Quick Fixes

Can't access (Bizazz, email, website login area...)

Simple causes

• Lost or wrong password/user name

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  1. Check your user name and password, character by character. Retype them in. Try this only once or twice, otherwise your IP address might get blocked from the server (see below).
  2. If you still can't log in, contact us. We'll create a new password. Don't ask us what your old password is; passwords are stored on our webserver in encrypted format that even we can't read.

• A 'No security certificate' warning in your browser blocks access to your website.

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  Your website's commercial certificate has expired; you haven't paid for renewal. Check for unpaid Bizazz invoices & contact us to install a new security (SSL/TLS) certificate.

  Sometimes a browser or operating system refuses to acknowledge a valid security certificate. There is usually a workaround by choosing to 'accept this certificate' or 'visit this website anyway' or similar. Please don't take this route unless you are sure that you are in the right place and that the website, software etc you are accessing is genuine. It only takes a short phone call to check.

  If you are using a very old phone or operating system: your system might not recognise a perfectly valid security certificate and refuse to connect. Update your software.

• Blocked IP address

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  There are 2 likely scenarios:

  A. You or someone using the same IP address tried many times log in with wrong username or password. Our webserver thought this was a hacker, so it blocked access from your Internet service's IP address.

  Log in attempts can happen without you realising, eg:

  • Your mobile phone has an old email password or a disused email account on it. The phone automatically checks for new emails & soon your IP address gets blocked.
  • Someone else at your business uses the wrong password; they block access for everyone on the same Internet connection.

  Check your IP address, then contact us. We'll access the server asap, 'unblock' your IP address and help you check that you have the right login info on all devices.

  B. Someone who shares your IP address sent spam or is a suspected hacker. This caused your IP address to be blacklisted across most or all of the Internet.

  To check this, you need someone on another IP address (eg us) to run a blacklist check for your IP address.

  Each ISP has many IP addresses. They expect occasional blacklisting. They can switch you to a different address, or restarting your modem could do this for you.

  • Turn your modem off & on again.
  • If that doesn't help, contact your ISP.

Emails don't arrive in your inbox

We know you checked your spam/junk folder already - do it again just in case!

Simple causes

• Full mailbox

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  For a POP account, manually 'delete emails from server mailbox' via your email software settings. If you do not know how, check your email software's online support or contact us for help. You might need to reset your 'delete emails from server...' timeframe, or ask us for a larger mailbox. Some clients need more capacity for certain mail accounts, even using POP.

  For an IMAP account, clean up your server mailbox. Delete unneeded emails & drafts, download & archive old mail outside your server mailbox, empty junk & trash folders. Contact us if you need a bigger mailbox.

• Domain name expired

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  Find that invoice and pay up! If you renew your domain name through us, let us know when you have paid. We'll process the renewal asap and you'll be back in action.

• Hosting suspended

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  Pay any outstanding invoices. Let us know when you have paid. We'll re-activate hosting asap.

• Your phone or computer has an old password in it

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  Update the password. Check all email software settings against our secure sending instructions. Make sure that you update all your devices (PC, phone...) when you receive a new password.

• Your IP address has been blocked from our server

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  Most likely cause: repeated attempts to access an email account with the wrong password. Second option: blacklisted IP address. See IP address banning under 'Can't Access...' above.

• Sender's email was rejected as spam by the mail server: their mail security is poor or other reasons

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  Not much we can do: sender's problem.

Emails don't send/sent emails don't arrive

If we don't host the sending email account: you need to contact your email provider.

If it's a Bizazz-hosted account: send us any bounce or failure messages that you receive.

Simple Causes

• Wrong SMTP settings

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  Check your setup instructions for security & other settings.

  Even a long established network sometimes reverts to default settings or overrides manual settings. Your settings might have been changed by software update, a helpful IT technician, an accidental click, or after a network has gone down.

  • Check all mail account settings - eg outgoing mail server and port number - against other email accounts which do work.
  • Type password & username rather than pasting in.
  • Contact us if nothing works.

• DNS changes needed

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  Ask us to check your domain's DNS settings are correct for secure email management. Mailservers expect more from DNS hosts than they used to.

  If you're emailing 'from' your custom domain via Gmail, Mailchimp or some other 3rd party service, you'll need to get details from them for us to add to your domain's SPF & DKIM records.

• Problems away from your usual workplace

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  Your email software might need a different port for outgoing mail while you are travelling.

  Take a copy of the usual settings & keep them where you can find them easily. After you return, check & reset accounts to the original configuration.

