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All my e-mails go into everyones spam folder

I have a Windows Server 2003 where I host my own domain and e-mail server. However, the first time I set up my server, by accident, i left the relay open for everyone and my server was compromised, i reseted my server an closed the open relay but now ALL my e-mails that I send (no matter what domain) they go directly to spam or get rejected. Can anyone help me? How can I make my mails go into everyones inbox and not their spam folder... this is for my company, it is not for marketing or spamming. Please help me.

Thank you
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laskovd
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ibone

ASKER

I already did this.. my domain was listed as spam in 1 website only and I already removed my self from it and my e-mails still go to spam folders.... any other thoughts?
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Hi,

There will be different email servers with different ways they tackle SPAM. So if all emails that you send always end up getting tagged as SPAM with different servers, then there must be a common reason.

At DNSSTUFF, check your own domain using the DNSReport tool. Make sure that your own domain is correctly configured. Check the reverse DNS / SPF entries. Make certain that you do not have any issues on that report. If you have. Correct them.

For emails to get tagged as SPAM or get rejected, there has to be an issue with your config.

Also, Your email solution fully configured by You or part of service of Your ISP? If fully configured - check that for Your Email IP PTR (Point to Return) is configured.
Here is some read about it:
http://www.mostlygeek.com/2007/01/23/ptr-spam-filtering/
Please also note that while your site was still referenced as a spammer, some mail servers may have blacklisted you locally: maybe they are not updating from the central sites reference...
It's a big difference between messages being rejected and messages ending up in the recipients' SPAM folders. The first is often due to pure "technical" reasons, as pointed out neatly above. The other may be based on content, format or something, e.g. the subject; put V|a9ra in the subject and see where the message goes...

If all your settings and DNS records etc are OK, you may have to look at the messages. Verify that you're virus-free and try plain-text messages without attachments and signatures and see if it makes a difference. Also, its good practice to verify that the return address is a proper address on your own domain.
/RID
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ASKER

i try sending myself an e-mail with a simple subject: hello and text on the body to my hotmail account and it always ends in the spam folder.

Everything in my DNS is configured correctly, I don't know what else to do.
is there a difference in the content of the email that you see and the email that is received in hotmali?

Did you study the headers on the email in Hotmail? For example, is your email being forwarded through a relay server that belongs to your ISP?

Try running your domain name at this site - http://openrbl.org/client/ also test your ISP's domain as well.
Look here:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/newsletter/adn29/headers.html
for info about mail headers.

The fact that messages end up in the spam folder can be due to spam filtering techniques at hotmail (or other recipients) and these may look through headers, among other things. Send a message to an external account you have (e.g. hotmail) and study its headers.
As an example, I may say that mail that I send from GMail always end up with a "***SPAM***" flag (attached to the subject line, no less!) at one of our partners and these messages, of course, end up in the SPAM folder of the recipient. Why these messages are marked as SPAM is beyond me. Many sites are getting a wee bit paranoid these days.

My mail address is in my profile. If you like, you can send a sample message to me.

/RID
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ASKER

i sent an email to your e-mail address to see if it goes into your spam folder. please let me know
Well, it still hasn't arrived.... Unless it is delayed in transit, it could have been rejected for a few reasons:

Our server does a RDNS lookup and rejects failures. Verify, if you haven't done that, that your reverse DNS record is OK.

It also rejects non-RFC compliant HELO commands. The server must present itself by its proper name (mail.yourdomain.com) and not something like "localhost" or similar.

If you just tell me your sender domain, i could probably browse the log tomorrow (that'd be 18 hours from now, in Sweden) and see if there's an entry for your connection and its presumed failure. Probably you'll have a solution before that anyway...

/RID
Was there any items on your DNSreport in red or yellow? Did you try the test above?
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ASKER

I did get some errors in RED and YELLOW, I don't know how to add another nameserver:

FAIL      Number of nameservers      ERROR: You have less than two nameservers. You are required to have at least 2 nameservers per RFC 1035 section 2.2 (RFC2182 section 5 recommends at least 3 nameservers).

FAIL      Missing (stealth) nameservers      FAIL: You have one or more missing (stealth) nameservers. The following nameserver(s) are listed (at your nameservers) as nameservers for your domain, but are not listed at the parent nameservers (therefore, they may or may not get used, depending on whether your DNS servers return them in the authority section for other requests, per RFC2181 5.4.1). You need to make sure that these stealth nameservers are working; if they are not responding, you may have serious problems! The DNSreport will not query these servers, so you need to be very careful that they are working properly.
This is listed as an ERROR because there are some cases where nasty problems can occur (if the TTLs vary from the NS records at the root servers and the NS records point to your own domain, for example).


Also I am listed in CBL list and I already asked them to remove my IP address a couple of times and nothing happens
A CBL listing (or similar) is problematic only if the receiving server queries these sites. Our doesn't, so failure to send to us must be caused by a basic problem, like no RDNS or incorrect HELO commands or something to that effect.
/RID
I think Hotmail checks the SPF records for emails (see below - "v=spfl mx mx:mail.dmsswt.com -all" example).

Could you add the SPF record and then try sending to Hotmail? For more info on SPF visit www.openspf.org

To check your records use:
At command prompt, type
NSLOOKUP
SET Q=ALL <enter>
Type your domain and enter. See example below.
> set q=all  
> dmsswt.com     (or to refer the records with your ISP) > (your domain) (ISP DNS IP) dmsswt.com 203.115.0.19
Server:  r1.ns.slt.lk
Address:  203.115.0.46

Non-authoritative answer:
dmsswt.com      text =

        "v=spfl mx mx:mail.dmsswt.com -all"
dmsswt.com      MX preference = 30, mail exchanger = whale.slt.lk
dmsswt.com      MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = mail.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = bmx.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com
        primary name server = dms-web-admin.dmsswt.com
        responsible mail addr = admin.dmsswt.com
        serial  = 181
        refresh = 1800 (30 mins)
        retry   = 600 (10 mins)
        expire  = 86400 (1 day)
        default TTL = 3600 (1 hour)
dmsswt.com      internet address = 203.94.71.124
dmsswt.com      internet address = 203.94.71.120
dmsswt.com      nameserver = dms-web-admin.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      nameserver = ns3.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      nameserver = ns4.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      nameserver = ns1.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      nameserver = p1.ns.slt.lk
dmsswt.com      nameserver = s2.ns.slt.lk
dmsswt.com      nameserver = s1.ns.slt.lk

dmsswt.com      nameserver = s1.ns.slt.lk
dmsswt.com      nameserver = dms-web-admin.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      nameserver = s2.ns.slt.lk
dmsswt.com      nameserver = p1.ns.slt.lk
dmsswt.com      nameserver = ns3.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      nameserver = ns4.dmsswt.com
dmsswt.com      nameserver = ns1.dmsswt.com
whale.slt.lk    internet address = 203.115.0.14
mail.dmsswt.com internet address = 203.94.71.117
bmx.dmsswt.com  internet address = 203.94.71.118
Hi,

Most spam check software of today check the subject and contents of the email for keywords that are "spam like". Try changing your subject and make sure that the email body is short and precise. If your email ends up on everybody's spam folder, you know that your email is getting thru but it's not just ending on the right folder.

Good Luck,

Server Jockey

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ASKER

Thank you