November 4th, 2009
Rackspace Email promotion
You know, email can be a tricky thing to set up and run on a Slice. It does need maintenance and it can be a chore for some people.
I think things should be easy so we teamed up with the very nice people at Rackspace Email (at our parent company, Rackspace) to offer an exclusive promotion code which will reduce the minimum monthly commitment from $10 a month to just $3 a month.
Let me explain:
Without the promotion code, the minimum commitment to have Rackspace host and serve all your email needs is $10 a month. However, I know a lot of Slicehost customers are just like me and only want two or three email boxes.
Using the promotion code means my minimum commitment is just $3 a month. For that, I get 3 Rackspace Email mailboxes. That's suits me fine. If I want more, I can add them, one at a time, as I need them, and pay for my usage.
I think this offer is perfect for many of you who just want two or three mailboxes. I hope you take advantage of the famous Rackspace Fanatical Support that Rackspace Email offers. I personally use them for my email needs (and not just because I work for Rackspace!).
Enough! Where is the code?
Log into the Slicemanager and you will see the promo code in the left hand menu. All you need to do is go to the Rackspace Email website and sign up using the promo code.
To help explain the process, Mark (our wonderful Support Manager) has created a couple of articles:
Email article 1 (Initial sign up process)
Email article 2 (Rackspace Email MX Records)
It is worth noting that the signup process will not show the discount. It will still say $10 a month but rest assured, you will only be charged $3 a month (assuming you only use up to 3 mailboxes of course). If you have any concerns once you have signed up, check with Rackspace Email support and they can confirm you have entered the promo code.
They also have a 14 day trial so if you feel icky and don't want to continue, just cancel before the end of the 14 days.
If you have any questions about Rackspace Email I recommend you chat to the great support staff on their website. If you have questions for us at Slicehost, come and chat!.
Paul
UPDATE:
I forgot to add that there is a very convenient DNS Zone creator you may want to use:
Slicehost and RS Email DNS Zone creator
Note that the site is not officially sponsored by Slicehost so YMMV but I think it will save you time and typing.
Paul
November 4th, 2009 at 10:41 PM Chris
Yo Slicehost, I’ma let you finish, but Google Apps has one of the best alternative email hosting plans of all time.
But seriously, thanks for this offer, seems like a killer deal to those who want it.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:12 PM Espen Antonsen
Comments should have a ‘like’ button
November 4th, 2009 at 11:21 PM ifthengoto
I already have rackspace email – can I get the promo for future months because I have less than 10 users?
November 5th, 2009 at 12:29 AM Matt
Is this a limited time offer?
November 5th, 2009 at 03:33 AM iPhrankie
Which Rackspace Email plan is this for? Is it for the POP/IMAP or for Exchange hosting?
November 5th, 2009 at 04:27 AM Mark
Victory? Victory you say? Master Obi-Wan, not victory. The shroud of corporate buyout has fallen. Begun the Vertical Integration War has.
But seriously, you can host much more than that for free on the slice for which you’ve already paid… or get Google to do it for free, too.
November 5th, 2009 at 05:12 AM Nat
what about people who already use both services… can this be applied to existing accounts?
November 5th, 2009 at 05:05 PM ипотпал
good…can we redirect email from slice to rackspace…
November 5th, 2009 at 07:14 PM PickledOnion
Hi,
It is not a time limited offer – you can use the code at anytime and your account will always have a minimum commitment of $3.00.
For the questions about ‘downgrading’ an existing account, you will need to open a ticket with the email support team. Explain your situation. I am sure they can help you and if they need to, we can confirm you are a Slicehost user.
Do note, this is not mandatory :)
You are free to use your Slice, Google Apps, Rackspace and so on for your email. We get a lot of requests for this sort of thing and I thought it would be nice to offer a discount for you.
As we always say, choose what works for you.
Cheers, Paul.
November 5th, 2009 at 07:58 PM Kenn
To address the Google Apps and the “host it yourself” crowd: There are very good reasons for preferring paid email hosting over either of those options. I switched to Rackspace email a few months ago after finding Google Apps inadequate for my needs (particularly due to their lack of support for multiple domains on a single account). While I certainly have the expertise to host my own mail, I don’t have the time nor the inclination to deal with everything that goes along with it.
Rackspace is well worth the price to not have to deal with it, especially now that this reduced pricing is available.
November 5th, 2009 at 08:15 PM Evan
Totally agree with Kenn
November 6th, 2009 at 10:09 PM Colin
I moved to Google Apps recently. My slice was mainly for hosting my email and messaging applications, and since so many of the newer applications are java based (memory hungry), doing it through slicehost lost its viability. You really don’t just want an email address any more. You want your network access identifier (NAI – user@domain.com) to act as many things. Your sip/IMS public identity, your xmpp identity, your email address, your OpenID, the base login for your PIM info, etc. As the list gets longer, the difficulty moving that ID around increases. I’d certainly pay $3 per month to a company that wasn’t reading my email and trying to know me better than my family does, but I can’t pay for the slices to do it myself anymore.
November 8th, 2009 at 02:24 AM Nick
I am using Scalix services on my 1GB slice just fine.
Email Calendar Webmail Outlook support, etc
I’ll consider it in the future though.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:54 PM David
Not sure I liked this appearing on Slice Manager as my clients have a login. I provide them with email hosting, via an email service running on Slices that we manage.
If you guys are going to continue to sell Rackspace services via advertisments/offers in the Slice Manager portal that’s not really going to be helpful to Slicehost customers like us that are using Slices to provide these services already.
November 9th, 2009 at 03:18 AM PickledOnion
David,
I see your point but we are not selling their services as such, just offering a discount to Slicehost customers – you would get a separate bill from Rackspace Email.
If your customers are logging into the Slicemanager, they know you are using Slicehost?
Having said that, I do understand it could inconvenience some of you. Let me see what we can do next time to offer a discount somewhere without having it in the Slicemanager.
Paul
November 12th, 2009 at 06:33 PM Fede
Why spamhaus is misteriously blocking an ip address pool from DFW1 ?
http://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/query/PBL334472
November 14th, 2009 at 05:41 PM Allen Pomeroy
I too have noticed that Spamhaus is listing 67.23.4.80/28 in their policy block list (PBL) claiming that the range is Dynamic vs Static IP’s. I’ve opened a ticket, but not got a response just yet.
November 16th, 2009 at 10:08 AM Spamhaus blocks
It seems that those of us who are running mail servers on our slice(s) are all of a sudden in the Policy Block List (PBL) of Spamhaus because of a Rackspace policy.
“It is the policy of rackspace that unauthenticated email sent from this IP address should be sent out only via the designated outbound mail server allocated to rackspace customers. To find the hostname of the correct mail server to use, customers should consult the original signup documentation or contact rackspace Technical Support.”
Shouldn’t we have been notified for this change by Slicehost along with some advice on the steps we need to take?
November 16th, 2009 at 05:56 PM PickledOnion
Hi,
We did put a status post up about the Spamhaus issues on our status site (I would encourage you to subscribe to that feed as current issues are always placed there):
Status Blog Post
We are working with Spamhaus to remove the IPs that were placed on the PBL. The actions of a few have meant many have been placed on the list. We are also working hard on preventing a repeat of this issue.
If you have difficulties with submitting your IP removal request via Spamhaus, then please submit a ticket and we can work with Rackspace AUP on your IP.
Many thanks, Paul
November 16th, 2009 at 05:59 PM PickledOnion
I wanted to add that we did not change our policies and the notice given by Spamhaus is somewhat misleading and does not apply.
As we share IP blocks with Rackspace, the generic instructions given by Spamhaus are, as I say, incorrect for your hosting.
Please do submit a ticket if you have difficulties with the Spamhaus site.
Many thanks, Paul
November 18th, 2009 at 11:36 AM Ivan
Is it possible to add a second domain to the 3-mailbox plan (for example, to host these emails: A@first-domain.tld, B@first-domain.tld, and C@second-domain.tld) without incurring additional charges? Also, what happens if I add a 4th mailbox? Will I then be billed $4/mo (and so on for each additional e-mail)? Thanks
November 18th, 2009 at 06:16 PM PickledOnion
Ivan,
You should be able to add a second domain to the three email boxes – you will need to submit a support ticket to the Rackspace Email team for that.
You are correct in that if you add a 4th box you would be charged $4 a month and so on.
The difference with this offer for Slicehost customers is that instead of a $10 minimum commitment, you only have a $3 minimum commitment which is much more in keeping with ‘usual’ Slicehost customer requirements.
The email account will scale with you but you don’t have to start with 10 mailboxes.
Cheers, Paul
December 3rd, 2009 at 08:18 AM Dan
Are there any limitations on SMTP volume? I have a service sending quite a few personalized newsletters and I would rather not deal with the pain of managing my own MTA.
Thanks
December 19th, 2009 at 07:31 PM Nicholas Hester
Hey Slicehost,
I would like to know now that Rackspace is taking over your email…. why they blacklist their ips to force customers to use this promotion.
67.23.1.32/28 is listed on the Policy Block List (PBL)
Outbound Email Policy of Rackspace US, Inc. for this IP range:
It is the policy of rackspace that unauthenticated email sent from this IP address should be sent out only via the designated outbound mail server allocated to rackspace customers. To find the hostname of the correct mail server to use, customers should consult the original signup documentation or contact rackspace Technical Support.
December 20th, 2009 at 04:54 PM PickledOnion
Hi Nicholas,
I am sorry you are having issues with your IP.
This promotion is there if you want to use it. As mentioned above, you are entirely free to run your own mail server, use gmail, use fusemail (a direct competitor of RS Email) – please use whatever you are comfortable with and what suits your needs.
We have had several forum threads and status posts regarding the IP listings but please allow me to elucidate:
The PBL listing (I assume from Spamhaus) explanation is incorrect. Simple and straight forward, but the fact is that what they say is 100% wrong.
We do not have a designated outbound server. I don’t where they got that from but I will be speaking to our AUP team to contact them.
They may be mistaking another product of Rackspace or mistaking something else entirely but we, as I say, we don’t even have an outbound mail server that is allocated to Slicehost customers.
I would ask that you email us at support@slicehost.com and we can help you with the removal of your IP from the PBL.
Cheers, Paul
February 18th, 2010 at 10:36 PM ипотпал
I was wondering if it is possible to redirect email from slice to rackspace. Let me know please
June 8th, 2010 at 01:07 PM Rich
FYI: I just signed up.
There’s a couple of things you guys need to address w/ Rackspace:
1. Rackspace mail now has a minimum of 5 mailboxes (this promo is only for 3).
2. There is nowhere in the Rackspace Mail signup process to actually enter the promo code.
I was only able to register because I had a support person guide me through the process. He also had to raise a ticket with the billing dept who will (hopefully) honor the slicehost promo deal.
The CSR was very helpful, but the whole sign-up process took well over an hour, and I haven’t even done the mx records yet!
Not a great start but I’ll see how it goes.
June 9th, 2010 at 01:02 AM Rich
PS: And now they’ve lost the additional domains they set up for me yesterday.
Pretty crapolla.
Looking for an alternative.
June 9th, 2010 at 01:44 PM Rich
Slicehost, they are not. Rackspace haven’t responded to my support emails.
Cancelling. They drag you down.
June 11th, 2010 at 01:23 AM Jered
Sorry I didn’t see this and respond sooner, Rich. I honestly can’t answer for Rackspace support, but I can say that despite the signup’s insistence that you create 5 mailboxes at a minimum, once the trial period expires you only actually need 3 active (and thus would only be billed for 3) if you’re using the Slicehost promo code. If you check the linked article describing the signup process we updated it to make that clear, but forgot to add a comment to this blog post too.
A shame you had as much trouble as you did though, both with the vanishing domains and getting a response from Rackspace support. Alternatives include email through Google apps, or you can go through some of our articles to set up your own mail server. Our techs would be happy to help you with either approach if you run into trouble.
July 8th, 2010 at 10:41 PM Christian
Paul, thanks for the discount, I think you guys are doing a great job! I love slicehost! If you guys have t-shirts or hats or other swag send me some. I don’t mind sporting this awesome service!!!
July 27th, 2010 at 06:16 PM Callum
Ok, so the promo not only reduces the minimum but also halves the price, because it usually costs $2 per mailbox per month. More appealing.
Personally, I use TuffMail for email hosting. They kick some serious spam ass. The level of control over the greylisting and spam filtering is outrageous. I went from over 200 spam message a day, to maybe 5, 10 on a good day, of which 90% are correctly filtered into my spam folders. I get such a small quantity of spam I have time to manually check every message. It’s beautiful. A little more expensive than RackSpace Email I think, and doesn’t have such a pretty web front end, but the best spam protection I’ve ever seen. http://www.tuffmail.net/
Disclosure: I don’t work nor am I affiliated with TuffMail, nor do I receive any commission.
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 AM Dave
Thanks Paul for the tip. I’m use my own server for my mails and I think they got my main emails address from whois database and now i revive a guaranteed 50 spams every day. I feel worried, if they skip one day :d I will try this out if it makes a difference.
August 8th, 2010 at 12:45 PM dvd to avi
Hi, Paul, I love slicehost! thanks for the discount, I think you guys are doing a great job!
September 2nd, 2010 at 03:01 AM ecommerce blog
The article is confusing. I thought you guys were owned by Rackspace. I’m not trying to say that you’re misleading people, but it looks like an affiliate offer or something. I would just come out and say, “Our parent company wanted us to market their email server solutions, so they’ve extended SliceHost fans a great deal!”.
September 2nd, 2010 at 06:17 PM Jered
We don’t try to keep our ownership a secret, so the wording in this post wasn’t an effort to mislead anyone. I’ll work that into the post, though, to go along with the note at the bottom of the site that we’re a Rackspace company. If you were confused, other people might be too.
The wording is what it is because we did actually go to them and work out the promotion, since we knew we had customers who wanted email but didn’t want to run their own mail servers. It wasn’t something forced upon us by corporate management, just a deal worked out between two fairly independent subsidiaries of the same company. Since it’s still useful for our customers we’ve kept the promotion active.