• Email settings, ISP or network problems

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  Is this a new phone, computer or modem? Maybe it hasn't been set up right. Is it a long time since you updated these email settings? Security requirements for settings might block your mail.

  • Check all settings in the email software.
  • What about the modem/router settings?
  • Contact your device/software supplier or go to their website for correct specs and troubleshooting guides. See if they offer online, phone or on-site support.
  • Check whether the outgoing mail server has any problems reported by others. Search on 'outages reported' for your provider online. Contact us to check for Axmail outages.
  • Can't get any sense from your ISP? Ask us what you need to ask them; knowing the right tech talk can help.

Website is down

If a website can't be reached, the web server often cops the blame from a worried owner. But it's very rare that there is an interruption to our webserver. With a 99.999% uptime guarantee from our supplier, it's about the least likely reason.

Internet cabling, satellite etc connections between you/your customers and the web server could break down, or hiccup just as a customer is making an online order or payment. Hackers are always trying to break into websites and web servers. But often, the reason no-one can reach your website is simpler and closer to home.

Simple causes

• Your domain name has expired

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  Find that invoice and pay up! If your domain is renewed through us, let us know when you pay. We'll process the renewal asap and you'll be back in action.

• Unpaid Bizazz invoices: hosting suspended for nonpayment

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  Pay all your outstanding invoices.

• Website suspended for other reasons

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  Eg contravening our content policy, website security issues. We normally advise you in this case; check emails and your phone messages, then contact us. Suspension is standard procedure in certain rare circumstances: a temporary measure until your website gets back on track.

• Website deleted, hosting cancelled

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  We advised you some weeks ago that we'd suspended your website for nonpayment & you still didn't respond. We can't retain unpaid-for services on our server indefinitely.

  You can still get back in action:

  • First step is to pay all your Bizazz invoices in full.
  • We will decide if we wish to continue providing services to you.
  • Reinstatement & other fees apply if we attempt to restore your deleted website. Eg paying for out of hours or urgent work for us to contact server support & access the backup before it too is deleted.
  • If your site was deleted within the last 1-6 days, there is likely to be a backup copy on our webserver. If so, we will try to restore your site before the backup is deleted from the server too.
  • If no backup is available: the website could possibly be rebuilt using any available copies/files. File copies that you or we hold of webpage content (text, photos) can help re-create old webpages. The web archive shows what certain webpages looked like in previous months/years. If we built the original website, we probably hold graphic design &/or structural files. Unless the site was a recent one though, these files will need to be replaced or substantially rewritten to work on current software.
  • Consider if you want the same website, a modified version or an entirely new sitelook & content. Ask us for a quote.
  • We don't promise that we can or will drop everything to rescue your website in the fastest, cheapest or most convenient manner for you. We have other work & personal matters to attend to; your website's reinstatement/rebuild may not be our top priority. While we realise that a deleted website is a major problem to you, we are not responsible for the situation.

Not so simple causes

• Server down, either planned or unplanned outage

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  That's often the first question from a puzzled client: "Is your webserver down"? And the least likely cause. The US company that we hire webservers from is simply amazing. Their SLA (service level agreement) is for maximum 20 seconds downtime per month for planned outages for server maintenance. This maintenance is scheduled for the least busy times, like 2am. You'll probably never notice. Uunplanned outages are almost unheard of.

  What about our Sydney-based email hosting? The mail server is actually 4 mail servers; there are 3 automatic fallback mail servers if one server is overly busy or has problems. We'll check for an email hosting outage if other clients are having troubles too.

• Telecommunications failure

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  Sometimes a link breaks down along the chain of Internet satellites, cables, routers etc between you or your customers and the server where your website or email is hosted. There's not much that anyone can do about that, except wait it out.

• Could my website have been hacked?

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  This is at the morosely pessimistic end of the spectrum! We have very rarely (twice?) encountered an infected website on any of our webservers, in over 20 years in the industry. Neither was a Bizazz-built website.

  Our server is well secured and the software is continually updated. The web software that we use to build sites is designed for security as well as speed. All sites we host have an SSL/TLS certificate. If a website is found to contain malware, we take immediate action:

  • suspend the website;
  • locate and remove the troublesome files;
  • ensure that the site is completely free of malicious code, and that nothing else on the server has been affected;
  • restore the website from a backup made before the breakin, if possible;
  • get the website up and running as soon as practicable.

  Your website's safety depends greatly on your own password management and other IT security habits. There's cybersecurity help available online for Australian businesses.

More support

On other pages of this site, you'll find help for managing your emails, manuals for the Bizazz content management system, and more.

If you can't find the answers you need, please contact us.