Question

My Mails Get Junked

Asked by: checkin

Hi,

I've recently registed a new domain and am currently writing a website.  This website generates email to customers that register.
While testing I have been generating emails to my hotmail and yahoo accounts, both accounts think that the mail is junk email and goes into the junk folder.
How can I stop this ?  I want the mails I'm sending to go into users inbox.
Is there something wrong with my content ?  Or maybe a misconfiguration on my mail server ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Marvin.

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Asked On
2005-09-14 at 01:23:04ID21560764
Topic

Internet Marketing

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
36

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Answers

 

by: duzPosted on 2005-09-14 at 02:04:19ID: 14879183

checkin -

It could be any number of reasons. The IP could be on a blacklist list like Spamhaus or SPEWS, your server could be an openrelay and on DSBL or it might even be some keywords in the email itself.

A good way to find out is to subscribe to the SpamCop Email System for $30/year and before you send out a batch of emails send just one to your SpamCop address. Set up your SpamCop email filtering blacklist (which is comprehensive) and you can view the email to see why it was junked.  If it gets through then the odds are it will get through anywhere.

- duz

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-14 at 02:15:32ID: 14879221

Thanks, I'm quite new to sendmail configuration so I may have overlooked soemthing.  I'm pretty sure there are tests I can run to make sure that my mail server is not relaying.

As far as the mail goes there is little in it as I'm just testing at the moment.

I will investigate the blacklist for the moment.

Thanks again

Marvin

 

by: duzPosted on 2005-09-14 at 02:50:29ID: 14879349

checkin -

>I will investigate the blacklist for the moment.

Here is a starter list :)

SpamCop Blacklist www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml
SPEWS level 1 www.spews.org
DSBL open relays www.dsbl.org
Spamhaus Blacklist www.spamhaus.org/sbl/
Composite Blocking List www.cbl.abuseat.org
Spamhaus XBL www.spamhaus.org/xbl/
SORBS DNSbl www.dnsbl.sorbs.net

- duz
 

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-14 at 02:58:52ID: 14879385

Hi,

I have checked my mailserver for being an open relay and its passed all checks from mail-abuse.

Checked all above lists and my ip is not listed on any.

I guess it may be the email itself then.

I'm trying to send it as a html email which works but maybe my email headers are a bit dodgy, could this be a problem ?

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-14 at 03:09:48ID: 14879437

I sent it to my work address which uses message labs as its spam checker.

It wasn't junked like hotmail and yahoo.

In the mail headers I have this

X-SpamReason: No, hits=4.0 required=7.0 tests=HTML_70_80, HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_12,HTML_MESSAGE,MIME_HEADER_CTYPE_ONLY,MIME_HTML_ONLY, NO_REAL_NAME

Anything here that is bad ?

Marvin

 

by: duzPosted on 2005-09-14 at 03:16:02ID: 14879457

checkin -

>Anything here that is bad ?

Not that I can see. Try sending the simplest html email possible to your hotmail account from your server. Assuming it gets through repeat with a bit more added, and so on, until you get junked. Then you should get a clue as to where the problem is....

- duz

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-09-14 at 06:04:32ID: 14880336

Can you send one to crbryant at loudcommerce (dot) com as well?   I can take a look at the headers that my email server places on it as well.

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-14 at 06:12:15ID: 14880402

once sent - title is LetsBulgaria : Account Registration

Marvin

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-09-14 at 06:19:46ID: 14880471

I did not receive it actually at all.  Not even in my junk mail box.

A few things to see if you have set up - sorry if I missed it above: Reverse DNS, SPF

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-14 at 06:26:49ID: 14880519

Hi Corey,

Reverse DNS seems to be working on the box.
I'm no sys admin so you'll have to give me a bit of help :), what is SPF sorry ?

Marvin

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-09-14 at 06:29:59ID: 14880546

It is the Sender Policy Network: http://spf.pobox.com/ - it basically helps the return-path (to verify that it was not forged)

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-14 at 06:48:49ID: 14880737


Ok, I will take a look at the SPF.

Thanks.

Marvin

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-15 at 02:13:36ID: 14887705

Hi,

After a lot of playing messing about it looks like its my sendmail/server configuration, its not sending the return path correctly so hotmail thinks it spam.
On the same machine I also have openwebmail installed, if I log in at the user I want the mail to come from and send the same content to hotmail it works fine, openwebmail must be doing something clever.

I've got someone looking at my server/sendmail config.

Thanks for you help guys.

Marvin

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-26 at 06:09:41ID: 14958363

Hi,

A couple of things that I've found with my problem...

Return-Path was set to apache@....
And I was not using the -f flag when invoking sendmail

These 2 changes seem to have affected the mail headers but still my message gets junked by both hotmail and yahoo.

coreybryant, I've configured a simple email app where I can fire off an email, may I send you one so that you can have a look at the message headers ?

