asked on

Email Delivery Failures from Hotmail and other Domains

We are having issues where some outside senders are reporting that they are getting delivery failures, including emails sent from Hotmail. No senders from other domains have been willing or able to send us any info on what errors they see on their end. I have run a number of outside tests, and none have reported any problems with the info on our domain or any blacklists that apply to us.

Attached is an email response one sender received from hotmail (accounts of sender and recipient have been stripped):

X-Message-Delivery: Vj0xLjE7RD0wO1NDTD05O2w9MQ==
X-Message-Info: H83ySVbTRY3xNM/zDBIivhcZDCGxRF5ac+NMJjw9meHO5GdJt08jv7fMNCTk0Wks31gRXLlsZcyK4Hx+vWTV1g==
Received: from snt0-omc2-s22.snt0.hotmail.com ([65.55.90.97]) by snt0-hmmc2-f5.Snt0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675);
       Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:46:27 -0700
From: postmaster@mail.hotmail.com
To: xxxxxx@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:46:27 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status;
      boundary="9B095B5ADSN=_01CB305C64EFC2300028CF28snt0?omc2?s22.sn"
X-DSNContext: 7ce717b1 - 1386 - 00000002 - C00402D1
Message-ID: <jtrSByh130012d414@snt0-omc2-s22.snt0.hotmail.com>
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
Return-Path: <>
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 18 Aug 2010 14:46:27.0220 (UTC) FILETIME=[23147540:01CB3EE4]

This is a MIME-formatted message.
Portions of this message may be unreadable without a MIME-capable mail program.

--9B095B5ADSN=_01CB305C64EFC2300028CF28snt0?omc2?s22.sn
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=unicode-1-1-utf-7

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Unable to deliver message to the following recipients, due to being unable to connect successfully to the destination mail server.

xxxxxx@emw.com

--9B095B5ADSN=_01CB305C64EFC2300028CF28snt0?omc2?s22.sn
Content-Type: message/delivery-status

Reporting-MTA: dns;snt0-omc2-s22.snt0.hotmail.com
Received-From-MTA: dns;SNT113-W47
Arrival-Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:42:48 -0700

Final-Recipient: rfc822;xxxxxx@emw.com
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.7

--9B095B5ADSN=_01CB305C64EFC2300028CF28snt0?omc2?s22.sn
Content-Type: message/rfc822

Received: from SNT113-W47 ([65.55.90.71]) by snt0-omc2-s22.snt0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675);
       Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:42:48 -0700
Message-ID: <SNT113-W47B138F2A462EFF92073C7C19B0@phx.gbl>
Return-Path: xxxxxx@hotmail.com
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
      boundary="_f920ccfa-1539-4fae-bbeb-69b3baaf6b1c_"
X-Originating-IP: [98.172.30.130]
From: XXXXXXXX <xxxxxx@hotmail.com>
To: "XXXXXXXX" <xxxxxx@emw.com>
Subject: Testing!
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:42:48 -0400
Importance: Normal
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 16 Aug 2010 14:42:48.0836 (UTC) FILETIME=[4C163440:01CB3D51]

--_f920ccfa-1539-4fae-bbeb-69b3baaf6b1c_
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

                                 =

--_f920ccfa-1539-4fae-bbeb-69b3baaf6b1c_
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<html>

jffrybauer

It looks like your reverse DNS is set up incorrectly. Hotmail, and maybe other email providers, perform outbound SMTP scanning against reverse DNS lookup.

The IP for your mailserver 98.172.30.147 resolves to "wsip-98-172-30-147.dc.dc.cox.net"

It should resolve to smtp.emw.com.

You need to contact your ISP and have them enter a reverse DNS record for your mailserver IP (since they maintain the reverse zone for your IP block)

The record should read:
PTR 98.172.30.147 smtp.emw.com

emwitdept

ASKER

Thanks for the prompt reply. I'll check that out and post an update.

Sudeep Sharma

Setting up a SPF records for your domain would also be a good idea. That would in not getting blocked by various ISP's and email service providers.

Sudeep

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

emwitdept

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial