We got the call Monday morning: “Our ISP is down, and is going to be down for at least twenty hours. We have no Internet connection and no incoming mail. But our mail server is here in our office and it’s running, but none of my mail’s there. Now why not?”

Before responding, the technician handling email security proxies breathed deeply. Hurricane Katrina had blasted the Gulf Coast, wiping away whole cities, along with the ISPs they sheltered. In his first three hours on the job, panicky calls were becoming almost routine.

“Where is your email filtering appliance?”

“Right here in our office, next to the mail server.”

“Is your secondary mail server there in the office, too?”

“Yes, yes, yes. Now where’s my mail?”

Unfortunately, all three devices are (were?) fed by the same ISP… who has been ripped out of service by Katrina. The technician helped the victim reroute his mail through one of the company’s servers in another city… which is where the victim’s secondary mail server should have been located.

When it comes to stable e-mail systems, distance is your best friend… especially when you’re in an area subject to disruption.