Thanks

Marvin.

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-09-26 at 06:13:07ID: 14958380

Definitely - use crbryant at loudhost (dot) com and I can let you know

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-26 at 06:30:23ID: 14958503

Hi Corey,

I've sent a mail, let me know if you get it.

Thanks

Marvin

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-09-26 at 11:18:02ID: 14961226

I have not received it yet.  Can you re-send it?  

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-09-27 at 00:53:07ID: 14964870

Hi Corey,

Ok, just in case I'm being daft and keep getting your email address wrong, here is the link to the test program I wrote.
Send the mail as a html one as I need to make changes to the code for text.

  http://www.letsbulgaria.com/test.cgi

Marvin

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-10-14 at 06:09:32ID: 15084928

Hi,

I'm still really struggeling with this, any help would really be appreciated.

Marvin.

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-14 at 06:17:00ID: 15084980

Just filled out that form.  Sorry I never got the reply back on the 27th..   EE was having email problems back then as well actually

-Corey

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-14 at 06:18:39ID: 15084999

I did receive from that form - Smarter Mail said: X-SmarterMail-Spam: BAYESIAN FILTERING, SPF_None - I did not get anything in the body though.  Not too sure why the filtering marked it.

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-10-14 at 07:01:59ID: 15085379

Hi,

Sorry, the body was missing as I had left out an extra '\n' before the start of the body, thats working now.  Do you know how I can find out why it was marked ?

Marvin

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-14 at 07:10:35ID: 15085468

Well the bayesian filtering just is usually set for each specific email account.

This time it only said: X-SmarterMail-Spam: SPF_None - so it was not even marked with the filtering.  So that change might be good.  Can you install an SPF record and then try later?  It usually takes a few hours before the SPF becomes activated but that might help

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-10-19 at 12:26:57ID: 15118988

Hi,

I've now got a TXT SPF record in place for my domain but doesn't seem to make any difference.

Doing an external dns lookup for my domain I get

  letsbulgaria.com. TXT IN 300 "v=spf1 mx ptr -all"

I think this is correct.

Marvin.

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-19 at 16:23:11ID: 15120622

That seems to be wrong: http://www.dnsstuff.com/pages/spf.htm

Are you on a *NIX or Windows server?  If you are on a *NIX server - check out http://spf.pobox.com/

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-10-20 at 01:11:41ID: 15122464

Hi Corey,

My server is a linux box.  Althought my SPF may be wrong I found out that Yahoo and Hotmail are not using these.
The problem I have is with my reverse DNS, it does not match what is set up in DNS.  A lookup on my IP gives a host/domain from my ISP, apparently this is a biggy when deciding if a mail is junk or not.
I've asked my ISP to setup my reverse DNS which may take them up to a week or more as its not what they like doing :(

Anyway, I still need to fix my SPF record as Goole/gmail I understand are using it.

I ran the link above and it fails on -all part, I dont quite understand what that means though.

Marvin.

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-20 at 06:44:11ID: 15124195

Hotmail should be.  They were the ones that actually started or helped to introduce) the SPF records.  

Reverse DNS is quite big and this actually should take about 5 minutes to set up

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-10-20 at 06:46:57ID: 15124218

My ISP has just configured reverse DNS, it will take 48 hours to get into their systems so hopefully that should sort it out.

Marvin

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-20 at 07:02:19ID: 15124345

Great - let us.  Did the DNS stuff show any problems?  You can check a few things on that site

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-10-20 at 07:23:52ID: 15124550

Hi,

In the first test it PASSED

SPF lookup of sender noreply@letsbulgaria.com from IP 82.68.208.46:


SPF string used: v=spf1 mx ptr -all.
Processing SPF string: v=spf1 mx ptr -all.
Testing 'mx' on IP=82.68.208.46, target domain letsbulgaria.com, CIDR 32, default=PASS.  MATCH!
Testing 'ptr' on IP=82.68.208.46, target domain letsbulgaria.com, CIDR 32, default=PASS.  
Testing 'all' on IP=82.68.208.46, target domain letsbulgaria.com, CIDR 32, default=FAIL.  

Result: PASS

In the second by IP fails, not sure what I can do about this as my ISP will not install a TXT record against the IP

Marvin

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-20 at 07:29:02ID: 15124611

The final result is PASS and that is fine.

-Corey

 

by: checkinPosted on 2005-10-20 at 07:38:56ID: 15124720

Great.

I've actually been advised that I should relay my outbound email through my ISP's smtp server, apparently as I am using a residential IP address that someone like yahoo or hotmail might use this too to decide if the mail is junk or not.

Marvin.

 

by: coreybryantPosted on 2005-10-20 at 08:03:04ID: 15125001

Yes - that is true because your ISP is not the SOA for your domain.

-Corey

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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