request. The Authorisation code will be sent to you by your current registrar on request. You should also check in advance that the contact email address on the domain is in use and can be accessed.
.ie Domains
Your transfer request should be accompanied by a signed document on headed paper matching the company owing the domain name requesting that the domain be transferred to LANCAST Infrastructure Solutions for Billing purposes. This can be emailed to info@lancast.ie
Please ensure that the domain is UNLOCKED for transfer and that you have the domains authorisation code (EPP code). This code must be input when placing the transfer request.
.co.uk Domains
Contact your current registrar and request a TAG change to IRISHDOMAINS – (the tag must be one word and UPPERCASE)
.eu Domains
No special requirements in advance of placing a transfer order. Once the transfer is placed an automated email requiring confirmation will be sent to the domain admin contact email address.
This product is ideal for anyone running their own mail server. It combines our excellent Professional Spam Filtering with a 14 day extended mail queue that can store your mail should anything happen to your mail server or its broadband connection.
Once your server is back online, emails are automatically delivered, but you can view stored emails in the meantime via your spam admin panel.
With Spamfilter, spam and viruses emails are removed from your mail before they reach your network or mailserver.
All incoming mail for your domain(s) is routed through our filtering servers and scanned for undesirable content.
Scanning is in real time and within milliseconds, spam and viruses are detected, removed or quarantined and genuine email routed back to your destination mail server.
Suspicious email (high spam probability) are safely quarantined in a web-based, password-protected control center for you or your network administrator to review or release.
Full email logging
Spamfilter provides full logging of all email that reaches the servers.
Account administrators have full access to their own logs through the control panel and these can be searched to view when and why a message was rejected.
Control Panel
When you sign up to spamfilter, you will have your own access to the spamfilter control panel.
Within the control panel you can administer your own account, add addresses or domains to your own black and white lists, view or search logs to trace emails passing through the system and view or release messages that have been quarantined by the filters.
Please contact us at info@lancast.ie for more information and costs
You can configure Microsoft Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 to access your Office 365 account by setting up an Exchange connection. An Exchange connection provides access your email, calendar, contacts, and tasks in Outlook.
Notes:
Office 365 is designed to work with any version of Microsoft Office in mainstream support. Microsoft mainstream support for Office 2010 for Windows has ended.
Open Outlook.
At the Welcome screen, click Next.
When asked if you want to set up Outlook to connect to an email account, select Yes and then click Next.
The Auto Account Setup wizard opens.
Enter your name, your email address supplied by LANCAST
Click Next
Outlook will complete the setup for your account, which might take several minutes.
When you are notified that your account was successfully configured, click Finish.
You may need to restart Outlook for the changes to take effect.
Change offline access setting
You can use Outlook on your laptop or desktop computer when you’re not connected to the Internet.
Email, calendar, and other items are kept in an Outlook data file on your computer so you can work offline.
You can set the duration of this setting to 1, 3, 6, 12, or 24 months, or All.
In Outlook, click the File menu.
Click Account Settings > Account Settings.
In the Account Settings dialog box, with the E-mail tab selected, click Change.
In the Offline Settings section, move the slider to select how long you want to keep mail on your computer for offline access.
You can choose 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 months or All. Then click Next.
Click Finish.
Open Microsoft Outlook
Click “FILE” and choose “Add Account”
This will open the Add Email Account dialogue box.
On the “Auto Account Setup” page, tick box – “Manually setup or additional server types” (bottom of the page)
Click Next >
Select option POP or IMAP
Click Next >
Enter your email Account information
User Information
Your Name – This is what recipients will see as the sender
Your email address – Enter your full email address
Server Information
Select Account type – POP3 or IMAP from dropdown box
Incoming Mail Server – mail1.lancast.ie
Outgoing Mail Server – mail1.lancast.ie
Logon Information
User Name – Enter your full email address
Password – As set by you when creating the email account in your hosting Control Panel
Additional Settings Required
Our mail servers require authentication when sending mail. This feature must also be enabled within Outlook.
Click “More Settings” button – this will open another dialog box
Select “Outgoing Server” tab
Tick box for “My outgoing Server requires Authentication” & ensure first option is selected (Use same settings as incoming mail server)
IMPORTANT: For security you should also enable SSL encryption for your email
Click the ‘Advanced’ tab
1. Under incoming server settings, select Encryption Type: “SSL”
2. Under “Server Port Numbers” change the value for Outgoing Server (SMTP) to: 587
3. Under Outgoing Server settings, select Encryption Type: “STARTTLS”
Select “OK” to save settings & return to previous screen
Select “Next” and “Finish” to complete the setup
If you have a Gmail account and want to access your LANCAST email account through Gmail, you can add your email address as an additional email account.
To set up..
Log into your Gmail account
Click on the “Settings” icon (Cog Wheel) on the top right, and select “Settings” link
Select the “Accounts and Import” tab
Under the section “Check email from other accounts (using POP3):” click on the link “Add a POP3 mail account that you own”
In the POP server setup page…
– Enter your email address in the box provided & click “Next Step”
– Enter your Username (Full email address)
– Enter your email account password
– Enter your Pop server: mail1.lancast.ie
– Select port “995”
– Tick box “Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail”
Click on “Add Account” Button
Select “Yes, I want to be able to send mail as [email address] & click on the “Next Step” button
– Enter your name (this is what recipients will see when they get an email from you)
– untick box “Treat as an alias”
Click on “Next step” button
In the SMTP server setup page..
– Enter your SMTP server: mail1.lancast.ie
– select Port “587”
– Enter your email account username (your full email address)
– Enter your email account password
– Select “Secured connection using TLS”
Click on “Add Account” Button
To complete the setup, Google will send an email to your email address. Enter the verification code received from Google or click on the link they provide to verify your ownership of the email account and complete the setup.
In the case where you are using a 3rd party modem rather than an Eir supplied one, there are manual settings you need to enter to ensure your modem works correctly.
Username eircom@eircom.net
Password broadband1
Encapsulation PPPoE
Multiplexing LLC Based
VPI 8
VCI 35
Primary DNS 159.134.0.1
Secondary DNS 159.134.0.2